Why We’ve Learned Nothing Since the New 7 Wonder Scam + BBC Pop Up


Remember that bullshit? It’s right there in the banner: “you can vote as many times as you want!”. For me, that was enough to know that this was a scam. I did dig much deeper though, and make my case against the N7W craze that swept the country a few years back. I got so much hatred for that, despite having a point.

At the end of the day, Jeita didn’t win (or did it? exactly. no one cares. tourists didn’t come here in droves). What the N7W showed me was a side that many Lebanese people have, that I find disturbing and sad.

“Harboo2”

This is the word I hate most in Lebanese. I have no idea how to translate it to English, but it kinda means someone that’s “smart” enough to rip others off. Gaming the system in other words, but usually, other taxpayers are the victim, not the government.

This translates into thinking we are smart enough to dupe tourists, who many Lebanese think are waiting on top 10 websites to book their next destination. “Who cares if it’s a scam? It’ll bring tourists!” What tourists? Tourists aren’t stupid people who will hand anyone their money to go to a site where a tourist drowned to death a few months ago… Tourists, especially ones like us that book everything themselves online, are not stupid enough to let something like N7W decide where their next destination will be.

Thinking Journalists are Lebanon Tourism Reps

The amount of “tonzir” about the BBC Pop Up episodes I saw online was amazing. People were whining about why hashish, prostitution and extremism were highlighted. They were quick to point out that there’s also nice nature, awesome clubs, beautiful ruins, amazing cuisine, etc.

First, do you think foreign press is coming here to promote tourism? Do you even know how this field works? That it usually points out the flaws in places, and how people are trying to fight and fix that?

As for the BBC Pop Up issues specifically, I will not comment on the journalistic integrity and credentials here. I will instead talk about the issues people had a problem with.

Get Out of Your Bubble

So, you enjoy your time with your friends at poshy restaurants with fancy views on weekdays. Awesome! You club in fancy spots during the weekend. Sublime! You go on road trips to cute little bed and breakfasts in the mountains. Wow!

That’s only a part of Lebanon though. A small part I’d daresay. For a big chunk of Lebanon, hashish, prostitution and extremism are very real problems they face every day.

Hashish

If you didn’t read my piece from last week about the state of Hashish in Lebanon, please do. It took me forever to get the stats from the drug enforcement bureau.

In short, thousands of young people every year get arrested, tortured, blackmailed and traumatised for smoking pot. The farmers growing them take up arms to protect themselves from rival cartels and crooked law enforcement. If you’re a young person from an affluent area, your parents will pay what they need to and you’ll be home, free as a bird within hours or days. If you’re not though, you rot in jail, waiting for snail mail to go back and forth, in hopes a money or wasta injection might speed the process up. Otherwise, you’re stuck in Roumieh, where an ISIS member stabs you, just because you smoke hashish (like Sadek in the BBC Pop Up episode)

The week after that episode aired, the Lebanese police tried to capture Aly Shamas, the drug dealer featured on the show. The documentary shed light on how users get hunted down like serial killers, but the dealers roam free and boast about it. That episode made the government at least try to do the right thing, and bring to justice a violent drug lord, instead of a university kid who smokes a joint on the weekend in his dorm room.

So, have some respect to all the tens of thousands of people affected by this terrible injustice and human rights abuse. I know you wanna show the beaches where they charge you 50$ so you can sit on public land, but to expect media to cover that, not the fact over 3600 people were arrested for drug use, 58% of which just for hash, is too much. Get out of your bubble.

Prostitution

If you drive through Jounieh, you’d never think that there’s a jailhouse with dozens of women held as sex slaves, for years. But that was a thing, and still is. No one cared though, as long as it wasn’t affecting them directly. To ask media to not show that horrific side, but only the nice clubs, isn’t just insensitive, it’s stupid and backwards.

Extremism

ISIS and Nusra might be something you see on your TV and Twitter newsfeed, but for many thousands of people, it hits close to home. Their dad, brother, cousin, friend, sister, daughter, son might have gone to fight with those extremist groups. A friend’s cousin went to fight with ISIS, and took his 3 sisters with him. When his dad went to save his sisters, the son executed his own father. This is one anecdote, one of many. You not knowing about them because the local news doesn’t show it, doesn’t mean it’s not an issue.

The fact that bearded men who look suspicious get picked up and locked up for months with no proof or wrongdoing or even seeing a judge, is a massive issue. You might not know about it while in that nice bed and breakfast, but in other parts of the country, this arbitrary arrest with no trial is helping recruit Lebanese young men and women into extremists causes.

To Sump Up

Cut the shit and grow up. This isn’t North Korea. We don’t only write about the nice things, we also write about the bad. It’s more important to write about the bad actually, because media and public pressure is one of the most effective ways to get the Lebanese government to do its job. This is often left to the foreign press, because local ones just care about what did this politician tweet to the other, or what did the warlords gift each other over a lunch date.

So, if you wanna do a nice tourism video, do it. But don’t expect everyone else to turn a blind eye to what you chose to ignore cause it bothers you or doesn’t fit your rosy filter of Lebanon.

I love this country, I love its clubs, its bed and breakfasts, its food, its nature. But, I also see the bad parts, and come face to face with them on a daily basis in my work. Step out of your bubbles, and stop pretending to know what should and shouldn’t have light shed upon it. Journalists’ job is to shed light on the bad, and what’s being done to fix it.

Khafefo tonzir and 7arba2a shway. I promise it’ll make you love Lebanon even more when you can admit what isn’t right and working, and try to fix it instead of bitch about a short documentary that’s meant to be a bit sensational and simplified.

Beirut Pride Week: 7 Things You Can Still Do


Even though the hate group of “hay2at el 3ulama2 el muslemeen” succeeded in cancelling a conference by Proud Lebanon after direct threats that forced the hotel to cancel their booking, all was not lost this Pride week in Beirut.

It is definitely sad that in 2017, backwards religious conservatives who are know for fraternising and being sympathetic towards ISIS and other violent extremist groups, can so openly threaten a part of Lebanese society, and still roam free. It’s sad that government institutions don’t provide the community with the security and protection it deserves to be able to freely express itself.

But it’s not all bad news. There’s plenty of awesome events and gatherings that the hay2at inbreds didn’t find out about, probably cause they were too busy on ISIS chatrooms checking what next Coca Cola ad to take down.

Tuesday

Rooftop Party in Mar Mikhael — 9:30PM

It’s “A chill, relaxed outdoor party on a green rooftop of the capital.” It’s on the rooftop of the building where Food Dealer is. RSVP

Wednesday

EGO x Beirut Pride Party


It’s free entrance this Wednesday starting at 10PM in Projekt in Jal El Dib. Drinks are for 10,000 LL and shots are for 5,000 LL.

RSVP Here

Thursday

Beirut Pride Party at Reunion

What better than a pride party starting 11PM at a place many people feel at right at home, like every weekend is a nice reunion of people you love having a good time dancing together. See y’all on the dancefloor!

Sunday

Drag Show at Bardo


Of course, what kind of Pride Week would it be if it didn’t wrap up with a drag show at Bardo with Evita Kadavra starting 9PM! There’s a Drag 101 Workshop at Bardo too, right before the show starting 6PM!

Interesting Talks and Non-Party Stuff

Thursday

Talk: Know Your Rights and Defend Yourself

“Joe Aoun and Naji Raji talk about their detention experience and share with us their testimony of formerly detained people. We will speak about legal rights, how to recognise escalating situations, how to de-escalate and get away safely. A brief, much needed overview on legal protection, Article 534, police raids, egg tests, detention, tribunal rulings and the way forward.”

Talk: Reunion

Before the party on Thursday night, there will be “A two-voice woman talk at Reunion/The Grand Factory about oversensitivity, harsh stigmas, being a woman and being comfortable.”

Saturday

Depiction of GSD in Lebanese TV Series and Films

It’s a talk at 8PM in Bardo with Philippe Aractingi, Carine Rizkallah and Bshara Atallah on the depiction of Gender and Sexual Diversity in the Lebanese media and movies.

I included the events I found the most interesting, and will probably attend myself this Pride Week. There’s a lot more going on though, so for the entire list of events, go here.

Ouzville: Ashekman’s New Mural in the Heart of Ouzai


I love Ashekman. I have all their clothes, know all their murals, heck they even designed one of my three tattoos.

Last week, the twins reunited in Beirut to paint this beautiful Grendizer mural in the heart of Ouzai, just a stone’s throw away from the airport.

via Ashekman

This comes weeks after Retna painted one of his masterpieces in an Ouzai public school. These magnificent murals are part of an awesome initiative by Ayad Nasser, who hopes to turn Ouzai into a mural heaven, and a street art destination like Wynwood is in Miami, or Bushwick in Brooklyn, or Christiania in Copenhagen.

What’s nice is that if you’re flying into Beirut, the chaotic mess of concrete is slowly becoming more colorful, and full of life instead of the dusty grey.

This project might not solve the underlying problems neglected neighborhoods like Ouzai have faced for decades. Ouzai is a neighborhood most of you pass through on the way to the airport, but never really venture into and explore.

I hope this project will make more people wanna visit, and more artists come and transform its buildings into colorful works of art. Omar from Ashekman tells me there’s an awesome fish sandwich restaurant in the area. I’m gonna try to go down with them, see the work firsthand and understand more about this ambitious project. Oh, and to try that fish place too.



Lebanese Mental Health NGO Founder is an Anti-Vaxxer


I struggled all day about whether or not I should tackle this publicly, but my final decision was that I need to. Disclaimer: when I approached the NGO’s Facebook page to ask them about it privately before writing this post, they proceeded to block me after saying they don’t think vaccines cause autism.

Today, while stuck in traffic, I was listening to Voix du Liban (VDL) radio on 93.3FM in Beirut. The guest speaker was Ghida Rabbat, from an NGO called Open Minds that deals with children with autism and other neurodevelopment disorders.

The interview was great, and talked about their amazing work in helping children with autism integrate better into Lebanese society. They also talked about the pioneering Lebanon-centered research into autism they support in hospitals like AUBMC.

Suddenly though, around minute 8, she outright said that her son developed autism after receiving routine, life-saving vaccines. The anti-vaxxer false claims were repeated again further in the show, even suggesting that doctors just want to vaccinate irrespective that, in her belief, it causes autism. (you can listen to it here)

This is scary stuff. I usually don’t mind the new age stuff people are into nowadays, because it’s harmless. This stuff though, is extremely dangerous, and here are a few reasons why you should never listen to anti-vaxxers and always vaccinate yourselves and your kids.

Vaccines Aren’t Just About You

This isn’t about your or your child. If you chose to believe refuted and recanted, false studies that link the MMR vaccine to autism, and then decide to leave your kids unvaccinated, you’re not just hurting your kids, but everyone else.

Infectious diseases that humans have practically eradicated were beaten because of vaccination. When your kid isn’t vaccinated, and they catch that disease, they become walking, talking, sneezing, coughing, touching factories for the pathogens to mutate and develop in, then spread from.

You have absolutely no right to let your conspiracy theories threaten what took decades to overcome with proven science we can all thank for being alive today, or existing at all. Imagine your parents died cause of a disease with a vaccine your grandparents didn’t want to give them… You’d never exist today, because of something as silly (silly today, but in 1918 50 million people died from Spanish Flu) as the flu.

I don’t care about your personal anecdotes. Learn your biology.

“My friend’s cousin was normal, then immediately after the vaccine, they became autistic” There are so many versions of this, but in reality, they don’t mean anything. It’s like people telling me they saw their favorite saint in front of them, or stigmata, or other things that they might genuinely believe, but are simply not true.

Don’t let personal anecdotes replace cold hard science that you actually rely on. It might be cathartic to have someone or something to blame for one’s child having autism, but the truth is far more complicated than that. Autism is a developmental disorder, not an infectious disease. It’s in how the brain develops since the early phases of conception and prenatal environment, genetics and much, much more. It’s not a needle you can prick someone with to make them autistic. Stop. Read a book, or just skim through a wikipedia page before making such outstanding, dangerous and selfish claims.

Autism is usually diagnosed around the same time we take our shots: 18 months. The fact they are close together, doesn’t mean they are linked, and every attempt to prove that has failed, disgracing the scientists who make those claims and recanting their inaccurate studies and findings. It’s as scientific as thinking your horoscope actually predicts your future. Just seems convenient, but is in fact gibberish.

The burden of proof is on the anti-vaxxers, and aside from conspiracy-style YouTube documentaries, all the actual science points otherwise.

You’d let your kids die instead of risk having a child with autism?

