The Post Will Probably Be Banned in Lebanon


It’s like with every passing day, Lebanon descends further into the abyss of backwardness and stupidity.

Last year, Wonder Woman and Justice League caused quite the stir, with outdated laws from the 1950s that no one cared to implement, suddenly becoming a top priority for the Lebanese authorities.

The problem with that though, is that Lebanon is the only one doing it, and not even close to consistently, calling to question the point of these pointless bans, and their negative effects on the state of arts and culture in the tiny country.

The Israel Thing

Apart from backwards religious reasons, the number one reason the General Security in Lebanon bans arts and culture, is when it has to do with Israel. The problem though, is that they sometimes can’t differentiate between Israeli, and Jewish, one of the 18 officially recognized sects in Lebanon.

Steven Spielberg is one of those examples where the GS confuses Israeli and Jewish. In the past, what they used to do is get a black marker and erase his name from posters and billboards on movies he directed or produced, but we still got to see the movie.

The rise in pro-censorship rhetoric, and the need to appease ultra-conservatives ahead of the parliamentary elections, means that Lebanese moviegoers aren’t allowed to see a lot of movies (legally at least).

Other Spielberg Movies Weren’t Banned

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about censorship in Lebanon, is how haphazard and inconsistent it is. If it’s a slow news day for Al Akhbar, they’ll cause a huge fuss about a movie because of a cast member, but that same cast member would have been in several other movies that didn’t register on their radar because they were busy smearing someone with libellous claims of treason, that more often than not are proven as pure works of fiction.

In the past two years, the latest Transformers movie, as well as Jurassic World and other movies, all had Steven Spielberg as an executive producer or director. All of them were shown in Lebanese cinemas though. This begs the question, why is The Post on the chopping block? Is it because it idolizes journalists who stand up to the powers that be when they do wrong, and choose truth and justice over government bullying?

Oscar Buzz Means Lebanon Bans

This isn’t the first Oscar-favorite to get banned in Lebanon recently. Spotlight, which won Best Picture in the 2015 Academy Awards, was also banned. The movie details how journalists broke the scandal of widespread child molestation in the Catholic Church in Boston, and how they attempted to cover it up. Given how many child molesting priests in Lebanon have been let off the hook, like Labaki and others, it’s no surprise this movie was banned, just like the website to support Labaki’s victims was also banned from Lebanon to try and hide the heinous crimes of evil people in positions of religious power.

A movie that stars Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and directed by Spielberg, that chronicles the rise of Washington Post, the paper responsible for keeping the Trump administration and its corruption on its toes, seems to warrant a ban, but stuff like Jurassic Park and other Spielberg flicks, seem to skip the shoddy radar of censorship in Lebanon.

We Will Watch It No Matter What, So Why Ban?

Perhaps the saddest thing about censorship in Lebanon, is how useless it is. Any of us can walk down to Nabil Net and buy it on DVD, or stream it from endless pirated movie streaming websites, if not buy it when it comes out on services like Google Play Movies.

Therefore, the only real loss here is for local distributors who pay to get the movie screening rights, advertise it for months and weeks, then get slapped with a last minute, incoherent ban. The rest of us are gonna still watch it, whether the General Security bans it or not.

Banning is an insult to taxpayers’ intelligence. Why should a bunch of security officials decide what you and me can and cannot watch, listen to or read? All that in the age of the Internet…

Get Your Act Together

If you want to be taken seriously in 2018, either retire the entire censorship bureau, or do your jobs properly. How can several Gal Gadot movies pass, but then Wonder Woman and Justice League don’t? How can all the Spielberg movies pass, but suddenly The Post might not? Inno, shwayyet consistency guys, if you want to be taken seriously…

The Real Loss

Spielberg, big Hollywood Studios and the Israeli government aren’t going to give a fuck if a few thousand Lebanese don’t pay tickets to watch a movie that the detractors think is funding the occupation of Palestine. The movie will still make money, and still break records, so this has zero effect whatsoever on the stated “purpose” of the ban (which is different from boycotting, because people aren’t given a choice, they’re just forced).

The real loss from censorship is against Lebanese filmmakers, who with every passing month, get more and more “red lines” they can’t cross. This is the real tragedy, since Lebanese filmmakers count on their movie showing in Lebanon, given that is their main and often only market. If they mention a sect, or a politician, or Lebanese history, they often get banned, and that’s a movie someone put in a lot of hard work and money to make, only to be banned for stupid reasons, robbing the filmmaker of their livelihood, but also robbing us of a chance to see a topic explored that might help us better understand, cope or heal from the trauma it is trying to cover.

