Lebanese Internet Media
May/095
There are alot of Lebanese websites that I visit daily to get my compulsary updates of Lebanon. I visit several sites from opposing political points of views, just to see what each side has to say, then I try to take what’s common, most probably true, and what is different, which means it needs further looking up into; check inconsistency , holes, and previous news to see if its continuous or fishy.
One thing is common to all Lebanese media sites: visually, THEY SUCK.
They have great graphic designers, but very very very bad web designers and publishers. On most sites you see amazing pictures, banners, logos and what not; but regarding the total design, its crap, its cluttered, its full of advertisements that have nothing to do with what I am reading(meet muslim women from Lebanon as an example while reading some sinister news), flashing pictures, endless pages where I have to scroll down to reach the end, several columns, impossible navigation, and totally crap experience generally.
Its like a metaphor of Lebanon, if you focus on a few parts they are amazing, but as a whole its total crap, nothing works as it should, too chaotic, too flashy, too money oriented.
Bleh…
Denying my origin…
May/094
All my friends and recurrent blog readers (all 20 of them) know that I am highly sensitive about my origin, and that I refuse to be called Arab(if you are new check previous posts). I love when people try to convince me otherwise by saying we have an Arabic culture (as Arabic as Greeks, I say…), but the most funny thing is when they dare to say that I am denying my origin (inkor asleh).
So this is a reply for them, how on earth I am denying my origin? Every Lebanese who says that we Arab is the one who is denying his origin. Not until the Taef agreement that we amended the Arabic adjectif to the constitution, mainly for political reasons (hey they were in taef after all, in the one of the few countries that I can call Arab). The people who say we are arabs, are denying thousands of years of culture and identity that were in Lebanon before any Arab stepped (read: invaded) into Lebanon. I will continue more about this into more details when I resume the “Pissing Everyone Off” series.
For now, I am sticking to my origins, Lebanese Arab wannabes…
My Lebanon
Feb/094
I am always angry at Lebanon, always criticising it , always bashing it, always spitting fire at the Lebanese and their mentalities, always angry at our politicians, at the voters, at the sectarianism rising.
I thought I hate Lebanon and everything related to Lebanon.Now I know, I wouldn’t care at all if I hate it, I am angry at it because I love it.
I doubt I will ever return to live there…
Something bothers me here
Nov/082
I miss the spontaneity of Lebanon, I miss getting a call from my friend 10 mins before going out stating they will pick me up. Or planning a long all day trip for the next day in the middle of the night. Those one of the things I miss the most. To go to see a movie we are talking a week and a half in advance, parties are planned weeks ahead, dinners as well. It just robs a great deal of fun to plan everything.
Fuckers!!!
Oct/081
Yesterday the Lebanese security forces ceased 2 trucks full of marijuana, and today 15 trucks!
My question is, why on earth would you do that? let the people have fun a bit,Lebanon’s been fucked for 3 years now, a bit of weed wouldn’t hurt anyone!
In fact I suggest to put in the middle of martyr square, put them on fire and let whole beirut inhale! maybe our stuck up, stupid politicians relax a bit , start hugging each others and stop their idiocy!
fucking idiots…
Kebab and Islam…
Oct/085
I can’t say how many times(3) I go to a new kebab shop to eat because I am hungry(obviously), asked my origin, then the next question: are you muslim? and its always with this cheeky smile, as if they met their new bestfriend. I mean wtf? what does it have to do with anything? why is it that important to be muslim? bleh!
Yesterday was the worse time…
fuck face:Are you muslim?
me:No
fuck face:Are you christian?
me: No
fuck face:What then?
me:Atheist
other fuck face: what is an atheist?
fuck face: someone who doesn’t believe in any religion.
other fuck face: aha (frown)
fuck face: so what is your family, also atheist?
me: (knowing that he wants to associate me whether I like it or not) there are some atheist yeah.
fuck face: all of them?
me: no . (turned my back and finished eating)
fuck face: hmm (invisible frown)
Too many Martyrs…
Sep/083
Def:
The term martyr (Greek μάρτυς martys “witness”) is most commonly used today to describe an individual who sacrifices their life (or personal freedom) in order to further a cause or belief for many.
