WTF!!
via @JoeAkkawi
Tag Archives | smoking
Busting Law 174 violators in Lebanon
The people behind Law 174’s page on Facebook are doing a good job by not just indicating which places are violating the smoking ban in Lebanon, but also naming the public figures who are breaking the law.
Among the people who made it to the page so far are Assi Hellani who owns “Assi” restaurant in Verdun, Dr. Joseph Azouri who owns “Le Maillon Cafe” along with 12 other doctors, Nathalie Fadlallah who owns “f by Nathalie”, Marlene Boutros Harb, and Nada Riad Salameh.
The number of violations people regularly report to the page definitely calls for increasing the number of tourist policemen in the country!
Enab restaurant employees break into IndyACT offices
If you think restaurants that are being criticized for breaking law 174 (smoking ban) in Lebanon might be feeling a bit ashamed of what they’re doing, then you’re definitely wrong, those restaurants are actually getting ruder by the moment!
One of these restaurant is Enab in Gemmayze, who has basically never respected law 174 and always allowed its customer to smoke indoor. In response to that, IndyACT decided to use their office, which is located right next to Enab, in order to put up a huge banner calling the restaurant to abide by the law, and next thing they knew was Enab’s employees breaking into their offices to take down the banner!
Lebanese Army takes over the LU’s cefeteria in Hadath
According to this article from Now Lebanon, the army took over the Lebanese University’s cafeteria in Hadath after it has been controlled by the Zeaiter clan for a long time now.
NOW also reported the Zeaiter’s had their own office inside the university which apparently contained some stolen electronics!
I just hope the campus will be controlled for good now, even it takes a special force to remain there permanently to keep the Zeaiter’s away forever.
This whole issue by the way started a while ago after several media sources started reporting about the malpractices in Hadath campus.
Because running a marathon is too mainstream
Photos via Antoine Daou on Facebook
Protect law 174
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!
Reaction to the smoking ban at ABC
You most probably know that ABC Achrafieh became a smoke free mall as of the 1st of March. Check how some people are reacting to this ban.
Some of them are simply putting off their cigarettes on the no-smoking sign. Gotta love how classy these people are!
Photo via @maroun_baydoun
No more indoor smoking in Lebanon
I wonder what will happen now to all these places that are mainly popular for their shisha, like Sanyour for example, when the law is put into effect.
But then again, this law might end up just like any other law that never gets implemented as it should, or probably gets implemented for a short period of time before the police starts to ignore violators. Let’s wait and see.
Lebanon – A smoker’s paradise
I came across this article by AFP describing Lebanon as a smoker’s paradise, where you can work, dine and have your hair styled in a cloud of smoke. Too bad for us, the non-smokers.
Even teenagers can afford the average one dollar per pack, compared to an average seven dollars (five euros) in France or nearly nine dollars in Britain.
“The minute you land in this country you start huffing and puffing,” said Ghazi Zaatari, a physician and chairman of the department of pathology at the American University of Beirut as well as head of a WHO study group on tobacco regulation.
“As far as tobacco is concerned, Lebanon is a health disaster.”
You can read the full article here.