All the Beirut news.

par Ralph Mahfoud.- Après le grand succès inattendu du film Libanais « Caramel » de Nadine Labaki qui a conquis le public cinéphile Français lors du 60ème festival de Cannes ; cette année, le Liban est de nouveau à l’affiche. « Je veux voir », un documentaire de deux jeunes réalisateurs libanais, Joana

tags: no comment, beirut, lebanon, lebanese, civil war, 2008

-finkployd- No Comment on Blogging Beirut

as promised, though perhaps a bit late, here's the REMIX of Do You Love Me [Bandaly] by the Studio Beirut Team...!

It's not that I'm in a gloomy mood, but I cant help thinking about it all the time. In the past week, there has been nearly 100 dead and twice as many wounded, people who may never see or walk again. Many were killed by stray bullets and artillery. Others were killed in battles. But a significant number were civilians who were cold-bloodedly murdered. There are reports with pictures and videos about men who were tortured and executed. No one was arrested for these murders.

Who are the butchers?
Where do they live?
Does any one know their names?
Why are they still free?
Do they go to a family every evening and play with their children?
Do they think about what they have done? Does it haunt them?

The politicians are out of the country.. Life is back to normal

Another day here in Lebanon ...

"Normally, at this time of year, Burmese farmers in the southern delta of Myanmar would be draining their rice paddies, plowing their fields with their water buffaloes and preparing to plant new seeds for an autumn harvest.

But two weeks ago, Cyclone Nargis did away with all that. The storm's timing could not have been worse. Tens of thousands of farm families lost their draft animals, their rice stocks and their planting seeds. Now the harvest is in doubt as well." (Thanks D.)

"The success of the strike moves in Egypt and Lebanon would not have been possible without an event unimaginable until two years ago : Hizbollah's victory in the war against Israel. From the very moment that the Arab peoples, from Morocco to Iraq, realised that a political-military movement's daring and determination could breach imperialist strategy, fear began to run up the backbones of the area's regimes, making their nervousness ever more obvious to their peoples."

You know how the last bout of Lebanese civil war was started because of two unfortunate decrees? You remember how the government was reluctant to withdraw the 2 decrees because, it said it would make the government look bad? Well read this: In the same ill-fated ministerial meeting in which the 2 decrees were taken, the government backtracked on another decree barely one month after it had taken it.

Apparently, the government had imposed a tax duty of 5% on imported green coffee beans, and no duty on roasted beans. The 2 largest importers, Sinno and Bsat, pleaded their case with their friend PM Sanioura, who found no problem in backtracking on the 2 decrees without the government losing face in the process.

The new issue of Badael in al Akhbar: My editorial: Israeli biopiracy. The main article, on seeds and bioporacy: when corporations go hunting. Rana Hayeck writes about alternative medicine, Intellectual Property Rights and rosemary...

أنا متطرف لأن من يعتدل في إظهار الحق
يبين نصفه و يبقى نصفه الآخر محجوباً وراء
خوفه من ظنون الناس و تقولاتهم

جبران

i hope beirutspring won't mind my suggestions, for complaints, dont contact me -

I am one of those dual nationality folks who most unfortunately cannot speak their own language.

In the aftermath of the madness, I noticed that one thing whose appearance would have been so natural in the discourse of any civil(ized) society, is absent. In the rush to calculate political gains and losses and to analyze the political results of the attempted coup, to fly to Qatar to negotiate a settlement, everybody seems to have forgotten that what happened, remains at the very least a collection of crimes against the law. Guns were wielded and used, people killed, injured, terrorised and kidnapped, institutions burnt and looted, roads blocked.

Will anybody be prosecuted? Pictures and TV reports abound with gunmen's faces plainly visible in many of them. Will there be investigations ? arrests ?

Another source from the Economist, showing alliances of political parties in Lebanon. Quite useful resource if your unsure about who's who. Excellent article too (except for one mistake- they say six Shiite MPs resigned from govt in November 2006. It was actually five Shiites and one Christian).

It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure on the world.

John Steinback

In my neighborhood, they say they have won. They have dealt a very nasty blow to their opponents. Nasty indeed.
But as a journalist, it’s not very ethical to stay in one neighborhood only, you’ve got to hear both sides of the story. So I hang around in other neighborhoods as well.

And I was interested to hear how the people in the other neighborhood were dealing with their defeat. After all, they were dealt such a nasty blow.

A high level conference on World Food Security is to be held by FAO in Rome 3-5 June 2008. The agenda and the background papers are posted here. They appear to be interesting.

Does this armed Lebanese man know his balaclava has little animal ears on it? It ruins his image somewhat, as does his preppy button-up cardigan. He looks more like a baby kitten than a big bad killer. There should be rules about what militia members can and cannot wear if they want to be taken seriously. (Image from Al-Akhbar)

The Middle East Reporter (by subscription only) reported today a story published in Asharq Al Awsat which said that radical Sunni Islamist groups have begun to organize themselves in an attempt to establish a military coalition to confront Shiite Hizbullah. If this is true, this is seriously bad news. The setback of Saad al-Hariri's Future/Mustaqbal movement during the crisis is likely to empower such radical Sunni Islamic groups.

a GPS-Accurate Interactive Virtual Map of Gemmayze: Beta Version 1.0



key:

RED: pub / bar / nightclub
MAGENTA: lounge / studio
GREEN: restaurant / juice
BLUE: bank

Samandal, an anthology of 11 serialized as well as one-off comic stories, recently joined the collection of rare Arab adult comic publications when it was launched and distributed on March 28, 2008 at Express Cafe in Hamra, Beirut. Samandal features comics stories in English, Arabic, and French, by international and Lebanese artists.

Salamander, a Lebanese Bande Dessinée - here's Issue 0:

"Monopoly control of crop genes is a bad idea under any circumstances. But in the midst of a global food crisis with climate change looming, such control is unacceptable and must be challenged. Patented gene technologies will concentrate corporate power, drive up costs, inhibit independent research, and further undermine the rights of farmers to save and exchange seeds. Globally, the top 10 seed corporations already control 57% of commercial seed sales.

"UN alert: One-fourth of world's wheat at risk from new fungus

http://forabetterlebanon.blogspot.com/2008/05/rip-lebanon.html

VALIUM DIAZEPAM (دواء الأمة )

Brand Names: Diastat, Valium (,candy)

_I AM STILL FURIOUS_

انهزام
إستسلام
تهديد
رجوع
إنعدام
سلامة عامة
أمن قومي
إحتلال

-I AM FURIOUS-

Nothing new today on the security front: precarious calm. The Arab league envoys are here and they have spoken to Berri, Hariri, Jumblat Gemayel, Geagea and others. The government is still undecided whether or not to cancel or the infamous decrees. According to the media, the ministers are divided over the matter. That's the news till now.

The Council of Ministers just declared the cancellation of the 2 decrees. Hopefully this will come as a first step towards a resolution of the stalemate.