Tag Archives | media

Hello From Izmir!

By Rami on April 8, 2018 in Travel

If you follow me on Instagram then you probably know I’m currently in Izmir for a digital networking event hosted by Middle East Airlines along with several bloggers and media figures.

The city is quite nice with many attractions and touristic sites around it, and history buffs will certainly enjoy it for the ancient city of Ephesus and the house of virgin Mary which we both have visited. For that I really hope MEA will soon consider establishing a direct line to it at least during the summer to make it more accessible especially for those who are interested in religious tourism.

Aside from bringing media people together, MEA had a few cool announcements to make. First, they are working to expand their fleet and as of 2019 they will receive 15 new aircraft, among which 11 are Airbus 321 and 4 wide body airplanes (either the 330 or 787-9) and they will all be equipped with WIFI onboard. They are also working to complete the expansion of their headquarters which will include a green building, a massive hangar to accommodate their big planes, in addition to a gym, a sport court and most importantly a kindergarten dedicated for their employees.

Chairman Mohamad El Hout also mentioned some hints about the expansion of Beirut Airport and I recommend you check all about it on Gino’s blog who made superb effort gathering a lot of information about it.

I will soon write an article summarizing all the interesting stuff you can see here in Izmir in addition to how you can probably include it in your next trip to Turkey even if you didn’t directly land in its airport.

Is The Government Indirectly Imposing A New Tax on Gas?

By Rami on March 31, 2016 in Lebanon

gas price

Following the huge decrease in gasoline prices during the last year, there has been a lot of talk about the possibility for he government to fix the price at 22,000L.L per 20 liters or introduce a new tax of 5,000L.L to increase the revenue, but it was claimed a couple of months ago that the cabinet is not going to approve such thing and we all got relieved.

However, it seems like the tax is going to be gradually imposed one way or another. Over the past 3 weeks, the price of gasoline has increased by 1,700L.L even though the price of crude oil decreased from $41.5 to $38.3 over the same period.

What’s also worse is that the media is not reaching out to the ministry of energy to inquire about these increases, but you really can’t blame them when Ahlam and Adel Karam are keeping them busy with their nonsense…!

It’s Official: Assafir Will Stop Publishing

By Rami on March 24, 2016 in Lebanon

Several people from Assafir confirmed the rumors we all heard last week about a possible closure of the newspaper. Sanaa Khoury, a journalist in Assafir, was among the firsts who announced it on twitter.

Assafir has been in print for 42 years now and was among the leading newspapers in Lebanon, so it’s definitely odd to see it closing down with its employees getting laid off. But then again, it’s only logical for the publishers to halt their operations if there’s not enough revenue.

Throughout my teenage years I got used to reading Annahar as it was my parents favorite, but that was up till 2005 when Gebran Tueini was assasinated and they then switched to buying Assafir. And although I personally enjoy flipping through the physical copy, I never felt the need to subscribe to a newspaper when I got married and moved out in 2011, mainly because I was staying up to date with news through the available news websites and feed readers.

This actually brings me to a related news on ministers Sejaan Azzi and Ramzi Jreige calling for support to media outlets suffering from financial difficulties. Times are changing, and any support a newspaper will be getting is going to be temporary in my opinion if people simply don’t feel like buying a physical copy anymore, just like stone tablets were abandoned for documentation hundreds of years ago. Moreover, the closure of a newspaper will not affect the culture in Lebanon if journalists kept expressing their opinions online because it’s the content that matter and not the medium. Publishers should simply adapt to the changing news consumption habits and act accordingly, and if the government feels like being nice then it should probably consider helping the laid off employees.

Photo via Al Arabiya

Update:

It was reported today that Assafir got some financial support and will keep publishing at least for the next few months. A press conference will be held by the management on Wednesday to talk about the issue with the public.

Escort agencies in Lebanon

By Rami on February 3, 2013 in Lebanon

Lebanese escort agencies that are operating on the web got the attention they have never dreamt of on Lebanese TVs during the past week!

