Relax, Take it Easy

This is what I've been hooked on these last couple of days (even though the news make it hard to relax.) It's a song by Mika, a London-based Lebanese artist. Born in Beirut during the war he moved with his family to Paris then London.

His debut album is to be released in February. His first single "Grace Kelly" hit #1 on the UK charts and is the only second track in history to go to number one on downloads only.

Witty Lyrics, a catchy sound and a nice voice; makes it easy to get addicted.

Below is Grace Kelly video, you can also hear more of him on his MySpace (my favorite is the third one), or read more about him on his official website.

Paving the Road to War

Step by step, pave by pave ... it seems as if this is exactly what they are trying to accomplish.

After Hezbollah and their allies' riots on Tuesday; encroaching on peoples' lives and freedom; clashes around the country continued yesterday. From Ain el Helweh where the Lebanese army exchanged fire with gunmen in the South; passing by Beirut Arab University where violence spread to surrounding districts; to Tripoli, in the North, where government loyalists and opposition supporters exchanged fire.

The latest events are really worrying and depressing, to say the least, and there is to it a bitter taste of déjà vu. Demonstrations, riots, clashes, assassinations, ... no one cares anymore about containing all this violence and anger; people are getting more and more out of control and the army doesn't have control over anything (apart from the curfew they -finally- decided to put in place.) this leaves me with the fear that it blows up at a moment's notice.

They are paving the road to a new civil war, as usual, putting their own interest before the interest of the nation. Playing the blaming game, bickering over who is right and who is wrong, and leaving no place for compromise. It is as if they would rather see the country dragged again into bloodshed and destruction rather than compromise for the sake of the nation.

Aoun and his "infragreens"

The New York Times ran a story on our national megalomaniac – a.k.a. Gen. Michel Aoun.

My favorite quote has got to be the following: "If I was in their place [his partisans] I might not feel comfortable with how things are going either," General Aoun said. "But I have infrared — even infragreen. I can see what is ahead of me tomorrow, and I will eventually clarify things for them."Hassan M. Fattah, An Enigmatic Wild Card in Lebanon's High-Stakes Politics, New York Times, January 20, 2007

Oh please, do so, use those infragreens and enlighten us, clarify things; we can't hold the suspense much longer.
Better read this than be blind.

Lebanese Social Networking

A new site has joined the social network neighborhood. Friendster was the first of its kind and considered to be the "top online social network service", at least until MySpace came along and took the lead.

In a world where people have less time to actually socialize and the internet takes a huge part of our lives, these sites came pretty handy. But they remain too generic and since the rich/jet-setters and the models/beautiful have their own network, why not the Lebanese as well.

That seems to be the idea of BeirutForever, advertising itself as "the ultimate website for lebanese users, where you stay connected to your old friends and meet cool new people who share your interests."

It seems to have just been launched as most of the site is still under construction, but should have an interesting development. Just another way of making Lebanon a smaller place than it already is.

The Arab Blogosphere

Sorry for the very light inexistent blogging; but with the holiday season, its end and a new project I have found myself overwhelmed, giving me very little time to blog.

In the meantime, there's an interesting article in the Columbia Journalism Review analyzing the Arab blogosphere. New technologies have introduced a certain autonomy in the world, in general, and the Arab world, in particular, allowing people to have access to news they wouldn't be able to find at home and giving them a voice and a certain freedom to speak their mind and, most importantly, be heard. New mediums, such as the internet and blogs, have allowed people from the Middle East to transcend politics and move away from their "official" representatives' rhetoric. Gal Beckerman discusses further this phenomenon; an interesting read.

An excerpt:

Last summer was, in fact, a watershed moment for the Middle Eastern blogosphere. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah not only brought attention to the many different Arab conversations that had taken place on homemade Web sites in the past two or three years, but also launched thousands more of them. And they were more than just a handful of aberrant voices. They reflected a new culture of openness, dialogue, and questioning. And unlike the neoconservative notion that these ideals can be dropped on a foreign population like so many bomblets, the push for change here is coming from within. Whether it is a Jordanian student discussing the taboo subject of the monarchy’s viability or a Saudi woman writing about her sexual experiences or an Egyptian commenting with sadness at an Israeli blogger’s description of a suicide bombing, each of these unprecedented acts is one small move toward opening up these societies.

Gal Beckerman, The New Arab Conversation, Columbia Journalism Review, Jan.-Feb. 2007

Happy New Year

Wishing you all a wonderful New Year ... Goodbye 06!

May 2007 bring us all success, love, happiness and, above all, health.



Hoping their New Year's resolutions will be for Lebanon.

Kel Sene w Entoo be Kheir

Silent Night?

My favorite time of the year is back again. The holiday season, a time for joy to share with family and friends; too bad the current situation is ruining it.

Well at least you can see it in a comical way:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS