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Lebanese blogosphere weekly link roundup (2010/01/17)

By on January 18, 2010 in Weekly Link Roundup

7 links for today’s roundup:

See you next week!

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On Beirut Souks and demolishing the city spirit

By on January 12, 2010 in Lebanon

Two days ago I went to the newly opened Beirut Souks, Beirut’s new largest shopping area, which was rebuilt by Solidere according to the original grid plan and location of the old souks that were destructed during the civil war while maintaining the landmarks and street names.

To my disappointment, the new Beirut Souks look nothing similar to the image I have in my mind for the old Beirut, and I’m pretty sure the new image defies the memories that old people who knew the old souks have in their mind.

Souk El Tawili (yabeyrouth.com)

Souk El Tawileh (via yabeyrouth.com)

In my opinion Solidere did a horrible job at preserving our heritage there as the new souks no longer reflect the real identity of Beirut, in fact the new souks have no identity at all! Nothing inside that big mall makes you feel like you’re in Beirut except for the “decorative” street plates of course. Be the judge yourself by looking at the photos I took below, it can be Dubai, Paris, or whatever other city!

Add to that the fact that the old souks were a destination to almost all society classes prior to the civil, while right now Beirut Souks is another destination for the snobbish people in Lebanon, I really cannot imagine a low income individual being able to spend a day there. Once again, Solidere probably had the Arab tourists in mind when they designed this place! Just like what they did when they were rebuilding the other parts of the central district.

To me, the Hamra street is a much more authentic Beiruti street than the new Souks of Beirut, though it is full of new restaurants and outlet stores but it has at least maintained its spirit throughout the years.

Beirut souks Beirut souks 4 Beirut souks 1

Beirut souks 5

Beirut souks 6

Beirut souks 7

At the end, I will leave you with this comparative video between the old souks of Beirut and the new ones.

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Lebanese blogosphere weekly link roundup (2010/01/10)

By on January 11, 2010 in Weekly Link Roundup

Time for the weekly roundup, 5 links for today:

See you next week!

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Nokia E72 vs. BlackBerry

By on January 9, 2010 in Lebanon

Never thought we would see similar ads in Lebanon, but I got this lovely ad for the Nokia E72 in my e-mail today and it really made my day!

nokia e72 blackberry

The ad is part of a global campaign by Nokia to position their new device as an alternative to BlackBerry, I’m glad Nokia Lebanon had the guts to use it in Lebanon.

This actually reminded me of a couple of video I saw last, where in the first video BlackBerry literally shot Apple, and in the second video Apple responded with a cool line.

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Israel smashing Lebanon’s Hummus record

By on January 8, 2010 in Lebanon

Lebanese chefs, minister of tourism, people of Lebanon, I beg you not to respond back with another silly world record, instead try to really work on a plan to penetrate the world market with our traditional Mezza dishes!

israeli chef

An Arab-Israeli village is planning to make the world’s biggest hummus, a chickpea dip that stirs passions across the Middle East. Lebanon may not like it.
On Friday, residents of Abu Gosh, near Jerusalem, will mash up 4,000 kilograms of chickpeas, sesame paste, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.

That is twice as much as the Guinness world record set in October by chefs in Lebanon, Israel’s neighbour and rival.

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Wisdom on the fly

By on January 7, 2010 in Funny

Trucks “distributing” wisdom in Lebanon are pretty funny, like this one I was stuck behind today.

khasis

Noah’s Ark? Seriously?

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Lebanese blogosphere weekly link roundup (2010/01/03)

By on January 3, 2010 in Weekly Link Roundup

Happy new year people! 😀 May your new year be blessed with peace, love and joy!

The 2010 will take off on +961 with a new episode of the weekly link roundup, and straight to the links!

Posts that were part of the Kolena Leila initiative:

See you next week!

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Lebanese blogosphere weekly link roundup (2009/12/27)

By on December 28, 2009 in Weekly Link Roundup

Here’s the last link roundup in 2009 holding 6 new links. The Lebanese blogosphere was less active this week, probably due to the holidays.

See you in 2010’s first roundup! 🙂

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