Would you mind it if all those rumors claiming that Al-Qaeda does exist in Lebanon turned out to be true?
The photo was taken during the funeral of the late general Wissam Al-Hassan.
Tag Archives | protest
Photos + Video from Wissam El Hassan’s funeral
Wissam El Hassan’s funeral started at the ISF headquarter in Achrafieh at around 2PM today and unfortunately ended violently as the protesters in downtown attempted to storm the Grand Serail to demand the resignation of PM Najib Mikati.
Below are some photos and a video from the funeral and the clash between the protesters and the policemen. (I found photo #9 quite funny by the way!)
Fetih 1453 officially banned in Lebanon
The Turkish movie “Fetih 1453” just joined the list of banned movie in Lebanon today. According to this article in Lebanon Debate, it seems like the General Security took the decision today following the protests that accused the movie of being disrespectful to Christians earlier.
To make sure, I checked Cyberia’s movie guide and didn’t find Fetih 1453 listed among the currently showing movies anymore.
Still, I believe the ban is useless since it was shown in Turkey in the beginning of 2012 and it’s currently widely available for download on the internet.
Claire Danes in Beirut
So as I mentioned in a previous post, the events in the first episodes of “Homeland” take place in Beirut, but its producers decided to shoot these scenes in Tel Aviv and make it look like Beirut as shown in the above photo. Still, the result didn’t seem pretty convincing to Karl from Karl reMarks blog, and so he offered the below alternatives!
Will “Fetih 1453” be banned in Lebanon?
“Fetih 1453” is a new Turkish movie that started showing yesterday in Lebanon about the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans led by Sultan Mohammad II. And I’ve heard several times on the news that some people are finding it insulting because of how the Romans were shown in the movie.
With a budget exceeding 18 million dollars, “Fetih 1453” is a Turkish action film and one of the most important movies showing the conquest of Constantinople from the Turkish point of view.
However, the Byzantine Church in Lebanon seems not to agree with the Turkish analysis, and considers that the film insults Christian sanctities and symbols.In the past few days, a number of activists on Facebook have been protesting against the reformulation of the history of Constantinople in the film “Fetih 1453”, which, according to them, contains false historical facts.
These activists will be holding a sit-in on Saturday September 29 at 4 pm at Sassine Square in protest of what they consider “an offense to the Christian civilization”. They will also protest outside the movie theaters that will be showing the film expected to be released on September 27. Source
The movie is showing at City Mall and Empire theaters by the way, and I just found it available online here on Vimeo.
Cafe owners protesting for their arguileh
Lebanese tobacco control law number 174 which prohibits people from smoking in all enclosed public spaces went into effect as of today but cafe owners are as expected protesting against this law and calling for exceptions to be made!
Those cafe owners had more than a year to adapt to this law, yet they chose to wait till the last day to express their concerns about it claiming that it puts their business at risk and might force them to fire a lot of their employees.
What I believe these businessmen are missing is that the main reason for people go to coffee places for is basically to socialize, gathering around an arguileh is of course a reason, but I highly doubt people will stop going to restaurants if arguileh is banned as they will still need to get together over a lunch, dinner, dessert, or even a cup of coffee…
Second, what I recently have noticed is that most of the people are missing the definition of an “enclosed public space” according to law 174. Here’s how the law puts, and below is an illustration of it.
Enclosed public places include any of the aforementioned places that is covered by a ceiling and bounded by more than two walls, regardless of the type of materials used for the construction of the ceiling or the walls, and regardless of whether the construction was permanent or temporary. Source
Taken from Smoke Free Lebanon FB page
Now don’t tell me it was hard to get around that… I’m pretty sure cafe owners were generating enough profit to carry out a redecoration to remove some walls, install curtain glass instead, and leave them open during summer season.
But NO, we love to make a drama out of everything!
“Ma2too3a!” – Stay updated on road blocks
Now that road blocking with burning tires is becoming more like a habit for some of us here in Lebanon, someone came up with a new iPhone application called “Ma2too3a!” to let people update each other on any kind of road blocks, protests, or armed combats happening around the country.
You may download “Ma2too3a!” from the App Store, but don’t take it for granted since everyone can post updates to the app and it’s possible that you would see some fake events on it.
16 Governmental websites hacked today
Looks like the hack of 4 governmental websites last month was just a warm up. A group called RYV (Raise Your Voice) hacked 16 other websites today morning and left a message asking the government to solve its self-made problems, and encouraging the people to mobilize and stand up for their demands. You can check the full list of websites here on Pastebin.
“We are RYV, short for Raise Your Voice, and we are simply a group of people who could not bear sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon,” the group said.
It vowed to continue hacking the sites until the Lebanese people earn the rights they are asking for and until living standards are improved.
“We will not stop until this government’s self-made problems are solved, like the power shortage, water shortage, rise in gas prices and rise in food product prices,” the group said.
“We are RYV, expect us to break the silence, whether in the streets or on the Internet,” it said, stressing that “silence is a crime.” Source
The message of course speaks our minds (except that nobody is probably ready to mobilize), but I’m not sure how well was that message grasped by our dear politicians!
You can stay up to date with RYV’s latest news through their twitter and Facebook accounts.
Protest against Armin Van Buuren in Beirut
Most of the international bands/singers/DJ’s who came to Lebanon for a performance have at some point performed in Israel as well, and because of that you see some activists calling for boycotting some concert every now and then. The way they choose which concert to boycott is beyond my understanding, but for some reason they decided to protest against Armin’s upcoming Concert NYE-1. knowing that he has performed several times in Beirut before.
The NNA reported that youth organizations and supporters of boycotting Israel staged a sit-in on Monday night, facing ‘MacDonald’s” in Ain Mreisseh, in protest against “DJ Armin Van Burren’s” visit to Beirut after partaking in concerts in Israel.
Van Burren is scheduled to perform in Beirut on December 30. Source
I might be wrong, but I feel like someone is just trying to irritate Mix FM (the organizers of this event) with this move, I mean If these people are serious about what they’re doing why don’t they protest against every single performer who has been to Israel, or better yet, why don’t they call for boycotting their albums as well?
F*** gas price
The crude oil price has been falling below $70 in the last few days, but for some reason some genius here in Lebanon decided to increase it by 600 L.L today, and he has been doing so for the last month!!
Seriously man, whoever you are, prices reached more than 30,000L.L / 20 liters last year when crude oil price was skyrocketing with over $130 / barrel!! How come it is selling for half the price now, and you still insist on charging us 31,000 L.L for 20 liters of gas? From which university did you graduate?
If WE the Lebanese people believe that WE kicked Syria’s ass out of our borders by sitting in the Martyr’s square (denying that USA, KSA, and Egypt had something to do with it), then we of course can do some another sit-in to call for decreasing the gas price.
But NO! We don’t hit the streets unless some political monkey leader orders us to do it!