All the Beirut news.

Honestly, I have no clue who Lara Fabian is, and that’s why I didn’t really comment on the news that Israeli boycott groups had “successfully” barred her concerts planned for Valentine’s Day. On the inside though, I was deeply worried. After all, the very fabric of Lebanese lifestyle was being threatened.

Did anyone else notice the swastika?

On a different note, the swastika wasn’t created by the Nazis. They have been used for centuries by Buddhists and Hindus as a symbol of auspiciousness. I remember seeing a lot of swastikas in the markets of Kolkata, India. [Link]

عام التعاونيات الزراعية

رامي زريق

After a few months of cutting a's and the's to make sure I please the twitter gods, I find out there are platforms where you can fit thousands of words... Here's a 3 part series on the so called economy of the so called lebanon.

Part I

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon-inc-i-mergers-and-acquisitions

Part II

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lebanon-inc-ii-hostile-takeover

By David Pollock and Andrew J. Tabler
Policy Alert, January 25, 2012

There’s this book, 'Travels with Charlie’  where the author John Steinbeck travels the back roads of America and writes about what he sees. I was inspired by that title. You see, my hubbie works some 360 days a year. But sometimes, he decides to take a break. And if you manage to direct him onto the road, you get to see stuff. Lots of stuff, because hubbie doesn’t like things half done. And so we roamed over the northern part of the Beqaa last week.

The two Beiruts ended up meeting - that's Beirut Drive By shooting and Beirut/NTSC... The meeting happened in an undisclosed location over coffee (OK, a cafe latte and a cappucino if you want details) and basically we reviewed the good, the bad and the ugly in the industry and had basically a blast doing it... As my grandmother used to say "if you don't have anything good to say about someone, let's hear it!"... But seriously, it was really nice to eventually connect.

image by Yussof on Panoramio - click for large

The sky was clear and bright, and I liked this view coming from Achrafieh toward downtown. 

The Jal
El-Dib bridge is at risk of collapsing we all know that, we have received messages
and even a Lebanese responsible urges us to avoid this bridge, but we are still
taking it and risking our lives! Why?

STRESSED about driving into Hamra in this rain, traffic anger & parking drama? WHY NOT take the bus? For just LL1,000, ease into your seat, catch up on your reading, make those important phone calls, observe your fellow passengers' outfits, gadgets or body shape, interact with them on state of traffic / bus driver / day ahead, or simply observe those fine details of building facades and shops that you never had time to see because you were too busy dodging other drivers on the road!

As the regime of President Bashar Assad pursues its campaign of repression against its own population, how do those Western officials who once saw Syria as a serious partner in the Middle East feel?

The Assads, father and son, benefited from a profound misunderstanding of the nature of their leadership. None of Damascus’ many interlocutors ever doubted that they were dealing with a fetid dictatorship, but they pursued their flirtations anyway. Somehow, they repeatedly persuaded themselves that Syria was a key to unlocking closed regional doors. That the doors usually stayed closed failed to discourage further advances.

قام وفد قيادي من حركة “حماس” ظهر اليوم بزيارة حركة التجدد الديموقراطي في مقرها في سن الفيل، التقى خلالها نائب رئيس الحركة مصباح الاحدب وأمين السرّ الدكتور انطوان حداد وعضو اللجنة التنفيذية الدكتور حارث سليمان، ضم الوفد مسؤول العلاقات اللبنانية رأفت مره ومسؤول ملف العلاقات الفلسطينية مشهور عبد الحليم وأحمد الحاج.
وأكد مره أن الزيارة تندرج في سياق توجه حركة حماس الى التواصل والانفتاح على الاطراف السياسيي اللبنانيين كافة، كما شدّد على ان حماس لا تمتلك أي تواجد مسلح في لبنان حيث يقتصر نشاطها على الجانب السياسي البحت.

I had a wonderful Sunday. Would love to share it with you, but I am so incredibly busy with things at work that I am wondering whether all that work is worth it. Yes, it pays the bills. Yes, it ensures independence. Yes, I am working with a lovely group of interesting and inspiring people. Yes I’d probably be bored *&@#less if I were not occupied 45 hours a week.
But then I read in my morning paper an article about the regrets of dying people, and their number regret #2 is: I wish I didn't work so hard.

shakira blogging beirut from the back of her brother
Shakira, whose father is of Lebanese descent, recently performed for the very first time in Beirut. She visited her country with her brother Tonino and sister Lucy. Shakira.com accompanied Shakira the day before the gig to visit Byblos, and then filmed the show, which Shakira dedicated to her father. Source shakira.com