It’s not the first time Beirut has made it to one of Conde Nast’s lists. It’s still awesome though. I know being on a list on some fancy travel website might not make our lives any better here, drowning in garbage and shuffling through hopelessness in positive change.

But, it reminds of the Beirut we’d talk about years ago when we’d travel and make friends abroad. The one that proudly shed the stereotype of war-torn from the 70s and 80s, and was on its way to revive it’s 50s and 60s “golden age”. Not the one that has let us down so often on so many occasions, the one where we feel trapped inside of with slim chance of being able to escape it for long enough before coming back.

With the awesome drone footage video that came out last week, and this article, we got two serotonin-boosting reminders of the Beirut and Lebanon we love and hope to restore one day. Perhaps it doesn’t accurately portray happiness and bliss, but then again, some of Beirut’s most beautiful parts are scarred by war. So, why not be 11th most beautiful city this year…

Even when faced with terror and destruction, Beirut is beautiful, charming, and strong. The Lebanese capital has astonishing art, architecture, food, and hotels — in fact, we think it’s one of the great cities of the world. — CNT Editors

source

How embarrassing is it that even in 2016 and billions of dollars later, we still don’t have electricity 24 hours a day? I guess that’s why Electricite de Zahle (EDZ) and what they’ve managed to pull off in their 250 square kilometers area of operations, was so incredibly exciting and rekindled some hope in issues it seems we’ve all collectively given up on for being almost insurmountable thanks to the world’s worst corrupt politicians and their loyal public servants.

I spent Saturday morning having a chat with EDZ CEO Assaad Nakad and his team and wrapped up with a site visit to the brand new EDZ power plant right next to the EDL building in Zahle.

What’s EDZ?

EDZ is a private company founded in the 1920s. It holds a concession to fulfil the electricity needs of the Central Bekaa. Originally, it both produced and distributed electricity, however, in 1969 Electricite du Liban (EDL) requested that EDZ stop increasing its capacity and basically restricted it to just distributing it. The EDL move back then though, wasn’t sinister in nature, in fact, before the war, EDL was producing a surplus of electricity, which is why this request was made and the contract signed back then.

That surplus is no longer the case though, and hasn’t been for a very, very long time. Longer than most of you reading these have been alive…

The 24-Hour Solution Breakdown

Given that the original contract stipulates EDL has to meet electricity needs of the region, EDZ has been trying for years to compensate for the severe shortages of EDL’s power production. It’s estimated that 1500MW are what EDL provides, when the demand is just a little over 3200MW. This translates to anywhere between 12 and 18 hours of no power a day.

The solution was a tricky one, and as Mr Nakad explained his line of thought, I loved how carefully it had been set up to ensure EDZ can fulfil its promise, while not breaking the law or ruffling too many political feathers by the time customers start feeling the change and embracing it. Then, as expected, it would be too late for the politicians and moteur cartels to reverse the progress made.

EDZ’s concession is scheduled to end in 2018 if there’s no extension, which means the company and all its facilities will be handed to EDL free of charge. That was when I started to become horrified, hearing that all the progress made might have to be handed back to EDL, that certainly would spell doom for any successful project, given EDL’s horrifying 40+ year history of embezzling our taxes for atrocious coverage. So, I sure hope they extend beyond 2018!

But, building a power plant themselves with possibly only few years on the clock left (and not enough time to at least pay off the cost of the plant from the revenues generated from customers), didn’t make economic sense, especially when most of Lebanon’s major banks refused to help with funding that endeavor (excpet Byblos Bank). That’s when EDZ partnered up with Aggreko, a British company that specializes in temporary power supply with a 2-year lease to supply Zahle with the rest of the power it needs.

The power plant features 60 diesel oil generators running at optimal capacity that can easily be altered based on the demand. Each is fitted with filters and noise cancelling structures to make sure pollution is kept to a minimum, and the entire is less noisy than a busy restaurant at lunch. (As a person who lives in the Zouk area, I can always hear the noises from the notorious power plant, sometimes waking me up at night when it’s “clearing the smoke towers” which, despite allegedly being fitted with filters, still spew toxic sludge and smog pushing everyone here closer to a painful death by garbage fires and the Zouk power plant like some post-apocalyptic distopia movie.)