So, a killed solider is a martyr, but a person dying from an explosion is NOT a martyr, that person is a victim!!!!
Enough with over using that word!
People who died randomly from a terrorist act, did not choose to be there, they did not pick that car and walked next to it because they knew it was a bomb. They are victims.
wo Bleh…
Peer pressure?
May/085
Something weird is going in Lebanon…
As most of you Facebook users know that the fastest way to know the general feeling of Lebanese population is having a quick glance at their status;
A few days ago, the status were agressive, each taking a side, insulting the others with the nastiest words (animals, traitors, barbarians etc.), people created groups to insult the others, friends were separating and sort of becoming enemies…
Today? the same Lebanese that were taking sides and not bulging , united in one thought: Hope the plane that has the “leaders” on crash/go to hell/burn/ explode etc.
Are the people waking up? or what? or maybe they were taking sides because of peer pressure? (yeah stupid idea, I know…or maybe not)
Gemmayze…
Apr/080
I just knew that the “government” decided to force all pubs in beirut closing at 11:30 pm on weekdays and 1 am on weekends, excellent!
Way to go “govvyyyy”, take what Lebanon is famous of, its nightlife, and kill it.
Dear “govvyy”
I need to tell you a few things, I have been living in Scotland for a year and a half now, and one of the worse things about the nightlife in here, is that pubs have to close at 1 am, and nightclubs at 3 am.So when europeans come to Lebanon and see that the pubs and nightclubs don’t close until the last person leaves, they fuckin LOVE it.
Since dear “govvyyy” you are so new about governing, since you were always lead …, I mean still lead, Lebanon’s main income comes from tourism, around 70% if I remember correctly my primary school geography, oh no sorry, that’s the whole services sector.Anyway, tourism consists in Lebanon consists basically of, Nature tourism to see our green Lebanon(umm the few patches that are cut off and with a few hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs, thanks southern neighbor), to see our beautiful culture (divided by sectarianism at the moment), our great beaches( polluted, polluted and with a huge patch of oil again thanks southern neighbor, not visible anymore but its still there), our great services (yep with the inflation everybody goes to Dubai instead), our food (good, at least that’s intact), our historical monuments and history in general (pre 1975 preserved more or less well, minus some damage to baalbeck from July 2006, thanks to southern neighbor of course, after 1975 we got lots of versions), and last but not least our great nightlife,(which was pretty much the best thing in the whole area, every single foreigner LOVES it).
And now!!!! you dear “govvyyy” want to destroy that too? what can I say? I mean it starts with this, then next they close everything, after that enforce veils as well… anything else?
I understand the gemmayze residents want to sleep, so instead of shutting down 14 pubs, and inforce this ridiculous time limit, be more reasonable and in force something called soundproofing , yeah it does exist!!! I am not lying , I swear!!!!
oh and also make some law about parking, I mean there are parking meters everywhere, start with zoning laws, gemmayze citizens get some card where they can display it on their car screens and they can park anywhere they want, but visitors have so limited spaces.And fine people who sing and yell in the streets.
Finito!!!!!
thank you for listening “govvyyy”… I am probably hallucinating…
Update: Curfew dropped. yay!
(I think Mr Sarkis listened to me 
)
BT Sucks!!!!!
Feb/083
BT (British telecom) is the main telecom provider in Britain , I had to order a phone line 15 days ago to get a working line today…
That’s okay you say? let me tell you the list of problems that I had with them…
1)They do not accept non UK issued credit cards: with the amount of students that come to the UK per year and need a phone line for Internet, that is pretty stupid. Had to send a postal order to them.
