All the Beirut news.

The AUB Human Rights Club, in collaboration with the Migrant Workers Task Force, gladly present “ROCK FOR MIGRANT RIGHTS”, a night of Live music at T-Marbouta (Near Starbucks Hamra).
Entrance Fee: 10.000 LL (including a coupon for Ethiopian food- on a first come first serve basis)
Proceeds will go to the Migrant Workers Task Force (MWTF) and will contribute to purchasing supplies for free English and Computer courses offered to migrant workers.
Bands performing: 
Resonance
EEE’s
Entity
Mohammed Hodeib
The 601

So where do you go when you want to shoot scenes of Beirut without stepping foot in the Lebanese capital? The drama/thriller TV series Homeland chose Tel Aviv:
Though booted from the CIA as psychologically unfit, the heroine of the hit TV thriller ”Homeland” will return for the second season pursuing leads in the Middle East, the show’s producer said on Friday.
[...]
Carrie Mathison, Homeland’s intuitive and overwrought CIA officer played by Claire Danes, will be in Beirut at the outset of the second season, Howard said, twitching the veil on a script kept largely secret.
[...]

This weekend I was visiting Lebanon and felt like renting a convertible since I read the weather was going to be great. After calling a few different rental agencies I decided to rent a car from Avis Lebanon for two reasons and those two reasons are actually why they’re going to be my favorite car rental agency from now on.

Jounieh could be summarised as a collection of ill-assorted concrete shapes lining a motorway and littering a whole hillside. But in the old town of Jounieh, a lot of the lovely old buildings are being beautifully renovated.     And there’s a lot of work in progress.

Arab Tourists in Beirut: Picture from ArabianBusiness
The United Arab Emirates and Qatar on Saturday urged their citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon, where clashes linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria have left 10 people dead. “The UAE foreign ministry has urged citizens not to travel to Lebanon until the tense security situation there is cleared,” it said in an English-language statement carried on state news agency WAM.

تقول بويد: كنت في لندن في الشتاء الماضي، وبينما كنت أمشي خلال محطة للقطارات، سمعت شخصان يتحدثان عن التنسيق مع صديق ثالث لهما، حين قال أحدهم للآخر “سوف أتواصل معه عبر الفيسبوك” فعندما كنت في أفغانستان في العام الماضي، في مركز من مراكز التفصيل في كل قاعدة عسكرية واحدة كان نصف إلى ثلثي القوات كانو متصلين على الفيسبوك. كان هذا فعالاً عندما يكون لديك فقط الوصول إلى أجهزة الكمبيوتر لمدة نصف ساعة في كل مرة، الفيسبوك أصبح أنجح وسيلة للتواصل مع الأهل والأصدقاء ومعرفة أخبارهم. كنت منزعجة جداً عند اكتشافي أن صديقي السابق اصبح لديه طفل ولكنه لم يرسلي هذا النبأ السعيد عبر البريد الالكتروني، أنزعجت أكثر عند معرفتي عن طريق صديق مشترك بقوله: “أعتقد أنه نشرهذا للتو على الفيسبوك”.

http://al-ghorba23.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/blog-post_14.html إنْ تَباهى الحَرفُ، والحَرفُ عَنيدُ               وتَماهـى الفِـكرُ نـوراً يَسـتَزيـدُ       وحَـنا القـلـبُ، فَحاكـاهُ  اليَـراعُ                   حِـبرُهُ القـاني تَـنـزَّلـهُ الوَريــدُ       وصَفا العَقلُ، فَواساهُ البَـيـانُ                      دافِـقَ الصِّـدقِ، لَـهـيـباً يَستَعيدُ     وغَدا في مَلعبِ الأوطانِ ذَوداً                   حاضِرَ الذِّهـنِ، جريئاً، لا يَحيدُ       ثـائِرَ الـروحِ، عَنيدَ  الكِـبرياءِ                    دافِـعَ  الظـلـمِ، ولِلـحَـقِّ عَـمـيدُ       رافِـعاً للـعَدلِ أبوابَ  الزمـانِ                    فارِسَ الكُـتّابِ صَـوْلاتٍ يُـجيدُ       قُلْ: شُلوحُ الأَرزِ ما خَضَعَتْ لِغازٍ                فـَسُـنـونُ العُـمرِ أَولُـها مَجـيدُ       وليالي الهَجرِ إنْ ضَجَّتْ بِـبالٍ                   ف

Photo credit: Mark @ 248 a.m. 

Photo credit: Rana Salam

It doesn’t say when it will open but at the rate at which new shops are popping in the Beirut Souks, I am guessing pretty soon. I absolutely love LEGO so I will definitely pay the shop a visit.

The blog “From Mexico to Beirut” took his parents in a car ride over the streets of Beirut and made this impressions: “One thing that I love about having visitors over is that they remind me of the things I used to find incredible about Beirut, and that I have grown accostumed to over the years. So I was very “amused” at first when my family asked me to stop the car to see buildings filled with bullet holes. I guess it has become so common for me to see them that I barely notice them now. My family wanted to take photos. They wanted to know what the story behind the building and the bullets was.” Read more about Beirut from a Mexican perspective: - Not My Beirut. - Culture Awareness.

I know some of you thought “Seriously?” I mean Lebanese folks are known for being selfish, fending for themselves even at the expense of others. It’s even something we boast about when we call someone “7arboo2″. But, we’re not really selfish in the good aspect of the term. We don’t really care for ourselves and we constantly feel like we’re nothing more than garbage.

We recorded this video on the Sunday class following Alem Dechasa’s death in Beirut. The class that day was dedicated to discussing Alem, and the thoughts, feelings and reactions our students felt towards her treatment and ultimately death. Read all about the class and discussions in this previous post.
Following the discussions and messages written by our students we also edited and finalized this video. It took some time to finalize the editing but finally it’s here, better late than never.

It looks much more beautiful to me than Beirut nowadays…

Last time a Lebanese movie caused controversy and got banned in Lebanese theaters, it turned out to be a lousy one.

In the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), the Lebanese hastened to escape the burden of the recent past, either erasing the memory of the war or longing for the re-establishment of life as it was before the war.
The public sphere – NGO’s and civil society organizations no less than politicians – also quickened to establish all fashion of committees, courts and movements in order to promote dialogue and reconciliation.
While the public sphere thrived on this optimism and defiance and against the official discourse of “no victor, no vanquished” that prevalesced, the private spheres remained at the level of remembering the war through the narrative of the sect, party and even family.