Tag Archives: Lebanon

Spare Us the MTV Hate

Who among you, precious readers, has made a “Homsi” joke?

No, don’t be ashamed to raise your hand. If you’re not raising it then you are lying. We’ve all done it. We’ve all said it. We all have a connotation in our head that homsi is equal with stupid. Even when Steve Jobs died, some statuses were: “A Homsi just changed the world….”

The Homsis are also the ones getting hammered by Assad’s forces now in their revolution.

Then why don’t we all get into a fit of “OMG OMG *hyperventilates* RACISM” when everyone does the Homsi jokes?

Yes, you guessed it. No one sees it as racism. But it is. It flagrantly is.

The recent? The leading Lebanese TV station MTV featured on one of its comedy shows “Ktir Salbe” a comedy skit about migrant workers in Lebanon that many perceived as racist. BeirutSpring was even speculating about boycotting MTV as a whole, starting with deleting their app.

1) I have no idea if people in Lebanon actually think our society is NOT racist, but apparently this is the case. Why else would everyone get angry because of a comedy skit that showcases what most people do with the maids they get?

2) For those criticizing the comedy skit, I ask. How many of you watch American comedy shows such as SouthPark or Family Guy? Are you offended by the racist “slurs” those shows make? Better yet, in case “cartoons” are too childish for you, what’s your opinion on shows like The Colbert Report and other political satire shows that also make fun of racist issues? You laugh at those, right? Is your idea of “deranged comedy” only applicable when it’s done by a Lebanese?

3) Regardless of how you look at it, the Ktir Salbe skit is racist. But it’s not racist because they, as actors and personnel and TV station, are racist. The skit is as such because the show is, at the end of the day, a satire on Lebanese society. Just for reference, those same characters have had a very similar skit where they were parents at their children’s school, asking the headmistress every unimaginable thing you can come up with – including making their child sectarian. Why didn’t anyone get angry then?

4) MTV is possibly the only Lebanese TV station actually highlighting humanitarian issues in Lebanon. They even have a show “Tahkik” used exclusively for such purposes. Even the news report about foreigners in Bourj Hammoud was highlighting a social issue that many Lebanese societies have. Whether that news report was well done or not is a totally different matter. And yet, everyone had to feel involved with it. Question. Are you from Bourj Hammoud? If so, were you offended by that news report and the subsequent decision by your municipality to regulate foreign workers? If you’re from Bourj Hammoud and you were offended, then you know how to vote next elections. If you’re not from Bourj Hammoud, then you do have a right for free speech, obviously. But how do you know that the crime rates have not gone up because of an uncontrolled influx of foreign workers?

I blogged about this before with regards to the Myriam Achkar murder – foreign workers in Lebanon need to be regulated, whether you think it’s racist or not.

5) For all matters and purposes, MTV is the best Lebanese TV station. It is revolutionary in every way possible for the Lebanese scene: they have a great iOS app, they are very apt at handling social media, they use state of the art technology, etc…. Regardless of the political content of its news, so you don’t say I’m politically biased, every single show MTV airs is done with the care for details and with great execution. Their comedy shows can be lame sometimes, as is the case with every Lebanese comedy show, but it still doesn’t mean we need to bash them for the comedy they do because, at the end of the day, they are doing “comedy.”

For those who want to boycott MTV, have you tried contacting the TV station first to see what it has to say about this? A TV show does not summarize a whole TV station.

As for the rest, I quote: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Lebanese Memes: Cancer Awareness Day

Because it’s the Voldemort of diseases. The disease that shall not be named….

Beirut’s New “It” Place: Dictateur – A Big Failure

This is for you Roland, as promised 😛

After going to Dicateur on Tuesday with a couple of friends, I found the place to be very interesting – completely different from any other pub I’ve been to (and contrary to popular belief, they are many). It had a rustic, authentic, innovative, hipster feel to it. It just felt like a great fit for someone like me and the crowd I usually frequent: something not too sophisticated but still with taste.

So after trying out the newly opened Outpost Grill in ABC (not too bad a place, the average grade we gave it was 55/100), we decided to go and get much needed drinks in Dictateur. After parking, which in Burj Hammoud is a feat in itself, we walked steadily towards the place. A lovely chap greeted us at the door.

“Do you have a reservation?” he asked.

We obviously didn’t. But we were there for a couple of drinks so we didn’t think it would matter.

“Is anyone here below 24?” he then asks.

We were all 22.

“I’m sorry. Only 24 and up are admitted to this place.” He then replies.

“But I was here a couple of days ago and no one was 24,” I interjected.

