Flyers in Mar Mikhael Reminiscent of Saida Memos During Ramadan


Every day, religious conservatives try to curb freedoms in a Lebanon we all want to be secular and respectful of all communities and faiths (or lack thereof).

Every year, during Ramadan, we see memos and flyers distributed in some muslim-majority communities that threaten people who do not observe fasting during the month of Ramadan. This is of course illegal, and it isn’t within anyone’s jurisdiction when and if you wanna eat, drink or go out.

Nevertheless, such memos are always controversial, with some folks with them, but an overwhelming majority against them.

This memo is a lot more polite, without the threatening and condescending tone, and when you think about how much the local residents put up with: between loud and drunk kids every night, the valet mafias, the soaring rent prices, noise levels, traffic, etc. It’s not that big of a request to make, right? Wrong. It’s the idea behind it, and who it’s targeting.

So, it looks like many or most of the bars got this memo, while restaurants and other establishments in the area did not. As for who will observe this closure on Friday night, I’m not sure who is and who isn’t, but I expect at least some to respect the will of a part of the local residents who sent this out.

I am against such measures, because they are imposing the beliefs of others on those who would otherwise not want to partake in the Good Friday commemoration.

It is an alarming trend that targets nightlife in Lebanon, which regularly gets smear campaigns (like the satanism fabrications) and endless absurd obstacles set both by local communities and the government.

I hope we can reach a point in Lebanon where people can perform their religious activities without them forcing it onto people who simply don’t want to. The fact that it only targets pubs, is also weird, sending a message that it’s not about taking a day off to celebrate Easter and Good Friday, but targeting nightlife which the authors of this flyer feel is “disrespectful” to their beliefs. It’s not. You know what Jesus said about a little bit of wine every now and then…

Happy Easter everyone! And I hope we won’t see this message next year, and that pubs who don’t conform won’t get into trouble with the local residents. After all, we want to curb the Ramadan flyers promoting intolerance and sectarianism, not have other sects and communities mimic this intolerant practice that is illegal and against the freedoms Lebanon stands for (or at least used to stand for).

Dolphin Show Lebanon CANCELED After Activists Put Pressure


You probably heard about the plans to get a “dolphin show” to Lebanon this summer. That basically means these majestic and extremely intelligent mammals are put in a shallow pool and tortured enough so they can do a couple of cheap tricks for people.

Against Animals in Entertainment in Lebanon have been putting pressure to stop this show, with an online campaign and a petition launched by other animal rights activist, with more events and activities originally planned closer to the show’s planned date in June this summer.

However, this week, Virgin Ticketing Box Office stopped selling tickets for the show, and when you call the organizers, they also say that the show has been canceled due to “difficulties” they didn’t specify on the phone.

So, good news is, looks like the show is canceled, without the need to escalate further to make sure these beloved wild animals don’t go through hellish conditions for cheap thrills for our inhumane entertainment.

Congrats on this small win that’ll make Lebanon slightly less horrible this summer, given no dolphins will be tortured ❤

Massive Victory Today for Independents in Lebanon


The moment when we knew we had won!

Why This Is Huge

Slap in the Face of Political Parties

Make no mistake, this is Beirut Madinati 2.0. All the political parties came together to try and subdue the free will of the people, and this time, questionable tactics, voter fraud and bribery didn’t work, because the Head of the Syndicate of Engineers is now an Independent. This is unprecedented, except once back in the days of the Assad regime occupation of Lebanon. This is the first time a syndicate, especially one as vital and influential as the Syndicate of Engineers, is taken by an independent in the face of most political parties.


Elections Preview

If I were a rotten Lebanese politician, I’d be doing my best for a third illegitimate parliamentary mandate extension after today. To the cowardly politicians doing everything they can to not hold elections, with absurd laws and safeguards to keep their seats, I tell them, no matter what, you’re not keeping all the seats you’re currently illegally occupying anymore. Enough is enough, and this just a palate cleanser for what’s to come when you finally get the balls to do elections…

Practical Power


The “na2eeb” has to sign off on big urban planning stuff in Beirut. This means that all the crimes the political elite are committing, like the Ramlet El Bayda theft, the Horsh Beirut decimation and many other despicable thefts and illegitimate abuse of public property and domain, despite several Shura Council orders to stop which have gone unheeded, can now be revisited.

