Why Votes for Klink and Zorba Were Justified

A lot of folks have been weighing in on the bizarre, humiliating parliamentary session that ended up with Aoun taking the oath of the presidency. In the voting sessions, names like “Myriam Klink” and “Zorba the Greek” popped up. I say sessions in plural because an MP kept putting an extra ballot each time, forcing a re-vote twice before Aoun’s three-decade wait was over and he was finally sworn in as president of the republic.

I think those “joke” votes though were justified, and honestly, I wish more MPs did that, and for several reasons.

It’s the Respect this Election Deserved

The mockery on Halloween at the Lebanese parliament deserved these kinds of votes and stunts. After 30 months of Aoun and his allies shutting down parliament and grinding the government to a halt till everyone agrees beforehand to go down and vote for Aoun, is not something that deserves the respect of the taxpayer nor MPs whose arms weren’t twisted by the Aoun-Hezbollah camp into voting for the former chief of the Lebanese Army.

The only times this parliament met was to increase their salaries or extend for themselves and when the US threatened to impose financial sanctions on Lebanon if we didn’t update laws regarding banking secrecy and funding terrorism. The same parliament, which extended for itself twice, and which Aoun himself has called illegitimate, yet never actually resigned and was happy to force it to vote for him as president. Who’d respect that institution?

That kind of parliament with this kind of MPs deserves as much respect and seriousness as one of Myriam Klink’s photoshoots and TV appearances. Heck, Klink deserves more respect for sticking to her positions and not flip-flopping as much as Aoun and the rest of his 126 colleagues. More so because despite all the sexist vitriol directed at her, she pays no heed and does what she wants and has garnered a fanbase as loyal to her as her detractors are committed to shaming and bringing her down.

However, Klink isn’t the issue here. It’s the MP who wrote in her name. I support that decision and think it was a brilliant way to highlight several issues with this pre-approved election theatrical piece.

Demonstrating That Vote Doesn’t Really Count

The MP who wrote in Zorba and Klink was trying to say that his or her vote doesn’t really matter. Most of the MPs were gonna vote like their chieftain dictates, even if it means betraying their entire set of ideals and constituents’ thoughts and sentiments. With Aoun pre-approved, the election process was nothing more than a formality, and highlighting the uselessness of the vote by writing in a name that would cause controversy, was brilliant.

As for those arguing that the MP should respect his mandate and act properly as his voters expect him to. Well, if any of those MPs cared about their mandate (which they extended for themselves illegally without the taxpayers’ consent) then why didn’t they remember that in the 29 months of presidential vacuum and lack of legislative work? Were they hibernating?

Only Way of Showing Discontent

After Frangieh asked the non-Aoun supporters to drop in blank ballots instead of his name, the usual way to protest the legitimacy of a candidate or voting process was kind of hijacked. White paper now meant supporting Frangieh versus Aoun, which some MPs might not feel is the case for them. So, letting it be known that they disagree with this weird set of coalitions and backroom deals under the table in such a funny, controversial way was genius.

In other words, it was a smart way of showing that you don’t approve of this undemocratic farce and how little you respect the candidate and the electoral body that voted him in: by voting for pop culture references that have no place in a presidential election in a dust-gathering, highly-fortified Lebanese parliament that has been off-limits for taxpayers for years now.

Epic Trolling

For many of Aoun’s diehard supporters and newly gained “children” given they are all calling him “our father” now and “father of the nation”, this was amazing bait. They see him as a hero valiantly holding his ground no matter what to get what is “right” (more like “right-wing”). They do not see it as a stubborn old man who’d rather watch the country burn (twice) than not achieve his political ambitions. So, for someone to “desecrate” such a significant event for them with a joke votes like this, was priceless. It was a reminder of how silly these new alliances are and how illegitimate this whole process was. Enough for someone to trigger the diehards into explaining to the rest of us what democracy is and how elections work, after they halted both for more than 2.5 years themselves. Priceless bait, perfectly executed and eagerly eaten up by most folks.

What’s Next

Many people are asking people who don’t support Aoun to give him a chance. I find that argument somewhat split from reality. Aoun didn’t descend from the heavens last weekend, he’s been a fixture in Lebanese politics and government for decades. Even if “The Doctor” now supports “The General”, you know how the Lebanese saying goes “s2al mjarreb, w la tes2al hakim” (ask someone who’s been through it/tried it, and not a doctor) and Lebanon has been through lots of Aoun periods. Army chief, exiled leader of a Christian party, anti-Assad, pro-Assad, pro-US, anti-Us and virtually any other possible political realignment, and none of them worked out for us (but worked brilliantly for him and his party). So, I’m not sure what the hopeful people are expecting this time around, cause there’s another cool saying that says something unflattering about repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes.

Movements like Beirut Madinati and You Stink rattled the political elites in 2015. So much so that they had to reshuffle their alliances to ensure they can keep splitting the cake amongst themselves without the people getting a bite. You’d think that hypocrisy in switching allegiances would shake Lebanese people’s faith in their politicians, but somehow, it has strengthened it.

Some folks that were in the streets demanding change last year, are now calling the new president their “dad” and a “strongman”. It is perhaps expected in times of fear and uncertainty that people resort to more authoritarian sides that feed on their insecurities and phobias, whether its sectarianism, their personal interpretations of what terrorism means and of course, fear-mongering about the refugee crisis.

This paints a bleak picture, with little hope of things changing for the better. I want to be optimistic and say, maybe under the Aoun presidency, people will learn their mistakes and support the right people next time, people like them and from them, not warlords and feudal lords who granted themselves amnesty after Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. Then again, all of Lebanon’s history tells me that will likely not happen in our lifetime.

So, we can’t but accept the current reality and try to adapt to it. Aoun is president now, so let’s pressure him to get the garbage off the streets and electricity in our homes and proper, affordable Internet on our phones and computers. Let’s undo the damage his party’s xenophobic and sectarian rhetoric has unleashed in hopes of getting him elected as president by force. Most importantly though, we need to make sure we get elections, and fast, with a law that is proportional at the very least, and non-sectarian at the very best.

