Independence '05 Blog

Shankaboot - Arabic Web Drama in Beirut

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:24:00 +0000

Shankaboot - the world’s first Arabic webdrama – takes us into the beating heart of modern Beirut street life through the eyes of Suleiman, our 15 year old, happy-go-lucky delivery boy. Along for the ride are the beautiful Ruwaida and the mysterious Chadi, along with a host of other memorable characters.

Shankaboot is produced by Batoota films, in association with BBC World service trust and supported by Zico's house.

The media launch of this web drama took place in Art Lounge - Karantina, last Friday March 12. Three episodes are available online now for everyone to se They can be found on Shankaboot official website www.shankaboot.com.

I liked the sense of sincerity and lightness of this web drama. The idea is very nice, and the execution of the movie and the directing so far looks amazing. Moreover it is quite enough to judge the professionalism of this work by their website which I find to be very well done.

Why Carlos Slim is not really Lebanese

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:28:00 +0000

Richest Man according to Forbes for 2010
Certainly, every single Lebanese has now read or heard about the fact
that Lebanese descendant Carlos Slim Helu has topped the
Forbes.com [1] magazine "Top 20 richest people" and took over the
number 1 billionaire chair!

Bill Gates no longer is #1, Slim is
After Bill Gates being the richest man on earth for 13 years, he didn't
make it to the #1 of that chart since 2008, and for the past 3 years, a
new man has been found as richest man, every year, for which this
year, it is Carlos Slim.

Lebanese like to claim everything
We, Lebanese, tend to brag and make a big fuss every time a Lebanese
makes it abroad. To appreciate Lebanese people who made
it is essential, it is important to give homage to those who got their start in Lebanon,
received Lebanon's support throughout their lives and finally made it, i.e. Elie
Saab and many others.

Carlos and his dad, depended on themselves only
But to come and claim pride and sense of accomplishment from Carlos
Slim is plain illogical in my opinion. We can't be proud as
Lebanese... with all due respect to every Lebanese out there. You see,
originally Carlos' dad [2], Julian, went to Mexico when he was only 14
(in 1902), and by 26 he was net worth 40$ million!

His dad and him, made it on their own. Carlos slim has lived all his
life in Mexico, I think he doesn't even know how to speak Arabic.

Great Businessman
Disclaimer: I definitely respect and admire this man for making a
fortune and making it to the Forbes list in the very recent years, moreover to
finally top it only after a couple of them, that's one hell of a
business man. Just read his bio!

Sources:
[1] Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/09/worlds-richest-people-slim-gates-buffett-billionaires-2010-intro.html
[2] Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slim

Mama Exotica, why bad nose! So what?

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:49:00 +0000

Exotica's Recent Mother's Day Ads
You know, the whole fuss on the blogosphere and twitter that has been going on about Exotica's ads, to which I didn't really react or respond... Finally, I now have something to say about it, because it's taking too much of our lives, I might as well nag.

For me, the big nose and big ear hereditary thingie, was simply a case of "I see, I get, Exotica changed their way, no use of flowers, riskay, I like and I wasn't offended at all". Because for me, I won't stand in front of mom and tell her:

"Mom thanks for everything you gave me (however I perceive beauty that is) but the nose... not so much, I mean how could you? You know, if I were you I wouldn't have gotten married so I don't risk giving a bad nose to my children, or maybe mom, you should've waited till the genetic engineering would have really advanced on the subject!"

Old

New

Thank you, no good no bad... just Thank you
For me, when I say thanks mom, I don't say thanks for the good, or thanks for the bad, I just say Thank you mom, I love you for who you are and what I am because of you. In my opinion, if I wanted to criticize Exotica, that would've been it. Just thank you, yet I really respect the fact that they risked something out here, and mentioned both good and bad so they can get out of the cliché. Why the big fuss though and bashing exotica, it was beyond me. Fellow blogger Maya found it offensive, and many others showed their frustration on twitter as well.

Some offended by Exotica's Billboard Ads
However, and this is where I agree with Maya, the Moukarzel ad, which I saw some time ago, even before March 8 - the International Women's Day, and there is also the C&F ad, they're plain silly. Especially the Moukarzel one, when I saw it, I knew who it was targeted for.