I was also surprised by the stringent safety procedures and protocols in place, something kind of out of place in Lebanon, where safety is often a joke and work is usually done ad-hoc, even in essential facilities like power plants.

So, basically EDZ buys energy from EDL that is fed into the EDZ grid, and the second EDL stops supplying every day, EDZ maintains the power supply constant with its own generators for most of the hours in a day. This means that for a customer, the electricity never cuts, even for those few seconds in between most of us start cussing at because the router is rebooting and ruined that download you’ve been waiting hours to finish. And more importantly, they pay one bill that is 35–40% cheaper overall. That’s because EDZ’s tariff is based on how many hours EDL fails to provide electricity and the price of diesel oil, unlike the “moteurs” local generators that have refused to lower prices even though diesel is down more than 60% from its peak when their tariffs were set.

Moteurs Cartels

Who doesn’t remember the barbaric savages foaming at the mouth while shooting at transformers, EDZ facilities and workers last year because their polluting, overpriced and impractical “services” were being made obsolete by a better, cheaper and less-polluting option. Who can forget how the police sat cross-armed and did nothing about it?

Nakad and his family were constantly harassed and threatened, and you get a feeling of how bad it got by how secured the power plant is. I joked with Jimmy “this looks more like a US military base”, and that was true, especially when it coms to safety and security procedures. That kinda shows you how desperate corrupt people would go to protect their embezzlement of people’s money because of the public sector in Lebanon failing miserably. It also shows how sticking with your plan and not succumbing threats can pay off if you stick to it and help make people’s live better, or at least, less bad.

EDZ is far less extreme in their dislike of the generator owners than I am, and in making sure they don’t force anything upon the people living in their area of operations, they install, free of charge upon request, special switches that allow you to remain with your local moteurs and EDL only, without EDZ’s supply. However, a measly 15 out of 55,000+ households opted for that option (probably those that own the moteurs, hahahaha).

At the end of the day, folks realize paying a cheaper single bill for continuous power supply was awesome and the violence and crimes by the moteur cartels subsided after virtually everyone abandoned them. It seems the cartels didn’t mind that too much though, given how experienced they are in the dirty moteur business (since Zahle area has been experiencing shortages since the 70s) they have expanded to many other areas in Lebanon, and their business of profiting off of people’s suffering for an unfairly high price, sadly continues outside of EDZ’s area of operations.

Plans for Jbeil? Tripoli?

After the resounding success of EDZ, many folks started talking about Jbeil or Tripoli following in the footsteps of EDZ. I asked Mr. Nakad about that, and if he was at all involved. That’s when he explained there are several obstacles to that, first of which is EDL.

In Zahle, the electrical infrastructure was built and is owned by EDZ. Given the concession, they don’t need EDL’s permission to use their own network. They also don’t need to refrain from generating power too, given EDL broke its commitment in the contract to provide 24h power. Unfortunately, most of Lebanon’s electrical infrastructure (poles, lines, transformers, etc.) are owned by EDL, and given its track record and an administration that is as corrupt and un-reformable as Ogero, that happening is very unlikely without actually breaking the law and using the EDL lines and infrastructure to supply electricity generated by companies or individuals like EDZ.

Tripoli does have a company with a concession similar to EDZ, but it also expires soon. So, in terms of most probably able to imitate Zahle’s success story, Lebanon’s second city, Tripoli, is best poised to finally enter the 21st century in Lebanon that includes 24h electricity like virtually ever other inhabited place on the planet (even in a remote Nepalese village in the Himalayas I stayed in where there wasn’t even a paved road…)

All in All

It is extremely encouraging to see such an ambitious project being undertaken and succeed despite all the security and corruption hurdles it faced. It’s rare to see a problem actually fixed in Lebanon, whether it’s a vacant presidential seat or more than 6 months of drowning in garbage in the darkness. EDZ represents hope in changing stuff for the better without waiting for the crippled, illegitimate government to do something about it, which we all know it won’t unless it involves the politicians making a cut, regardless if taxpayers get what they’re being overcharged and overtaxed for.