Otherwise, for many of us, what little hope we have, if any, will be forever gone, for good this time, if parliament extends for itself one more time or if the elections are held under a law that unashamedly admits the districts are gerrymandered to guarantee each politician gets his cut, regardless of what the voters want.

6 Questions to Aoun on the Eve of His Election

With only days away from the expected end to the embarrassing presidential vacuum in Lebanon, Lebanese folks are split on whether to be happy or upset about this compromise. Perhaps happy and upset are overstatements, and a better way to describe the dichotomy in Lebanese society is “expected” and “fuck no” with the overwhelming majority just saying “meh…”

I have been extra harsh on Aoun and the FPM in comparison to many of the equally scary and horrifying political parties in Lebanon and their warlord chieftains. That doesn’t stem from a specific hatred to Aoun and his loyalists. I’m ashamed to stay it stems from my former support for the FPM as a teenager, when they were seen as the change and reform to a group of politicians and parties that had largely been stooges to Syria’s Assad, or pushed close to oblivion by the Syrian occupation of Lebanon for three decades. In other words, I hold them more accountable because there was a time where I had faith in them and because I’ve volunteered and protested and attended meetings with them years ago.

So, this Halloween, Aoun’s dream of being elected president is finally coming true. I’ve had mixed feelings about this, and the more I put some thought into it, I realized there are a set of questions that need to be answered by the prospective president. These questions are also essentially the reasons why I’m afraid of Aoun and the FPM, and why you should too.

1- Freedom of Expression

The Aounists are big on freedoms, or at least used to be. They along with the LF and others were the only ones to protest the Syrian occupation everyone else was happy coexisting with and benefiting from. However, in recent years, that has deteriorated exponentially and the FPM are becoming more and more sectarian and outright facist in their line of thinking and attitudes.

One example that illustrates this perfectly, is what happened in the aftermath of an ISIS flag burning in Beirut’s mainly Christian district of Ashrafieh. Staunch Sunni conservative and police-chief-turned-bombastic-populist-Sunni politician Ashraf Rifi, who was then Justice Minister (currently “resigned” because he was sad Hezbollah disrespected Saudi Arabia, cause fuck logic) went apeshit, and decided he will use the full force of the government to prosecute the flag burners. I know what you’re thinking, “fuck logic” again, right? I mean, who in their right mind would hunt down people for burning an ISIS flag? Rifi’s excuse? It has the word “Allah” in it. Now, that would make sense, if he didn’t regularly blast Hezbollah every chance he gets. That has the word “Allah” in it, how come Rifi didn’t jail himself already then?

That’s when the heroic FPM decided to swoop in and assigned some of their top MPs to defend the ISIS flag burners. At first glance, that might seem brilliant, a political party standing up to free speech and against governmental abuse of power. However, that wasn’t the case at all, and I’ll go into that in the next example. This event came at a time when the FPM was trying to smear the Future Movement as pro-ISIS, with their not-so-subtle jabs that a hairless prime minister in a suit, can also be ISIS (they put a bald guy with his back turned on a poster with some stuff about extremism, given that ISIS members are usually raggedy and hairy). So, this was more of a perceived threat to Ashrafieh residents (Christians) by a hostile minister who shares some of the fundamentalist leanings of a Sunni ISIS. In other words, it was just stoking the sectarian fire and trying to paint themselves as protectors of Christians from Sunni persecution.

Further proof that this was the FPM rationale, is their juvenile reaction to the “You Stink” movement. After a series of bizarre press conferences of Aoun claiming the popular protests had “stolen” his slogans, the cherry on top was straight out of the Syrian-Lebanese police state playbook. They targeted You Stink activists and found old, sarcastic Facebook statuses and attempted to prosecute their posters for “blasphemy” and “insulting religion” The saddest part was, that it wasn’t just political maneuvering by a scared political elite worried about the wrath of the taxpayer at their resounding failures and pathological corruption, it was something many of the FPM’s supporters got behind and many were happy to be part of this disgusting witch-hunt that would be more at home in one of MTV’s fabricated stories peddled to their Christian zealot base. This goes to show that the FPM couldn’t care less about free speech, and that they will be happy to hide behind it to fuel sectarian divides, but will gladly forget about it and go to extreme lengths to fight it to serve their narrow purposes.

Other such thin-skin examples are like when a thinly-veiled pro FPM group of activists stormed the Al Jazeera offices in Beirut after one of their reporters “insulted” the Lebanese Army. That’s not counting Gebran Bassil’s slander and libel bullying of publications such as Executive Magazine for casting doubt on shady dealings linked to the Oil sector in Lebanon. Who can also forget Aoun’s angry outbursts and insults to journalists at press conferences who ask him questions he doesn’t like?

All in all, Aoun and his FPM have proven they’re not fans of free speech and press. What would a Aoun armed with archaic slander and libel laws associated with the presidency do with these powers? Will we see kids beaten up and arrested for posting statuses about him and “insulting the head of state”? Will the Syrian occupation era of quashing free speech resume as of October 31, only without the excuse of an invading force being to blame for the injustice?

2- The Orthodox Law

This was a game of chicken that went horribly wrong for everyone involved. In a Lebanon where power sharing is based on sect, there is an elephant in the room that no one seems to be willing to address. Since the last census in the early 20th Century, no one really knows how Lebanon’s demographics currently are. However, any sane estimate would put Christians at far less than 50% of the population. This of course means that a big chunk of “Christian” MPs are voted in by “Muslim” votes. Changing demographics, coupled with horrible electoral laws and obnoxious gerrymandering of electoral districts from the days of the Syrian occupation are the cause of that.

Instead of going for the logical answer and creating a non-sectarian or at least proportional representation electoral law, the FPM stood behind the proposed “Orthodox Law” that stipulates that voters can vote only for the candidates that share the same sect as them. So, a Maronite votes for Maronite MPs, a Sunni votes for Sunni ones, etc. They even went so far as to create silly provisions like the first round, each sect chooses its main candidates, and then that gets put to the test with the general electorate. So, if Christians voted for X, Y and Z for President (yes, they wanted the presidential race to be done my voters, not MPs), those top 3 candidates are the “official” nominees which the rest of Lebanon can then choose from.