2)Supposedly an engineer was to come today to make sure everything is working, they said he will be here between 8 am and 1 pm, great I had to wake up at 7:30 in the morning after staying awake till 3 am because it was one of my friend’s birthday.
at around 9:30 (I was half asleep in the bed) I heard the mail man inserting my daily mail through the door slot (Any stupid jokes regarding mail man, inserting and slot would be deleted…)I didn’t pay much attention, around 10:30 I got up of bed and started cleaning my flat and doing things that I have been postponing in ages like counting all the coins that I have acquired since I arrived to Scotland and exchange them at the bank (22 pounds if you must know: 350 coins arranged in pre required bank plastic bags with specific amounts with like 5 pounds left in mixed coins). At around 12:30 pm, I was getting angry that they did not arrived yet, so I went to check my mail and oups…two letters from BT.I thought FUCK: they came while I was still in bed and didn’t hear them…but no in fact they were welcoming letters that had several problems
1) They mutilated both my First and Last name.
2)They said that if I wanted to cancel my installation I should call them at the least 1 day at noon before the activation date (which is today!!!!)
3)The Address was missing my flat number.
4)And on top of that they said the engineer will call me between 1pm and 6 pm…
F****** Great…been tossing up in the bed dead tired for nothing.
At 5:30, still no one arrived, and I had nothing to do, so I reread the welcoming papers and BANG I read the line about the engineer CALLING me, the fucker at the telephone 15 days ago said that he is coming here!!!!… and I didn’t have a telephone since I am getting the line just for Internet…
Ran to HomeBase (Shop with all kinda home stuff) bought the cheapest phone possible, got back at 5:48. plugged the phone waited till 6 (just in case) no body called (of course, who was I kidding…) .
Lovely Services, its good that I did not order Broadband as well…
Lebanese Language
Oct/072
People in here always ask me if we speak Arabic in Lebanon, and I always answer no we speak Lebanese and not Arabic, and I try to give phrases as examples.
Some Lebanese think they are very Arabic and always try to be sarcastic or laugh when I say Lebanese is not Arabic.
Well here is an interesting sites for you guys its called: Lebanese Etymology.
which has one specific article that you should all read: the Lebanese Language.
In Between Stages of Life…
Sep/070
So, for the last 3 months I have been between stages, I sort off finished Uni, but not quiet; still waiting for an appeal if it works out I would have 3 months left, if not I should start searching for a job and hopefully stay in Edinburgh.
Other than that, most of my friends in here left one by one, for the past month I have been saying goodbye to people almost on a daily basis and it sucks!!! Since I know that some of them I will never see again, well that’s life… and a really wise lady said something to cheer me up that made me feel a bit better : ” now you can call the whole world your home”.
Racism pisses me off…
Aug/071
And the funny thing its not from Scots, at all I encountered to racist comments in here and the sad thing that one of them was Lebanese, thinking about it Lebanese people are VERY racist.
I was walking in Edinburgh with a Lebanese guy, a friend of a friend and there was a very beautiful black woman passing by, and I said: “Wow she is very beautiful”.He looked at me in a weird way and asked : “So you like black women?” as if its something very weird, I replied to him, does it matter? beautiful people are beautiful no matter what race, He didn’t answer… Racist Fucker.
The other incident happened a few days ago, we were 4 people in an Indian festival celebrating the 60 years of India’s independence and there was a cute girl dancing and shaking and one guy who is dutch said: “I am not indian, but the girl is kinda sexy”.The guy pissed me off, he was like saying she is kinda sexy, and insisting that he is not indian…as if its only indian people are suppose to find her sexy.Bleh…
Stupid Racism.
London, Metallica,Tour de France,Where to Live and other Random Stuff…
Jul/071
So I was in London for 5 days, basically to see Metallica in Wembley stadium which was on Sunday, London is almost an exact opposite of Edinburgh, its wild, chaotic , exciting all the time, and the weather , compared to Edinburgh, is heavenly.
I am seriously considering applying for jobs here as well, its just cool 
. Don’t take me wrong, Edinburgh is very cool, but really I am really tired of being sick here, the weather is so unstable, so humid, and so unpredictable that it gets you.We are in July and it feels like winter in Lebanon, no even worse. It gets on your nerves after a while.Imagine, me , a Person coming from the middle east, got sun burned when I came to London and sat in the park for some hours(just to show how for the last 10 months I barely saw the sun).