So, let us consider their reasoning for a moment, just for the sake of a thought experiment. Let’s assume you really believe vaccines might cause autism, and you’re sure they defend against diseases like polio, measles, etc. Would you really risk letting your child die of these preventable infectious diseases, instead of risk them having (unproven) autism? Do you really think autism is worse than a life-ending preventable disease? You’d rather risk your kids’ life, and everyone else’s life in the community, so you don’t have to accept the possibility of a child with autism?

Anti-vaxxers should be ashamed of themselves. I thought this stuff was just in pockets of Tea Party influence America. I’m appalled it’s a thing in Lebanon too. Let me put it this way, if I had a child, and you had an unvaccinated one, I would never let my child near yours. Grow the fuck up. Vaccinate your kids. Stop asking people to risk their kids’ lives and the lives of everyone’s else cause you read some stupid conspiracy theory that made you think you cracked some evil plan to secretly gives us all autism. Stop. Check yourself before you wreck yourself and the rest of us.

It’s 2017. No one should die from measles or polio anymore. Khallas.

Crepaway Trailblazes with New Ad


Just when you get upset that Lebanon is stuck in the dark ages, you always get something to remember that Lebanese people and brands are actually awesome. You also remember that no matter how much the forces of evil and hatred manifested in conservatives seeking to always ban and subdue everything that doesn’t conform to their rigid beliefs, will never prevail in this country.

“Come As You Are” Evolution

In a first in Lebanon, the ad features a part of Lebanese community that is often overlooked, persecuted and oppressed: the LGBT community. It fits absolutely perfectly with Crepaway’s tagline: “Come As You Are”.

It’s beautiful to see the tagline evolve over the years, from a cute gimmick of people dressed in pajamas, to the current socially aware message it has become.

It’s also very exciting to see this happen, after a Coke ad featuring two young women “too close to each other” removed from Tripoli. The same week an ad for lingerie was also taken down, and a petition promoting hatred and religious extremism was launched in LAU Byblos.

Beautifully Executed

The ad was made by WonderEight and Black Rhino. It’s beautiful visually and content-wise. I love it when an ad is more than just the brand focusing on increasing sales, but also having a message and creating something that’s a pleasure to watch, share and comment on.

It was also a pleasure seeing so many friends featured in the video, as well venues and locations in Beirut and beyond we all love and know well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and that more and more brands and creatives follow in the footsteps of Crepaway to produce more inclusive, tolerant tones in their messaging. Something that we often lack in Lebanon…

Happy 33 Crepaway!

Lebanon Produces 6% of the World’s Hashish, But Only Users Are Paying for It

Source: Al Monitor

The Numbers

These are the numbers for 2015, from the drug enforcement bureau in Lebanon. I’ve been trying to get the broken down stats for 2016, but with no luck. I can confirm that the number of arrests have spiked significantly in 2016, since between 2011 and 2015, average arrests per year were 2500–2700. In 2016, they were well over 3500 (3669 to be exact).

Source: Drug Enforcement Bureau, Lebanon — 2015

Analysis

58% of those arrested were for hashish. That’s almost 1600 people in 2015. That’s four people every day. That’s one young man or woman every six hours throughout the year. If we assume the percentage of those arrested for weed/hash is still the same for 2016, that’s 2100 people. 6 people every day. One person every 4 hours.

Despite the general misconception that less people are being caught, the numbers obviously point otherwise. This wrong idea might be due to the government not acting much against the growers and big-time dealers, citing the excuse of fighting terrorism and being too busy to crack down on the drug trade.

If that’s true however, that begs the question how did they arrest almost 1000 extra users last year? Was the threat of terrorism non-existent when they’re waiting for clubbers outside clubs to strip-search them in public?

The Real Reason

It makes them a lot of money. Busting hashish smokers is easy, and the process is such a traumatic one, that people would do and pay anything to avoid the inhumane and brutal treatment when you get arrested. Just the social stigma itself would be enough for any law-abiding citizen to seek the power of the wasta or bribe.

Drug users are also defenseless. They’re young, unarmed, peaceful. They’re the perfect prey for crooked law enforcement. Prey that will not fight back like the big time dealers and growers.

The Government Needs to Act

They all talk about how they want to decriminalize and legalize marijuana and hashish. However, they’re all part of the police state system that’s ruining the lives of thousands of young Lebanese each year. At a time when big swathes of the world have decriminalized, or even legalized the consumption of hashish.

The problem with this topic, is most people think of the economic value of “exporting” the infamously good Lebanese product. That’s not the point. How can you export something and make money off of it legally if your own citizens are hunted down like terror suspects for consuming it?