The fact that a parliamentary bloc with “Change and Reform” as a name would suggest such ludicrous perversion of Democracy’s basic concepts, is horrifying.

Of course, that law has been laid to rest a while ago (like the general populace voting for president), but it’s very important because after the presidential election and formation of a new cabinet, the first order of business is parliamentary elections to replace this horrible, illegitimate parliament. Therefore, knowing where Aoun and his FPM stand in terms of electoral laws and election reforms, is extremely important.

Will Aoun stick to this unfair, honestly outright stupid stance on elections? Will gerrymandering and weird laws tailored to predict outcomes beforehand be the rule of his presidency and the upcoming probably Hariri-led cabinet? Is that what they agreed upon to get us out of this humiliating clusterfuck for 2.5 years? Well, his coalition’s boycotting of presidential elections unless he’s confirmed as president beforehand for almost 3 years, goes to show how little regard the FPM have for elections, especially in a parliament they themselves call illegitimate, yet never resigned from and kept twisting its arm to elect Aoun…

3- Transparency Issues

We all know Hariri and co are super corrupt. Berri too. All of the political elites are corrupt, and Aoun and the FPM have made a political career from pointing out others’ corruption and their supposedly clean slate. However, many of the ministries the FPM controlled have been plagued with serious allegations of corruption and mismanagement of taxpayer money. That, coupled with an internal election that saw two time parliamentary elections loser and son-in-law being elected as head of the FPM, shows the FPM is just as bad as the rest of the political parties when it comes to corruption and cronyism.

It is the violent reactions and deluded hyperboles that are scariest when the FPM is confronted with questions about their transparency. Usually, it’s incoherent, visceral word salads shouted at TV cameras with the likes of “how dare they!” “we are the cleanest!” “it’s an international conspiracy!” without anything being done to make their work and projects more transparent and allay the fears of law-abiding citizens trying to see where there tax money is going to.

Will a Aoun presidency exacerbate this trend of opaqueness and anti-transparency? Will it add a level of security to do shady dealings like the ones we’re used to from the usual suspects such as Berri, Hariri, Junblat and co?

4- The Hezbollah Question

The FPM-Hezbollah alliance is amazing for both sides. For Aoun, it gives him the authority granted by HA’s military power to maneuvers without worrying too much about resistance from political opponents. Proof? Aoun’s presidency only became a definite after Nasrallah’s address last week. As for HA, being allied with Aoun is necessary to try and allay fears that it is no more than an Iranian proxy in the region. The fact a prominent Christian party is allied with them and work together on internal politics, is great optics for an increasingly contentious “resistance” that has shifted its focus from liberating Israeli-occupied territories and deterring IDF tanks from rolling into Southern Lebanon, to fighting a war alongside Assad’s regime in Syria.

However, many of the international stances HA takes are absolutely irreconcilable with the FPM. This alliance of convenience is hard to sell when Aounists are defending a party trying to keep the tyrant that banished Aoun for years from Lebanon, in power in neighboring Syria. I do not want to go in to the details of that conflict now, but it is obvious the sway Aoun holds on HA is much weaker than the sway HA has on the FPM.

For folks that feel the Aoun presidency is merely replacing Syrian patronage with an Iranian one, the FPM hasn’t done much to allay those fears. Is Aoun the first ex-army chief Iran has installed, like Syria installed ex-army chief Emile Lahoud back in the late 90s?

5- The LF-FPM Alliance

It was hailed as “long time coming” and “finally after decades of bloody strife”. However, in more ways than one, it’s an attempt to restore some of the clout of Christian political parties that have melted into their Muslim counterparts since 2005. It’s no secret that just like HA calls the shots in whatever is left of the March 8 coalition, the same goes for the FM on whatever’s left of the March 14 one. Elections are often lost or won in mainly Christian districts, given Shiite majority ones usually vote for HA and Amal and Sunni majority ones vote for FM-backed candidates.

So, that leaves districts with a big chunk of Christian voters deciding which way the overall results go. It is where most of the self-proclaimed “independent” MPs come from too, and a big reason why the LF and FPM joined forces. The LF has a handful of parliamentary members despite the influence they claim to have, and the FPM, despite their large bloc, cannot even get their party’s head to win an election in his own home district of Batroun. It’s easy to see how an LF-FPM alliance would help in that case, ideally marginalizing Botros Harb and guaranteeing the two seats are divided amongst the LF and FPM (like was attempted in the recent municipal elections).

So, the question is, is this sudden alliance something that means turning a new page? Or is the plan to create a voting block that is as hard to change as the Sunni or Shiite ones? Is it an attempt to keep others out and try to create an LF-FPM hegemony in Christian districts that just isn’t really representative of the reality on the ground, where most people are non-partisan and can change their voting habits with each elections cycles? For a president for the entire country, it’s important to understand what this new alliance means and where they want to take it.

6- Focus on the Issues

No one gives a fuck about parliament by-laws and a constitution they keep amending “for one time only”. Taxpayers and voters care about issues that affect their lives directly, like poor Internet, crumbling infrastructure and diminishing civil liberties. Instead of focusing on disrupting presidential elections for years for whatever reasons they kept pulling out of their ass, maybe focusing on issues that we care about would have been more important and would have won people like me over.

Sadly, all we saw Aoun and the FPM do in the past few years is dismiss the will of the people and compromise over it to get what they want. Whether it’s oppressing atheists, clinging to crippling sectarianism or perpetuating opaqueness in governing, Aoun and the FPM need to step up their game when it comes to civil rights. Gender equality, fair election laws, free speech, a coherent policy on the refugee crisis that isn’t just xenophobic fear-mongering, civil marriage and personal status laws among many, many others are issues the FPM and Aoun have severely failed at. Just so you get an idea of how bad, if a Christian with no heirs dies, their estate goes to the government which then hopefully gives to charities and good causes to use. If a Muslim with no heirs dies, their respective religious authority gets the estate. The FPM block in parliament sought to amend that, but not by suggesting the same policy that’s used for Christians is used for all Lebanese, instead, they want the estates of heirless Christians to go to the Church… The allegedly secular, reformist and progressive FPM suggesting such a horrible amendment to an already horrifying law…

In Conclusion

I’m not happy about the Aoun presidency. Nor that it probably means getting Hariri back as PM, or that Frangieh will get the next round or maybe Geagea. I don’t like how Aoun got elected, by holding a temper tantrum for almost 3 years till everyone else just said, “alright fuck it”.