“The policy wasn’t enforced back then. I’m personally enforcing it starting today.” He replied.

And voila the big question. Why the f*** would a pub have an admission age of 24?

1) Alcohol drinking age is 18 in Lebanon. So if I’m above 18, I’m as entitled to an alcoholic beverage as the next person. I’m 4 years above 18. Just saying.

2) Dictateur is, whether the owners like it or not, geographically in a region known for having pubs that are  approachable by everyone. I understand Whiskey Mist, Phoenicia’s night club, to have an admission age above 21. But do you seriously expect the people who will be frequenting Dictateur to be as “high-class” as the people going to Whiskey Mist?

3) Regardless of what entertainment Dictateur may have had set up for the night, it doesn’t justify the 24 age. Come to think of it, why is the admission age 24? Why not 23? Or 25? Why not make admission age 40 and be done with it? You’d guarantee a “high-class” clientele that will never tarnish the place’s reputation.

Oh wait. I, a 22 year old, can go to a strip club, a super night club, can get wasted at any other bar, vote and decide my country’s future, gamble my parents’ money away at Lebanon’s Casino and can’t enter Dictateur. Is anything wrong with this picture?

I had plans set up to visit with a bunch of friends to fully test the place, food and all, next weekend. Well, even if they change the admission policy, you won’t find me there anytime soon.

The Samy Gemayel Assassination Attempt

When I heard the news that Lebanese security forces thwarted an assassination attempt directed at Kataeb MP Samy Gemayel, I was shocked on two accounts.

1) Our security forces actually managed to do something and that, by itself, is something to make your jaw drop in shock. How about that something being thwarting an assassination attempt? Do we applaud them for a great effort or do we simply shrug it off as them doing their job for once? It’s up to you.

2) I thought the whole assassinations in the country were, at least for the time being, behind us. If you thought about it, the Syrian regime is too preoccupied with killing its own people to stage assassinations in Lebanon but still remain politically influential. The politicians in Lebanon who are prone to getting assassinated, such as Samy Gemayel, have almost no political say in the country. The government is not with them, the parliament majority is not with them – and even if they had both parliament and government, it’s not like they were going to do much with all the hurdles thrown at them primarily by FPM’s Michel Aoun and Hezbollah in the background as the master puppeteer.

So why was there an assassination targeting Samy Gemayel?

The answer goes back to Syria. It looks like, even though they’ve got their hands full, their feet are still stretching across the border and still able to play. An assassination of a political figure with a lot of promise, like Samy Gemayel, would instill disappointment in many people who believe Gemayel has the potential to be a major player on the political scene. It will also instill fear in those who believe the Syrian regime’s reach is decreasing. There will also an unsurmountable amount of rage amid Gemayel’s supporters.

Couple a Samy Gemayel assassination with the current mess the Lebanese government is finding itself in, and you’re set for true chaos in the country. In fact, one can look at the recent crisis amid Lebanon’s one-sided government as either a play between allies for power or it could be a last hope attempt by the Syrian regime to bring Lebanon down with it. I’d go with the latter because if Syria wanted to calm things down amid yesterday’s friends, who also happen to be its allies in Lebanon, it would have taken a simple phone call from Damascus to tone it down. But that’s not happening anytime soon because the Assad mentality, as he loses the diplomatic and tactical wars, is fast becoming that of a suicide bomber. “Bring down with me as much as I can.”

The whole situation can be summed up in simple terms: if the current government crisis is the bomb Syria is using to make Lebanon explode, the Samy Gemayel assassination would be the lit-fuse.

At least the lit-fuse was turned out. I’m sure Syria will find another way to light the Lebanese scene though and for that, I truly hope our politicians who are currently in power rise above their pride and think about the mess we will be in if they don’t.

 

Rest in Peace Nassib Lahoud

Lebanon has lost one the better politicians it had today. Nassib Lahoud dies at the age of 68 after suffering a long time from cancer.

I had no idea Nassib Lahoud was ill. So this news came as quite a surprise for me. It is a sad day for Lebanon, nonetheless.

Lahoud, a former MP, minister and ambassador to the US, was hailed by many as a true statesman. Some even called him the only person they can trust to run the country. He founded the Tajaddod movement and was one of the main faces of the Cedar Revolution, as well as a Presidential nominee.

Perhaps one of the greatest deeds Lahoud has done was to oppose the proposed amendments to Article 49 of the Constitution, regarding the elections of the president, being the only MP who voted against these amendments three consecutive times, in 1995, 1998 and 2004, including opposing his own cousin, former president Emile Lahoud.

My condolences to anyone who liked this man.