Anything that has to do with Urban Planning in Beirut City needs the approval of the head of the order. So, this victory, other than being extremely symbolic and a preview of the victories to come if we stay working this hard, means we have someone like us in power now, who can halt the corrupt hands of the current political elite scrambling to make ungodly alliances in the face of the will of taxpayers like us.

So, MABROOK! And onto the NEXT VICTORY!

That Bomb Squad Video I Shared Was For Sigma Gaz Awareness

This week, it became clear that this was a sort of “teaser” for a larger awareness campaign by Sigma Gaz which went live this week.

Faulty, old gas cylinders are a huge problem in Lebanon. We might hear about one of them exploding every few months, but that’s just the big ones where someone actually gets hurt. The real danger is actually a lot more huge, with several calls, daily to the Lebanese Civil Defense asking them to respond to smells of gas, a cylinder that exploding or a other gas-cylinder-related issues.

Sigma Gaz produces its own gas cylinders in Lebanon’s Bekaa, with 3 million gas cylinders produced right here in Lebanon each year. Right now, they are in a process of replacing the old gas cylinders in circulation causing lots of issues in Lebanon, and have partnered up with most gas distributors to make sure the cylinders they are using are safe to be in our homes and businesses.

So, luckily, it wasn’t a bomb threat, just a very clever marketing campaign to raise awareness about an ever-present danger and risk most of us (myself included) weren’t really aware of.

Pool D’Etat Preview and Pics

Pool D’Etat

Summer’s getting closer, which means one thing: I’ll be looking for cool places to take a dip, inside the city and outside it. I came across the Pool D’Etat event last week, which was postponed till this week if the weather helps!

It’s often hard to find a cool, chill spot to take a dip in the city. Pool D’Etat chose the Hamra Urban Gardens rooftop pool to take over this summer. It’s a delightful hotel rooftop between Hamra Street and Makdisi Street.

It opens every day from 10AM till a 1AM, and stays open a bit longer during the weekends. It serves food and has a fully-equipped bar. One section has nice views of the city, but inside the main area and pool area, you don’t feel like you’re in the city anymore, but a nice, secluded place with wooden panels and greenery.

Here are some photos I took today when I passed by to check it out:













This is their Facebook page, if you wanna make sure they’re opening this weekend!


Himaya #PreventChildAbuse Campaign: Report!

Himaya

I love Himaya. They do absolutely amazing work for an issue that plagues 1 in 7 children in Lebanon that suffer abuse. The main issue in Lebanon, is that these cases rarely every become known, since it’s “3eb” and people wanna “yestro” themselves…

This is unacceptable. If you know about child abuse, and don’t report it cause you’re worried about bringing shame or hurting someone’s honor, then you are a monster and an evil human being. One that can stay silent when our community’s most vulnerable and innocent are taken advantage of by people who know they probably will not get in trouble for their despicable act.

Himaya released this video for their month-long campaign to #PreventChildAbuse. If you know or suspect abuse, tell Himaya. Do not stay silent on such a horrible crime that plagues so many innocents in Lebanon. Speak up, do what’s right.

Tomorrowland in Lebanon: What You Need to Know


I’m a festival fiend. I love those things. I can’t even count the hours and days I’ve spent in them, and the many cities and countries around the world that have hosted us for multi-day journeys into music.

Tomorrowland is perhaps the most famous, especially in Lebanon. All of you know someone who has been to the main festival in Belgium, or at least plans to go soon. Who can forget the yearly images of Lebanese festival goers with Lebanese flags waving above their heads in front of the iconic Tomorrowland stages?