I hope this posts help frame my unhappiness at him becoming president, with a focus on the issues versus the usual emotion-fueled stances in politics. I hope it helps you reflect on this election as well, and realize that our next struggle is making sure we get an elections law that will get folks like Beirut Madinati and You Stink to power, so we don’t have to keep reliving the incompetence and disregard for the law and taxpayers these same politicians Aoun is part of, have been putting Lebanon through since before most of you reading this post (myself included) were born.

Mashrou’ Leila Sing for the Sun on Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior

It was barely a week after my post about why I love Mashrou’ Leila and the profound impact I feel they’re having on Lebanon and the region with the causes they champion and their unique way of delivering those messages.

During that time, the boys had sailed off for four days on Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior, to write and perform the song whose video I embedded at the top of this post.

For those of you who don’t know, I was a Greenpeace activist for many years in Beirut. Deep down, despite my preoccupation with mainly civil and social issues, I am a conservationist at heart, one that tries not to let the mounting environmental dangers and us getting closer to (or passing!) the point of no return bring me down. When it comes to keeping our planet habitable, I think it’s far more important we do that before or at least while embarking on colonizing other planets, which seems to be the talk of the town the past year.

So, I was ecstatic when I heard about this project, and couldn’t wait to hear what the band and the Greenpeace activists come up with. The song aims to highlight the importance and potential of solar power, and they did not disappoint!

The saddest part for me about this track, is how the witty word choice in the song kind of gets lost in translation, such as “Illi sar, mish maseer” which is an awesome way of saying it’s not too late, and what’s past isn’t necessarily our destiny.

Otherwise, I loved the video and the song and I’m so glad the boys took a few days off their hectic touring schedule to do this. We often get so caught up with our daily struggles and problems, that we forget how close we are coming to making this beautiful blue rock almost uninhabitable for us and other animals and plants that call it home. No cause is more important that the environmental one, because at the end of the day, it’s not just about an election or a law on a paper, it’s about the survival of our species and the planet we pass down to our kids and their kids.

To wrap things up and end on a more positive note in the usually gloom and doom world of environmental policy, this year, renewable energy sources have finally overtaken coal as a source of energy. There might be hope for us yet! And what better soundtrack to that struggle for survival than a good old Mashrou’ Leila track?!

Don’t forget to sign up, support and volunteer with Greenpeace! ❤

Beirut-Based Label FDN Debut Showcase at KaterBlau Berlin

The KaterBlau Entrance (I respect KaterBlau’s policy of no photos inside, thus, my words and a set are the only things you’ll get to “see”!)

KaterBlau is one of my absolute favorite places on Earth. It’s a magical playground for adults with sublime taste in electronic music, sandwiched between the Spree river on one side, and the S-Bahn train tracks on the other. That’s why when I found out that Beirut-based label Fant ôme de Nuit was doing a showcase there, I cleared out my weekend schedule and made plans to dance throughout the 12-hour marathon!

Nesta’s Set

Given that there’s no pictures allowed inside, to help set the mood and scene, here’s Nesta’s set for you to enjoy!

The Lineup

Tobi Neumann kicked things off in the Heinz Hopper hall. Tobi needs no introduction for folks familiar with the Berlin house and electro scene. The heavyweight from Munich has been making bodies move on the dancefloor since 1995, becoming a fixture on rosters such as Sven Vath’s Cocoon. Having Tobi launch the showcase set the mood early on in the night, and by the time Silky Raven were done setting up, we were all more than ready for their live performance…

Silky Raven blew me away with one of the finest examples of live electronic music I’ve yet to witness with my own eyes and ears. I think we were about 12 friends total huddled together on the packed Heinz Hopper, and for the duration of Silky Raven’s slot, none of us left the dancefloor and none of us said a word. (I really hope it was recorded, so I can eventually share it with you all). There are few things I enjoy more than a live electromechanical show and to witness it in Kater’s gorgeous Heinz Hopper hall reminded me why I fell in love with that club years ago.

Then, Nesta took the reigns for almost 3 hours. The build-up of his set started off easy, transitioning from Silky Raven’s live show into the faster-paced melange I’ve been listening to under the “Nesta” alias for the better part of a decade now… It wasn’t Nesta’s first time at KaterBlau, but it was my first time seeing him there, and even though I lost count of how many hours I’ve listened to that man play, it was special this time. It was special because it included most of his recently released originals. Also, I’m pretty sure it was the first time a reimagined Fairuz track was blasting in this iconic Berlin club, and that was fucking epic.

Then, Gunnar Stiller took over early Saturday morning. A couple of hours into his set, Gunnar invited Nesta back into the booth and what was a brilliant Gunnar Stiller set suddenly became a back to back set with Nesta that kept going hard till well past noon.

In the intimate Kiosk stage, Signal Deluxe and Hisham Zahran were holding down the fort, but sadly, I only caught the last part of Zahran’s set, as I grabbed onto the ropes dangling from the Kiosk’s beams cause 9 hours of dancing had started to take their toll on my knees and ankles, but I still needed to move to the music.

Proud!

All in all, it was a truly memorable night. Personally, it was extremely fun to be with so many good friends and people I love in such a special venue for all of us. Apart from that though, it was quite something for Beirut-based music label to put on such a beautiful showcase in one of Berlin’s finest clubs. Proud!

All that’s left to say is I can’t fucking wait till next one!

Mashrou Leila in Berlin

Thursday night was probably the first time I actually go to a Mashrou Leila concert. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to many back home, like the Red Bull Soundclash between Mashrou Leila and Who Killed Bruce Lee. In Beirut though, I’d usually already know everything from how the stage set up is gonna, to what the full itinerary before and after the show is. That’s because I’d be focusing on getting the leak, the scoop. Or trying to give away tickets and then covering the concert. Not this time though, this time, I was just another fan in the mood of listening to my home tongue after months in countries where I don’t speak the local language. I must admit, I rediscovered the band that night.

