Category: Activism

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It’s about Garbage and so much more

For once, and if only in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, the reality on the ground quite literally reflects the exact state of our country and its politics: garbage.

In fact, if it is hard for you to picture it, the tonnes of garbage piling up in and around our capital city are a perfect way to physically depict what corruption, mismanagement, monopoly, nepotism, patronage, clientelism and misuse of public funds does to a country: it is toxic, it affects everybody and may eventually kill everybody, just like the garbage will, the longer it stays on our streets. Continue reading “It’s about Garbage and so much more”

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…أنا كإمرأة

Note: This is the Arabic translation of As a Woman, posted on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2015. The translation also appeared in Al Rawaby newspaper. The celebration ended, but the need to keep on fighting for our rights remains throughout the year…

ملاحظة : هذه هي الترجمة العربية لمقالة As a Woman  التي نشرت في يوم المرأة العالمي. هذه المقالة قد نشرت في جريدة الروابي في زحلة في 26-03-2015. الاحتفال انتهى ولكن الحاجة إلى النضال من أجل حقوقنا تبقى كل السنة…   Continue reading “…أنا كإمرأة”

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As a Woman…

As a woman, I’ve always been unsure as to what I am required to do on International Women’s Day. Take to the streets in song and dance, post a series of pictures displaying the best of my ‘womanness’ (however that may be) or perhaps wear a quaint little dress to receive well-wishers over a cup of coffee and sweets of my own making. Continue reading “As a Woman…”

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Eye on the East wishes you a Happy New Year

Having welcomed 2015 from the agitated waters of the Mediterranean Sea, especially when looked upon from Beirut, Eye on the East wishes a Happy New Year to you and all your loved ones. May 2015 be all that you wish for and more. And may it be a much better year for those who truly deserve it, those who battle sickness, misery and indignity, who have lost loved ones or are waiting for them to come back, wherever they may be, for those who flee death and violence and for the children who suffer, for childhood should be about anything by suffering.

Continue reading “Eye on the East wishes you a Happy New Year”

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لبنان: التسمية و التشهير هو واجب

Note: this piece is a translation of Eye on the East’s previous post “Lebanon: ‘Naming and Shaming’ as a Duty.”  The below Arabic version was published in the March 1-6 2014 issue of Zahle weekly Al Rawaby. 

يتعذر علي ان اتذكر عدد المرات التي سمعت فيها المقولة السائدة في لبنان “دون ذكر الاسماء” عبارة قصدها تجهيل الفاعل والتعامي عن قول الحقيقة ورفض تسمية الاشياء باسمائها, فنشعر بالاسى لغياب الوضوح و الشفافية في كيفية عمل النظام اللبناني. Continue reading “لبنان: التسمية و التشهير هو واجب”

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“I never imagined that Libya would follow Lebanon”

“I think your readers are probably more interested in other countries in the Middle East than my dysfunctional lawless homeland..!” is one of the first things he said when I offered the pages of Eye on the East for a guest post on Libya. But when was dysfunctional and lawless exclusive to only one country in the Arab World? Continue reading ““I never imagined that Libya would follow Lebanon””