Tag Archives: Lebanon

Feeling Concerned in Lebanon About The French Elections? You Shouldn’t? Well, Why Not?

The French presidential debate between Hollande and Sarkozy took place yesterday and it was closely watched by many Lebanese enthusiasts who are interested in French and international politics.

As those Lebanese watched the three hour debate, myself included, others were saying all over social networks how “we were not concerned” with this, how we should “scan our French passport” with every tweet or Facebook status we updated and how we really have nothing to do with French politics to begin with. “Ktir 3eyshina, wlo!”

Those people asking us not to feel concerned are the almost the same group that preach about how Lebanon is a playground for superpowers and that we, as people, need to stop following either political sides of the country because one is a pawn for Iran-Syria while the other is a pawn for the United States-France-KSA.

How could you ask us not to feel concerned when you are willingly admitting that France has a substantial influence in Lebanon?

The way I see it, because Lebanon is a playground of superpowers, not feeling concerned is the incorrect way of handling things. But I wouldn’t judge you if you decided you didn’t want to be involved. Therefore, I would also like from you to extend me the courtesy and not make it seem like I’m a blinded g0-after-they-hype Lebanese.

I can’t vote? So what? Does that mean I don’t get to have an opinion that I can express? This whole mentality of us – Lebanese – not having a political horizon extending beyond the 10452km2 of our country needs to be abolished. Sometimes, foreign politics is way more interesting – and civilized.

How so? Well, watching these types of debates can only lead you to have a better understanding on how political life needs to be done in Lebanon. Did you notice how Sarkozy and Hollande, despite being subtly at each other’s throats, were very polite in dealing with each other? Did you notice how, after the debate ended, they both had had the exact same talk time?

Where do we see this here? Or don’t you remember the incidence when Moustafa Alloush and Fayez Shukr almost slit each other’s throats on national TV? Or how about Alain Aoun and Ahmad Fatfat during the most recent parliamentary sessions?

You don’t think French politics concerns you? Fine. Don’t take it out on those who disagree with you. A word of advice though, I’d stay clear out of social networks when the American elections roll around. If you thought we were too much with the French elections, the American one will be a bloodbath, figuratively of course.

Lara Kay: A Self-Proclaimed Lebanese YouTube “Reality TV Star”

This is absolutely disgusting and as +961 said “Please tell me this is a joke.”

Let’s start with the shorter video – I couldn’t go through the first 30 seconds. I really thought her lips were going to fall off. Shouldn’t there be a law as to how much silicon you can inject into a certain part of your body? Dear Lara, your lips are not koussa. Walaw?

And since there’s another longer video, I decided not to waste my quota on it. 15 minutes of this atrocity is nowhere near acceptable. But hey, you might find her “entertaining?”

In the first video, she says about herself that she’s beautiful. Miss Kay, if you’re beautiful then Maryam Nour should be crowned Miss Universe. How about you ponder on that while you give hair advice?

Update: I was just linked to her Facebook page. She has over 450 likes. Why does she have that many likes? Well, let’s just say that she has many images there that resemble this:

No, you’re not imagining things – if you know what I mean.

Alfa’s 3G Coverage

More than 6 months after the introduction of 3G in Lebanon, and more than a month after the supposed deadline given to have most of Lebanon covered, Alfa still has a long way to go.

No, I’m not saying the job they did so far is bad. But when their online map shows that they’ve already covered regions with 3G while it’s clearly not the case, then yes we should be allowed to speak up, especially when upon telling them of the matter they reply that the online map isn’t very accurate and that they have a more accurate one in their headquarters.

That online map has changed a couple of times since it first went online. At first, it had a narrow strip of regions already covered with a bigger strip of regions that will be covered by December 2011 and then March 2012. Then the map changed to have that initial strip made even bigger, more coverage I suppose. Hurray? Guess again.

Today, the map shows that all Lebanon should be covered with some already covered in December and the rest by March 2012. We’re already in May and this is definitely not the case.