The money being made by cartels and political parties backing them, can go to the government’s coffers. Instead of absurd tax hikes on Lebanon’s non-existent middle class and overwhelming majority working class, as the politicians fix deals for electricity ships and other overt theft and spending of public money for commissions and kickbacks…

If this is the government of change and reform, where the taxpayer has rights and dignity, this is the first step, and it is an easy one. An easy one that will have a lot of benefits, both economically, politically, socially and security-wise.

The Goods

  • Less people will be spending time in jail and with black dots on their records. This means more people who can get employed, start businesses, vote and run for elections.
  • Less money will be made by the drug lords that shoot up innocent tax payers, like this week in Zahle and many other instances.
  • More taxes will mean the budget won’t need us to add taxes on law-abiding citizens.
  • Increase in tourism will make up for the lost tourism because of the GCC countries boycott of Lebanon for political reasons. It will attract young people from around the world who would love to try Lebanon’s famous hash while experiencing the awesome nature, clubbing and food Lebanon has to offer, minus the risk of jail and deportation a few dozen foreigners face each year because of smoking hash.
  • Human rights will be respected in the country that helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The biggest crime since the early 1990s is the hell brought down upon Lebanon’s youth, but one wrought with so much stigma, that no one talks about it. No one talks about it, but everyone knows someone arrested or was arrested themselves, but because of the shame, no one speaks out.

The Choice

Decriminalizing marijuana needs to be on the election platforms for the upcoming elections. This is a subject directly affecting a big part of Lebanese society that no one seems to be willing to address, apart from a wasta on the down-low or protection for dealers and growers under their patronage.

Will Lebanon’s government keep hunting down and entrapping innocent, young tax payers while the dealers roam free? Or will Lebanon be progressive enough to end this witch hunt and focus on more important things that actually hurt the country, like corruption, violent crime and terrorism?

We’re the 3rd biggest hash producers after Afghanistan and Morccco. It’s time we enjoy the benefits of this plant, and reduce the exponentially more harmful effects of legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco…

LAU Extremist Islamists Try to Quash Free Speech. It’s Time to Fight Back.

  • A Coca Cola ad in Tripoli was also removed, because it seems that the religious extremists couldn’t keep their dicks in their pants when they saw it and started going crazy like a teenager who couldn’t masturbate for a week.

This is in Lebanon, not Raqqa…
  • A lingerie ad in Beirut was also removed, because apparently, it was “too close to a mosque”. Now, reports say that it was the governor of Beirut who ordered it taken down, but I think it was more likely the billboard company that was bullied into it by the da3esh-wannabes and blamed it on the government. (It was approved by the censorship bureau, which means it got the OK, so it was removed under duress by the extremist elements)

Look at all the childhoods being ruined! (As if they’ve never been to a beach or don’t know about PornHub, that this lame ad would make society crumble. Disgusting.)

Anyway, after this series of alarming trends by the ultra-conservative intolerant islamist elements in this country, it seems they’re trying to extend their hateful claws into a beacon of freedom of expression: a top Lebanese university, LAU Jbeil.

They Launched a Petition

This is taken verbatim from their petition, which nauseated me reading it. It was posted by a da3oush by the name of Mohamed Tafesh.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الحمد لله و الصلاة و السلام على عباده الذين اصطفى
اما بعد,

This petition is to stop any act, speech, movie or poster that is considered to be disrespectful for the religion of Islam.

In the last two weeks a poster for a student theater production titled “ An Act of God “ was filling the LAU Byblos campus. This is a comedy act where one of the actors plays the role of God which is totally unacceptable for all Muslims in all the different sects that fall under the religion of Islam.

I call every Muslim to sign it.

Freedom of speech does not let you disrespect, insult or portray Islam in an unacceptable way.

The saddest part is that 278 sad souls signed this piece of garbage. I guess they must have been spending too much time on ISIS chatrooms and thought we were magically transported to Raqqa or Saudi Arabia. Too bad this is Lebabon, and we don’t take this kind of bullshit. I won’t even link to the petition here.

The Play


The play is hilarious, and very powerful. It portrays god as someone who asks his stupid, hateful fans to not kill other humans in his name. It also tells them to stop persecuting gay people among other things religious extremists are usually guilty of and try to justify it with their twisted view of their religions. In other words, it paints a more accurate picture of what religious people claim god is: tolerance and love and all that jazz.