Not only Jewelery is my right, but a 2010 Bentley!
I can never imagine a woman going to her husband and telling him:

"7ayeteh Afif, ana bejle w bnaddif w bkannis w jeybe wled w inta bit massi7 fiye el ared eddem el jiran, w marra shaba2tneh kaff la2anno 7atet mele7 zyede bil mjadra, HOWEVER (language turns English, because they have better women rights then us), I DEMAND TO RECEIVE JEWELERY, YOU SEXIST PR*CK "

Oh well, as Maya and Plus961.com put it, Exotica listened (although for me it wasn't necessary, yet it is nice to see Exotica acknowledge the importance of social media nowadays), so I join my voice to Maya and hope that Moukarzel (ah I just remembered his other horrid ads in which he stands in the back, his skin color so different from the model's) and whoever else diminishes the importance of a mother by a perfume, or a Tefal, or a carpet, to listen and start doing real impressive creative billboards.

(So, do we as bloggers get something from Exotica because we've been talking about you so much? Come on, incentive? Send me white daisies, I love daisies)

Photos Courtesy of Jobox.blogspot.com and MayaZankoul.com, Comic courtesy of Maya of course!

You're a woman? Then March 8 is your day

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:45:00 +0000

International Women's Day (IWD)
I was thinking for the past 3 days on how to tackle the International Women's Day and link it to Lebanon.

Lebanese women married to foreigners to pass nationality to children
I thought about the whole fuss that's been going on about Lebanese women who marry foreigners but cannot pass the Lebanese nationality to their children, causing these women to really go through a lot of hassle because their children have lived in Lebanon all their lives but are not "Lebanese", which cause them a lot of big issues in education and work, even passing nationality for their children. Problem for Lebanon as usual is political, problem for them is the fact that many Lebanese women are married to Palestinians, and that is a whole story there.

It's Political in Lebanon
Thing is they're forgetting it's not about politics, it's about woman's right. I won't go on about this subject anymore, I'm sure it's obvious that I am pro passing nationality! I Will update you on the decision taken concerning this law as soon as it's out.

Researching first / shock later
Before I write anything I tend to look around a bit, read some articles, definitions, opinions and the like, that's healthy no? So, I started with Wikipedia's page on the subject, read a little bit, then hit CTRL + F (find) and typed Lebanon, there is not one mention of Lebanon. I was sad to see that even if Lebanon does not celebrate this day officially, it also doesn't not even do "unofficially".

My Message
I hate extremity, I hate the fact that in some countries IWD is used to discriminate against men, but I also hate that in some countries, people were killed while rallying for this day! In many other counties, women (this year's UN resolution for this day) are subject to violence, rape and displacement. So my encouragement goes to those people who are working hard on not forgetting about these women and help them overcome their agony. And my heart goes to all these women out there who are suffering for survival. These women deserve a chance.

Young Leaders Social Media Café launch in Beirut

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:57:00 +0000

There has been all these talks about Social Media in Lebanon and the Arab world lately, and it's definitely nothing new. There is the web 2.0, the latest extremely popular social networks such as facebook and twitter, there is mostly the sharing spirit such as youtube, the manifestation of talent or simply good times such as flickr, the new way of knowledge stream such as wikipedia, and the window to the world such as giant search engines, i.e. google, and the blogosphere (sustained by blogger, wordpress...), all this is what everybody has been experiencing in this virtual yet so real world and can feel like it's no longer just logging into the internet, checking your emails and sharing some photos.

The project is initiated by the Swedish Institute, and coordinated by Hiba FARHAT in Beirut. More on their blog.

Young Leaders Social Media Café (YLSMC) is a part of Young Leaders Visitors Program which was successfully launched in 2008, and yesterday, Saturday March 6, was the launching of YLSMC in Lebanon, precisely in Zico's House, it will continue to happen almost once a month in many of the MENA region. The program included fast-paced presentation by International and Regional Speakers including the most influential figures in social media worldwide.

The main purpose of these presentations is to incite young persons out there to think outside the box, to work hard, do what they love and are passionate about, and definitely use social media for their benefit in a constructive way.

Mark COMERFORD was one of the presenters who participated in YLSMC, he is from STOCKHOLM University, he gave a pretty unconventional and heavy presentation about how Digital Media will F*ck you up. For him it's not the fact that social media changed the way we deal with life, instead he mentioned that before, we used to do things in private and we decide if we want them to go public, yet on web 2.0, it's the opposite.

He was barefoot, I asked him why? He said he's been doing it for the past 15 years in all his presentations, and that he doesn't remember why, I didn't believe him of course, but I respected the fact that he didn't want to elaborate more, yet he continued saying:

"I walk around a lot".