Why I Love Mashrou Leila

Those of you who know me, will for sure know I’m not a band person. At all. As for my Arabic music catalog, it consists of mainly old Warda songs like “Betwannes Beek” which remind me of a less troubled world growing up listening to the late artist on my parents’ cassette player in the 90s.

I became familiar with the band in my AUB days, where it all started for the guys. We attended school around the same period, and ML was already the talk of not only the campus, but the entire country and soon the entire region.

Personally, I didn’t really have an opinion. I disagreed with one of their political decisions back then to boycott a concert, but just when things were getting sour, I got commissioned to write a review for their album “Ra’asuk” for Rolling Stone ME magazine. I obliged, doing my best to make sure I didn’t let my political opinions taint the review. I listened to their album, deciphering every track and word.

That’s when I hopelessly fell in love with “Lil Watan”. It still is my absolute favorite Mashrou Leila track, and I think you can tell by how many singalong videos I Instagram to it while stuck in Beirut traffic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR6Krh5ryJ4

That’s when I became a fan. However, it’s a lot more than the music that I like. The members of the band, especially Hamed, are true activists that I’ve had the honor of working with on issues that plague Beirut and the Arab World. Civil rights abuses, attempts to quash free speech, rising inequality, backwayds gender issues and dark-age LGBTQ discrimination among, sadly, many others.

Despite their superstar status, the powerful messages don’t just resonate in their lyrics and on-stage performances, but on the streets as well, activating with their fellow Lebanese and Arabs for issues that should no longer be divisive in 2016.

A Different Arab Identity

Mashrou’ Leila have become the voice of a huge Arab population that never spoke before. They never spoke because they’d end up beaten up, in jail or dead. They never spoke because it is hard to be a liberal Arab in an Arab World synonymous with obliterating dissent of any kine and shackling up an already downtrodden, hopeless people.

I’m lucky because I am Lebanese, and even though the local authorities do their best to intimidate and harass people like me, Lebanon’s space for free speech, though always at risk by religious and corrupt authorities, remains a beacon of enlightenment in an Arab World spiraling into oppressive theocracies and authoritarian military regimes.

My problem wasn’t being worried of a couple of corrupt cops on the payroll of a few corrupt priests and sheikhs. It was that for many years, especially while growing up, I hated what “Arab” meant. Not the misinformed “terrorist” stereotype in the West, but the macho mentality that hates diversity and encourages hatred of what’s different than the majority’s clinging to traditions that society should have long outgrown by now.

That’s until I realized that instead of trying to beat around the bush, asking whether I’m Arab or Phoenician or whatever mental gymnastics Lebanese ultra-nationalist sectarian folks like to come up with, to own the identity, and make it my own. It’s ok to be a tanned Arab, with a beard, but also progressive and liberal. An Arab that enjoys a beer and a joint at a club, after a day of campaigning for gender equality and fighting illegal censorship. An Arab that doesn’t want to hang gay and trans folks, but accepts them as they are. An Arab that doesn’t equate atheism with religious fundamentalist terrorism, but embraces a godless existence and doesn’t use archaic beliefs to justify evil deeds against people they’re brainwashed to hate as “the other” on the basis of race, sect, gender, orientation and political ideology.

Mashrou’ Leila put those unspoken sentiments into witty words in colloquial Lebanese. They gave a voice and composed anthems for the multitude of issues we face as Lebanese and Arabs every day. Whether it’s about a wearing flamboyant feathers while walking down the street, or the larger struggle of oppressed Arab peoples by corrupt, angry and hateful regimes.

Of course, there are plenty of fun stuff too, stuff never before handled by Arabic songs that are usually obnoxiously misogynistic and extremely stupid and naive, with bimbos flailing their artificially inflated boobs with an expressionless, botox-infused reconstructed face and subject matters that make me cringe when I’d catch one by mistake in between news reports on Lebanese radio.

It was nice to hear songs in a Lebanese dialect (versus an Egyptian or Gulf one to sell more records like other Lebanese “artists” do) that one can relate to, instead of ones shaming men for showing emotions and extremely erotic children songs like “boos el wawa” that honestly, are too fucking creepy to discuss. Imagine some Saudi sheikh getting a boner to a Lebanese bimbo singing cringe-inducing sexually explicit lyrics with a bunch of kids around her and trying to pass it off as art.

Writing their own material, performing it in their own dialect about subjects we can actually relate to, is a far cry from the mashups of Arabic pop that you can’t really tell apart (what’s the difference between Nancy and Elissa for example? Could never tell them apart during weddings when I listen to their sad, sad songs).

Mostly Berliners Attended!

I expected the crowd to be mostly Arab expats living in Berlin. But, most of those attending were Berliners and Europeans, who were fans of the band and did their best to sing along with their favorite songs. It made me happy and proud of the boys that so many people that don’t even speak the language are fans of Mashrou’ Leila. It also lifted my spirits knowing that a more liberal and progressive side of Arabs was on display, versus the rising tide of ultra-nationalist right-wingers in Eruope.

Here to Stay

I felt I had to write this post, given Mashrou’ Leila’s victory over the oppression and censorship in Jordan, a ban which they successfully overturned thanks to public outcry that shamed the Jordanian authorities for betraying their supposedly progressive and more tolerant culture. Here’s to many more wins and a much more outspoken Arab, liberal youth in such dark, dark times for the Arab World.

Pictures taken by Karl Noujaim

Catholic Center in Lebanon Teams Up With Radical Islamists Against Art, Music and Culture

Check out March and our struggle against censorship

I wish the title of this post was exaggerated or satirical, but it is sadly, painfully true.

Lebanon and the Lebanese government prides itself on its “International Festivals” that are heavily funded by taxpayer money (up to 30% of their operating costs), yet are still unaccessible to most taxpayers because of the exorbitant ticket prices for acts independent festival organizers could never get because of the many obstacles they face, both financial and bureaucratic.