It seems that Tafesh and his mini da3oushites think this is “insulting” to Islam, and that everything their tiny, hateful brains find insulting to their intolerant and hateful ISIS-inspired brand of Islam should be banned in a secular university that respects the right to free speech and expression.

People who aren’t wannabe ISIS members have started a petition to counter the hate speech and intolerance of Tafesh and co. You can sign it here.

We Want More Shows!

Honestly, I’d love to see “An Act of God” on stage on LAU, and really hope they decide to do more shows. I want to thank LAU and their Dean of Students for upholding the free speech and expression that seems to be withering away day after day outside its campus walls, with terrorist-loving groups like hay2at 3olamat el muslemeen and its sister hate groups having the power to censor what their tiny religious brains can’t handle.

We cannot let the tide of rising facism and violent extremist ideologies gain ground. If anything makes Lebanon special, it’s that hateful religious groups are kept at bay and cannot influence the rest of us normal people who do not hate others based on the fantasies we believe in or don’t.

Offense is taken, not given. I suggest to Tafesh and other potential ISIS members to immigrate to Raqqa or any of the other ever-shrinking ISIS-controlled areas. There, no one will insult their hateful brand of religion, and they can be happy not seeing lingerie ads, coca cola ads or plays that try to portray a god that doesn’t tell people to kill in his name.

Why am I suggesting they’re ISIS? Think I’m being a bit harsh on the religious hateful? Well, ISIS kill in the name of their god. This play’s god says don’t kill in my name. So, if this offended them, then they must be ISIS-lovers. There is no place for that kind of dark ages thought in Lebanon’s prestigious universities.

Sign the petition, let’s show them how few they are and how many we are. And I really hope they do another few shows of the play, so we can watch it just to spite the hateful religious and teach them that free speech still flourishes here, no matter how hard they try to quash it.

Red Bull’s Short Documentary About Beirut’s Dance Music Scene

Everyone featured in this documentary is like family. The times we’ve shared, the nights (and mornings) we’ve spent dancing together, in sadness and in happiness, make this scene in this city something extremely dear to my heart.

I love clubbing. I love Techno. I love The Basement, B 018, The Garten, Uberhaus, The Grand Factory, Reunion and everywhere else featured in this short but sweet documentary.

For me, it all started at The Basement and B 018. Looking back, it’s been almost 10 years of my life where every single weekend, I see these beautiful people and enjoy life away from our daily life for a few hours.

I hope this documentary gives you goosebumps like it gave me, and for everyone who’s been along for the journey, I love you all and you mean the world to me. See you tonight, and tomorrow, and the next weekend, and the weekend after that… ❤

Lebanese Government Hosts Tarek Saab As His Government Crushes Pedro Yammine With An Armored Truck


Tarek Saab was a speaker at the Lebanese Diaspore Energy (LDE) conference in Beirut. Saab is originally Lebanese, and he is a staunch Chavista and now supports Maduro. His official role is “Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo)” which means “Defender of the People”. This position entails the following:

  • Inspection of any premises of any state organ or institution, with a view to the protection of human rights.
  • Presenting recommendations on draft laws or regulations relating to human rights.
  • Promoting signature, ratification, awareness and application of treaties and conventions relating to human rights.
  • Protecting individuals against arbitrary abuses of power.
  • Facilitating resolution of conflicts in relation to human rights.
    requiring compulsory production by any person or institution of any documents relevant to its functions.
  • Taking urgent action to avert violations of human rights;
    ensuring the proper operation of public services, and the conservation and protection of the environment.
  • Ensuring the human rights of indigenous peoples, and ensuring individual rights and freedoms

Looks amazing, right? That a person of Lebanese origin, dubbed “The Revolution’s Poet” by Hugo Chavez, rose to such prominence in Venezuela. Wrong.

Rima Koumaira and Sarah Wa are the women seen in the video below at the LDE 2017 conference yesterday. They were then escorted out of the venue. They have become national heroes for the opposition in Venezuela, with the topic “Libano” trending on Twitter in Venezuela most of the day.