I really hope the same can be replicated in different parts of Lebanon, both in terms of power supply and other basic necessities (such as waste management perhaps, as I have called for since August 2014)

This also puts to rest the unfounded fears of “privatization” in Lebanon, which usually just means unfair and inefficient monopolies and oligopolies (like our telecom sector), since the customer has the choice to either subscribe to EDZ or one of the other options and is not being forced to pay for something they didn’t choose to be part of. It also shows how IPPs (Independent Power Producers) can help solve the electricity issue once and for all in an ISO-certified manner that is cheaper for the consumer overall.

The question that remains is, will EDL remain keeping the millions of Lebanese people hostage so they can protect their concession while failing to deliver? And will the moteur cartels always be a dangerous and violent obstacle to progress from IPPs and other non-governmental entities that seek to fix this country’s woes, especially the power cuts, which even refugees running away from war have had difficulty getting accustomed to…

I’d like to thank Assaad and Zeina Nakad for their insight, time and hospitality, and Naji Jreissati for explaining more about the technical side of the operation. And of course, Jimmy Ghazal for helping set this field visit up and taking awesome shots of it!

(All photos taken by Jimmy Ghazal)

I feel guilty for not giving this tragedy the time and attention it deserves. Imagine 17,000 sons, daughters, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents whose loved ones haven’t the slightest idea about their fate. Not knowing if they’re dead, imprisoned, lost or held hostage, over the period of more than four decades…

We’ve all seen or heard about the tent and protests in the Gibran Khalil Gebran garden in front of the ESCWA in downtown Beirut. They’ve been there non-stop since 2000, that’s a 16-year sit-in for over 40 years of painful waiting and uncertainty.

Fushat Amal

As part of the post-war generation, this issue never really resonated with most of us. Partly because the issue was so mysterious and the numbers so daunting. I can only imagine how difficult it must be waking up every day and hoping a loved one would come knocking at your door after all these years, and how even more difficult it must be when the knock on the door isn’t them.

Fushat Amal, a Space for Hope, is an interactive digital space designed to bring to the public some of the individual stories of the thousands of persons who went missing in Lebanon over the past four decades, and whose families continue to struggle to learn their fate.

Behind the number 17,000 and the framed photographs that have become the hallmark of the families’ public gatherings, there are personal stories to be told and shared. Fushat ‘Amal is one space in which their parents, children, and siblings can share with us these stories; a space where younger generations and those who did not suffer the same fate can learn about who these people are, reflect on the consequences of their disappearance and the day they left their homes never to return or be heard of again.

Fushat Amal “About” Page

I spent a good deal of time this morning browsing the “stories” page on the platform, randomly clicking on the framed photos of men and women and reading about who they were, what they did, how they disappeared and testimonies from their loved ones about them. Numbers desensitize us in my opinion, and I’m sure you’ll agree “17,000” doesn’t nearly have the same impact that reading about Ali Hamadeh who disappeared when he was a 13-year-old boy, or Marie-Christine Salem who disappeared when she was a 19-year-old young woman, does. These are only two cases amongst many, many more.

I encourage you to check out Fushat Amal, and go to the “Take Action” page if you feel you can and want to do more to help the families of the disappeared. If not by actually finding their loved ones, at least in helping them bridge the decades-old gap between them and those of us who have not had a loved one or relative disappeared… The post-war gen. I’ve volunteered with a friend to help interview relatives who are not able to go online and post about their loved ones. You can also sign the petition to put pressure on the Lebanese authorities to establish an independent commission in charge of investigating and clarifying the fate of the missing.

Check out the platform here

I really, really, really, really wish this was a satire piece, but it’s not. I’m not sure why, but the Christian religious institutions in Lebanon along with their armed supporters think that Stanley Kubrick’s movie “Eyes Wide Shut” was about Lebanon, and everyone in it who’s not a misinformed conservative. They must think we all wear masks and have orgies praising Satan every night.