Several “anti competition” taxes and tariffs are enforced when you want to get an artist from abroad, and you need to take them to the rundown General Security “offices” before and after their shows to get “clearance” and are often put in line with “dancers” being trafficked to work in the sex dungeons in places like Maameltein. So, if any of you were planning on getting Coldplay, Chris Martin will have to stand in line and be abused by a General Security officer, as he stands in line for hours with helpless foreign women trafficked into Lebanon as “artists” when they are in fact being forced to work as sex slaves.

That’s beside the 7% tax on the artist contract for the government, and a further 10–15% above that to discourage foreign competition to local artists. Oh, and don’t forget the bribes so the cops don’t come and harass you, and to avoid needing to take the artist to the GS offices and humiliating Lebanon in the process.

Saida and Tripoli Islamist Backlash

Of course, dancing and enjoying life is something Islamists utterly despise. Which is why the nauseating threats and warnings from radical Islamists from the Ahmad El Assir school in Sidon who were upset that Saida was relaunching its summer festival after it was canceled thanks to Assir and his minions’ attack on civilians and the Lebanese Army in 2013. The disgusting side of extremism reared its ugly head once again in one of Lebanon’s important, ancient Southern coastal cities.

The same kind of islamist filth reared its ugly head in Tripoli as well, which has been struggling to shake off the remnants of the hateful armed groups and join the 21st Century with a brighter, more tolerant outlook on life.

The Catholic Information Center Cartel

Most of the bans and crackdowns on nightlife, arts and culture are carefully orchestrated by the Maronite church under the “Catholic Information Center”. Just so you get a sample of what this “information center” is guilty of, here’s a short list from the top of my head:

Banning thousands of books, albums and movies (such as The Da Vinci Code, Spotlight and many, many others).
Claiming Homosexuality is a disease and should be “fought” earlier this year.
Cracking down on Psy music fans by defaming them as “satanists”.
Cracking down on metal heads in the early and mid 2000s.
Celebrating convicted child molesting priests and commissioning a sitcom that idolizes his criminal life.
Banning access to websites of victims of a Lebanese child-molesting priest from Lebanon.

Those are just a tiny, tiny fraction of the unspeakable crimes the Lebanese church has committed and continues to commit against Lebanon and its people with an authority they don’t have legitimately, using their standing in society and untaxed overwhelming wealth to pressure weak and corrupt agencies like the Genera Security’s censorship bureau into submission.

When Extremism Brings Malicious Clergy Together

The disgusting extremist Christian and Islamic rhetoric escalated this summer, and it seems the General Security which are mighty and unforgiving against innocent taxpayers tweeting or blogging or posting a status on Facebook, cower and bow down to the pressure from the gangs of old men in black robes hiding behind their pulpits that spew hatred and backwardness at a time when Lebanon has largely been left safe from the rising tide of religious extremism pulverizing the countries around us.

“Last month, a local Catholic group called for the establishment of a censorship bureau to regulate what artists be allowed into Lebanon.

The call was made in response to a performance in July by Jamaican singer Grace Jones in which one of her dancers had a cross painted over his crotch on his underwear.”
The Daily Star

I mean, if they were hateful extremists and smart, it’d be a bit less outrageous, but, they’re unbelievably stupid. Because of a cross-like pattern on some Jamaican dancer’s speedo, they thought it’s a must for them to decide what artists are allowed in or not to the country. Just so you get an idea of how stupid, remember when Mango allegedly had the Santa Muerte icon on a t-shirt? The Christian zealots thought it was the Virgin Mary with a skull for head, and considered it blasphemous. The stupid part isn’t that they were insensitive to Latin American Catholics who revere this saint and icon, they also forgot to check if that item was actually on sale in Lebanon. It wasn’t, some idiot facist saw it on their online store…

No Matter What, Religious Extremism Will Never Win in Lebanon

No matter how hard the powers of evil in both religions work against the people, and even collude with each other for the disgusting agendas of oppression and backwardness, it’ll never work.

Just like the GS and other governmental institutions bend to the will and money of the church and mosque, other sensible people also have influence and money to bestow on the corrupt wanna-be police state in Lebanon. At the end of the day, that cop cares about the phone call he’s getting and the money being offered, and doesn’t share the same destructive and toxic agenda of the religious leaders in Lebanon. It’s sad though that the only way to ensure censorship is thwarted, is by paying off and pressuring more than the church and mosque, who apart from their corrupt channels, routinely use violence against their dissenters, proof of which was Assir’s gang of baboons and the bumbling idiots that attacked journalists covering another pedophile priest in Northern Lebanon.

In the face of such stupidity, violence and hatred, it’s often disheartening. But, remember this, no minister, cop, priest or sheikh can decide what you read, write, say, listen to and watch. And none of them know what’s better for you than yourselves. Support folks like MARCH and Legal Agenda who are constantly battling the corrupt forces of censorship and oppression, never stop trying to get the artists and works of art you want, to enjoy with your fellow Lebanese.

If anything, these bombastic threats and acts by the religious extremists is proof of their desperation as Lebanese society moves toward a more secular, tolerant one that no longer follows mad religious men as blindly as their parents used to. Always read, watch and listen to stuff they ban, we will help teach you ways of bypassing whatever they try to do.

Lebanese Hospitals Disobey Health Ministry Plea to Stop Reporting Drug Overdoses to Police

In March 2016, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health issued a circular urging all hospitals to abstain from contacting the police when a patient arrives to their emergency rooms displaying symptoms of a drug overdose.

It was thanks to intense lobbying efforts over the past few years by Skoun to prioritize saving lives over criminalization, and the Ministry of Public Health finally agreed and issued the circular earlier this year.

This is extremely important, especially in a country with a police force as corrupt as Lebanon’s when it comes to drug policies. How many times have you heard of a taxpayer ODing in front of a hospital because their friends or family were too scared of taking them to the hospital for fear they will get arrested, tortured and unlawfully imprisoned by bribe-hungry police?

How many lives have been abruptly cut short, when they were easily saveable if they got the necessary medical attention in time without the risk of arrest and criminal charges?

Skoun decided to call 122 hospitals across Lebanon and found out that 61.5% of them still call the police.

