Late Lebanese legendary filmmaker Maroun Baghdadi once said, “I come from a world where, strangely enough, the image has difficulty in spreading. It’s a world that has problems with its own image.” He went on to say that in Lebanon and the Arab world, the image can be considered a taboo, complaining that he had been sometimes accused of giving a “bad image” of the region in his movies. “This excites me,” he lashed back, “and encourages me to transmit my message through images even more.” Continue reading “When looking back hurts, really hurts”
“Your Time is Now”
“I’m here to get your blessings,” I began, delicately raising my voice to grab the attention of the man lying on the hospital bed in front of me. “How many kilos would you like?” he asked in a rather serious tone, which lasted as long as it took a smile to appear through the sparkling of his eyes. “As much as you can give me,” I replied, hardly able to contain my smile in return. Continue reading ““Your Time is Now””
The Road to Secularism
If you happen to be in the Middle East these days without punching your fist in the air, calling for the downfall of someone or something, then something must be wrong. To be fair, the people of every single Arab country (and Iran) are/would be completely justified in doing so. Yet in the chaos and confusion of it all, there was one single nation standing out, that was apparently on the sidelines of all the action: Lebanon. Continue reading “The Road to Secularism”
Eye on the East 