All the Beirut news.

LDN’s Consultant & Associate Director of the Lebanese Emigration Research Center (LERC)
Hourani to NOW Lebanon: What does Lebanon’s high emigration rate mean for the country?
Guita G. Hourani is the associate director of the Lebanese Emigration Research Center at Notre Dame University in Zouk and a member of the university’s Research Board. She has a [...]

Condoleeza Rice’s self-proclaimed “historic visit” to Libya and meeting with Colonel Qaddafi last week can probably be better explained by the latter’s affection towards the US Secretary of State than any solid geopolitical strategy:
“I support my darling black African woman.
I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to [...]

Several years ago, while on one of my many (and much loved!) visits to the Kuwaiti khala and uncle, my aunt taught me something that has stuck with me.
After I finished saying something to her one day, she leaned forward and smiled at me.
I’ve noticed something that’s important to you, she told me. You’ve used [...]

I know, I suck, I haven;t been updating, even though I have like 30,000 new links to share everyday. maybe I should get my del.ici.ous account and do those instant link posts that other people do. Hmmm… Anyway, on to bigger news.
People, By now you know that when I come to the US i usually [...]

The Russian invasion of Georgia caught much of the Middle East by surprise, but political actors here were quick to try and capitalize off of it.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech comparing the West's support for Georgia to the West's support for Israel. Just as the West could not prevent the righteous Russians from invading sovereign Georgia, he argued, the West would eventually fall to the might of Hezbollah and other forces opposed to Israel.

كثيراً ما يقال ان الصحافة العاملة في بيئة حرة تذهب بعيدا في توسيع حدود تلك “الحرية” وصولا الى الافتئات على حريات الآخرين. في لبنان كان هذا الكلام يقال عن الصحافة اللبنانية وعن ممارستها لحريتها الاعلامية التي اتهمت بسببها بالمساهمة في إشعال الحرب الاهلية! كأن الحياة السياسية اللبنانية لم تكن ارضا خصبة لاشتعال الحرب قبل ثلاثة [...]

The mystery is resolved. An Egyptian billionaire was charged with hiring a hitman to kill Suzanne Tamim, a famous Lebanese singer. Egyptian prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmud has revealed that Hisham Talaat Mustafa has been charged with paying two million dollars for brutally killing Tamim at her upmarket flat in Dubai in July. Tamim, who [...]

بعنوان “صيدا تحافظ على التراث والتقاليد الرمضانية” كتب محمد دهشة في جريدة صدى البلد “يحافظ الصيداويون في رمضان المبارك وجيلا بعد آخر على عادات توارثوها، ولكنها بفعل مــرور الزمن تــلاشــت وبــقــي جــزﺀ منها يــعــانــد الـــــزوال. فــي هــذا الشهر الفضيل يكثر الذكر والــمــدائــح النبوية وعمل الخير ويستطاب التزاور بين الأهل والجيران، ويحلو الــســمــر كــمــا الــســهــر في المقاهي.

15 juillet 2008

La machine reprend sa marche en avant et c'est tant mieux. Avec un général à la tête de l'Etat, le commandement naturel ne devient-il pas: « En avant, Marche! » Et ça marche.

Saturday morning on the Corniche
My inspiration is slowly seeping back.
I went to the bank to deposit $3000 dollars. When I get the receipt, I see that I actually only deposited $2994.
“I think I deposited $3000”, I say.
“Yes, but we send the bills to the States, and we charge you for that”, the lady at the counter replies. 0.2 %, as a matter of fact.

Tripoli pour dernier terrain vague*

Avec le Liban Nord pour dernier terrain vague
Et avec des vagues sunnites pour arrêter les vagues
Et de vagues salafistes que les marées dépassent
Et qui ont à jamais le coeur à marée basse
Avec infiniment de conflits à venir
Avec le vent (syrien) d’est écoutez-le tenir
Le misérable pays qui est le mien

Avec des mosquées pour uniques montagnes

Russia’s Vladimir Putin darkly hinted that his country would invade and dismember Georgia months before last month’s war in the South Caucasus region began. “We have Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Pridnestrovie [Transnistria],” he said back in February this year after Kosovo declared independence from Serba, “and they say Kosovo is a special case?” Putin has a point, but only a very small one. The overwhelming majority of Kosovars want nothing more to do with Serbia just as the majorities in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia want to secede. But there the similarities end.

Sometimes, Baghdad’s Green Zone, the walled-off axis of American and Iraqi power, is akin to a spy novel. Concertina wire, endless soot-stained gray concrete walls, the speeding convoys of armored vehicles give the enclave a conspiratorial atmosphere. According to legend, key words like Al Qaeda or the Mahdi Army in a phone conversation ensure that your call will be monitored by some intelligence agency somewhere. On one occasion, a western official cautioned that a U.S. advisor to an Iraqi minister wasn’t advising his client, but spying on him.

“I support my darling black African woman,” he said. “I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders.”
He continued: “Yes, Leezza, Leezza, Leezza,” and said, “I love her very much.”

One of the main arguments that Hezbollah came up with in regards to the assassination of Samer Hanna is that the Hezbollah terrorist had mistaken the Lebanese Helicopter for an Israeli one.
We might be ignorants when it comes to weapons & army machines, but even an idiot can tell the difference between an Israeli & [...]