Another presentation was done by Sami BEN GHARBIA - Advocacy Global Voices Online.

This presentation certainly shed light on some pretty shocking numbers which awakened in us the sense of solidarity with many people who get arrested even jailed because of blogging and the censorship that is being imposed in their country on them. The point of the presentation wasn't to scare people away from blogging, instead it was there to encourage people to find different and various methods to keep blogging and sending out information concerning their situation. You can view the presentation "Digital Activism and online free speech" here.

I was also very happy to know about the WIT (Women in Technology) initiative which is there to help and encourage women over 50 - which generation didn't get the chance of learning how to use a pc and the internet - how to extend themselves through these online tools, the presentation was given by Nada Hamzeh. Another speaker "Jessica Dheere" actually stressed on that same point:

When you're using media, you're basically extending yourself, be it a paintbrush, a camera...

Nada showed us a video about women in Lebanon who learned how to use a computer and about blogging, and were sharing their experience in blogging. Some of these women blog in order to promote their business abroad. WITLebanon basically train these women in order to obtain the skills mentioned earlier.

A woman said:

I used to just clean the dust from off the computer, now I use one and have a blog.

Another nice project was presented by Simba and Edd Abbas from Taste Kulcha.

Taste Culture organizes various cultural events like film screenings, African / Asian cuisine, photo exhibitions, installations, hip hop, music and public discussions so as to link African, Asian and Arab cultures and struggles

Moreover they spoke about the recent events they've been holding, such as "7keeleh", which is an open mic session at its best for hip hop, poetry, spoken word and music. It is hosted by Fareeq el Atrash.

We were lucky enough to hear a small jam by Edd, an incredibly nice song, genre hip hop.

Many other speakers participated, you can read more about them here.

Live tweeting was taking place yesterday, reporting live on speakers and presentations content, audience's mood and interaction, and the whole ambiance in general, it was done on twitter, and you can read them here.

Thanks to Hiba who gave me the chance to be part and help out yesterday, nevertheless in reality watch great presentations and speed network with great persons out there.

My advice would be when YLSMC comes to your country, make sure you attend. Food for thought.

Maliks and Biodegradable bags in Lebanon

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:34:00 +0000

This is a great initiative from Malik's Bookshop.
This is a "totally biodegradable bag", therefore in 2 years it won't
exist anymore.

When we go to the supermarket, once or twice a week, and buy things, and stock them in plastic bag, and then what do we do with these bags? We don't use the same ones to stock what we buy, instead we either throw them as is, or make them a bit useful by putting garbage in them. But even when they become garbage bags, where do they go? Do they burn them? Of course they don't recycle them.

This is definitely something that is very under the table and rarely ever mentioned. But there are several supermarkets out there offering re-usable bags from cloth, which can be used over and over again in the supermarkets, instead of wasting bags that are not biodegradable.

Kudos to Maliks, and let's hope more will join.

Municipality elections don't make sense to me

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:54:00 +0000

There are times when a loyal citizen should state what bothers her in her own city. So there are the municipal elections coming soon (or maybe will be delayed for another 2 months), but my real problem with this electoral law (Daily Star), isn't changing the voting age from 21 to 18, and it isn't about dividing Beirut into 3 districts, it's merely, simply about being able to vote for the municipality where I live and now where I'm from.

I am from the North, but I rarely go there, I live in Matn, and I would like to vote for the municipality of the city I live in, why? Because I am sick and tired of the fact that we are affiliated with a certain municipality, who basically takes care of their own region, and ignore the rest of us.

One of the silly problems I would like to see tackled and I want to vote for someone qualified enough to do it, is the fact that we have few garbage containers where I live, the nearest one is 300 meters away. What about those shops who reserve the parking spot in front of them, not allowing us people who live there to park our cars, day and sometimes night.What about those huge pot-holes that keep breaking our cars? Cleanliness of the streets? Decorations on holidays? Recycling
garbage containers? The sense of feeling appreciated and respected as a citizen who pay their yearly "municipality" fee.

Lebanon needs a whole new system. We are not progressing, we are only regressing and quickly. And this is just plain sad and pathetic.

Did you know someone who died in a car accident?

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:12:00 +0000

You would think that wearing a seat belt while driving is NOT important. Well think again. I immediately put my seat belt one when I get in a car, and thankfully I did so or I would smashed my brains and jaw while being in the passenger's seat and the accident happened in a parking!