Earlier today, and I kid you not, this is true, the police in Jounieh questioned a person accused of worshipping satan (a non-existent crime in Lebanon). As if that wasn’t absurd enough, and again, this is real, not satire, they asked the innocent Lebanese taxpayer if he practices “Yoga”n as one of the follow-up questions to “are you a satanist?”

I guess the priest (Marwan Khoury) must have watched one of the exorcism movies and thought the violent contractions by mentally ill people (which some local priests still think is “possession by demons” even when the church generally doesn’t do that dangerous and harmful ritual anymore) are actually yoga poses. To be fair, for the untrained eye, yoga might seem scary. Then again, those same people are afraid of Harry Potter books, so you can’t really count on their lucid judgment. Read the article here (in Arabic) where that priest elaborates his conspiracy theories about yoga, but be warned, you might feel pain in your ribs from too much laughter if you’re educated or know what Google is, or might burst an artery in your eye from seething with anger if you’re a yogi.

The saddest part though in all of this incident, isn’t the ignorance and hatred of the religious establishment. That’s not news, we all know that’s what they’re like. The terrifying part is that the police, funded by our taxes and tasked to allegedly “serve and protect” taxpayers, actually bought into that ridiculous delusion, and acted upon it.

Your taxes were wasted today on bullying an innocent taxpayer for his lifestyle, instead of arresting armed thugs that threaten anyone who doesn’t submit to their rigid and archaic beliefs. It might not be you that’s getting questioned, but your money is paying for it, not the church’s endless coffers.

Inquisition?

First of all, I’d like to tell modern-day inquisitors that it’s none of your business if someone worships satan. Lebanon guarantees absolute freedom of belief and creed (or lack-thereof). I know you all solemnly believe your god is the one true god, but it’s none of your business who other people worship or what they practice or enjoy (be it satanism or yoga or heavy metal).

On that note, even MTV, the ultra-right mouthpiece of Christian conservatives known for fabricating stories like “digital drugs”, had to admit that there has never been a single case of “satanic worshipping” in Lebanon. Ever. So, where are they getting these delusions from (with hilarious fake numbers like “8000 satanists in Lebanon”)

Regardless, as mentioned before, satanism (albeit non-existent in Lebanon) is not a crime under Lebanese law. However, priests like Marwan Khoury and Abou Kasam are breaking the law, and have been doing so for many, many years. In Lebanon, purposely offending a religion is illegal. Christian zealots are guilty of that on numerous occasions, like when the “Santa Muerte” scandal broke out after a Christian zealot thought Zara was selling t-shirts with the venerated Catholic symbol in many South American countries (by the way, it turned out they weren’t even selling it here, it was only on the Zara website). So, the Christian zealots broke the law by doing that, purposefully insulting a religion (their own, ironically).

So, technically, those that should be being questioned and put on trial are the priests and their armed supporters that are “defaming” their own religions others’. Insults and fabrications against Yogis for example, which more and more Lebanese identify as these days (not as an organized religion though, just spirituality or a good workout for most), are punishable by archaic Lebanese law. Now, I don’t like that law, given I am pro-free speech and do not want to silence anyone like the church here is trying so vehemently to do. However, I find the irony that they are the ones guilty of what they are accusing psytrance fans, metal-heads and apparently now yoga enthusiasts of, delicious.

Pope Francis, Where Are You?

I love this Pope. He’s exactly what the Catholic church needed: less hatred, less ignorance and less scandals. However, looking at how the local church here is behaving, I’m sure the Pope would be extremely unhappy with the unacceptable way Lebanon’s catholic clergy are oppressing vast swaths of Lebanese society for their lifestyles, musical preferences and even workout and wellbeing routines.

Perhaps we can appeal to the newly reforming Vatican, maybe they can relieve Lebanon’s modern-day inquisitors and instead appoint clergy that are true to what their faith is supposed to be about: love, compassion and forgiveness, instead of bitterness, hatred and oppression.

