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Beirut’s New Bike Lane is Just Impractical

By Rami on May 1, 2017 in Beirut, Traffic

It has been less than 10 days since the unveiling of Beirut’s first bike lane and it is already proving to be impractical, not only because drivers are unsurprisingly ignoring it, but also for the simple fact that it was set up on the left side of the road whereas bikers are obliged by traffic laws to ride on the right side of the road and on the bike lane where it exists. The result is an experience as the one you can see in the below video.

The problem lies in the fact that the lane seems to have been set up in a way not to disturb the valet parking guys who occupy the right lane day and night. You just can’t expect something to function correctly when you start it wrong… In my opinion, the municipality and Beirut by Bike are using this bike lane thing as a stunt to appear like they’re doing something for the city while they know beforehand that no one will make use of it, and best of all, it costs nothing to draw lines on the road!

We can barely fit cars in our street, let alone creating bike lanes, so in order to make that happen the municipality must first work on rehabilitating the roads, and in if it’s impossible then I think they better focus on improving something else and take proper credit for it.

video via Mohamad Cheblak

FC Barcelona Legends VS Real Madrid Leyendas in Beirut – Full Match Highlights

By Rami on April 30, 2017 in Sports

Barcelona won a second Clasico within a week on Friday but this time when their legends team beat the Real Madrid legends 3-2 at Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in Beirut.

Barcelona legends were led by Ronaldinho, and even though he didn’t score, he showed he still got the magic with three assists in the game. Giuly scored twice for Barcelona and Simao also scored a goal, while Fernando Sanz and Javi Guerrero scored for Real Madrid.

The game was broadcasted live on MTV, and for those who missed you can still check the highlights as posted on FC Barcelona’s YouTube channel.

On a side, the game was very well organized and security forces were all around the Sports City Stadium to ensure it goes smoothly. If only we see the same energy put by the Lebanese Football Association to make the Lebanese league more interesting to watch and follow!

I’m Absolutely Loving Karrenn.com

By Rami on April 29, 2017 in Reviews

Searching for a new car and settling on the right one for you is never an easy task in Lebanon because auto ads always lack transparency. Most of the time, the advertised prices you see on billboards correspond to the base models and are exclusive of VAT and registration fees, moreover the displayed cars turned to be the fully loaded edition which eventually costs more money.

That’s where comes the role of Karrenn.com, a website that promises to cut through the advertising lingo and provide simple facts and figures about the newly released models. It has been around for several months now but I personally didn’t really notice it until I saw the new 0% billboards for the 2017 Nissan X-Trail and wanted to have more information about it, and then saw their recent article about the same ad. Their approach is quite straight forward, they provide a comparison between the advertised price and the final one including VAT and registration, along with complete specs of the car you will be paying for. Moreover, they list any other available editions with their corresponding final prices and provide you with their recommendation to whether buy or not. For example, in the case of the 2017 X-Trail, it would be a good decision to buy one with the offer RYMCO is currently running.

I also went over other articles they posted and noticed you can easily make a preliminary decision about the right car for you with the figures they list. So in case you are searching to buy a new car, I highly recommend check Karrenn.com and spare yourself phone calls and visits to the dealerships in town.

Meet Mirna El Chalouhi

By Rami on April 28, 2017 in Random

I personally have passed countless times by the Mina El Chalouhi commercial center and highway (spanning from Sin El fil to Nahr El Mot), and until I saw the below report by Al-Jadeed, I have always thought they were named after a late figure who must have deserved it for the good deeds she might have done in the past.

Turned out Mirna El Chalouhi is a young woman who simply had a commercial center named after her in the seventies by her late father, and people eventually started referring to the highway by the same name. I’m not sure though if the municipality there has the same official name for it.

I guess it’s fair to say we can call this the revelation of the day!

Lebanon Ranked The Healthiest Arab Country According to Bloomberg

By Rami on April 26, 2017 in Health

Lebanon was ranked the healthiest Arab country according to the Bloomberg 2017 Global Health index last month. Among 163 countries included in Bloomberg’s study Lebanon came in at 32 ahead of Qatar (36), Bahrain (40), UAE (43) and Oman (48). The study was based on several criteria such as life expectancy at birth, causes of death, availability of clean water, and existing health risks.

Some articles are attributing the result to our Mediterranean cuisine which doesn’t relatively rely much on animal fat as much as other Arab cuisines do. A lot of our traditional food requires the use of vegetables, olive oil and other healthy ingredients, on the other hand you see other Arabs depending more on rice cooked in mmargarine with beef or lamb meat in varied ways.