Kunhadi's continuous campaign for road safety (such as the latest found on our billboards about the importance of wearing a seat belt) is to respect and to carefully watch and understand. Their pain is big, and they're trying to prevent other parents from feeling the same.

By the way, check Kunhadi's website, it is nicely done and full of helpful information.

And don't leave this post before you watch this video, truly amazing.

And so we're racist

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:20:00 +0000

Since the tragic incident of the Ethiopian Airline plane that crashed last Monday just after take-off, the ET409, which was leaving Beirut towards Addis Ababa, carried 90 passengers of several nationalities, mostly Lebanese (51), Ethiopians (31 - whom 8 were crew), two British, one Canadian, one French (the French Ambassador's wife in Beirut), one Iraqi, one Russian, one Syrian, and one Turkish, whom all are now presumed deceased.

After 7 days almost, around 30 bodies have been recovered, and the others are still in the deep Mediterranean sea.

In addition to how sad this incident is, how tragic and shocking its impact was on the families of these passengers, and how touched people in Lebanon and Ethiopia felt because of their country's involvement, there was an emotion that existed which I personally was very bothered when I read about it, and it was racism.

Lebanese have been accused as racist especially because many Lebanese hires domestic workers from several Asian and African countries including Ethiopia, and because some of those Lebanese mistreat their domestic workers. The persons who were from the Ethiopian nationality who were on that flight, were all domestic workers. Some of which have just finished their 3 years contact and are going back home.

Patrick Galey mentioned in his article here that Lebanon's racism was exposed due to this incident.

A normally well-respected broadcaster conducted a live piece to camera outside a hospital with their Beirut correspondent on Monday night.
An Ethiopian, wracked with grief, unwittingly wondered into shot only to be literally hauled out of view by the Lebanese crew. Had she been Lebanese, it is unthinkable she would have been treated like this.

Moreover, in Simba Rousseau's blog "Witnessing Life", she humanly shed the light in her article here on an Ethiopian lady who migrated to Lebanon to work who rushed into the airport to see if she knows anyone who was on that plane:

According to Mebrat, when she other women arrived to the airport they saw Lebanese who had lost loved ones yelling at the Ethiopian women who were also mourning the deaths of their friends.

But what bothered some people the most, is when Elias Murr, the Lebanese Defence Minister, said:

A traffic control recording shows that the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction,

He continued:

We do not know what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot's control.

I personally thought it was premature for him to say something like that, he's usually more careful with his statements, but after a long day and the media hassling them on telling them the reason behind this crash, which basically is still not 100% known until now, because the black box is not recovered yet.

Hani Baal in his post that took part of Kolena Leila initiative that took place on the Arabic blogosphere in the last week of December 2009, he wrote about several Leilas, who are domestic workers in Lebanon and getting abused by their employers. The statistics say, one Leila (domestic worker in Lebanon) commits suicide per week. Shocking number.

The purpose of this post is not to deny the Lebanese racism, and not to defend it, it's just here to lay facts, possibly the reasons, and hopefully the possibility to end it.

The reasons why Lebanese are racist? I am no sociologist, but I think the war really messed us up. And yes, we should snap out of it and get over it already.

At first when I read some articles manifesting the Lebanese as racist, I was really upset with those writers, but deep inside I knew they were right. I don't know the exact number or percentage, but many Lebanese are racist, there are many degrees to it.

Some people in Lebanon think they're better than others, and when it comes to race, black are inferior to us (some people think).

Some people still call a black person a "slave", in Arabic "3abed". Need I say that slavery centuries ago was not exclusive to black people?

Some people in Lebanon still think that domestic workers are nothing but "maids" and "cleaners", and that they're not human beings, have no feelings, brains or emotions.

Some people in Lebanon do not give a day off to these domestic workers, make them work from dawn till after midnight.

But the ray of hope is that there are some Lebanese people who made an organization to defend those who don't have a voice, and lay down some better rules and law of labor for them.

As for the media? They did not do any worse than any other media that in any disaster focuses on their own sons and daughters.

For what it's worth, I'm sorry for what happened. Moreover, I truly am sad for those who were returning home to Ethiopia after years of work in Lebanon, whom some were abused, and some in prison, instead they left this world in a horrid way. I offer my condolences to the families of the victims of ET409 (whatever the nationality, Syrian, Iraqi, Canadian, French, Russion, Turkish, Ethiopian and Lebanese).

In the face of disaster, there is no nationality, there is simply a human being.