Both of MTV’s Enta Horr and OTV’s Haida El We2e3 decided to tell the government and people about these websites as if no one knew they existed for several years now, and even showed how the whole thing works by setting up a hidden cam inside a hotel room and calling these agencies to get one of their girls. Joe Maalouf went a bit further towards the end of his report and listed all the agencies numbers! You know, just in case someone doesn’t have internet access to get them.

Free advertising much?

Boycott Spinneys?

By Rami on July 11, 2012 in Lebanon

Looks like there’s a campaign building up to boycott Spinneys because of treating their employees unfairly.

According to Abir Ghattas, Spinneys refused to abide by the government’s decision to increase wages, and went further by firing the employees who dared to voice their demands to the management by signing a petition.

Unfortunately, Spinneys is not the only firm who refused to give that increase to its employees, in fact many others also did the same, but luckily for them very few or even none of these cases made it to the media since these companies knew beforehand that their employees will prefer to keep their mouth shut than risking their job by making a trouble about the matter.

Anyway, now that the minister of labor is aware of the issue, let’s see if he will really have the guts to do something about it as promised!

My interview with Future TV on blogging in Lebanon

By Rami on September 22, 2011 in Lebanon

Amer Tabsh, the host of Mega on Alam Al-Sabah, interviewed me last month to talk about blogging in Lebanon. Would love to hear your opinion about the discussion!

+961 claims victory in the 2009 USJ election

By Rami on November 4, 2009 in Election ’09

The student body election at the Saint Joseph University ended YESTERDAY, however until now I still have no idea about the real winner in this election!

Is it the Lebanese Forces? Is it March 14 coalition? Is it the Free Patriotic Movement? Is it March 8 coalition? Is it the “الزحف الشيعي على جامعة بشير الجميّل” (also known as Hizbullah)? Mickey Mouse maybe!

If you check both of the FPM & Lebanese Forces websites (Tayyar.org & Lebanese-Forces.com) you notice that both parties claim they won the election, and to my amazement none of them tell it was a close competition! They both claim they wiped their rivals!

And to amaze us ever more, the FPM people went to Michael Aoun’s place in Rabieh late last night to celebrate their victory, and the Lebanese Forces people did the same thing at Samir Geagea’s place in Maarab!!

I recall the same thing happened last year in USJ, so I think it’s becoming a ritual there. Few thousands students casting their votes, and it takes forever to come out with an accurate final result. Fuck whoever is responsible for that.

Here’s how the Tayyar.org website looked today morning:

… and here’s how the Lebanese Forces website looked like at the same time.

Amusing eh?

What if president Sleiman was wrong?

By Rami on July 14, 2009 in Lebanon

Back in 1994, Youssef Shaaban was convicted for shooting a Jordanian diplomat in Beirut and got life sentence in prison.

In 2002, a court in Jordan found that others were responsible for the murder and convicted them! So logically speaking, Youssef Shaaban turned out to be innocent, however it was impossible to release him since the issued rulings could be overturned unless by a presidential pardon.

Three days ago, president Michael Sleiman pardoned Youssef Shaaban and he was granted freedom yesterday in Beirut.

That was in brief the story of Youssef Shaaban.

I have seen in the media how everyone was giving credits to the president for pardoning him, but I was thinking what if Youssef Shaabad was really the one behind killing the diplomat?

In a special episode of Kalam El-Nas with Marcel Ghanem last night, Shaaban himself admitted that he played a “role” in the Lebanese civil war in addition to being a member in Hamas. Remember that the reason behind the assassination of the Jordanian diplomat was because Jordan and Israel were in negtiations to sign a peace treaty, that’s a good motive for Hamas to commit the crime no?

In addition, those who are supposed to be the real murderers were executed in Jordan, and god knows how did the Jordanian police (maybe) made them admit they were responsible for the assassination. Now how can you assure that Youssef Shaaban is innocent? The Lebanese judicial council made a mistake by convicting Shaaban, so how can you assume the Jordanian rulings were flawless?

To me the crime is still a mistery. Think of it, the guy might really be the one behind the assassination.