The one Lebanese town that feels like the rest of the world

power generator

Believe or not, Kherbet Selem, a small village in south Lebanon, now enjoys 24/7 electricity after it used to suffer from up to 12 hours power cuts!

The municipality there simply bought its own diesel generators that switch on automatically when the power cuts, and the village is now having 24/7 electricity for the first time in history. So basically that’s the only place in Lebanon that feels like the rest of the world!

Meanwhile, our government has been failing to fix the electricity sector in Lebanon for more than 20 years now, and will definitely keep on doing so for at least the next 200 years.

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Update: De Prague to remain open for at least a couple more months

de prague hamra

Looks like tonight will not witness De Prague’s closure as the owner Raed Habib decided to give the place another shot over the next couple of months following a demonstration that was organized by around 70 of his loyal customers near his house. You can read all about it here.

I never knew the bar meant a lot to so many people. The whole thing makes you wonder if it was a publicity stunt since it got 3 articles on The Daily Star website in a couple of days, and they were overwhelmed with customers today who wanted to say goodbye to the place!

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De Prague Hamra closing today

de prague hamra

As per this article in The Daily Star yesterday, De Prague will be closing its doors today after 8 years of operating in Hamra.

The reasons of the closure as stated by the bar’s general manager Pascale Azzi are the declining number of customers as well as the smoking ban that was introduced in September last year. Moreover, in a second article published today, the owner Raed Habib added that the bar will also be closing due to the general change of atmosphere in Hamra in addition to the increasing violence incidents in the neighborhood.

These reasons didn’t really make sense to me because the economic recession and the smoking ban are affecting all the shops in Hamra, yet many places like February 30 and Main Street for example are doing pretty well and always seem to be full at night.

What I guess De Prague should have done to stand out from the competition is possibly taking advantage of the relatively large space they have to setup a small stage and host music bands to get more people to come.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure soon enough some investors will be renting the place and starting a new bar to replace De Prague.

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Social Media Awards Beirut official results in numbers

sma

The people behind the Social Media Awards Beirut took a great step towards being transparent by posting their official results in numbers in the latest issue of Cloud 961 magazine.

The results show how many votes did every candidate get from both the public and judges, and final score was calculated based on the below formula:

Total score = (Candidate’s public vote count / 2) + [ (Sum of public votes / 2) * (Candidate’s judges vote count / Sum of judges cotes)]

Basically most results made sense to me except for the best fashion blog, where only 1 judge voted in favor of L’armoire de Lana even though she’s making a great effort covering fashion event both inside and outside Lebanon.

Moreover, I was glad to see that 327 people voted for me in the best news blog category (and I’m truly thankful to each and everyone of them) even though I’ve never campaigned for votes and didn’t even nominate myself in the first place.

You can check the figures on pages 10-11-12 of Cloud 961’s latest issue here.

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In support of the Lebanese army

I’ve been noticing some traffic signs and parking meter machines around Achrafieh with stickers on them calling to take a stand with the Lebanese army.

park meter sign

I’m all for supporting the Lebanese army, but isn’t that also considered as an act of vandalism?

Second photo via @nicolasehnaoui

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News coverage in Lebanon

It’s funny how Lebanese news outlets publish whatever is coming their way when an incident occurs in the country.

Here’s what Tayyar, ElNashra, and LBC posted about today’s blast in Taanayel.

Tayyar.org:

tayyar

Elnashra on twitter: (A rocket!)

“النشرة”: الانفجار في تعنايل ناجم عن سقوط صاروخ على الطريق الدولية

Bassam Abou Zeid from LBC on twitter:

انفجار تعنايل ناجم عن عبوة صغيرة استهدفت فان أبيض وسيارة ب أم زيتية زجاجهما داكن وقد سقط زجاج السيارتين ولكنهما تابعتا طريقهما نحو المصنع

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Busted!

Who’s that guy sneaking a peek at our national treasure?

haifamjk

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