I really hope they change the font of their logo now, and the colors, the blue makes me barf
Finally, huh?! The other one still had a Motorolla Razr in it, hahaha!
I loved that the safety video doubles as a 4+ minute tourism ad for Lebanon and most of its notable landmarks and regions. I also prefer that the emphasis was shifted from French to English, with the second voice in English and subtitles in French alongside Arabic as the primary (seughy Ashghafieh fghenchies!)
I also loved the funny parts, like the girl taking selfies which anyone who’s been on a plane with a Lebanese plastic surgery survivor will know can get annoying, even with Snapchat filters. However, I was a bit bummed to see that they are still asking you to turn off your electronic devices even after most airlines stopped doing that and just tell you to put it on airplane mode or disconnect it from the network (many have WiFi too now, but, MEA passengers still need to switch off for take-off and landing in 2016).
A couple other cool safety videos are Air France’s and Virgin America’s
There’s been a lot of whining about Lebanese ads sucking recently. Apart from the obvious copy-pasting of ads for stuff like perfumes and fashion whatevers, they’ve just become lazy. I think a big part of it though is also dwindling budgets.
Regardless, there are tons of awesome award-winning campaigns coming out of Beirut every year and getting international awards and nods. What’s remarkable is that most of the ones that do make an impact, are pro bono, CSR campaigns. This goes to show you that the problem is mostly the clients, not the ad agencies, which given free reign, can come up with really cool stuff.
Now, onto the main subject: Beirut Beer vs Almaza.
In Lebanon, directly naming a competitor can get you in trouble because of the stupid “slander and libel” laws I always get summoned to police stations for. So, brands need to be smart, and hopefully the people behind those brands aren’t as thin-skinned as Donald Trump or Nohad El Machnouk, who try to prosecute anyone that says something about them they don’t like.
However, that hasn’t really been a thing in Lebanon, which is why I was thrilled when I saw the Beirut Beer ad dissing Almaza in a super funny way.
What Happens in the Ad
Beirut Beer (BB) kinda makes fun of Almaza’s (A) overly patriotic, melancholic ads, which usually feature stuff about Lebanon overcoming adversity, expats coming home, etc. I must say, they’re generally pretty awesome ads too. BB used the often overlooked fact that A was bought up by Heineneken a few years back, and in the ad, some dude wearing an “I Amsterdam” t-shirt is shaking the Almaza dude’s hand and posing for pictures. I found that hilarious honestly, especially since A’s campaigns are always so Lebanon-centric and believing in Lebanon, so the fact they were bought out by a large multinational is fair game for a local brewery like BB trying to break into the market that A so fiercely dominates.
They even make fun by using filters for the cheesy nostalgic scenes of Lebanon like A’s most recent ad (which I couldn’t embed cause it’s not on YouTube but you can check it out here)
Loved It, Can’t Wait for Almaza’s Comeback
I love some healthy competition with sarcasm and some balls. It’s nice to have puns and witty slogans that fit whatever is happening in the country at the time, like Almaza’s smart contribution when the Mia Khalifa news got Lebanon worked up for a few weeks. It was smart, instantaneous and perfectly targeted for a beer brand, and one many of my favorite Almaza ads. But, Beirut Beer wins this round with flying colors, for having the audacity to go where brands rarely ever do in Lebanon. Here’s to more ads like this one, spicing things up a little and giving us a break from those annoying bank ads you think are for women’s sanitary pads before they show you the bank logo.
It kinda reads like a cheap soap opera, instead of diligent, honest legislation that’s supposed to serve the people that call Beirut home.
Since their disputed slim victory in May following widespread electoral fraud and dozens of well-documented cases of bribery as well as voter intimidation and an opaque counting process, the coalition of the Garbage Political Parties headed by Hariri continues their assault on the people of Beirut.
Their latest prodigal work is “banning arguileh, motorcylces and dogs from public spaces”. There are many funny things in that statement:
1- We have public spaces in Beirut? Where? Didn’t you sell that last bit off the second you got into office?
2- How are motorcycles, arguilehs and dogs related?
3- How will you enforce the ban? Will people go to jail for letting their dog out of the house? Or will you just charge us Grand-Cafe-Bill amount fines?
Arguilehs are a real problem…
Arguileh Issue
Sure, it’s a horrible health crisis that’s completely unregulated and out of control. But, if there was a true will to solve that, I think a proper enforcement of the indoor smoking ban would be a start. However, if the plan is just to rob money from people who can’t afford Grand Cafe’s 12,000 LBP for a handful of nuts, then why not just say it outright?