This misguided and devastating policy treats drug overdoses as a criminal offense, not a public health issue. Despite the disastrous failure of the “war on drugs” worldwide which Lebanon’s police adhere to for hopes the US will give them some money for their “efforts”, it is still a thing in Lebanon, where drug addicts are thrown in jail instead of getting the medical treatment they need. Imagine an opiate addict’s withdrawal symptoms while being tied upside down and beaten in Hbeich’s infamous hellish precinct… Inhumane and unjustified and downright stupid. After that addict’s loved ones pay off the cops or call in a favor, that addict will go back to using and risk hurting himself and those around him, instead of getting the care they need to get over their addiction.

Skoun has released a list of 10 hospitals in Lebanon that do not alert the police when an OD case presents itself at their ERs:

Serhal (Rabieh) مستشفى سرحال — الرابية
Lebanese Canadian (Sin El Fil) المستشفى اللبناني الكندي- سن الفيل
Saint Charles Hospital (Hazmieh) مستشفى السان شارل — الحازمية
Zahraa Hospital (Jnah) مستشفى الزهراء — الجناح
Mount Lebanon Hospital (Ain El Remmeneh) مستشفى جبل لبنان — عين الرمانة
Abou Jaoude Hospital (Jal El Dib) مستشفى ابو جودة — جل الديب
Daher el Beshek Hospital (Roumieh)مستشفى ضهر الباشق — رومية
Middle East Institution (Bsalim) مستشفى الشرق الأوسط — المتن
Beirut Hariri Hospital (Jnah) مستشفى الحريري الجامعي — الجناح
Hotel Dieu Hospital (Beirut) مستشفى أوتيل ديو — الأشرفية

Sadly, most of the hospitals are in and around Beirut, with rural areas still suffering because local hospitals refuse to abide by the circular issued from the Ministry of Public Health.

The list provided is not a final one, and more will be added in the coming days and weeks and I will definitely update it when it does. You can also check Skoun’s page and website to find out more.

Do not let someone you know die for fear of being tortured by the police for being a drug addict. If you work at a hospital, or know someone that does, find out if they still betray patient-doctor confidentiality by informing the police of something that is primarily a public health issue, not a criminal one.

Techno Culture and Beirut

Growing up, I still remember sneaking into our living room in Kuwait when I was 8 years old and turning on MTV in hopes they’d put Daft Punk’s “Around the World” music video. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the trippy video, it includes some skeletons walking up and down some stairs in a circle, which my mom definitely did not think was appropriate for an 8-year-old. When most of classmates in kindergarten were going nuts over the Spice Girls, I was enamoured with Daft Punk’s version of French House music and Plastikman’s Detroit style of Techno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5dqPiLy4uY

When I was a teenager in Beirut, my love for synthetic sounds became less of a private obsession and started to be part of a burgeoning underground scene. Like most electronic music aficionados (and hormonal teenagers) I passed through the Trance phase, with acts like Above and Beyond becoming regular fixtures every other month, it wasn’t that hard to find myself in that scene.

My musical palate got refined in the subterranean dark halls of The Basement and B018 and as I got closer to my twenties. Techno is where I found myself truly at home and where I still am today now that I live in Berlin, and Techno’s where I think I will always remain.

What is Techno

In today’s world, genres are a tricky subject. Many artists nowadays dabble in more than one genre and sub-genre and often, their work merges elements that were once thought to belong to different types of electronic music. However, there are certain technical traits that will always land a track or live set on the Techno side of the electronic music spectrum.

Techno is when a bass drum “kicks” on each quarter note, usually with a snare or clap on the second and fourth pulse of each bar, and an open hi-hat element every second eighth note (when the track “changes” after a certain amount of repetitions). The tempo is usually somewhere between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm) but can be as low as 115 for the “slower” kinds of Techno.

Now, if you don’t produce electronic music, this sounds like a bunch of gibberish and I’ll confess, it barely makes any sense to me, a self-proclaimed Techno acolyte. An easy way to tell if a track qualifies as Techno is what we affably call the “4-kick” where the bass element of a track repeats itself 4 times in each bar. “Boom, boom, boom, boom”: a relentless backbone on which all the other elements and effects of a track or set are progressively added, edited and removed.

Techno Culture and Lebanon

But, Techno is a lot more than that. It is a global culture, one defined by an appreciation of the “darker” side of things and which pursues a mantra of inclusion that transcends race, gender, ideologies and sexuality. What begun in the late 80s in Detroit by a handful of black, inner-city kids is now the anthem for white folks in Northern Europe, clubbers that rave in secret in Tehran and industrial music lovers in Tokyo.

Recently, several controversies online, some of which included articles penned by me, have shown an ugly side of the Techno scene in Beirut. One of the core principles of that scene is checking one’s ego at the door and focusing on the music and the enjoyment of that music, not how many bottles one can presell every weekend and if a bouncer considers you “worthy” of partaking in a few hours of hedonistic dancing. Nor who was “first” or the “oldest” in a scene that focuses on inclusion, not dick-measuring.

Racists, homophobes, misogynists and all other kinds of -ists and -obes are not welcome in the Techno scene. In a way, everything we grew up thinking is what clubbing should be in Beirut, was wrong. You don’t need to have a girl with you at the door, you don’t need to be dressed to the nines, you don’t need to book a table for several hundred dollars. All you need is to want to dance and have some fun for a few hours, far away from the social, sectarian and political turmoil one faces on a daily basis, especially in a society as fractured as the one in Lebanon.

No party crew or venue in Lebanon has fit all those criteria, until now at least. If they were inclusive, the bottle-service issue was still there. It might not be a Sky Bar or White anymore, but a guy alone will probably still have trouble getting in. Part of the problem might be the clubbers themselves, who refuse to stand in line instead of just skip it with a table under their name. But those same clubbers have no problem waiting in line for an hour when they come to Berlin, so that reason doesn’t hold as much merit as many party organizers in Beirut would want you to believe.

Vellocet

Shortly after my departure from Beirut, Vellocet, a project nearing its second year in Beirut, finally created something that is worthy of a Techno culture title.

No tables. No photos. No homophobes, xenophobes or misogynists. No absurd door policy. Someone that shows up wearing loafers and a dress shirt will be asked at the door if they know what kind of party they’re going into, that it’s not your typical night out in Beirut, before deciding if they wanna go in or not.