Living near the coastal areas of Batroun, my region was supposedly covered from the getgo with 3G. And that was far from reality. Not only did Batroun city recently (in the last month or so) get 3G, my hometown, which is covered according to their map, barely gets Edge. GPRS is our connection of “choice.” And neither are stable enough to offer proper connectivity, the phone keeps jumping between them both.

Now, while my problem with all of this is their very wrong map, which has remained wrong despite many of us telling them it is, it’s not the only thing to note. Yesterday, I found out that MTC had 3G coverage in my hometown. They also had coverage in Batroun from the start, even though they didn’t advertise it as aggressively as Alfa did.

Another region which apparently has 3G according to their map is the Balamand region. While I used to get 3G sporadically there, it is still very far from being stable enough from being used. Just yesterday, while standing outside the faculty of medicine, I got 3G. I walked ten meters to the university’s main gate and the phone switched back to Edge, I tried to force it back to 3G – nope, wouldn’t work.

That region has had very intermittent coverage – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Those with MTC have coverage all the time, both as data and simple cellular connection. Alfa’s regular reception in that region, as well as my hometown, is abysmal. You can barely make a regular phone call even if your life depended on it.

So I ask the following: when will Alfa’s engineers take notice of this? When will they get the minimum coverage required from them up to par? When will their shameless marketing stop? And when will their customer service department show the map of their true 3G coverage?

The Dark Knight Rises Release Date in Lebanon

This is downright unacceptable!

(Source)

I don’t get how we get The Hunger Games, The Avengers, The Amazing SpiderMan a day before they’re released in the United States yet when it comes to the summer’s most anticipated movie, we have to wait a whole month. What’s the logic behind this? You have no clue? Well likewise my friend, likewise.

How about we start a petition or something to bring the movie’s release date up to normal and acceptable standards (July 19th would be so awesome, being St. Elias’ day and all)? As it stands, a whole month wait is unacceptable and unjustified.

When I get to watch a movie like Mirror Mirror two weeks before it’s released in the United States, the least our theaters can do is let us watch the most anticipated movie of the year not a month after it’s released elsewhere and its hype starts dying down – let alone it possibly leaking on low quality cam-recorded DVDs.

You might want to check out the most recent trailer for the movie in order to get you more involved.

Update:

Apparently the delay is because Ramadan happens to be in July this year. So let me get this – no movies are released during Ramadan because Muslims don’t watch movies after Iftar? Impeccable logic I have to say. 

Al Manar’s Anti-Jews Brainwashing

While reading an article by Beirut Report about how local media handled the recent Beirut fire, nothing struck me as much as a screencap that was taken of something Al Manar TV was broadcasting – a cartoon for kids.

The picture showed a bad-looking man, with a chef hat, roasting a chicken. The chef hat had the Star of David symbol on it.

Now I have to ask. I was under the impression that Hezbollah, who obviously owns Al Manar, timidly asked people to differentiate between a Jew and a zionist. How is this calling for that?

The Star of David is not a zionist symbol, it’s a religious Jewish symbol similar to the Crescent for Muslims and the Cross for Christians. Having that symbol in a cartoon aimed at young kids helps them learn that Jews are not their enemy how?

What’s worse, I’m pretty certain that parents who let their children watch such a thing approve of the ideology being disseminated. How despicable. When will Hezbollah and co know that Jews are not Lebanon’s enemies?

The sad thing is that we have a Jewish community in Lebanon that’s becoming more afraid and secluded by the day and things like this can only mean the path will get worse for them. When will Hezbollah know that Lebanese Jews have as much a right of existing freely and without fear as their Shiite followers?

I remember when I was a kid, our cartoon of choice was something on the Disney channel, Pokemon or Digimon. How about Al Manar shows the kids those stuff instead? Oh wait, I’m sure there’s a zionist mentality there somehow. My bad. Let’s teach kids how all Jews are killing us instead.