Movies like Reine Mitri’s “In this Land, Lay Graves of Mine” which is a documentary about people displaced during the Lebanese Civil War, is a gem that unfortunately never made it to the theaters. I of course saw it in a private screening with the director herself, and I feel such a movie would have been an amazing addition to Lebanon’s lost collective memory about our devastating civil war. Unfortunately, the GS thought it might “disturb the civil peace”, whatever that means…

Censorship is wrong, no matter what. If you have a cause, then boycotting something you perceive as against it, is definitely game. Banning it by force, is more akin to Saudi’s or Iran’s policies when it comes to subduing their oppressed populations. If anything, the rise in censorship means that the censors know they’re losing the culture war, and that people are overwhelmingly against it, hence the frenzied, incoherent attempt to ban things they don’t understand, or don’t fall into their extremely narrow worldview.

Ministry of Interior Has the Final Say

Let’s hope the Interior Ministry in Lebanon strikes down the recommendation to ban The Post. They have a history of just signing off on those recommendations, but we can’t lose hope in that the ministry will see how futile, unprofessional and backwards these bans are, and instead, work on overhauling the broken censorship system in Lebanon, or ideally, removing it altogether…

As Downtown Reopens, Iconic Virgin Megastore on Martyrs’ Square Closes


I celebrated one of my birthdays as a teenager at the Virgin Cafe in the balcony area above where they used to sell the records and DVDs… Who among us hasn’t had a dinner or lunch on their rooftop? How many birthday gifts have you bought from there, from books, to guitars and other geeky gadgets and trinkets? Well, it’s gone now.

The Art-Deco style “Opera House” was built in the 1930s, and has been a Virgin Megastore flagship store in the region since 2001. The rising cost of rent, the dwindling sales of records and DVDs with online streaming taking over, as well as the government-enforced gridlock on Downtown Beirut for the past 8 or 9 years, meant that staying open there made no sense for the Virgin Megastore people, who have instead shifted to opening up in malls all over Lebanon instead.

It’s kinda ironic that days after the authorities decided to reopen this public square to taxpayers, one of the last establishments in that few blocks shuttered up.

Despite the nostalgia most of us have when it comes to that particular Virgin Megastore, I personally hope the building becomes an opera house again, a place where we can go and enjoy the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra and other performances, like it was meant to be when it was built.

This begs the question whether or not the Central District will spring back to life. Personally, I am skeptical, especially if the current political class stays the same. How many times has this area risen up, then slowly got torn down? Whether it’s Nejmeh Square, or Uruguay Street more recently, the excitement proves to be always short-lived, thanks to heavy-handed tactics by the government to turn public squares into military bases for themselves and parking lots for their tinted-window, taxpayer-bought motorcades.

Goodbye Virgin Megastore Downtown! We had some good times, but I hope this building becomes an opera house again instead of another retail space…


Building in the 1930s (left) and 2000s (right)



The Real Tragedy of What Happened with Joe Maalouf on Air this Week…


You all heard about what happened Monday night, live on air, on Hawwa El Horiyye with Joe Maalouf. If you haven’t watched the episode, you can watch here (start at minute 40).

What Happened

Juneid is a 19-year-old young man who wants to get married to a 15-year-old girl called Outour. Let that sink in. An adult man, wants to marry an underage girl, in 2018, in Lebanon.

Details of What Really Happened

Apparently, the parents of Outour were ok with marrying off their underage daughter, because the would-be groom promised their daughter an apartment, bought them gold (that the mother on air complained was “Brazliain gold” even) and sealed the deal.

The two lovers’ families were fine with this horrendous deal, until they suddenly weren’t when the apartment part of the clause seemed to be improbable. The young girl’s family then proceeded to file a lawsuit against the young man, given that keeping a minor in your house that isn’t related to you is a crime (obviously, thank goodness).

This happened almost 2 weeks before the show, and for 12 days before the episode, there was an arrest warrant in his name. For some reason, no one arrested him even though his whereabouts were known in Tripoli.

The segment ran for more than 45 minutes, live on air. This was enough time so that the police in the Kesserwen area could mobilize to execute the arrest warrant in Juneid’s name, and that’s what happened. This was probably because after 12 days of not acting, his appearance on TV was too much to stay idle about, and the authorities in the North asked the authorities in Kesserwen to execute the warrant issued.

The Chaos That Ensued

The image of armed police going into a TV studio to arrest someone is not something anyone likes to see, despite the fact another Lebanese station has a whole show dedicated to that, that showcases people that aren’t even proven guilty yet, being arrested, unlike Juneid who admitted several times on air that he knew he was breaking the law and was ready to go to jail for it.

Regardless, that scene was one that really bothered me and I wish the police didn’t do that on air and caused all that chaos. I also wish they weren’t allowed on the premises of the studio and instead executed the warrant before that time and somewhere else, given they had 12 days to do that.

Regardless, I will not blame the ISF officers for doing their job, especially for a crime this heinous.

