Tag Archives | arab

9 Lebanese Startups Among The Arab World’s Top 100

By Rami on October 3, 2017 in Lebanon

Forbes Middle East released its list of the top 100 startups in the Arab World and Lebanon earned 9 spots with Anghami coming 2nd in the overall ranking thanks to $29M in funding. UAE based startup Fetchr was ranked 1st with a funding of $52M.

Here’s a list of the Lebanese startups that were mentioned (Full list available here):

#2 Anghami – Music streaming platform
#23 Scriptr – IoT application platform
#25 Falafel Games – Develops and publishes massively multiplayer online games
#31 Sqwirl Lab – Startup studio
#39 Energy24 – Alternative Energy storage and generator
#65 Blink My Car – Car care app
#72 Risk+ Solutions – Financial intelligence and risk management solutions
#77 Loop – Electric scooter sharing technology
#85 Myki – Cybersecurity

With the all the telecom infrastructure upgrades we are promised, I hope we get to see even more Lebanese projects and startups in the coming years.

On the other hand, a similar list was also compiled by Forbes for the top 100 Arab companies and 4 Lebanese banks made it to the list (Bank Audi, BLOM Bank, Byblos Bank, and Bank of Beirut).

Lebanon Ranks 99th in World Press Freedom Index – 2nd Among Arab Countries

By Rami on May 2, 2017 in Journalism, Lebanon

Reporters without borders issued their yearly World Press Freedom Index and Lebanon came in the 99th place among 180 countries (dropping 1 spot since last year) and in the 2nd place among the Arab countries behind Tunsia.

Here’s what they had to say about the state of press in Lebanon:

Lebanon’s media are outspoken but also extremely politicized and polarized. Its newspapers, radio stations, and TV channels serve as the mouthpieces of political parties or businessmen. Lebanon’s criminal code regards defamation and the dissemination of false information as offenses. Journalists who are prosecuted and convicted by a “print media court” are usually fined, but a prison sentence is still legally possible. Bloggers and online journalists may receive summonses from the “bureau for combatting cyber-crimes” if something they have posted on a social network elicits a complaint from a private party.

Morevoer, below is a list of some Arab countries compared to us:

97 – Tunisia
99 – Lebanon
104 – Kuwait
119 – UAE
123 – Qatar
126 – Oman
138 – Jordan
158 – Iraq
161 – Egypt
164 – Bahrain
165 – Iran
166 – Yemen
168 – Saudi Arabia
177 – Syria

The country with the freest media turned to be Norway, followed by Sweden, Finland and Denmark, while North Korea came at the bottom of the ranking.

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!

11 Lebanese in The Top 100 Arab Business Women for 2016

By Rami on September 22, 2016 in Business

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Forbes Middle East recently released their list of the 100 most powerful businesswomen in the Arab world for 2016 and the below 11 Lebanese women made it to the list this year, with Lubna Olayan from Saudi Arabia topping it. (link)

#55 Sana Khater, CFO – Waha Capital

#57 Randa El Assaad, CEO – Arif & Bintoak Consulting Architects and Engineers

#58 Mona Bawarshi, CRO – Gezairi Transport

#60 Hala Fadel, Partner – Leap Ventures

#61 Nour Sweid, Partner – Leap Ventures

#66 Ingie Chalhoub, President – Etoile Group

#69 Christine Sfeir, CEO – Treats Holding

#82 Nadia Cheaib, Founder, CEO – ClinServ International

#83 Caroline Fattal Khoury, Senior VP; Board Member – Fattal Group

#92 Myrna Soufan, COO – Banque Bemo

#97 Jinan Zoya, General Manager – Gulf Family Business Council

I’m personally mostly familiar with Christine Sfeir as I follow her on a couple of social media platforms and she seems very down to earth.