It’s Coming to Lebanon

On July 29th, in Byblos, Unite With Tomorrowland will be happening. This is an event that happens in complete sync with the main event in Belgium as well as 8 other cities across the world. Here’s the trailer:

Details So Far

  • 12000 people pre-registered to attend in the first 48 hours, and since the writing of this post, it’s getting closer to 18,000.
  • Unite with Tomorrowland is in Byblos, the city, but not part of the Byblos International Festival.
  • Travel and tourism agencies across the region have prepared packages for festival-goers who want to attend the Lebanese leg of the global event.
  • The visuals, fireworks, choreography are all perfectly synced with Belgium’s. So, when the fireworks go up there, they’ll go up in Byblos too.
  • Massive screens will broadcast what Belgium is doing to us, and what we’re doing to them and some of the other cities on the Unite ticket too.

The Israel Thing is Just a Rumor

Malicious rumors spread over the past few days that Lebanon’s Unite with Tomorrowland will also be broadcasting to and streaming from Israel. These are just rumors. Part of the contract with the main festival and its Lebanese representatives was that no connection or mention of Israel will happen, given that we are still at war with the occupiers of Palestine and our laws forbid exchanges and fraternization with Israelis. There will be no link whatsoever with the Israel part of Unite.

MASSIVE

I doubt anything Lebanon has ever seen will attract as many folks as Tomorrowland will. It’s refreshing to see someone investing so much money and effort in an event in Lebanon, when the general trend these days is holding parties and raves that are more intimate and barely get over the 1000–2000 clubber mark. It’s also nice, because all the folks who’ve always wanted to be part of it, but couldn’t go to Belgium, can experience Tomorrowland right here at home. It’s also beautiful that Lebanon is part of the 8 countries that made the cut, including: Belgium, Dubai, Spain, Malta, Taiwan and South Korea. I hope Lebanon will attract a lot of visitors from the region, given I’d hate to be in Dubai’s sweltering heat in July and would much rather have the Byblos sea breeze while I dance :P.

Stay tuned for more, and I promise I’ll try to find out who the international acts in Beirut’s leg of the Tomorrowland experience will be.

Pre-register here!

Under Aoun, Freedoms in Lebanon Vanishing… These Tweets by Gebran Bassil Might Help


I had a feeling this would happen when Aoun finally became president after the longest temper tantrum in recorded history, that saw the entire illegitimate government grind to a halt till they got what they wanted.

My worst fears were realized, with the number of people being jailed for expressing their opinion skyrocketing in the “new term” which has so far been a disaster on every level:

  • Attempt to increases taxes on the people without raising wages, while giving tax breaks to big corporations and giving themselves wage hikes that remain even posthumously…
  • Imminent third illegitimate extension of this almost decade-old parliament
  • Corruption scandals in the open, and disobeying court orders that seek to rectify disgusting theft of public property, like in Ramlet El Bayda and Horsh Beirut

These are just a few of the disastrous results of the “3ahd Jdid” they’ve promised us with.

FPM chief was pro freedom of expression in 2013

Reading this, you’d think it was fake, so I dug in and embedded the actual tweets so you don’t think I’m pulling your leg with mad photoshop skills.

But it doesn’t stop there, he went even further:

Beautiful, right?

While writing this though, the fifth person this year has just spent his 7th day behind bars for a Facebook status considered “insulting” to the president…

The double standards are astounding: to see the FPM come to power, and be Sisi-like, is sad. The FPM chief used to think “freedom of expression is sacred”, but apparently, not more sacred than his father-in-law…

It’s amazing to realize that a president who once said atheists and seculars are akin to terrorists, is behaving just like the current president (who used to bash Michel Sleiman for exactly that). Assy was called to go down to the infamous Cybercrimes Bureau, where he refused to sign a pledge under duress that he’d never mention the president again. As a result, the attorney general filed a lawsuit against him, and the legal battle with the president cost him a lot of money, and more than two years. The charges were dropped only after Michel Sleiman’s term expired…

Now, it seems the full force of the government is being brought down on anyone saying something Aoun doesn’t like, just like it was during Michel Sleiman’s term. I really wish the current government would listen to the language Bassil used in 2013, and consider this alarming trend of jailing people for statuses: “outrageous”.