Anyway, what was I doing in the park?Well… It wasn’t any park, it was the famous Hyde park to be specific, and I was basically having a beer laying down on the grass watching the tour de France time trials on a Big screen while the cyclists were rotating around the park.It was a festival there as well, all sports and cycling oriented, including French food and merchandises and some greasy, unhealthy but very yummy English food . I even tried things called churros …YUMMY.
London’s transport system is cool, specially the underground is efficient, a bit expensive (like everything else in London), and gets packed at peek hours pretty badly, you would laugh when you see people stacked in inside like sardines.
Generally people there are okay, not as friendly as people in Edinburgh, but its to be expected from a big city with over 7 million people, its also so mixed; Edinburgh seems like China with some Scottish, Greek and other minor tourists, its sometimes annoying that its not very mixed, well its to be expected from a city mainly built around its University and where its well know within China.bleh.
Now a very important thing, since London is more mixed, women are from all around the globe, its also a trendy city which means there is a lot of different type of beauty and they all keep up with fashion, and they take care of themselves much more than people in Edinburgh do. I will make a comparison between the two cities soon.
Generally it was kinda fun there, but since I was alone I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could, and I only had 3 full days to take advantage of, its very very expensive, if you want to go think triple at least for everything in Lebanon (I had 26 pounds Steak,thought…it was the best steak I ever had…). Oh and if you ever want to go there, don’t be cheap with the hotel… I went to a cheap hotel, Called Queens Hotel, WHAT A DISASTERRRR…cracked walls, and basic stuff aren’t found there, they don’t give you the typical bathroom stuff like shampoo , not even a damn TOWEL, and there is an old lady at the reception who was very very rude, I arrived at 10:30 pm and I was dead tired, I asked if they serve any food she replied in a rude way:” just don’t go there, we only serve Breakfast in here”. So I went in to put my stuff and on my way out, I asked again to confirm if they stay 24 hours on the reception: she replied also in a rude way: “I already told you the first time”. So what ever you do, don’t go to Queens Hotel 33 Anson Road next to Tufnell Park, oh and btw it was not that cheap… 227 pounds for 4 nights in a shitty place…not cheap at all…the room was barely half my own room in here.The Tv had 4 channels, One day I had to shower in very cold water, there was a boiler next to my room and it was very noisy, there were no insect grill on the windows, so I couldn’t open the window and it was hot like hell…
Anyway, Enough of the bad things…METALLICA WAS AWESOMEEEEEEEEEE … They rocked Wembley Stadium, there were thousands of people, The stadium is huge and they played only old songs not from the St Crap Album, and on top of that they said they are coming next year and with a new album .
Wooohooooooooo
Today I cried…
Jun/074
Fore more than a month now, our soldiers were being killed by terrorist in Lebanon, and I was getting more depressed everyday when reading the headlines when I wake in the morning.
Today I couldn’t stop myself from crying when I saw a tribute page made for all the martyrs, most of those soldiers are my age and younger, they weren’t killed running or doing nothing, they were killed because they are defending us from fucking assholes that are doing everything in the name of a religion…
It really annoys me when people criticise the army as weak and inexperience and make fun of it, its the fault of the fucking government that you support assholes, they have been asking for weapons for years, but the fucking government had other plans, steal steal steal, get Ferraris, mansions, and chalets on the beaches, and let our soldiers die…
Fuck anyone who supports this government of thieves.
Ikea, apartements and new stage in life
Jun/071
There is a certain thrill going to Ikea; yeah I know its not the most luxurious place to buy stuff, but for a student its great, it feels like I going to buy stuff for my apartment,my first apartment, kinda like the feeling when I first took the car on my own .
Speaking of apartments, tomorrow I will start the search for a single bedroom flat, I will be living totally on my own for the first time in my life!! I am finally leaving the students accommodations ( Check Roommates from Hell ) so I can start my new life and the big decision is, do I rent a furnished or an unfurnished apartment?