Personally, I am a smoker, but I am all for bans of indoor smoking and public places where children and families frequent, such as the Corniche promenade or public parks like Horsh Beirut. However, this ban is like police cars camouflaging themselves behind elaborate hideouts to clock in people doing 57kmh in a 50kmh area: it’s just to make money off of fines, while never really bringing speeding down. So, sending out a cop to get his quota by citing people walking their dogs or having a smoke, is beyond absurd and honestly, frightening even for Hariri cronies known for milking every last possible cent from every possible thing you can think of.
400$ fine for argeling without paying 400$?
No Motorbikes on Pedestrian Walkways?
How is that not already the law?! Why not enforce it? Oh, right, because the cop is probably Whatsapping a pic of a botox survivor he catcalled at the red-light she ignored… What a joke! And again, what does that have to do with dogs and arguilehs?
Dogs
The problem with dog ownership in Lebanon is not the dogs, it’s the owners. Many people buy them as fashion statements to hashtag on Instagram in hopes some pet account with a few thousand followers will repost their dog’s pic. What you don’t see, is that the overwhelming majority of these owners don’t pick up after their dogs. It’s such a huge problem, that Ashrafieh 2020 actually ran ads and an entire campaign to try and curb the dogshit maze that is Ashrafieh’s sidewalks, to no avail.
So, I would recommend instead of an absurd and impossible to enforce ban on dogs in public spaces, to fine dog owners that don’t pick up after their dogs, and allow normal citizens to report such instances. As for parks like Horsh Beirut, there should be sections dedicated for dogs and their owners, where dogs can be unleashed and run around and play, like they’re supposed to, and folks who have a problem with that can stay in the rest of the park. No need to ban dogs and their owners from the most basic things you do with your dog: go play in a park, or go for a walk!
It’s sad to see the Lebanese Maronite Catholic Church on a steady regressive path towards the Dark Ages whilst the rest of the Catholic Church has been revitalized and made relevant again thanks to the progressive steps Pope Francis has been taking that many people, Catholics or otherwise, would’ve never dreamed of seeing in their lifetimes.
Preaching tolerance, especially towards the church’s “traditional enemies” like the LGBT community, atheists and agnostics and other religions, Pope Francis has been a game-changer. From a church fading into oblivion and big only in places of the world where education wasn’t, it’s back to life after two severely conservative popes plagued with scandals and corruption turned many people away from the Church before Francis came in.
Unfortunately, in Lebanon, the Catholic church, more specifically the Maronite one, has been an absolute disgrace. Protecting convicted pedophile priests and commissioning TV shows idolizing their lives is probably their vilest crime, but not their only one. The Maronite church is the entity responsible for the most instances of censorship gone wrong, from Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code to psychedelic trance parties, the Church is the number one crusader against the arts, culture and education in Lebanon.
From gems like “yoga is satanic”, to banning the airing of a TV show about the life of Jesus of Nazareth from a non-Christian point of view, the Maronite church has massive influence and power over the General Security’s Censorship Bureau. In fact, the bureau is ineffective in its censorship, save when a priest or archbishop calls in a favor because they misunderstood a piece of artwork or feel it threatens their archaic views of the world.
For me, the Mansur Labaki scandal was enough to make me realize how corrupt and evil the church in Lebanon is. They not only sought to cover up the truth, by banning access to victim support websites from Lebanese IPs, they also sought to overturn the verdict in the religious court and are producing a TV series to whitewash the predator priest’s ‘accomplishments’. However, a recent INTERPOL arrest warrant in Labaki’s name puts to rest any of the absurd conspiracy theories that his protectors would come up with to justify victim blaming and slut-shaming of victims of the predatory monster in black robes. Who can forget that other priest, who molested a woman with cervical cancer, telling her he needed “to touch it” so the Virgin Mary could heal her. That priest is still a priest, but the woman he molested? She was banished to Der El Saleeb, a mental asylum run by the church that is well-known for sub-human standards and regular human rights violations. So, a priest basically raped a woman by telling here he can do miracles, he stays free to do the same to other desperate souls, while she was forced into a mental asylum…
Anyway, Archbishop of Beirut Boulos Matar is unhappy with artists and bands being brought from overseas to perform in Beirut. Today, they’re having a press conference in Beirut titled:
“ندوة حول وضع ضوابط واجراء الرقابة على الفرق الفنية التي يتم استقدامها من الخارج”
which roughly translates to: “putting restrictions and implementing censorship on artist groups brought from abroad”
This comes only weeks after the same “Catholic Center” detailed in another disturbingly ISIS-like conference how homosexuality is a disease and how to fight it, given that even in Lebanon, several legal precedents have been made arguing that homosexuality is neither a “disease” nor “illegal” under Lebanon’s penal code.
It’s odd how the Lebanese church can behave in such archaic, hateful and honestly disturbing ways, while the rest of the Catholic Church gets with the times and behaves like it’s 2016 in the age after the Internet was born. How long will the church be allowed to censor and oppress what it doesn’t like? When will the undeserved power and jurisdiction they hold loosen and allow civil liberties to flourish? When will they start paying taxes? When will they mind their own business and leave “artists groups from abroad” and those bringing them alone? Who appointed the church to make that decision?
The Summer Olympics in Rio this week will be Lebanon’s 17th participation in the games. Lebanon boycotted the 1956 games in Melbourne, Australia in protest to the invasion of Egypt by Israel, France and Great Britain.
Medals Won
Lebanon has won a total of four medals: two silver and two bronze.
1952 (Helsinki): Zakaria Chehab in men’s greco-roman wrestling, silver medal
1952 (Helsinki): Khalil Taha in men’s greco-roman wrestling, bronze medal
1972 (Munich): Mohamed Trabulsi in weightlifting, silver medal
1980 (Moscow): Hasan Bechara in greco-roman wrestling, bronze medal
It’s clear Lebanese athletes have done remarkably well in wrestling sports over the decades, but sadly Lebanon has been medal-less for 36 years now and a gold medal still eludes Lebanon’s Olympic record.
Perhaps Rio will be the first time we get a gold medal!
The Lebanese Olympic Team in Rio 2016
Eight Lebanese athletes have qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics!
Chirine Njeim, runner
What’s remarkable about Chirine, is the Chicago-based athlete is among the few people who have competed both in the Winter and Summer Olympics (some 117 others have done so). She is an alpine skier and has participated in the Winter games three times already. She is the first athlete to participate both in alpine skiing, and marathon running. So, she’s already broken records before the games kick off!
Ray participated in the 2012 London Olympics, and returns to the 2016 Rio games after an impressive rise from 36th to 1st in the ISSF world ranking earlier this year! Perhaps Ray will be Lebanon’s biggest shot at gold these games!
Mona Shaito, fencer
US-based Lebanese athelete Mona Chaito will represent Lebanon again in Rio 2016 after her first Olympic Games in London 2012.
Gabriella Doueihy, swimmer
At 17 years old, Gabriella is Lebanon’s youngest athlete these games and has been training professionally since she was a 10. She will be participating in the women’s 400m freestyle.
Anthony Barbar, swimmer
Anthony is another Lebanese-American athlete representing Lebanon in the 2016 Rio Games
Richard Mourjan, canoeist
Richard is the first ever Lebanese canoeist to participate on behalf of Lebanon in the games! A historic achievement in itself!
Nacif Elias, judo
Elias is a Lebanese-Brazilian athlete representing Lebanon in the Summer games this week! Since representing Lebanon, Elias has won many medals including silver at the 2014 Asian Games, and won the PanAm Open in Lima earlier this year!
Ahmad Hazer, runner (hurdles)
And lastly, Ahmad Hazer, the 9th Lebanese olympian at Rio!
Good Luck Lebanon!
The games kickoff tomorrow, and most of our athletes are competing this weekend in their different sports! Best of luck, make us proud!
The old ferris wheel still rotates with the wind, eerily creaking
I adore abandoned places. Cities steeped in turbulent history often have plenty of places like that. Places frozen in time when conflict, changing times or simply bad finances force humans to just pick up and leave.
Beirut has, or at least had, many of those places. Today, legislative gymnastics pave the way (literally) for unaffordable towers to replace these valuable heritage sites. In Berlin, it’s not as easy to erase history and make money off it.
That’s why, after its closure in the early 2000s, the abandoned amusement park changed hands several times, with the city of Berlin finally buying it and putting up a sturdy fence to protect what’s left after a fire devastated big parts of Spreepark (Kulturpark).
Breaking and Entering
Don’t bother. The fence is pretty tough and they even have cement blocks embedded at the bottom deterring you (or moles and foxes) from tunneling under it.
There are also several stories of folks being IDed and asked to surrender the photos they’ve taken inside. Plus, most importantly, most of the park was either taken to South America as its former owners fled, or were destroyed by vandals and the fire in the mid-2000s.