On the other hand, Forbes Middle East also released a list of the world’s top 10 most powerful Arab women and 5 Lebanese women were mentioned in it with number 1 being Nemat Shafik from Egypt. (link)

#2 Amal Clooney, Lawyer – Doughty Street Chambers

#3 Nayla Hayek, Chair Swatch; CEO – Harry Winston

#6 Rula Ghani, Afghanistan’s First Lady

#7 Reem Accra, Fashion Designer

#8 Aya Bdeir, Founder, CEO – Little Bits

Scientifically Proven – We’re Not Descendants of The Phoenicians!

By Rami on June 10, 2016 in History, Science

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A group of scientists from the University of Otago and the Lebanese American University have recently succeeded at sequencing and analyzing the DNA obtained from the remaining of a 2500-year-old Phoenician called “The Young Man of Byrsa”. Their work is of good importance because we know less information about the Phoenicians than other populations, and this analysis will help uncover more about their culture and origins.

You can check the research details along with the results the scientists obtained here. What caught my attention the most though was the conclusion that modern Lebanese (47 of them to be precise) are not related to the Phoenicians! It is quite weird to be honest given how we pride ourselves with the Phoenicians being our ancestors, and the fact that they’re thought to have originated from here and expanded to the west.

I hope some other research soon reveals we also have no relation with the Arab world so we can dissociate ourselves from all the chaos around us!

photo via Modern Readers

Chicken wings and Hummus

By Rami on August 8, 2013 in Lebanon

Hilarious! Telling by this guy’s excitement about chicken wings and Hummus, I think he will most probably orgasm over chicken wings and garlic paste!

The Lykan Hypersport sold out

By Rami on February 14, 2013 in Lebanon

W Motors lykan hyper sport

Despite its very high price tag, the Lykan Hypersport managed to get over 100 orders soon after it was revealed in Qatar last month, which means the 7 copies of the car are already sold out.

The Lykan Hypersport was priced at $3.4 million which is probably enough to fill anyone’s garage with a cool collection of sports/super cars.

The Arab world’s first supercar was unveiled at the Qatar Motor Show last month, where fledgling carmaker W Motors revealed its Lykan Hypersport. Just a few weeks on and Beirut-based W Motors has revealed that over 100 orders for its two-seater supercar have already been taken. Not an astronomical number by most standards, until you realize that Arab supercar has been priced at $3.4 million – making it the world’s most expensive production car. Source

I’d love to see the guys at Top Gear or Nadim Mehanna maybe trying it out on TV and have their say about it.

AUB students demonstrate against Donna Shalala during commencement

By Rami on June 24, 2012 in Lebanon

Several dozen people disrupted the Master’s graduation ceremony at AUB Friday evening to protest against the awarding of an honorary degree to Donna Shalala due to her support for engagement with Israel.

Shalala, president of the University of Miami in Florida and a former U.S. secretary of health, has three honorary degrees from universities in Israel, and does not support a cultural boycott of the country.

Around 40 protesters heckled Shalala as she began her speech of thanks, shouting “boycott Israel.” Some held a large banner that read “Boycott Zionist Shalala.” Source

Yep, we’re a corrupt country

By Rami on December 2, 2011 in Lebanon

According to the 2011 Corruption Perception Index, Lebanon scored 2.5/10 and ranked 134 among 182 countries with New Zealand number 1 being the least corrupt, and Somalia at 182 being the most corrupt.

Compared to the Arab countries, we have a lot of work (or cleaning maybe?) to do since they’re all ahead of us except for Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia. What’s amazing though, is that in the most corrupt country (Somalia), electricity is actually available 24/7 for the people!

You can check the report here for the full results.

via 248am

Miss USA 2010 is Lebanese!

By Rami on May 17, 2010 in Lebanon

A 24-year-old Lebanese immigrant has been crowned Miss U.S.A.

Rima Fakih, from Dearborn, Michigan, is believed to be the first Muslim to win the pageant despite nearly stumbling over in her evening gown last night.

Born in Lebanon, she emigrated with her parents to the U.S. as a baby. She was raised in New York and attended a Catholic school.

Source: Mail Online

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