Sources: Wikipedia.org, simbarusseau.wordpress.com, huffingtonpost.com, hanibaael.wordpress.com, timesonline.co.uk

Ethiopian plane leaving Beirut Airport crashes

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:35:00 +0000

Around 2:30 am the morning of 25 January, an Ethiopian plane that just left Beirut Airport, crashed in the sea close to the southern Lebanese shore, the plane carried 90 passengers of which 53 were Lebanese.

Some eye witnesses say the cause of this plane crash is because a lightning hit the plane which led it to be on fire and fall into the sea.

The Lebanese navy and the UNIFIL are searching but the weather conditions are making it hard on them. Until now there is no word of survivors. Some bodies have been found.

Very sad news this morning, hope some survivors are found.

Prime minister Hariri just declared today as an national day of mourning.

For minute by minute follow-up, check www.lebanonfiles.com, www.nowlebanon.com and www.tayyar.org

Source of picture: NowLebanon.com

Update:

The parties involved in the rescue mission are the Lebanese army, navy and forces, the civil defense, UNIFIL (which includes several countries) and an American fleet which should arrive soon.

The number of deceased people (total of bodies that arrived to the national hospital) is 20.

The rescue mission continues at night, the total time for the rescue to take place will be for 72 hours.

There was a problem identifying the bodies, which led them to rely on DNA tests, asking parents of the ET409 passengers to go to the hospital and do the DNA tests.

A special hotline was put for the parents of the deceased / missing so far, and it is: 03-737475

The reason behind the crash is still unknown, knowing that last known plane crash due to lightning was in 1967. The Ethiopian airlines is known to be of the best airlines in Africa. Terrorism or sabotage is unlikely. For now, the pilot has been sort of blamed, saying he had the full freedom to halt this flight.

I personally think it's too soon to speculate anything. Hope for survivors is dim, but look at Haiti as Minister of Defense Elias El Murr pointed, some survivors have been found after 11 days.

Condolences to the families in Lebanon and Ethiopia for the passengers who were on ET409.

Its Snowing! Sun's Shining! People are Smiling

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:45:00 +0000

Faraya Mzaar just declared that the ski slopes will open next Saturday 23rd January according to www.skileb.com

After a long awaited snow in Lebanon, the Mzaar ski slopes will finally open the ski lifts next Saturday, January 23rd, one month later than normally expected. Most ski lifts in Wardeh domain and some in Jonction will be operational, while the remaining get prepared.

The snow is there, but as there is another storm coming this weekend, it's postponed till next weekend.

And yes, usually its snows by the end of December and slopes open then, this is unconventional from what we used to have in Lebanon. Faraya Mzaar is one of the two most popular ski resorts in Lebanon, in addition to the Cedars. The cedars are higher, and have had snow since a while now.

So for all ski lovers out there, the winter season is finally here! Now! And not like many billboards on the streets said since a month now, some even mentioned that prices are dropping as temperature is dropping. My reaction: "Temperature is still in its 20s! Does this mean there's no sale?"

Picture taken today in Faraya Mzaar (source - skileb.com) - Thursday Jan 21 - 2010

Haiti

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:37:00 +0000

Last Tuesday an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit Haiti (source Yahoo! News), leaving tens of thousands of people either dead (source BBC News), missing, severely injured and homeless.

I am sad to express this though following this unfortunate disaster, yet when something like that happens, I am happy to see many ordinary yet extraordinary people who leave everything, pack light, get on the first plane and go to the region that was damaged by such a disaster to offer their aid, you can read here (source BBC News) the diary of some aid workers during their stay in Haiti.

So this post is to send our prayers and hopes for a better tomorrow for those who are still alive in Haiti, and to send our thanks and amazing appreciation for those people who went to Haiti to help find the missing, create volatile hospitals, medicate the injured and offer food and shelter to the homeless who lost everything.

One final wish is to see Lebanon do something about it. Maybe they did and I am not aware of, if they did please let me know, if not, let's hope they do something soon.

Click here for ways to send relief to Haiti.

Nokia's new comparative AD with Blackberry

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:47:00 +0000

Even though fellow blogger Rami already blogged about this AD circulating our mailboxes lately on his blog Plus961.com, I want to still shed the light on this AD, because I think this is probably the first comparative adverstising we see in Lebanon, and I want to enjoy this moment in Lebanon's advertising history. If there was any other comparative AD in Lebanon before, please do enlighten me (I'm no expert here).

Here you go!

Hope to see more of these comparative ads in Lebanon!

Park your own car, avoid giving it to a Valet

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:04:00 +0000

To be honest, for the last year I have been trying to park my own car and avoid giving it to a Valet. It's a bit silly giving your car to a Valet parking when you're going to an ordinary restaurant and even a coffee shop, moreover that place having a lot of parking spaces near it. I could understand if it's raining too much, or the region doesn't have parking spaces any place near, or it's a fancy shmancy club or restaurant, however and I've noticed, many restaurants and ordinary diners now take over these parking spaces, which are on the road, and which legally are not theirs and is for the public. I am hating this kind of dictatorship.

Last Sunday I went to Aunty Rosa, first time and last time! I saw a place near Seapros (the yachts shop), it was Sunday so it was closed, and I parked in front of it. At the end when I was leaving, the Aunty Rosa Valet, comes to ask for money! Can you believe this none sense? I parked my own car, near the street (it wasn't even a parking) and the dude came to take money.

My wish is, avoid giving your car to Valet Parking dudes, let's teach them a lesson. And avoid Aunty Rosa, in addition to having a thief as Valet Parking, their service sucked big time.

I shall bash every restaurant that does not have the same food quality and service and waiter behavior such as Roadster's and Il Siciliano.

No snow yet in Lebanon

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:46:00 +0000

By now, all ski resorts should be open, and ski lovers should be skiing, snowboarding, skidooing, any snow activity you can think of, they should be doing, and even have fashion shows and competitions . Yet, there is barely some snow in Arz (Cedars) and Sannine and a couple of other high mountains, of which only their summits is covered.

Faraya ski resort is still not open. Most Faraya residents rely heavily on the winter season to draw their income. Last year was one of the worst years (I even joked that Lebanese will start skiing in Dubai), as there was a bit of snow during January, but at least all major ski resorts were open. However winter 2009-2010 is worse than 2008.

Comparison of Faraya ski resort taken from skileb.com between 9 Jan 2008 and 9 Jan 2009.

Could we be heading to desertification? Climate change experts warned of this some time ago. They warned of many things, but because of our imperialist / capitalist forces out there, the December 2009 Copenhagen negotiations led nowhere.

According to BBC News, many airports in Europe such as UK, France and Dublin's closed because of the icy weather. In other countries such as Sweden, Poland, Germany and others many people have been reported dead due to the very cold weather, they froze to death, most of them are homeless. Crazy traffic jams were caused, bus services decreased and trains halted because snow powder entered under the hood, and some engine oils were frozen.

The current big chill is a result of high pressure over the polar region, which has pushed cold air out of the Arctic towards much of northern Europe, parts of Asia and the US. Winds from the north and north east, rather than the south and south west, have brought freezing temperatures to the UK.

However the temperature degree in some parts of world decreased compared to the last 30 years, others are warmer, such as Alaska, northern Canada and the Mediterranean.

As they say, God Save Us all. We are heading to the worst. And our chances were blown less than a month ago for actually doing something about it.

Obstacle met with persistence driven by ambition

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:36:00 +0000

I received this photo by email from a friend. I thought I'd share it with this blog's readers.

ليلى يلّي منعرفها ماشي حالا بالمبدأ، يس في كتير لأ

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:31:00 +0000

This post is part of kolenalaila.com.

"We Are All Laila" aims at highlighting women's problems and prompting them to draw real images of their own experiences in order to open a dialogue that can lead to changing the ideas of a whole society.

بدي اكتب بالعربي اللبناني ولو راح تاخد معي الخبرية تلات ساعات.

ليلى يلّي منعرفها ماشي حالا بالمبدأ، يس في كتير لأ.

في ليلى بعرفها اغتصبها ابن زوج امها، واغتصب امها كمان، البنت كان عمرعها 12 او 13، الام أكيد كانت عارفي بس ساكتة لأنو زوجها كان متوفّي وهي ما معها لا شهادة ولا اموال تخليا تفلّ وتستقرّ لاحالها.في كتير متلها ومتايل.

ليلى تانية بعرفها راحت خطيفة، وقفت مدرسة وشغل، اجاها ولاد عل سريع، وصارت حياتها كلّها لولادها وكل ثانية بتمرؤ وهي ندمانة ومش مبسوطة.

