Author Archive | Rami

President Donald Trump is Clueless About Lebanese Politics

By Rami on July 26, 2017 in Politics

It seems like Donald Trump is absolutely clueless about Lebanese politics, and listening to the things he said in the below video makes you really wonder how does he take decisions when it comes to our country and the whole region…

As you all know, PM Saad Hariri is currently on an official trip to the U.S. and has met with President Donald Trump at the oval office yesterday. Following their discussion, the two held a press conference during which Presidend Trump claimed that “Lebanon is on the frontlines in the fight against ISIS, Al-Qaeda AND Hezbollah” (watch at the 1m05s mark) while in fact Hariri’s cabinet in fact has a couple of ministers from Hezbollah, and later even calls the party a menace to Lebanon and the middle east (at the 3m35s mark).

And it didn’t just end here, when Denise Rahme Fakhri asked him about his opinion when it comes to Hezbollah and their role in Syria, Trump appeared just like he has no idea what to answer by simply claiming that he will be expressing his opinion on the next day after meeting with his “very expert military representatives”. (watch at the 10m52s mark)

I bet PM Hariri silently went through several WTF moments during the press conference.

Everybody is Riding The Game of Thrones Wave

By Rami on July 22, 2017 in Television

There has been a lot of posts on social media over the last week celebrating the new season of Game of Thrones, and some brands just felt obliged to post GoT themed material for the sake of joining the conversation.

I personally found most of the posts dull except for the two by Chevrolet and McDonald’s, the rest appeared more like when Al Rifai feel the urge to post something for Valentine’s day…

Snapshots via Samsoum

Top Lebanese Festivals Happening This Summer with Their Full Programs

By Rami on July 19, 2017 in Events

With so many festivals happening across Lebanon this summer, it’s definitely hard to keep track of all the performances taking place over the coming weeks. So I compiled to you this list from Lebtivity of the top 20 Lebanese festivals along with their full programs in order for you easily pick the concerts/performances you want to attend and book your tickets ahead of time.

Engineering Lessons from Beirut

By Rami on July 15, 2017 in Videos

A group of workers were demolishing an old building in the Ras El Nabeh region of Beirut when it suddenly collapsed and filled the surrounding street with rubble that almost reached people who were observing the process, and definitely damaged some of the parked cars nearby.

You can’t but admire the contractors for the safety standards they’re working with. It tells a lot about the quality of the building that will soon be constructed there!

City Centre Parking Now Has Car Plate Scanners To Help You Find Your Car

By Rami on July 14, 2017 in Automotive

I was at City Centre Hazmieh the other day when I noticed they now have car plate scanners in their parking to help you find your car if you ever forgot where you parked.

Several machines located at the mall entrances will help you find your car once you provide your car plate number. I tried the system out of curiosity and the machine took around 10 seconds to return images of several cars, I then had to flip through a couple of images before I found my car along with its exact spot.

Needless to say, the machine will of course fail to find anything if people of the Lebanese 7arbou2 kind remove their car plates or erase the numbers to evade speed radars, but these are douchebags anyway and definitely deserve to get lost in a parking lot.

Fayrouz Drops a New Single Inspired by John Lennon’s Imagine

By Rami on July 14, 2017 in Music

Earlier in June Fayrouz released a new single titled “Lameen” from her upcoming album Bebalee, and just last night her daughter Reema Rahbany posted about a second single titled “Yemken” and this time it was inspired by Jon Lennon’s Imagine.

You can get it from iTune here or just wait a few hours until some people rip it and post it everywhere on Facebook and YouTube.

Now as much as I love Fayrouz, I’m honestly having mixed feelings about these adapted songs… I am by no means a music critic let alone evaluate a piece by Fayrouz, but both of the two singles sounded a bit off to me. It could be that I was expecting something in the same spirit of the music that her son Ziad used to arrange for her, or it could simply be that the original songs were seriously good and therefore it’s unfair to make a comparison with the recent singles given the age of Fayrouz and how she’s performing now… Either ways, I hope the rest of the album capture our hearts just like all her songs did before.

Beirut-Montreal Direct Flights Are Not Happening Anytime Soon!

By Rami on July 13, 2017 in Travel

Remember all the talks about possible re-establishment of non-stop flights between Beirut and Montreal? Well, Duncan Bureau, VP Global Sales at Air Canada unfortunately tweeted on Monday that the Canadian Government rejected their application to make it happen, which is definitely a huge disappointment for the Lebanese community there.

For more details I recommend you read this article “What Is It About Direct Flights To Beirut That Scares Trudeau?” by the Huffington Post discussing how illogical the rejection is given that airlines from much less secure countries such as Egypt are allowed in Montreal.

100 Years of Dibs El Kharroub

By Rami on July 12, 2017 in Culture, Documentaries, Food, Videos

I usually frequently search Vimeo for Lebanese content but for some reason totally missed this 4 minutes documentary by Nay Aoun about a family that has been making Dibs El Kharroub (Carob Molasses) for over a hundred years now at a village called Ksaibeh in Mount Lebanon!

Fadwa, 80 years old now, was taught how to make molasses by her father and has been practicing the tradition since she was 15. Against her father’s will, she also used to sneak during the night to a guy called Menhem to teach him the correct recipe because he never got it right in his little workshop back then. The two eventually ended up getting married and started working together.

The son George is currently taking over the tradition but is unfortunately having difficulty convincing his children to do the same now.

If it wasn’t for the video I honestly wouldn’t have known making molasses was such a delicate process!

For those who are not familiar with it, Carob Molasses are mostly used in deserts recipes such as molasses cakes or it can simply be mixed with Tahini (Dibs w Tahini) and people usually have it with biscuits or bread. It is also an essential ingredient of Jallab the famous Ramadan drink.

Update:

I just noticed the video cannot be embedded due to its privacy settings so you can watch it on Vimeo here.

via /r/Lebanon

Saad Hariri Miming Despacito

By Rami on July 11, 2017 in Funny, Videos

“AYAM Serious” shared on Facebook & Instagram last night a funny video compilation of PM Saad Hariri miming Luis Fonsi’s Despacito and ended up getting a couple of interactions on insta from Hariri himself!

At a time when some politicians are filing lawsuits against TV stations, journalists, and the so called “Facebook activists”, it’s good to see others engaging in the online conversation about them even if it was a joke like the one above. They’re public figures at the end and people have the right to talk about them the way they want.

No matter what you hear about freedom of speech in Lebanon, truth is we have a long way to become like modern countries where media outlets butcher the politicians and hold them accountable for their actions and decisions without facing any legal troubles…

Another Epic Lebanese TV Moment – Cockfight on OTV

By Rami on July 10, 2017 in Politics, Television

OTV hosted Lebanese cleric sheikh Bilal Duqmaq and former Syrian MP Ahmad Shalash to discuss the Syrian war on “Bilmubasher” talk show, but things kept heating up until the two clown eventually decided to end it the way they’re most familiar with, bi ja7shaneh!

The two are known to have extreme views about the Syrian crisis, and I honestly believe TV stations like to get similar people on air for the sole purpose of making such scenes every now and then…

← Previous 1 … 15 16 17 … 187 Next →