Each has its own advantages and disadvantages
Furnished: well its furnished(probably not to my likings), more expensive, easy moving in and out.
Unfurnished: I furnish it to my likings (but I have to pay alot), less expensive monthly rent, hard moving in and out.
I am still debating if I would be more comfortable with my own stuff or if I can find a cool furnished flat really to my likings .
Anyway…will keep you updated.
Edinburgh Rocks
May/072
Only in Edinburgh:
1)People paint themselves and dance around only in a thong in the damn cold
2)Only in Edinburgh you can make out with any girl on the 1st of may by saying to her: Happy Beltane.
I love fertility pagan festivals
Several thoughts…
Apr/071
1) Bush killed Superman: Christopher Reeves anyway,If he wasn’t so conservative and allowed more freedom for Stem Cells Research, Superman might still be alive…
2)In Lebanon you hardly see disabled people or people with mental challenges or down syndrome, it is because their parents and families try to hide them from everyone else? or in Lebanon our genes are so good?(I doubt…).
In Edinburgh, I see them all the time, walking side by side healthy people, working normally despite their disabilities, being productive like everyone else.
So what is different about Lebanon? Shame of them?
3)I wonder what would my parents do if they come to Edinburgh and see all those punk and goth people walking around with 10s of piercings , multi colored hairs,and heavy black make up. Do they know that me and my brother love the goth style? I doubt it… when they saw his piercings they freaked out, then his tattoo it was a disaster… Lucky bastard. I am too hairy to put any tattoo except on my back… will get one when I get enough money for a huge back piece.
4) Today I felt too old to be studying, enough… 4 more months and its over for me. I will not do a PHD next year. Maybe in 5 years…
5)Finally, I am back in the dating game…
6)I cannot do the triathlon in September, the triathlon is gonna be held at Ben Nevis, the high foggy mountain from my hiking trip; its 21 kms up and down.That’s not the problem, I knew its the hardest triathlon ever, the problem its so hard and they do not want anyone to participate that they have a rule which states only people with 3 and more previously accomplished triathlon races can participate.
So what I am gonna do instead is keep training to do the 3 required triathlons in a year and a half (hopefully) then participate next September in the big triathlon.
7)Can’t wait for my flu to go away, so I can back to training. 2 weeks ago I have cycled 25kms my record till now, and I am so damn proud of myself. Next step…25kms with zero resting time .
8)People ask me if I miss Lebanon, then they get surprised when I say not at all. I miss my family yes… but Lebanon? pfff… its good to wake up in the morning and not have to worry about the silly stuff that happens in Lebanon everyday, will I be able to drive to hamra today, or the traffic will keep next to barbar for half an hour? what time is the electricity gonna be cut today? is the Internet connection can work today?, because I need to make a research…Will I be able to drive into the street without seeing a small scooter coming the wrong way rapidly ? Will the day pass without someone making some stupid sectarian remark? Will I be able to say a hello to a girl passing in the street, just because I am passing next to her without her lifting her nose way up the air and give me the menacing look (el ja2ra)…
9)Speaking of girls, 4 years ago I used to be extremely shy even talking to a girl…any girl.Lebanese women used to strike fear in me, they have the I-am-untouchable-girl-unless-you-have-a-new-Mercedes-and-can-buy-me-dinner-at-any-place-that-I-fancy-anytime-I-want attitude (of course there are some exceptions) that changed a lot when I traveled to Europe in 2003 and saw there is nothing wrong with me.
And now in here, this is being reinforced… Sex life in Edinburgh is NORMAL. the way its suppose to be… . Well as much normal as it could be when there is some one as freaky and kinky as me .
10) I have an assignment due in 21 hours, I haven’t started yet.Others have been trying to do it for 2 weeks now… I think I am gonna finish before them.Heh…
Hotness….
Apr/071
nope, not talking about some girl….
it’s just that its… 18 degrees with 21 degrees real feel
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