Lebanese From Abroad

west threatened by scientists in the east?

2012-01-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

BBC News - Iran car explosion kills nuclear scientist in Tehran

Oh the horror, those eastern people have an education and brains, and a vision for their coutries!
Can you imagine, the ex-colonies being as armed, as technologically advanced as their old colonizers?
I mean sure, colonization became illegal in the mid-40's, but they didn't think we actually mean all countries are equal did they?
That was just a formality!
Well, Iranian think they have equal rights to be armed, just as Israel does.
Maybe our middle eat didn't get the memo, that "equality" after decolonization is just a formality.

garbage turned to treasure in Beirut

2012-01-06T02:28:00.000-08:00

TEDxBeirut - Ziad Abichaker - A garbage love story - YouTube

Egyptians celebrate the new year, Christians and Muslims

2012-01-03T05:44:00.000-08:00

‫مسيرة بالشموع من كنيسة قصر الدوبارة إلي ميدان التحرير‬‎ - YouTube

This is how Arabs respond when colonizers try to manipulate them into civil wars. They say no thanks.

will green roofs cover Beirut?

2011-12-25T14:18:00.000-08:00

Beirut’s Rooftop Revolution (INTERVIEW) | Green Prophet

Lebanese women win all of Lebanon's gold in Doha

2011-12-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

Lebanese women put Lebanon on the sports map by winning most of Lebanon's gold medal in Doha

Golden Lebanese Girls, the Lebanese Women Basketball National Team and the Sprinter Gretta Taslakian, all Golden winners in the Panarab Games came home Dec 20th, 2011.

In Arab fencing Mona Shaito won 5 gold medals, and beats Tunisian Ines Bubakri 15-7 in the Final.

The Lebanese Women Basketball Team beat Qatar 72-34 and won the Gold Medal.

Katya Bachrouche won 4 Gold medals in the Pan Arabic games beating Moroccan Sara El Bekri (2:17:24) and Tunisian Sarra Lajnef (2:18:91).
By Dec 22nd it was 7 Gold medals for Lebanon, 4 of them alone from Bachrouche, and all of them won by our Women.

Syria: monitors will see that there are terrorist groups in Syria

2011-12-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

BBC News - Syria signs Arab League deal to allow in monitors

why Lebanon is the role model of democracy

2011-12-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Lebanon is still the liberal country of the middle east, but we have high hopes in Egyptian liberals

Islamists pursue gains in Egypt's phased election | Reuters

BBC News - Russia accuses West of 'immoral' stance on Syria

2011-12-13T22:03:00.000-08:00

Russia denounces the fact that the US covers for violence by opposition forces in Syria, and uses unfounded accounts of death tolls: BBC News - Russia accuses West of 'immoral' stance on Syria

Saudi regime vs. the environment

2011-12-11T22:12:00.000-08:00

Saudi Acts as Oil Cheerleader at COP 17 Circus | Green Prophet

"Now We're Invented?", by Amer Zahr, The Civil Arab - halayc@gmail.com

2011-12-11T20:21:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich said Palestinians were "invented", Amer Zahr has a field day ! I guess Americans heed the belief of other colonizers, Ottoman, Saudi, that once a culture is overpowered, its existence can be denied. In the middle east however colonizers faded and native cultures survived.

NNA - Official website Lebanon Beirut

2011-12-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

The Lebanese news agency - NNA - is looking good! Maybe this will be the tool that will bring expats up to speed, and help then vote in the 2013 parliamentary in Lebanon.

Kentucky church votes to ban interracial couples | World news | guardian.co.uk

2011-12-01T23:13:00.000-08:00

Interesting, Kentucky church votes to ban interracial couples while in Lebanon we have advocacy group demanding civil marriage, to facilitate marriage between religions. How is it again, that Americans suspect the Lebanese of being regressive?!

Egyptians cast ballots in post-Mubarak polls - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

2011-11-29T04:00:00.000-08:00

One more step forward in Egypt, as Egyptians cast ballots but the west has yet to acknowledge that Lebanon is ahead regarding diversity, and as a result, Islamists do not have a significant block in the Lebanese parliament. Lebanon is ahead democracy-wise, because its largest 2 parliamentary blocks sgned an agreement to separate religion from state. This secures equality in politics, and differentiates Lebanon from neighboring countries where the word "minority" is taboo. This also clashes with corrupt political profiteers that fed on sectarian fears, and lately fake religious divides in Lebanon.
These 2 blocks include the patriotic party, the advocate of the first civil law to be proposed in the middle east. It secures equal rights fro citizens of all backgrounds, and both genders. The other inculded block is Hezbollah. This is one of the alienated Lebanese groups that the patriotic party brought back into the Lebanese democracy, by acknowledging their reasons to dissent. They emerged from a rural south treated like a second class area since the 40's, by a series of regressive post-colonial Lebanese governments. The south was also subjected to racism form Israel. This finally provoked the emergence of Hezbollah in 1980's. Not accepting the cownboy idea of "you're with us of I shoot you", the patriotic party created memorandum of understandings with several Lebanese factions, where they acknowledge the social inequities that provoked them, and agree that a civil law would solve these inequities.