Plot Twist

Juneid was released from custody the next day, after the investigators heard his testimony and the testimony of Outour. After that, the two families made peace, and they got back to their original plan of giving their blessing for this marriage… In other words, the sale of a young girl to an adult man in return for material things. This is where what we’ve come to, in Lebanon, in the year 2018 AD…

The Rage is Misguided

Everyone is going ape shit about Joe Maalouf, accusing him of getting the police himself. I know for a fact this is not true, and police officers have TVs just like the rest of us do. However, this post isn’t about defending Joe, and I wish he didn’t invite Juneid on air, which I’m sure he didn’t expect to actually come given he had an arrest warrant in his name. Like all of us, Joe and his show is under the law, and no one can stop the cops from executing an arrest warrant.

However, the hate and shade being thrown at Joe isn’t what bothered me. What bothered me is that people are more outraged about the arrest, than the actual crime, which under Lebanon’s current laws, is still not actually a crime…

This is fucking outrageous. That a family will basically sell their own daughter for a rented apartment and some knock-off gold, is disgusting and infuriating. That this still happens, and not in some far away backwoods hell-hole, but in Lebanon, the country you and me live in…

The Law Needs to Change. Now.

This is unacceptable. The fact that with the blessing of a parents, a young underage girl can be married off, is equivalent to our laws allowing people to sell their own little girls when they need financial support, or at least want to lessen the burden of raising a daughter.

This is unacceptable. Marrying under the age of 18 must be illegal, under any circumstance. No matter what religious or political leaders say, for whatever backwards and regressive reasons, it should be against the law. It’s enough we suffer the fact that our personal status laws are governed by archaic, misogynistic religious laws. Underage children are a red line. I don’t give a fuck about your beliefs or religion, kids are off-limits and the law must protect the most vulnerable of society, not regulate their outright sale.

Focus your anger towards the right place, and lets hope one of these lawmakers we have, or the new ones we will get in May, will do something to finally change this law.

Why Independents in Lebanon Shouldn’t Unite Nationwide in the Upcoming Elections


Elections are on many people’s minds, us being just a few months away from the first parliamentary elections held in Lebanon in almost a decade. One recurring question I see online, and get asked myself, is “what’s being done by the independents, are they gonna unite?” It’s also the main question when an independent hopeful candidate goes on TV for an interview.

Beacons of hope like Beirut Madinati’s campaign and astonishing performance during the 2016 municipal elections, has made many Lebanese voters, myself included, feel like it’s time to unite under one banner all over Lebanon. It’s been frustrating, waiting for months for such a campaign to materialize, when it still hasn’t this close to the elections. I was starting to get worried, like many of you.

Recently though, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this, and having lively discussions with friends and colleagues about the elections, as well as pouring over the new electoral law and figuring out how things might go down. I’m now convinced that uniting nationwide might not actually be in independent candidates’ best interests. Here’s why:

Local, Not Global

Lebanon is divided into 15 electoral districts under this new law. Like the Lebanese, these districts are very diverse, and each one has different concerns, hopes for the future and ideas on policy reform and governance. The concerns of Beirut’s districts aren’t the same as the Baalbek-Hermel district. Zgharta-Koura-Batroun-Bsharre district’s election will be very different from the one in Zahle.

That’s why campaigns that are localized in each district, can do much better. At first glance, it might seem like something bad, campaigning differently in each different district, but that’s how it should be. Elections need to be about what each district wants their representatives to do for them in parliament, not lofty titles that don’t mean anything to the average voter.

The idea of “maronite marriage” alliances forever needs to stop being considered. Coalitions are what we should be focusing on instead. Different members in a coalition might not agree on every single detail, but they share a few broad demands and plans in common and can form a coalition to help make those plans happen.

The Many Madinatis


When Beirut Madinati was happening, similar campaigns popped up all over the country, from Baalbek to Zgharta and many other districts. These campaigns were not united, nor were they coordinating. They each sprang up in their local districts, tailor-made for their electorate, but they all shared common values, such as being eco-friendly, transparent, secular and progressive on issues such as gender equality and individual rights.

This should also happen for the parliamentary elections. Candidates should focus on their districts, create lists with qualified candidates and come up with a platform that focuses on their localities and not just broad national titles. If lists from different districts share the desire for radical change and taxpayer-focused reforms, are secular and condemn sectarianism in politics, have progressive stances on issues such as women’s rights, freedom of expression, decentralization and environmentally sound policies, then by all means support each other.

We cannot afford to waste time and resources trying to unite under one banner, which is highly improbable given how diverse many of the groups and campaigns are and the lack of time to be able to iron out every last detail.

Instead, focus should be on the local, not the global.

Uniting Isn’t the Point

Even decades-old political parties focus on only a few districts, and don’t do nationwide campaigns. Why are independents expected to that, with the fraction of the resources and access to power that the establishment has?

Journalists need to cut down on the obsession with a single campaign, and activists need to stop deliberating if and how that single campaign can be made. Devote all your energy to the districts you want to run and campaign in. Launch them, create enough support, form gender-balanced lists of good, honest candidates and then figure out if and how you can form coalitions among different districts’ campaigns.

