You’ve got to check this old photos directory of Lebanon by the digital documentation center at AUB, which I discovered through one of Sietske’s latest posts. It has more than 12,000 photos categorized by location (Mohafaza and Qadaa), and you can easily spend hours browsing them!
The hoax services that Google announces on each April Fools’ day are more like a tradition, and the Google 8-bit maps service has got to be the coolest joke for 2012. They actually announced yesterday that they will finally be adding support for the classic Nintendo Entertainment System with the launch of 8-bit maps featuring low resolution graphics.
And here’s how Beirut would have looked like on a NES!
You can check here more about Google’s pranks for this year.
Two Lebanese female athletes made the cut to the Olympic games in London this summer. The first is Andrea Paoli, a taekwondo player, who will be the first Lebanese ever to participate in the senior category of martial arts at the Olympics. And the second is Tvine Moumjohglian who will be representing Lebanon in table tennis for the first time in 16 years. All the luck to both of them!
You can read more about Andrea and Tvine in this article by Al-Arabiya, and about the participation of Lebanon at the Olympics throughout the history here on Wikipedia.
It would be fun if “Akho Man2oushe” someday becomes a real competitor to places like Zaatar W Zeit and Leil Nhar!
Spotted at Saloumi
Kimi Raikkonen is currently on a short visit to Lebanon for the launching of Lotus Cars in Beirut, and according to this news report, he had a meeting with president Sleiman and announced that he’s willing to put the Lebanese flag on his Lotus Renault car during this season.
The report also mentions talks about building an F1 circuit in Lebanon, but is sounds more like wishful thinking, at least to me!
Only in Lebanon?
Via Ayman Itani
Gap announced in a press release few days ago that it will be soon be opening the first Gap store in Lebanon after coming to an agreement with Azadea, the group that is well known for carrying famous brands like Zara, Mango, and others.
Gap Inc. also announced plans to open stores in three additional growing apparel markets in 2012:
Lebanon: Gap Inc. has signed a new agreement with Azadea group, one of the largest retailers in the Middle East, to open the first Gap store in Lebanon later this year. One of the main fashion centers of the region, Lebanon provides an ideal environment to introduce Gap brand. Since 2006, Gap Inc. has expanded its presence across the Middle East. Source
I’ve always loved their hoodies by the way, now you don’t have to wait for someone coming from abroad to get one!
LBCI published today a list of Lebanese supermarkets and restaurants that were fined for dealing with expired and rotten food.
The only name I was shocked to see making such list is Kababji, I mean that’s the least you expect when you pay 7,000L.L for a tinly sandwich of grilled meat!
Although this list dates back to 2011, I’m guessing it might relate a bit to the recently confiscated amounts of rotten meat by the authorities, but unfortunately it is limited to the Metn area only (assuming by the header of the document).
What’s surprising though is how low the fines are, notice how some of them were reduced from 25,000,000L.L to 500,000L.L, even for big names like TSC.
Check out this collection of old video segments shot in Lebanon during the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s of last century. I just love to watch these stuff and see how did the country use to look like before eruption of the civil war.
The videos vary from a report about the events that led to our independence in 1943, to random scenes from Beirut, Jeita Grotto, Telepherique Jounieh, as well as footage of the US marines landing in Lebanon in 1958.
It’s a bummer though that a lot of the listed videos are silent since they’re just offered for preview while the full versions require a license fee, but they’re still worth watching anyway.
Thank you Kheireddine.
This is probably going to burst the bubble of so money people who talk big about Lebanon and Beirut being the best places in the world.
In a recent study published yesterday by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Beirut was ranked 117th most competitive global city in the world, barely managing to come ahead of the bottom 3 cities, Dhaka (Bangladesh), Lagos (Nigeria), and Tehran (Iran), taking into consideration 8 key factors that are Economic strength, Physical capital, Financial maturity, Institutional effectiveness, Social and cultural character, Human Capital, Environment and natural hazards, and Global appeal.
New York ranked 1st worldwide followed by London and Singapore, while with regards to the Middle East, Dubai unsurprisingly ranked 1st followed by Abu Dhabi, Doha, Tel Aviv, Kuwait City, Muscat, Riyadh, Beirut and Tehran.
You may read more about the study here, and download the full report here.
