All the Beirut news.

So, look what I found today. It looks like PayPal Egypt is now a reality, and much sooner than rumors we had heard (November 2013). We did hear that Lebanon will get PayPal right after Egypt, so, this means that, maybe, just maybe, we’ll have PayPal sooner than we were hoping. Maybe this summer instead of December?

It’s here. Summer that is. I asked around and confirmed that White will be opening on May 15th this year. The official opening will be on that date, though I expect they’ll test everything out with a pre-opening event, like these rooftop clubs often do every year. I most probably won’t be in Beirut for the opening, but thought you guys would like to know since the questions about the rooftop club sensations are already starting to come in.

Emprire Magazine ran a wonderful story years and years back,: They commissioned their writer to go to Rodeo Drive armed with just 5 Dollars and see what he could buy with it (the idea was inspired by the movie "Pretty Woman"). He tried several shops including a perfume store which was selling the Micheal Jordan perfume and the writer wittingly asks - "so when I wear it, I end up smelling like him?"... An exasperated shop assistant answers, "no, but you will be endorsed by him".

[YouTube]
Over the past 25 years, only 54 patients have been diagnosed worldwide with Plazmacytoid Dendretic Cells Leukemia. Peter Dagher is one of them unfortunately. He is in need of money to perform a bone marrow transplant but more importantly needs to find a match.
For this purpose, the Peter Dagher Foundation was set up not just to raise awareness and collect money but also and this is really important to create an extensive and accurate bone marrow registry for any person of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean ethnicity with the help of BE THE MATCH (National Bank for the bone marrow) and the American University of Beirut.
Let’s hope and pray that Peter wins his battle against cancer.

[YouTube]
Maxime Chaaya is going for quite an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime adventure, that is rowing the Indian Ocean. The voyage will begin in Western Australia and end in Mauritius, covering over 4000 miles (6500km). This is quite a risky adventure with a lot of perils so let’s wish him the best of luck. Let’s also hope we’ll be able to track his progress and get updates and pictures along the trip.
You can read more about it [Here]. I hope we’ll be able to track his progress online.

Many English words are borrowed from Arabic. The BBC recently highlighted a few, such as cheque which comes from the saqq, cotton which comes from qutn, magazine which comes from makhzan and safari which comes from safar. There are however many more words borrowed from Arabic that few know about it, here are twelve of them:

[YouTube]
Check out the awesome railway we had at Nahr el Kalb back then (Starting Minute 2:02).

Picture taken from NowLebanon

Still working, and on top of that it is raining today. Looks like Holland to me.

[YouTube]
I saw this video being circulated on Twitter and Facebook today and was wondering why people remembered it all of a sudden. As it turns out, RadioSawBeirut decided for some reason to upload a 6 month old video on their YouTube Channel.
Here’s the original video and there might be older ones for all I know.

For those interested, a whale was once spotted in the Lebanese waters. Check the video [Here].

Being someone who, during my advertising career, I happened to work extensively on cars (Toyota, Lexus and Mercedes), it is always fascinating for me to find vintage car ads. However, if the compilation below (which is extensive!) shows anything - it is that we have been selling cars like we always have. Compare any of these to today's market and you will find the same techniques and the same points of persuasion.

View from my Friday afternoon/evening watering hole; the Beirut Corniche
Still hard at work, but the grueling tempo is slowly winding down. No TGIF for me though, as today, again, I am working. I attended an interesting workshop this week. More on that later. It is raining this week; very unusual and Dutch. Next week will be filled with a number of super Dutch activities (Queen's Day, a crowning, a quiz night and Remembrance Day) right here in Lebanon. Follow me, and you'll become Dutch pretty soon.

Like many abandoned Beirut mansions, this one in Clemenceau is covered in a jungle of weeds.

I wonder what this place would look like if they were cleared away.

It’s a warm spring afternoon in Beirut, the birds are chirping and Hamra street is as busy as usual. There’s a lottery salesman staring into the distance, and occasionally he takes a puff from his cigarette then goes back to staring. An old woman is trying to cross the street, and nearby a family is watching the scene from a balcony on the second floor. A typical calm Beirut Afternoon.

(ink on paper + digital coloring حبر على ورق و ألوان)
تحية لعازفة القانون الجميلة إيمان حمصي(1967-2013)Tribute to the beautiful Qanun player Eman Homsi(1967-2013)

Perhaps it's slowly dawning on the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb that they have been played for fools by Hezbollah, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Michel Aoun.

Both of the Christian parties had expected there to be a vote in parliament on the so-called Orthodox proposal, but the signs today are that this will not happen. If so, they will have to admit that they ran into a trap, led to endorse a proposal that would break March 14 apart and prevent it from winning a parliamentary majority.