Is this the new 3ahd? Is this what Lebanon has come to? Is Aoun’s dream to become the new Sisi? Is this the Lebanon where folks from all over the Arab world would come to to publish and speak freely? Are they trying to tell us that speaking something they don’t like will land us in jail? Are they that scared? Do they have that little disregard for our constitution, and the international agreements we’ve ratified that guarantee freedom of expression and speech? Is Michel Sleiman a better president than Michel Aoun, because he didn’t prosecute taxpayers for a Facebook status? Is his skin thinner than Donald Trump’s?

This has to stop. Listen to your own tweets!

UPDATE: After having a conversation with @JeanAssy, I’ve updated the post accordingly and fixed the mistakes.

Masari: Chyno’s Fresh Track in Arabic


Unfortunately, we’re back to the streets. The tax pause might have been a beautiful, quick victory, but that was a new injustice cooked up by the crooked ruling elite. All the old problems are still there, if not worse. The garbage, the illegal extension of parliament’s mandate (twice, thrice times soon), the Internet, the electricity, the basically everything you can think of.

Unrest is when creativity peaks, and perhaps rap and hip hop are the most influenced by (and influential to) the times. Chyno is a perfect example of this. Chyno and I go way back, and I’ve been a fan of his work for many years.

The moment when I truly appreciated his talent was last summer when I tagged along with him to Fusion festival in northern Germany. I saw the section he was performing at sparsely populated, but only a few minutes in, it was packed, with people shouting praises in German and demanding an encore when he finished his set. We were in some abandoned airfield for a week, in northern Europe, and people were flocking to buy his CDs and meet this Syrian-Filipino, Beirut-based MC. Proud!

He’s just released a song in Arabic, which was very refreshing for me. Have a listen:

I’m putting it on before driving down to Down Town Beirut to protest. Couldn’t be a more perfect time and message tbh, and I’m super glad I got to listen to it early and sharing it with you all now.

I love the multi-layered themes in Chyno’s songs. Dope beats these days often go hand in hand with airhead lyrics. Chyno’s are heavy, witty, full of smart euphemisms and references folks like us (dare I say arab global citizens) can easily relate to. They’re also very ballsy, and of course, a pleasure to listen to and even grind to.

Here’s a couple more of his tracks which I love

Report Vendors Who Hiked Prices with Taxes as an Excuse


Sometimes, the “entrepreneurial” spirit of some Lebanese makes me sick to my stomach. Almost instantly after talk about the taxes, many if not most vendors in Lebanon jacked up their prices. Things such as vegetables, foodstuffs, imported goods, cigarettes and other commodities and products got a sudden price increase.

The taxes have not been passed, and will not pass anytime soon. This price hike is being blamed on the taxes, which never became a reality. This disgusting use of the government’s failed savage policies to rip off Lebanese consumers is unacceptable.

Raise the Issue with Vendors and Retailers

Explain to them that the increase is illegal, and that they cannot increase the prices based on the (now dead) possibility of a tax hike. Tell them you will complain to the Ministry of Economy’s Consumer Protection Directorate. Also, try and share about these places online, so other people avoid going there.

Call 1739: The Consumer Protection Directorate

This directorate is one of my favorite in Lebanon. Each time I’ve filed complaints, they’ve responded and even kept me up to date with the progress of each file. They also managed to get the money back to a friend who was ripped off by a jeweller, and fined the jeweller for selling something as gold when it demonstrably wasn’t.

Call them on 1739 and file a complaint, or go on their website here. You can also download their app (where you can add photos) on Android and iOS (personally, I don’t trust any government app with permissions on my phone, so I’d rather do it the old-fashioned way by calling or emailing).

Stop Whining, Do Something

Yes, it sucks that vendors and retailers would try to rip us off like this. It’s also pretty customary in Lebanon to not give a fuck about consumers’ rights, or even health. But, whining that “it’d take 100 years” and “Lebanon will never change” doesn’t help. The CPD does a good job from what I’ve seen, so I make sure to always tip them off. After all, they don’t have the manpower and resources to scout every place all over Lebanon, so pointing them in the right direction is you being a good citizen and helping curb the unfair practices by vendors and retailers trying to make a quick buck off of you with an invalid excuse like “taxes”.