This law has a lot of flaws. However, it’s much better than the 1960 law. For one, pre-printed ballots (which we were the absolute last country in the world to finally adopt by the way) will make bribes and intimidation much harder, given campaigns can’t find out who voted for which list anymore like they used to, using different fonts, order of names in a list and other sly ways of duping and forcing voters to vote for them. Another good thing is the proportional distribution, although somewhat gutted because of the “preferential vote”, will allow independents to finally get represented, instead of lose by a slim margin, and still get 0 seats like with Beirut Madinati, who would have 40% of the seats in Beirut’s Municipality had the law been proportional instead of majority (winner takes all).

It’s All on the Same Day

The majority of Beirut Madinati campaigners (like me) weren’t even voters in Beirut, however, the fact the elections in different governorates were on different weeks, meant many of us were able to work hard for BM, even though Beirut isn’t our voting district. The parliamentary elections this year will all happen on the same day, meaning we should focus on specific districts we are working in or are from, instead of on a national effort that might get diluted over all of Lebanon.

Get Involved

Don’t say “I’m not going to vote”. You have to go vote, because lower voter turn out means the current establishment wins. Most of you reading this are like me, and have never voted in a parliamentary election. Do it for the sake of doing it for the first time in your adult life.

Make your voice heard at the ballot box for the first time in your life. Have a say in what is done with your taxes, instead of letting 128 extenders of terms decide to hike up your taxes, so they can hike up their undeserved salaries.

If you have a passion for policy and instigating reform from the halls of elected office, then run for elections and tell us what you plan on doing and how, so we can support your campaign if we agree with you or like the vision and goals you’ve set.

Enough is enough. Time to win seats in parliament.

The “Wifey” Controversy is Everything Wrong with Lebanese “Journalism”


Last week, I got like 4 different “breaking news” notifications on my phone about an Instagram post that featured two friends of mine, Dalia and Tala. There’s so much to unpack from this stupid LebanonFiles.com article, that I’ll try to do that in small segments below. This is the post that ignited the controversy:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdd-UlIHl5A/?taken-by=daliajay

Context

I understand that the “journalists” that work at those horrid online “news” sites in Lebanon aren’t that in tune with pop culture. Who can blame them when they post stories like “the sun is going to turn off for X days”?

A vital part of a journalist’s job is to fit a story into its context. That’s what makes them different from Twitter trolls or your run-of-the-mill racist, homophobic, misogynist Facebook user. Journalists should try to help their readers understand the bigger picture, what someone meant, why they said whatever they said, if what they said is meant to be understood literally, or with a bit of nuance, etc.

“Wifey” is what you call a woman you care about deeply, but not necessarily your actual lawfully wedded wife. It’s the kind of thing you caption a selfie with a close female friend, not just your wife.

Being childhood friends and colleagues, makes it obvious that Dalia isn’t actually married to Tala, and anyone with half a brain, or who scrolled down their feeds for just a little bit, could tell that.

Homophobic Agenda

There’s no secret that the whole point of this “article” was to flare up ultra conservative people’s homophobia. At a time when the LGBTQ+ community in Lebanon is making significant progress, and being openly gay, bi, lesbian, trans and queer is becoming more and more acceptable, the sore losers who think it’s their business what consenting adults do in the bedroom never miss a chance to lash out.

This is one of the few positive civil rights gains in our otherwise steady decline when it comes to individual rights in Lebanon. Court precedents that “exonerated” gay and trans people by interpreting Article 534 of the penal code, which stipulates “sexual acts contrary to nature” are illegal, as not viable against homosexuality given that it is present in many other species in nature, not just humans, thus rendering the “contrary to nature” language obsolete when it comes to homosexuality and the Lebanese law.

Dalia and Tala aren’t gay though, which is easily verifiable, even for “the sun will turn off” journalists. This further proves that this was nothing but a cheap shot clickbait, with the LGBTQ+ community being targeted for a tiny spike in hits.

Journalism Isn’t a Charity

Being a blogger, I often get lumped in with Lebanese journalists who work in media outlets at focus groups and round table discussions. While many of them are amazing journalists, a good chunk of them attribute their horrendous performance and utter lack of professionalism to dwindling ad sales. They expect that it’s the government’s job, or foreign entities’ job to shower them with money so they can actually do their job right.

Here’s how many traditional journalists in Lebanon do their “job”. Something they can paint as outrageous happens, they copy paste the “news” from a single, usually not from a trusted source (and maybe add a ? at the end) and publish it on their own platform. If it’s particularly juicy, they might even call the person involved and get a quote, without bothering to double-check the story from another source not so closely linked to that piece of news.

One example was when a Lebanese MP’s goons attacked and trapped feminist activists in Mar Mikhael 3 years ago. The MP in question decided that “it’s just violent protesters looking for any government official to attack after a protest”. The protest he was referring to was one against him and his colleagues extending their term beyond their mandate by the way. This was of course false, but none of the TV or radio stations bothered to double-check, and they all parroted what that MP said. I actually bothered to pound the pavement and ask some questions, and published what actually happened, and it went viral, prompting a response from that MP himself.

It’s not the MP’s fault for trying to polish his image, and portray his goons as heroic protectors, instead of harassers of taxpayers so he can enjoy his dinner in peace citing the “presence of cameras” in an event happening at a women’s rights organization headquarters across the street as “annoying” to him.

However, it’s the journalists’ fault, who cozy up to the politicians and just regurgitate the lies that are fed to them, not doing their job of actually ascertaining what most probably actually happened, with evidence, multiple sources on record, and ideally, video or photographic proof.

From Sloppy to Malicious

This sloppiness is endemic, and the recent witch-hunts signal an all-time low in Lebanese “journalism”, where their work is no longer just sloppy and unprofessional, but intentionally malicious. Stoking people’s hatred and intolerance for a few extra clicks and few extra cents from advertisers that are migrating from the traditional, to the online realm, is pathetic.

However, unlike the current regime thinks, violently shutting down these journalists won’t work and won’t help. In fact, it’ll just be used as an excuse to silence dissent. What we really need to focus on is helping readers and news consumers be better able to discern what’s true and what obviously isn’t (like the sun “turning off” for example, or that two girls in a photo together means they got married).

The hundreds of comments on Dalia’s photo show a level of disgusting vitriol that made me cringe several times. However, it also showed that lots of people are against the witch-hunt tactics journalists are resorting to these days to stay afloat, wasting our time on “nothing burgers” instead of the endless cases of corruption and law breaking in Lebanon by the powers that control it.

Outpouring of Support

Lots of us didn’t appreciate the fake news, nor its clear homophobic undertones. So, to make fun of the discredited site, many folks posted their own, funny #wifey photos

Here are a few, including mine, Jade’s and Samer’s.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdiqO0ChQMi/?taken-by=insta_jadehttps://www.instagram.com/p/BdierUGnSxy/?taken-by=oliviergdhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BdkEoddBrPN/?taken-by=kissproofbeiruthttps://www.instagram.com/p/BdiW5OAgeLY/?taken-by=samermakaremhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BdkWXwlBCVs/?taken-by=ginoraidy

Infinium Event with Philip Morris


A few months back, the Philip Morris International folks in Beirut got in touch to invite me to the Infinium Event, a yearly, huge event they organize in a different city every year. This year’s was in Prague, in the Czech Republic.

The event itself was shrouded in mystery, and we didn’t really know the details of what would happen throughout evening. Personally, the fact there was no snooty dress code was enough for me, and I was excited to see what the fuss was all about, given more than 1500 guests from around the world were invited to participate.

The group from Lebanon included Celine Sarraf, a good friend and hilarious Instagram personality, and Pierre Choueiry another good friend who’s part of the PMI team, and of course, myself. We got to Prague a couple days before, and set out to explore the gorgeous city before the event on Saturday evening. I’ll write a post about cool places and things to do in Prague later on, but for now, I’m gonna focus on the event itself.

The Event

We made our way to the venue, which was a massive convention center in the Czech capital. After having our ticket barcodes scanned, we got our special NFC bracelets and made our way into a welcome drinks area with a live piano serenading us before we got asked to choose between three teams: blue, red and grey. Myself not being a fan of colors, we tapped our bracelets on the NFC station for “grey”, and were ushered into a holding area with a team leader dressed in a labcoat explaining the journey we were about to embark on “into the unknown”.

After a brief introduction, we waited as a “portal” slowly powered up and revealed the main hall, with the three teams bursting into the amazingly decorated venue full of bars, food stalls and a lot of interactive game stations.

We were invited to try out the games, with some needing a “token” to be played, while others earning you tokens if you complete the task and the person in charge of the game liked you. The games were fun and high-tech, with lights and lasers, fog and electricity being manipulated to create beautiful visuals and soundscapes. It wasn’t just the game rooms though, but there was another layer to the fun and games. You would be sent on quests by people, such as “enlighteners” to seek out “finders” or “tattoo artists” and continue on that quest, for a final prize at the end for the participants that followed through till the end.

Outside the main hall, was a large food court, with live cooking stations offering a range of foods. My favorite ones were the ribs station and the sausages one, but they had plenty of options for vegetarians and vegans too.

I found a cool YouTube video made by another guest, that sums up the experience nicely.

The IQOS Hall

The hall adjacent was the IQOS hall, where an IQOS representative would come up to you, explain how the device works and lends you one (only if you’re an adult, and already a smoker like me) for the night so you can use it while you play and discover the event.

IQOS is a new tobacco product that the company believes will slowly replace cigarettes in the coming few years. It’s still tobacco (unlike “vapes”) but instead of burning it at 950 degrees like a cigarette, the device heats the tobacco up to just 350 degrees, minimizing other chemicals such as tar and carbon monoxide that are a byproduct of the burning process. You take drags from the sleek-looking device just like you would from a cigarette, and a vapor full of tobacco flavor comes out.