From 1989 to 2004 it was also the only opposition to the past Syrian occupation, to be joined in 2005, at the 11th hour by the so-called pro-west block in Lebanon, made of leaders that openly pledge allegiance to the Saudi monarchy. This pro-Saudi block, along with the US administration, that seems more eager to switch colonizers, than end the colonization of Lebanon by foreign countries. The US administration has definitely approved of that, switching overlords instead of become sovereign, and has vilified the nationalist party in Lebanon, the one that made Lebanon unavailable for a civil war by finding common ground among Lebanese factions.

Rest in Peace, Myriam Achkar

2011-11-25T20:36:00.000-08:00

Nadine Mouawad makes an excellent case against rape-related taboos in Lebanon. This after the horrific rape of Myriam Achkar. Let's speak up against rapists, and end sexism.

Dave Meslin: The antidote to apathy | Video on TED.com

2011-11-22T23:14:00.000-08:00

People are not apathetic, they are silenced by barriers we don't notice at first sight.
Dave Meslin: The antidote to apathy
This applies to Lebanon as well, where I think an obstacle to politial engagement is how rude and macho political conversations can get.

Lebanese citizenship not an option - PLO chief

2011-11-21T11:18:00.000-08:00

to anyone who thinks that Lebanese nationalists harm the Palestinian cause, and that the Saudi proteges (Hariri and co) support it:

Lebanese citizenship not an option - PLO chief

Saudi proteges in Lebanon, March 14, want to use the same Palestinians they infuriated for years as a "stuffing", something to add to Lebanon so they can manipulate the demographics according to their regressive sectarian agenda.

AUB, Byblos Bank launch first Consumer Confidence Index in Lebanon | AUB | AMEinfo.com

2011-11-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

A Lebanese bank and a university in Lebanon are collaborating to add accuracy to Lebanese commerce:
AUB, Byblos Bank launch first Consumer Confidence Index in Lebanon
That's great, but I am still waiting for the "6 sigma" type program, a quality control program that will improve the level of customer-friendly businesses in Lebanon. Something that indicates how professional, polite and reliable service provider is there.

Once Lebanese rabbits and other animals are safe, something to look forward to...

2011-11-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

I know Lebanon loves to take on the impossible, so here you go: something impossible, that's been done, and is perfectly sweet. A bunny rabbits jumping course, and the associated world competitions! I just hope that when these competitions become international, there will be a humane way to fly the bunnies across the world. Not in the hauls of planes, and without holding them at customs, in quarantines. This is the ordeal many countries put animals through, at their border.

Divide and conquer, again? Hint: it doesn't work.

2011-11-18T16:13:00.000-08:00

A Christian-owned and a Shiite-owned establishment (to use regressive sectarian labels as they do in the west) were bombed in Tyre, Lebanon.
This has the words "divide and conquer" all over it, or should I say the words Saudi-American alliance hopelessly trying on more civil war, after the failed 2007 attempt by the Saudi regime to provoke a civil war in Lebanon.

Anna Mracek Dietrich: A plane you can drive | Video on TED.com

2011-11-16T01:18:00.000-08:00

Anna Mracek Dietrich gave a TED talk on flying car, that her team is putting on the market in 2011!
Imagine these flying cars solving traffic congestion problems around the world, in developing cities in particular. I also like how they had to ignore absurd comments like "you know that's impossible right"? Makes me think of what the pro-citizenry Lebanese had to hear ever since 1989!

Saudi women denouce wahabi misogynist beliefs

2011-11-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

In this interview on LBC, a Saudi woman-reporter denounces Wahabi misogynist beliefs.

Avaaz - 4 days to save our children from cluster bombs

2011-11-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

Avaaz - 4 days to save our children from cluster bombs
Lebanon children are victims of cluster bombs, a weapon used by Israel against Lebanon. The UN made it illegal, but the US campaigned and reversed that law. Sign the petition to make cluster bombs illegal again.

A new law differentiating between Lebanese who fled to, and those who collaborated with Israel

2011-11-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

Nov 2: The Lebanese parliament passed a law proposed by the Block for Change and Reform, lead by the patriotic party and presided by Gen Michel Aoun. This law differentiates between Lebanese who fled to, and those who collaborated with Israel

Capitalism, Democracy, and Food

2011-11-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

The Huffington post in Capitalism, Democracy, and Food (Video) shows the need for local economies. This applies to Lebanon, creating food security while re-greening the country, through local and urban agriculture. I wonder if candidates of the 2013 parliamentary elections in Lebanon will care to focus on that.

Elections 2013 in Lebanon, last chance for reforms

2011-10-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

PM Gen. Aoun said that the 2013 parliamentary elections in Lebanon are the last chance for reforms.