Saab has a track record of supporting Maduro over the people’s wishes, meaning the “people’s defender” is actually the defender of a regime supported by less than 20% of the people. That makes Trump look popular in America with his 37% approval rating…

Even Saab’s own son, speaks out against him publicly, like in this video posted on YouTube (it’s in Spanish though, with no subtitles)

Background on the Severe Crisis in Venezuela

It started in December 2015. The opposition won exactly two thirds of the seats in parliament, enough to kick Maduro out. Maduro controls the Supreme Court though, which invalidated 3 opposition deputies, making Maduro’s removal impossible. The alternative process, according to Venezuela’s constitution, is to get 20% of the people to sign a petition in order to be able to hold a referendum. However, the Venezuelan regime and the Supreme Court did everything to stop anything that the national assembly and opposition wanted to do. Eventually, Maduro decided to illegally revoke all the powers and rights of the parliament…

This happened a month ago, and since then protests have been happening in Venezuela, with many being murdered by the Maduro government…

Pedro Yammine Crushed by Government Truck

A 22 year-old young man of Lebanese origin was crushed by an armored vehicle almost at the same time as Saab was speaking about “human rights” in Beirut. At a time when the Venezuelan people have lost an average of 7 kilos of their total weight because of malnutrition, food shortages and a severe economic crisis that has things like milk costing several hundred US dollars…

Pedro’s ribs have been shattered, and he is in very critical condition. His mother hopes he will pull through and survive this vicious attack with intent to murder… Stuff we saw Mubarak do, ISIS do and all the other definitely not “defenders of the people” do around the world.

It was wrong to host Saab

It’s wrong to invite Saab to speak about freedom and rights, when he is siding with the regime starving, murdering and arbitrarily imprisoning its own people, many of whom are originally Lebanese too, like Pedro.

I get that we like to boast about Lebanese people getting to high positions abroad, but when it’s people like Saab and Michel Tamer (who appointed an all-male, all-white cabinet after conspiring against impeached president Russef) it is not something to be proud of, but ashamed of, and we should condemn and distance ourselves, not invite them as speaker.

Instead, we should worry about our Lebanese brothers and sisters starving to death under the iron fist of Maduro.

I also get that Lebanon’s government loves Chavez because he stood with Lebanon when Israel savagely attacked us in 2006, and sent aid and support. But, Chavez is dead, and Maduro is definitely not Chavez and we owe him nothing on the ethical and moral level. We owe the Venezuelan people our support, and the least we could do is not host their oppressor on our own dime to, out of all things, talk about freedom and respecting human rights. For shame.

Heeeee, w yalla! Maduro tla3 la barra!!!

We Are With You, the Lebanese Government Doesn’t Represent Us

To the brave Venezuelan people who have been suffering for years in conditions that can only be described as inhumane, we stand with you. Our government does not represent us, and even though it’s not always as violent as Maduro’s regime, it is also out to get us and never defends us or our rights.

To the Lebanese-Venezuelans, don’t worry, the overwhelming majority of the Lebanese people are with you, not with Maduro like our government. Our thoughts are with Pedro Yammine and all the victims of Maduro’s violence.

We wish you the best of luck, and hope you stay safe and are successful in getting rid of the vile, disgusting Maduro and his goons. We look forward to seeing a free Venezuela, not ruled by narco-dictators that order trucks to crush one of our own: a Lebanese young man who calls Venezuela his home too.

I will quote Simon Bolivar here, who Maduro and his goons say they take inspiration from:

“Cursed is the soldier who turns the guns of the Republic on its people”. 
– Simon Bolivar

https://www.facebook.com/Saskia.Luengo/posts/10155171314068468

So, I apologize on the behalf of our government for this grave insult to the brave Venezuelan people standing up for what’s right. I apologize to Pedro’s parents, who I think are originally from my hometown, for letting a symbol of the regime that ran over their son, speak at a conference which our own President was attending.

El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! 💛💙❤️

Heartfelt thank you to @Peter_Khayat for helping me pen this down. Good luck bro, and be safe ❤

IHOP Opening in Lebanon


Earlier this week, I wrote about The Spot Choueifat mall opening on May 18, 2017. One brand that will see its Lebanese debut here is IHOP (International House of Pancakes).

IHOP has been rumored to be opening in Lebanon several times over the past few years, especially with the Shake Shack and Cheescake Factory hype. Looks like IHOP is finally coming to Lebanon though, as seen on the BA United Holding Group website (source) and this teaser in which you can make out the blurred logo.


So, IHOP is coming to Lebanon soon.