The IQOS has special “HeatSticks” (Heets), which are mini tobacco sticks that are inserted inside the IQOS holder and heated, producing a Nicotine-containing aerosol. They come in several flavors, but my favorite was the “amber” one, and stuck to it most of the night. The “menthol” one was my second favorite.

As a smoker, who hasn’t really been able to quit, I found the IQOS to be a viable alternative to switch to from cigarettes. The high-techness of it was also interesting: you can link your device via bluetooth to an app on your smartphone to track how much you’re “smoking” (inhaling) and other stuff like when it’s time to clean your device. I ended up not smoking a single cigarette for 5 days total, and sticking only to the IQOS. Sadly, my “heets” ran out and they’re still not available in Lebanon, but once I have a steady source, I think it’ll be easy to make the switch completely from traditional cigarettes.

The Surprise Festival with Booka Shade, Claptone and Oliver Koletzki

I thought that it was gonna be just another corporate event, done by midnight. I was wrong though. Throughout the night, DJs, bands, rappers and dancers entertained the crowd, but around midnight, after an awesome acrobatics show, the MC introduced none other than Booka Shade, electronic music heavyweights behind the iconic “Body Language” track and regular staples in Lebanon’s Grand Factory club. This was a beautiful surprise for me, and I immediately switched into my party mode.

That wasn’t all though… After Booka Shade’s set, Claptone came on stage, much to my and the crowd’s delight. The cherry on top however, was Techno royalty Oliver Koletzki closing the night with a 2.5 hour set, turning the Infinium Event into a veritable mini-festival with massive artists, all kept as a surprise for us, the unsuspecting guests.

On the way out, we returned our NFC bracelets and handed back our IQOS devices that they lent us for the night, only to be given a brand new IQOS device as a parting gift!

All in All

All in all, it was an awesome event that was beautifully organized, and a lot of fun. Perhaps the best part is all the cool people I met from across the world, like Julia from Mexico, Don from Germany and Ben from Ireland.

As for IQOS, I was a bit skeptical at first, but I now see it as a more attainable option to cut down on the danger of smoking traditional cigarettes. If you’re not a smoker, then don’t start. If you are however, like me, this could be a much less harmful option if you’re finding quitting easier said than done.

I’d like to thank the PMI team for the invitation, and hope they will introduce the IQOS and its Heets to Lebanon soon so we don’t have to beg friends coming from countries that have it a couple of packs!

Lebanon’s Freedoms at the Mercy of a Wannabe Dictator


When Aoun was elected as president, after grinding the country to a halt for more than two years till he got what he wanted, regardless of the toll it took on the country, it was a very dark day for many Lebanese. It was a very glorious day for his party and supporters though, and they have been making use of their newfound power in ways that have made many reminisce how things were under the brutal regime of Assad when his forces were still occupying Lebanon…

I thought a lot if I should write this post or not, given that I will probably get called up by the Cybercrimes Bureau or Military Intelligence like so many other innocent taxpayers since Aoun’s new “dynasty”. Then, I remembered, that even the Syrian Occupation didn’t scare us, so why should one of the 128 illegitimate MPs whose salary is paid for by my taxes scare me?

Self-censorship is the most fickle of enemies, and no matter how many times I get called by “private” numbers to come “have coffee” in the police precincts that my taxes pay for, and get bullied by a policeman or detective whose salary I pay for, I’m still gonna exercise my right enshrined in our Constitution and our commitments as a country to the universal declaration of human rights and freedoms our tiny nation has always been known for, since before the current president was even born.

As the Rest of the Arab World Spirals Back into Dictatorships, We Should Be Doing the Opposite, Not Mimicking them

Sisi would be like Aoun, just with an Egyptian accent. A former military man, turned civilian president by force and against most taxpayers’ will. The parliament that voted in Aoun, is an illegitimate one, one that wasn’t voted for by the people, but which extended its term multiple times, illegally. Even Aoun didn’t like the extension, supposedly at least, but that no longer seemd an issue for them when that same illegitimate parliament agreed to finally install him as president.

This flip-flopping has marked the past few years of the Aounists’ political career. Remember when Gebran Bassil was a human rights defender? Defending insults and curses against President Michel Sleiman, and calling the arrest and prosecution of citizens for tweets as “outrageous”?


The irony is that since Bassil and his father-in-law came to power, it’s all they seem to be doing. Nothing has happened to help taxpayers’ in their daily life, in fact, all they did was hike up taxes on us, while doing nothing to reform the corruption festering in every last corner of this country’s government.

What’s worse about this, is that they deny it’s them doing this. This is a problem, because it means that they are either outright lying to the Lebanese taxpayer, or they are incompetent and unable to reign in their overzealous subordinates who seem to have mistaken Lebanon for Saudi Arabia or Iran. Both of these possibilities are horrendous, and I don’t see the FPM doing anything to try and fix that.

I guess it’s true what they say, when you’re not in power, you support freedom and rights and the rule of law, but when you get to power, you start abusing it to maintain that power and further your personal agendas at taxpayers’ expense. As Trump would say: SAD!