However, what I believe the study should have also taken into consideration is healthcare accessibility for senior citizens. Lebanon scores pretty bad in this field since people automatically lose their social security coverage once they retire at 64, time they eventually need healthcare services the most! I personally pay a hefty amount every year for a private insurance company in order to keep my parents medically covered, and I still had to fight with the admission office at one of the hospitals in Beirut because they were refusing to let my father in when he got sick last year. But yes, we are still ranked 1st!

Things to Do This Week in Lebanon – April 26th 2017

By Rami on April 26, 2017 in Events

Here are my picks from Lebtivity for this week. For those who like to hike in the nature, Meshwar ma3 meghwar is free of charge hike with the Lebanese army commandos from Ain Zhalta to Maasser El Chouf.

Make sure to check Lebtivity.com for much more options.

Driving In and Out of Beirut – Near Death Experiences Everyday

By Rami on April 25, 2017 in Cars, Traffic, What the fuck!

This video is ~7 minutes of pure horror to anybody into traffic management. A Lebanese YouTuber (Nash Suleiman) recorded his journey in and out of Beirut (from and to Choueifat as it shows) and documented the violations people and himself do everyday.

Just like everyone, I became accustomed to the chaotic driving in this country. But this video lets you observe things from a different perspective, and at one point as you watch you can’t but wonder how on earth do we reach our destination in one piece every time we get into a car… and this by the way made me think that this is one of the main reasons I am currently looking to move into an apartment within Beirut. I basically go daily through almost the same routes that show in the video and I am hating it by the day due to the recklessness of other drivers and the violations that I sometimes feel forced to make. I am sure those who commute to Beirut from other areas like the mountains or Jounieh and the areas beyond can also relate.

This video also incidentally proves that relying on the new traffic law alone to reduce road accidents is utter bullshit. As Nash mentioned at the end, safer roads is a responsibility that each and everyone of us has to bear.

IBDAA – 2017 International Biodiversity Day at AUB

By Rami on April 24, 2017 in Events

IBDAA, or the International Biodiversity Day at AUB, is an annual poster forum organized by the Nature Conservation Center to celebrate the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB).

This event provides an opportunity for AUB students to participate in a fully fledged poster forum in order to test their innovative abilities, attempt to address any issue pertaining to the conservation of nature and its development, create a representative poster, and present their work to a panel of experts. Projects can take the form of demonstrations, models, posters, and descriptions of research findings, which ultimately allows them to gather valuable feedback and expertise in the field of idea conception, development, and execution.

For the past 10 years, projects have tackled nature conservation and development from a variety of viewpoints and under various themes. As for this year, the NCC has chosen to make this year’s theme, “Sustainable Solutions to our Environmental Challenges”, as a means to refocus on the ecological needs of the region.

AUB students who are interested in participating in this event can check IBDAA page on AUB website.

Alex Demirdjian & The Lebanon Team Ranked First in Their Category at Monza

By Rami on April 23, 2017 in Cars, Sports

The Blancpain GT Series Endurance race took place today at Monza and Alex Demirdjian along with his Lebanon team (Abigail Eaton and Davide Rizzo) did a fantastic job aboard the Ferrari 488 GT3 and ranked first in the AM Cup category!! (You can check the results here)

It’s also a job very well done by DEMCO Properties who chose to race under the name of Lebanon with the slogan “Lebanon is Calling” and branded the team in red.

A friend of mine was at the circuit throughout the day and sent me the below photos which I thought of sharing here.

#Undress522 – An Exhibition by Mireille Honein and ABAAD

By Rami on April 23, 2017 in Law

Activists supported by ABAAD succeeded back in December to make the parliament agree on a draft law to abolish the controversial penal code article 522 that allow rapists to escape jail time by marrying their victims, and in an attempt to push the parliament to fully approve this law the cooperated with artist Mireille Honein to exhibit 31 paper dresses swaying between the palm trees in Ain El Mraysseh yesterday as a symbol of how unjust is the article 522 to rape victims.

The exhibition was designed in Paris by Honein who brought it to Beirut to support the NGO with the pressure it is exercising to have the legislation abolished.

People who passed by the exhibition were also invited to sign a petition demanding the parliament to prioritize the abolishing of the article, which we all hope to finally seeing it happening during the next legislative session on May 15.

Photo via AFP/Patrick Baz

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