ليلى القرن الواحد وعشرين، صار مطلوب منّها اكتر بكتير، كان كل شيء لازم تعملو من قبل هوي تطبخ، تهتمّ بالبيت، وتربّي هل الاولاد، هلئ صار عندا "كرّير"، يلي هو شي ضروري لتنمية المرأة من الناحية الفكرية والشخصية. وبعد في رجال بتفكرّ انو المرا لازم تكون محضرتلو العشا وقت يرجع من شغلو، حتى لو هي كمان كانت بالشغل، وبدا تنضف وتحمم الاولاد، وتكويلو القميص، وبدا تكون حلوي كمان، لأنّو الحقّ عليا بالأخير اذا زوجها اتطلّع على واحدة ثانية.

ليلى، في كتير ما بيعرفو قيمتك، وما بيعرفو انت يشو عم تمرئي، ويا حزينة هيدا هوي قدرك.

10 tips to be in the Christmas Spirit

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:29:00 +0000

10 tips to be in the Christmas Spirit, in both worlds, virtual and real:

1- Write a blog post about it (like this right here)
2- Choose a cheesy (and winy :P) Christmas postcard and tag people in them on facebook, such as Maya Zankoul indicated here
3- Send SMS text messages, there are ready texts out there such as "May Santa Visit you when you're sleeping in your flowery boxer and put a gift on your head!"
4- Send an e-greeting card, make sure they're animated, static cards are so 2001!
5- Set a Christmas ringtone on your mobile (such as "Last Christmas" for George Michael, it is all about Christmas you see!)
6- Set a Christmas background on your mobile, pc and/or laptop
7- Visit a mall during the prior week to Christmas and until Christmas eve at least twice!
8- Get stuck in traffic preferably near a Christmas decoration, if there is no decoration nearby, make sure you tune your radio on, maybe Lady Gaga's new "precious" Christmas song is playing!
9- Throw in a picture or two of Santa's hat here and there (refer to beginning of post), or better yet, buy 4 for 2'000LL and put them on your car seats' head-rests.
10- Last but not least, spend spend spend!!!!!!!!!!!! and spend even more!

Merry Christmas fellow readers, may it bring health and happiness upon you and your loved ones!

Hopenhagen Failahapen

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:09:00 +0000

Even though the negotiations ended last week, I didn't blog about them immediately, well because I figured there is time and no need to rush anymore to try and save the world because:

Leaders have reached a weak agreement in Copenhagen that fails to set the emissions targets needed to prevent catastrophic global warming.

There is it, Copenhagen that was Hopenhagen for a while became a Failahapen!

This is how the world functions, and last week a decision was taken, and it was to ruin this earth. We, as people, don't deserve it.

Fun(d) Raising Newest Event: Who does not like cookies?

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:49:00 +0000

The Fun(d) raising project is going really well, 2 events occurred so far, the Bowling at Link and the Wordpress tutoring at Rootspace.

The next event will be in Edde Yard - Jbeil on Sunday December 27th, and it is about making cookies yourself, DYI, funnest concept ever, and this is thanks to the famous online tweeple Cooki3man, who well... basically makes & sells cookies, but not in the conventional way! More about him here.

Anyway, meanwhile, with the toys collected from these events and direct door to door (or car to car) toy transfer, and the money made during the events which led us to buy toys, so far these toys have been donated to 2 associations, Mourouj Al Mahabba and ACSAUVEL.

Moreover you can read Global Voices post on Fun(d) Raising here.

Christmas tree in Downtown Beirut

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:30:00 +0000

It's one of the new traditions in Lebanon, it is part of Beirut Celebrates series of events. What makes this tree special, is its presence near one of the biggest mosques out there! Now of course we would hope to think sectarianism doesn't exist in Lebanon, but unfortunately a form of it still exists.

Photo courtesy unknown, I received it by email.

2nd Photo courtesy yours truly

الرئيس الحريري يصل اليوم قمة كوبنهاغن

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:02:00 +0000

يصل اليوم للمشاركة في فعاليات القمة الرئيس الحريري مصحوبا بوفد رسمي كبير ليشاركوا ولأول مرة بوفد على هذا المستوى من التمثيل السياسي العالي مما يعطي لبنان دفعا قويا على الساحة العالمية. لبنان هشّ جداً أمام تغّير المناخ. الآثار المحتملة لتغيّر المناخ على لبنان تتضمّن زيادة في حرائق الغابات وجفاف وتناقص الناتج الزراعي وتدمير المناطق الساحلية وفي نهاية المطاف تصحّر كامل. "مشاركة لبنان بوفد من المستوى السياسي الذي نراه يعتبر خطوة تقدمية في الموقف اللبنلني، لكن المطلوب من الرئيس الحريري تبني موقف مفصل والخوض بشراسة في عملية المفاوضات"، أضاف حميدان.