Honestly, the nicest part is the ferris wheel, which still moves with the wind, creaking eerily as the grass and dead leaves surrounding it rustle. You can walk around the entire park and take as many photos as you’d like in between the fence’s steel bars. The path is also adjacent to the river, so, get a few beers with you and dangle your feet above the spree with the abandoned amusement park behind you.
The amusement park lies in the heard of Plänterwald, which is basically a veritable forest with a couple of bike lanes and pedestrian paths criss-crossing it. So, the pleasant walk in the forest in itself is also worth a few hours on a nice, sunny afternoon.
Here are some photos I took yesterday while venturing with a few friends to try and get as close as possible to the abandoned Spreepark.
How to get there:
I recommend getting off at the Treptower Park S-Bahn station, and walking down alongside the river to Spreepark.
Almost 7 years after starting to blog, I worry less and less about customization and more and more on ease of content dissemination. That’s why I’ve decided to ditch WordPress and start the blog on Medium.
The editor is far easier and quicker to use and I was sold by Mustapha Hamoui’s super helpful blogpost about his own switch. However, I’ve chosen to start fresh on Medium instead of transfer my old content here.
So, I hope you guys find this easier to read, comment on and share. I also hope you enjoy the usual content from Beirut, with some new adventures in Berlin this summer!
The Embrace Fund is an organisation that works on mental health in Lebanon. Their main goal is to help cover patients’ medical expenses when diagnosed with mental illness. They also focus a lot on reducing the stigma surrounding the topic of mental illness in Lebanon, a sad, sad reality that leaves many suffering from mental illness untreated and stigmatized
An extremely important project Embrace has been working on for some time is the establishment of a national suicide prevention and emotional crisis helpline, which will be the first in both Lebanon and across the Middle East. It’s unacceptable that such a hotline doesn’t already exist, a resource where people contemplating ending their life can call for help and support, a number you can dial if you are worried about a friend or loved one who you feel might try to hurt themselves.
A person commits suicide every three days in Lebanon. According to the ISF, 111 people killed themselves in 2013, and 143 did so in 2014. In the first 3 weeks of 2016, 6 Lebanese and one foreigner committed suicide in Lebanon. The facts and figures are unacceptable, and it’s time something is done to help prevent suicides in Lebanon.
That’s why, next Tuesday July 26th, they’re holding a fundraiser to make this helpline a sustainable reality. It’s at MYU and features the amazing Joy Fayad, Nour Nimri and Ralph Asfour.
I love Loopstache. They combine the best of both worlds: live and electronic. That’s why I was extremely happy to see they dropped their latest video clip, directed by Pedros Temizian, earlier today and it’s massive.
Miss Daniels is a fictional character we got introduced to in Loopstache’s previous album. She’s a ghost-like, mysterious, sexy, fantasy character and when Pedros approached the band with an idea for a video clip, below was the result which a good friend of mine Samer Makarem eloquently put into words: “it’s like a sweaty dream version of the VHS copy of your parents parties.”
The kitch, risqué, 70’s groovy, disco vibe of the video couldn’t be more perfect for the song, and I hope you guys enjoy watching and listening as much as I did! And yes, you guessed it, the location is in the iconic Behind the Green Door in Beirut.
35 days, 13,695 km and two continents later, Charbel Habib and Walid Samaha have made it to Paris all the way from Beijing!
I’m happy to announce that they got the Gold Medal and finished second in their class and 24th overall! It’s also the first time ever a standard Porsche 356C manages to finish this rally of epic proportions. Many firsts and records to be proud of from team Lebanon!
There are a lot of words I could use to describe this phenomenal accomplishment, but, who better to sum this experience up than Charbel Habib himself. Shortly after driving into Paris, here’s what Charbel had to say:
On this journey I saw so many fantastic landscapes, in just 35 days I saw our Mother Earth and how beautiful our planet is, also I passed through hundreds of villages and saw so many different cultures with different habits and different methods, and the first thing you think of is peace, how peaceful the people are and how they cherish and care for our planet and each other. It makes you sad, very sad at how much our region lacks many of those qualities. Living in hatred, destruction of self and environment…
It’s a bit philosophical but if any personthat does this journey will feel and see the same. Good night.
Congratulations! We’re all super proud of you guys and can’t wait for you to get back home and spread some of that wisdom gained in the past month.
Here are some highlights of the journey, which was exhausting and challenged Charbel and Walid physically, emotionally and mentally and despite all the odds, they made it with flying colors!
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