A girl or guy being harassed by unsolicited advances by another clubber will lead to the ejection of the disruptive clubber. An intolerant clubber that makes other clubber’s lifestyle choices their business, is also escorted out. People who aren’t Techno heads are more than welcome inside, it’s encouraged even, after all, Techno heads love introducing their culture to folks that haven’t had the fortune of being inducted into this wonderful scene I have experienced in every city I’ve ever been to.

Sadly, I have not been to their summer venue yet, but have attended several of their winter parties at Yukunkun earlier this year. That hasn’t stopped me from staying up to date with what they’ve been up to though, and it makes me very happy to know that both proper Techno music, and proper Techno culture, is now a regular fixture in Beirut.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that’s what the entire scene in Beirut will become. That’s not the point anyway. House is beautiful, and so is Disco and Pop, Rock and Hip Hop, Folk and Metal. It’s just wonderful to see Techno taking its rightful place amongst the rest of the subcultures in Beirut.

The Clockwork-Orange-inspired Vellocet fits in nicely with Techno’s dark, heavy, almost violent sound. Alex and his droogs might be the villains on paper, but in the Clockwork Orange world, they are what stands in the way of the conditioning forced upon by the rest of society on those deemed “different”. Just like Alex’s eyelids are peeled back while a cocktail of drugs is administered to try and “condition” him to be like everyone else, society in Lebanon always tries to condition those that don’t conform to its rigid principles, sometimes violently.

Whether its shutting down raves or arresting kids with Metallica t-shirts on, cracking down on gay clubs or standing in the way of meaningful gender equality reforms, there is plenty to be angry about in Beirut. Clubbing should be a safe space to challenge that status quo. A place where personal freedoms trump what society still doesn’t accept for all the wrong reasons.

For me, personally, that is what the Techno scene means and the purpose it serves in today’s cities. It’s more than a successful business plan, it’s also a movement and where social movements are fostered and incubated. Most importantly though, it’s a place to have fun, minus all the stress-inducing rituals like dressing up fancy and navigating a sexually frustrated landscape that still shames people for being different or not giving enough heed to what others think about their personal lifestyle choices.

Vellocet aren’t the only ones, but they’re the ones that have caught my attention in the past few months. I will make sure to include everyone else doing great things for the scene in Beirut, but for now, I’m very happy and proud of what the guys and girls at Vellocet are doing. It’s nice to know I now have a more docile version of Berghain to choose from next time I’m planning a weekend in Beirut.

They’re wrapping up their summer series on September 9th, so if you still haven’t checked it out, make sure you wash your black clothes and put your dancing shoes on.

The “Make America Great Again” Hats are Made by a “Mahfouz”

I was reading a couple of articles on how Donald Trump funnels the money from people’s donations back into his own family and friends’ companies, and noticed a familiar family name in the list of beneficiaries. This is the Vice News piece that I read first.

What struck me was the name of the manufacturer of the “Make America Great Again” hats: Christl Mahfouz. “Mahfouz” is a known family name in Lebanon and the Levant region, however, I couldn’t find anything to confirm Christl Mahfouz is a Lebanese immigrant or of Lebanese descent. When I sifted through Ancestry.com’s records for “Mahfouz” in the United States, older records listed “Turkey” and “Syria” as birth places for immigrants with that name in the late 1800s and early 1900s to the US. That would make sense, since current Lebanon and Syria were still part of the Ottoman empire back then, or “Greater Syria” before the French mandate carved up modern-day Lebanon and Syria’s borders in the 1920s.

She sits on the board of Trump’s son’s charitable foundation: The Eric Trump Foundation. She’s also part of Sky High for St. Jude, which supports St Jude’s children’s cancer center (which the Beirut CCCL at AUBMC is affiliated with). She’s the founder and CEO of Ace Specialties in Louisiana, which is the manufacturer of the Trump hats.

So, next time you see one of those hats on an angry Trump supporter, remember, it’s someone that’s most probably originally Lebanese that’s cashing out on them. But hey, let’s hope the millions made from these symbols of modern hate, misogyny and racism end up, at least partly, funding charities like St. Jude’s.

A Boiler Room Set Dedicated to Adel Termos

On Tuesday, I shared a Boiler Room clip on Facebook cause a friend and I appeared in the background as David Mayer played his set for the 5th anniversary of Boiler Room in Berlin. It got a lot more views than I expected and I was glad so many friends know about Boiler Room and are fans of this awesome concept too.

Electronic music aficionados will know what Boiler Room is, but if you don’t: Boiler Room isn’t a venue or party crew as many people might believe, it’s a music broadcasting platform that streams live performances online in different venues and cities across the globe. So far, over 3.5 billion minutes have been streamed in more than 100 different cities.

Unfortunately, Beirut is not one of those 100+ cities (yet!) but in January, while listening to a Dubfire Boiler Room DJ set that happened in Berlin in late 2015, I was shocked to hear the MC dedicate the 2 hours and 30 minute DJ set to Adel Termos, the Lebanese hero and father who selflessly tackled a suicide bomber in Beirut’s Burj El Brajneh last November, forcing the terrorist to blow himself up short of a nearby crowd, saving hundreds of other people by selflessly sacrificing his own life.

The MC says:

“ I wanna give a shoutout or respect or mention, a very very special man, who deserves some respect: Adel Termos, who died in Beirut on Thursday in saving the lives of a couple hundred people, sacrificing his own. I mean, that is… there are just no words for this. I hope that this will give you some strength or energy to step out of your own comfort zone one day and maybe step up and act against all the assholes worldwide who make this beautiful place a very shitty place at the moment, so the Boiler Room dedicates tonight to Adel Termos, wherever he may be now” and the crowds cheer and clap

It felt nice to see that people in other places cared, especially in a club setting that people usually do not expect to give a damn, especially after the Paris Batacalan attacks had grabbed the headlines and pushed Beirut’s attacks out of the world’s attention. But, they do and I really appreciated this dedication for such a beautiful set of Techno. I hope you enjoy it too, and spare a thought of a true Lebanese hero, Adel Termos ❤