تشارك إندي-أكت في مفاوضات كوبنهاغن بوفد من 43 شخص يضم ناشطين وخبراء وإعلاميين للتأكد من فعالية الموقف العربي والعالمي والمشاركة في تصويب القرار الإقليمي فيما خص تغير المناخ.

Source: www.IndyACT.org

Urgent - Crisis in Copenhagen

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:47:00 +0000

With three days to go, the crucial Copenhagen summit is failing.

Tomorrow, the world's leaders arrive for an unprecedented 60 hours of direct negotiations. Experts agree that without a tidal wave of public pressure for a deal, the summit will not stop catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees.

Click below to sign the petition for a real deal in Copenhagen -- the campaign already has a staggering 10 million supporters - let's make it the largest petition in history in the next 72 hours! Every single name is actually being read out at the summit -- sign on at the link below and forward this email to everyone!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen

Books and Arabic and Signings and Guiness...

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:02:00 +0000

Beirut Arab and International Book Fair 53

Another event following Beirut being the world capital of book for 2009, the Beirut Arab and International Book Fair 53 opened on the 11th of December and it will be there until the 24th of December in BIEL - Downtown Beirut.

Biggest Book in the World

I visited the book fair yesterday for about two hours, there are so many exhibitors and publisher houses down there, the exhibition is huge. Speaking of huge, the biggest book that has recently entered the guiness book of records is also available there, it's 3.85m wide and 2.77 m long, weighs 1060kg. It's a photography book, "Beirut's Memory" that compares Beirut before and Beirut now by Ayman Trawi.

Abu Salim's new book
While checking one stand after the other, I saw the famous "Abu Salim" signing his new book Ayyam Min Zakirati (Days of my memory)

Book Bazar
And the story is only beginning, I visited Book Bazar and saw national geographic magazine that were printed in 1960! I bought myself 3 copies, they're 40 years old. We also visited several other book bazar kind of libraries, and some books value is equivalent to gold because they're ancient and they just look like they came out of national treasure movie.

Dar Onboz
I also saw a stand full of extremely creative drawings, comics, books, shapes, photographs, etc... it's called Dar Onboz. You can check their website here www.daronboz.com, the person behind this is Nadine Touma, she is available at the stand. Dar Onboz, simply put, is here to promote the Arabic language using creativity.

Glad to see many artists having more opportunities to showcase their work. Let's hope we'll see a whole exhibition in Lebanon made for artists of all kinds.

Don't forget to visit it, of course Arabic books are ubiquitous, but it's not exclusive to Arabic only, there are many books in many other languages.

All Lebanese should go through the driver's test again and with no wasta

lebanonburnedtoash@gmail.com (Liliane) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:27:00 +0000

I only learned today that hazard lights (Lebanese refer to them as "flash light") should only be turned on when the car is stopped 'cause something wrong happened or there is an accident. Meaning if there is heavy rain and visibility is short, hazard lights should not be turned on. So when the other drivers see it, they know your car is not moving and can pass you over.

In Lebanon we use these lights when there is strong rain, which is apparently wrong to the standard. Yet in Lebanon we have a cognitive different understanding of these lights and it wouldn't cause us a problem like the guy said here.

Another common belief in Lebanon concerns when flashing your headlights in a repeated manner. It has two meanings:
1- if it's being done fast, it means that it's telling the other car to stop
2- if it's done once or twice, but slowly, it's telling you to pass. Really! This is Lebanon.

The purpose of this post is to honestly point out that we do not have a decent driver's license exam, we now have a test on the computer, but usually the guy, who's testing the applicant, does the test for him/her. Safety is over-rated apparently.

We still get our driver's license without doing an exam, do you know anyone who failed a driver's test in Lebanon?

Some people drive without licenses, and without properly learning how to drive and without anyone teaching them the importance of signals, and stopping at crossroads and high headlights being turned on which blinds the person coming from the opposite direction, the use of hazard lights. Actually in Lebanon many people don't know that they shouldn't only slow their cars when an ambulance is passing by (and we'd be lucky if they did do that), the cars are actually supposed to fully stop and allow pathway to the ambulance vehicle!

That is how much ignorance we bare in our knowledge concerning driving, there are really good drivers in Lebanon due to the fact that we still have chaos and it's important to be in control, however there is a lot of bad manners and a lot of misconception of rules.