A Bad Move at the Wrong Time

Censorship skyrocketing under the new “3ahd” is probably the worst thing this broken government can do. As places like Egypt and the Gulf become more and more autocratic by the day, with censorship and consolidation of power, masked by good PR stunts like “allowing” women to drive to distract from violently consolidating power and bullying weaker nations, like MBS tried to do with Hariri.

This means that content creation and media in the Arab world is at an all-time low. Egypt is off the radar, Syria is caught up in its war, the Gulf is becoming increasingly inhospitable to anyone that dares shift a toe from the official party line.

This is a golden opportunity for Lebanon to fill in the huge vacuum of good, liberated content. As LBC chief Pierre Daher said on a talk show yesterday, income from Lebanon’s media industry was at 200 million in 2011. Today, it has sunk to 40 million. This is partly due to the horrendous foreign policy Lebanon has been practicing, distancing ourselves from other Arabs who we can sell that content to, and getting closer to nations that speak Turkish or Farsi, languages we can’t create good content in.

The thing that makes us special, is we can say what we want without worrying that the government will lock us up, torture us and kill us, like most Arab nations do to their taxpayers. Since Aoun’s election, we’re slowly becoming a nation that jails innocent taxpayers, without a trial, for a Facebook post or tweet. What the fuck are you doing? This is LEBANON, not Saudi Arabia, and not Iran.

We Foresaw This

I wrote this post in October 2016. It’s sad to see that all my 6 questions turned out to be justified. None of us did anything about it though, or too few of us at least. Many of us buy the lies of the government, saying it’s not them who’s persecuting people for their opinions. Then who is it? It just magically started when you got to power? And if so, and you’re against it, then why not do something to stop it, instead of condone it?

This has made them bolder in their authoritarian practices. Nowhere is that clearer than in the bold, dictatorial hounding of popular talk show host Marcel Ghanem. A judge and a minister, whose salaries are paid for by your taxes, are using force to question a Lebanese journalist, against his will, over guests who appeared on his show. If that isn’t the definition of butt-hurt police state, I don’t know what is.

The Problem is “Bay El Kell” Slogan

Every time I hear that phrase, I cringe. “Bay el Kell” means “Father of Everyone”. It’s everything wrong with our patriarchal system, summed up in one phrase.

The only people you are a father to, are your own kids. We don’t pay your salary to be our father, or a man who thinks he’s there to “discipline” taxpayers, activists and journalists. Your job is to be a public servant, and do your job, not spend your days going after those with no power who call you mean names or don’t idolize you like your fans do, putting up your face on the Virgin Mary’s undershirt, while you jail people for “blasphemy”… Hypocrites.

You’re not my dad. You’re not anyone’s dad. Your job is to try and fix this country, not return it to the Dark Ages and act as a morality police, wasting our time and taxes. For the Aoun supporters foaming at the mouth with rage as you read this, and who are cracking their fingers to type “this is the law, we are just executing it”, what about the laws against corruption? The laws that state you need to hold free and fair elections every 4 years? The laws that say you can’t dump garbage in the sea and burn it? The laws that say you can’t build hotels on public beaches? The laws that say you can’t jail 3500 pot smokers a year while doing nothing about the dealers? What about all the others laws you break every minute of every single day? Why don’t you execute those? Or is it just outdated laws that consolidate your power and bully your detractors that you suddenly care so deeply about?

Please, spare us, not everyone is stupid as the MP who shared the picture of the face of Aoun on the chest of the Virgin Mary. How come that guy, paid for by your salaries, didn’t spend two weeks in jail like other people who “insult” religions? Hypocrites.

Enough is Enough

The elections are coming, whether they like it or not. It’s time to eject these dictator wannabes from power, and stop the abuse against taxpayers at their hands. If immediate action isn’t taken to stop the skyrocketing censorship and harassment of taxpayers and journalists, then Aoun and his party have become what they allegedly were fighting against all those years: a corrupt police state that freedom-loving Lebanese need to resist.

Tomorrow morning, we will be at the Justice Palace to protest against the police state tactics of the current government against Marcel Ghanem, at 9:30AM. Come down and voice your concern and anger, if not to support Marcel, to defend what’s left of our freedom of expression under this authoritarian, patriarchal regime, in what should be a freedom-loving republic, not a bunch of wannabe-Sisis.

MARCH’s MINUS 2 Event in Kahwetna TRIPOLI on Friday!


MARCH Lebanon’s work in Tripoli has been ongoing since late 2015, and we’re extremely proud of the young men and women we have had the honor to work with over the years.

Earlier this year, we moved MARCH’s flagship project in the area, the “Kahwetna” cultural cafe, into its new, bigger, better location. The new center is massive, and includes a large cafe, a recording studio, a large hall for events, screenings and concerts, as well as several multipurpose rooms for workshops, meetings and classes.