More Soon

I had to post this today, because the yoga thing I found equally hilarious and terrifying, like so many other things the police in Lebanon think are “crimes”. So, I’m announcing a new series on the blog that will focus on incidents like this, where the police and those coaxing them to oppress taxpayers are highlighted. Not to defame, but in hopes of making them better informed to stop religious institutions from pressuring them into breaking the law to silence those with different opinions.

However, that’s not all I have to say about this inquisition and the whole satanism scandal. I will be publishing detailed reports and investigations into how it all started, how it’s being orchestrated, who it is targeting and most importantly, what we can do to put an end to this unacceptable breach of freedom, privacy and most basic rights of Lebanese taxpayers in what is supposed to be a “bastion of liberal thought” in the region, but is looking more like Saudi or Iranian moral police these days…

Neil deGrasse Tyson (most of you know him from the meme below) is one of the many scientists that is making science interesting for folks with non-scientific backgrounds. With him and pages like IFL Science, science and critical thinking has become cool for so many folks that used to think that science is just the boring stuff we were forced to memorize without understanding in high school (or like at my school, omitting stuff like Natural Selection because it doesn’t go with the religious creationism fable).

Yesterday, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a statistician and risk analysis expert who is also a best-selling author of “Black Swan” tweeted this severely condescending tweet, ending it with a “Kapish?” at the end. What a douchebag!

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/691049066256547840

However, in the graceful, eloquent and witty way we’re used to from Neil, this was his epic reply, where he used a part of Taleb’s Twitter bio where he adds he’s a “Lebanese wine expert”.

Apparently, this article is what pissed off Taleb so much (not sure why though).

Watch Cosmos on Netflix if you still haven’t, and don’t pay much attention to the sound of negativity that belittles scientists and what they do (by tweeting from a phone, using the Internet, while drinking safe wine, all of that which was made possible by those very same scientists and their noble work being told “Kapish?”)

I won’t pretend to have been the best of friends with Leila Alaoui. I met her 3 years ago in Beirut after becoming acquainted with her art. Each of those occasions was a splendid one, it’s rare to meet new people and actually enjoy a conversation with them these days, much less learn something new about places you’ve never been to. It’s also rarer to make genuine friends like that, people you look up to and admire. Leila was exactly that person.

Living in this part of the world, each of us has lost a friend or loved one or idol or mentor to senseless violence by cowardly hands. Most of the people I grew up reading and getting guidance from had their lives and missions ended abruptly with a bomb or bullets.

Leila’s murder by Al Qaeda last week in Burkina Faso hit many of her friends in Beirut and around the world like a ton of bricks. Many of us venture to dangerous places to get the story and tell it to the world, knowing full well the dangers involved when going into conflict zones. That makes the fact that Leila perished while on assignment with Amnesty International’s “My Body, My Rights” women’s right campaign in somewhere we wouldn’t expect such an attack to happen, so much harder to accept.

It’s also a brutally painful reminder that nowhere in the world is safe. Whether it’s Burj El Brajneh, Paris, San Bernadino, Bamako, Aleppo or Baghdad, good people will always pay the ultimate price for the good work they do. It is also a brutally painful reminder of how important Leila’s work is to counter that violent extremism and show the true face of . Work that celebrates and highlights the value of diversity in our societies and the hardships of migration, whether in her home country of Morocco, Lebanon and many other places around the world.

I came across this tribute song for Leila by Rayess Bek on my newsfeed today. I hope you remember fond memories of Leila, her fantastic work and the mark she left in this world while you listen to this melancholic tribute. Here’s what she said after the Paris November attacks at the Paris biennial…

“Given what happened last week, there’s a lot to be done to show that the Arab world is not just Islamic State,” she said. “This biennial plays an even more important role now. What is great is that for the first time you’re not seeing cliches of the Arab world but the diversity

Source

Leila, I’m glad to have been lucky enough to meet you.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/S8QIjAwPHPU