On Friday, starting 4PM, Kahwetna will host the “Minus 2” event, and we’re inviting you all to come and join in the fun! The program is as follows:

  • Up-cycled crafts and furniture exhibition starting 4PM
  • Fashion, accessories and clothing exhibition starting 4PM
  • Fashion show featuring fun and trendy designs at 6PM
  • A host of musical and dance performances at 6:30PM

You can find out more and RSVP here! See you all there for an awesome day of fun and laughter in the heart of Tripoli!

BBX: Spend a Month Making Music at Riverside Studios Berlin with TOBI NEUMANN


What is Beirut Berlin Express (BBX)?

The Beirut Berlin Express (BBX) is a cultural, grassroots NGO founded in Lebanon in 2016 by C U NXT SAT and the support of The Goethe Insitut. The aim of BBX is to help up-and-coming live electronic music artists in Lebanon kickstart their professional careers, by sending them off to Berlin’s prestigious Riverside Studios for a month to hone their skills and produce an EP with some of the industry’s foremost masters.

I absolutely love this initiative, and was really excited when it launched last year. It’s very encouraging to see the success it garnered since 2016, and the improvements the folks behind BBX have made on this year’s instalment.

Work with the legendary Tobi Neumann

After Jad Taleb won last year, he got to go and work on his music with SMASH TV who recorded, mixed and mastered his EP. This year’s lucky winner will get the chance to work alongside the legendary Tobi Neumann, a staple in Berlin’s music scene that counts among his peers heavyweights like Sven Vath and Solomun. I think it’s awesome that such a veteran artist will be helping out with BBX this year!

Tour in Europe with Jagermeister

As if the deal wasn’t already sweet enough, with a full-day workshop with Teenage Engineering, free gear from Per-Vurt Records and the chance to perform in a series of events across Lebanon, this year’s winner will also be on the lineup of several events across Europe with Jagermeister International!

How to Participate

All you need to do is send two of your original tracks to bbx@thegrandfactory.com by JANUARY 2nd, 2018. You also need to share the above BBX video with your networks, letting them know more about this awesome initiative.

Stay tuned for more updates about BBX on this blog throughout the upcoming weeks! And good luck to all my music producer friends ❤

How To Protect Your Free Speech on Facebook from the Religious Fundamentalists in Lebanon


I wish there was some good news to share with you these days, but unfortunately, ever since the election of a president and the formation of the cabinet, freedom of speech has come to an all-time low in Lebanon. Honestly, things seem as bad as they were under the Syrian regime occupation these days, and with no excuse of a foreign army occupying us…

Plunging Back into the Dark Ages

The recent trend in religious fundamentalism seen in Lebanon, is throwing innocent tax payers in jail over Facebook statuses and tweets. This despicable, Saudi-like practice is a result of too many inflated egos, and too much time and taxpayer money to waste.

I know, it’s almost 2018, and “blasphemy” is still a thing in our laws.

The process works like this: a tabloid-style “news” website, or MTV, or other mouthpieces on the Saudi regime’s payroll, look for posts that virtually no one will ever see, and make a huge fuss about it. This makes opportunists in the justice and security system pounce on this, to “defend morals” or whatever, and get a taste of the spotlight, and of course, more clicks fuelled by misplaced outrage over stupid things, while we drown in garbage, shit Internet and corruption that would make the most brutal of dictators say “that’s too much”.

Given the ministers in our government don’t know how to do anything to help the taxpayers that pay their salaries, they instead waste our time and public money by hunting down people for stupid things like “blasphemy”, distracting us from the real crimes they commit every day and have been for the past few decades.

How to Take Precautions

Censorship is bad, and religious extremist censorship is the worst kind. So, here are a few tips to protect yourselves from the prying eyes of the thought police, and their religious extremist patrons that are out to get what’s left of our freedom of expression in a country that was once a beacon of free speech, slowly spiralling into a much poorer, backwards version of Saudi Arabia.

This will cover how to run and manage Facebook pages, without them being able to find and torture you.

  • Never use your personal email, or one that might identify you. Instead, use an email that you made just to start the page.
  • Use TOR when you are opening, posting, editing or monitoring your page. You can download it here. Once you download TOR, enable it, use the TOR browser to log on to Facebook on the link: facebookcorewwwi.onion
  • Hide the admins of the page, you can do that by going to your Page > Edit Page > Update Info > Featured > Edit Featured Page Owners and then remove the check next to the names of the admins.
  • Disable the public wall, as well as messages from users who like and follow your page, this will make it harder for the malicious people trying to shut you down to send phishing links that might entrap you or the innocent users who follow and like your page.

Why We Do This

We can’t expect the increasingly authoritarian system in Lebanon to suddenly care about human rights and freedom of expression. The best we can do is be careful, and make sure that their goal to suppress free speech and harass and intimidate those with different opinions is harder than it is now.

Protect yourselves, and never let the religious fundamentalists and corrupt government silence you or your thoughts.

Be safe, and always be free.

Special thanks to my dear friend and colleague Mo Najem for helping set these guidlines