When I used to look at Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, Brazil’s infamous shanty towns, dotting the city’s lush mountains overlooking its glorious shores, it was difficult to imagine the existence of such dire poverty. I had never seen anything like that anywhere I had been, nor had I seen anything like it in Lebanon. It seemed like an irreversible curse that a country, blessed with such beauty and with a people so happy and content with the simple pleasures in life, had to endure such injustice and inequality. Continue reading “When Poverty is so Dire…”
A Strike Averted, Back to Business as Usual
Saying that this past week was a long week is an understatement. Syria and the Levant awaited the “imminent” but “limited” strike, barely able to imagine the immediate consequences on Syria and the wider repercussions on the region this attack would have had. The attack seems to have been averted, for the time being, with many feeling utterly disappointed and others terribly relieved. Continue reading “A Strike Averted, Back to Business as Usual”
We’ve Already Let Syria Down
If they are not yet, today more than ever, all eyes are on Syria. Well, not exactly today, but they soon will be…
Many of us have been following the Syrian uprising from day one: praying for the fate of the innocent children of Daraa who sparked the revolution, fervently denying the revolt was a conspiracy as the Syrian regime wanted the world to believe, disheartened by what parts of the Syrian opposition had become, and grieving for Syrian suffering and the horrors of Ghouta. Continue reading “We’ve Already Let Syria Down”
Beirut will never surrender, but…
They say that Beirut is a city that will never surrender, but what if everything that keeps life together in it is slowly disappearing, gradually being torn apart? Continue reading “Beirut will never surrender, but…”
And into the dustbin of history…
Who hasn’t heard of “the dustbin of history.” It’s a place you would wish actually existed, to which some people, ideas and events eventually end up or are pushed into, unaware that their time under the sun has come to an end, never to come back again. Continue reading “And into the dustbin of history…”
More Than Just a Demonstration
Some have weapons, others have their voice…
To those in Beirut, you may have already heard about the incident between the activists of NGO Nasawiya and the bodyguard thugs of former MP Nadim Gemayel (the illegal self-extension of Parliament, the term of which expired on June 20, 2013, has rendered all 128 MPs illegitimate). To the rest, a comprehensive version of the events, endorsed by Nasawiya, can he found here.
On Rescuing a Nation and Shaming its Representatives
I am not one who cries easily, but seeing with my own eyes, how a mixture of army, police, riot police and the thugs protecting the Parliament, hit young men and women protesting in front of Parliament earlier today, made me tremble uncontrollably and brought me to tears.
Continue reading “On Rescuing a Nation and Shaming its Representatives”
The Sheikhs Get Down to Business
In what came as a rather unexpected move, member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) listed Hezballah on their never-heard-of-before list of terrorist organizations for its involvement in Syria alongside the Assad regime, while threatening to take action against its members/sympathizers and their assets in the Gulf. Continue reading “The Sheikhs Get Down to Business”
Where is our Voice?
The self-extension of the Lebanese Parliament’s term yesterday did not come as a surprise to anybody. It was yet a further nail in the coffin of Lebanon’s democracy, albeit its own special tailor-made brand of consensual, whatever-you-want-to-call-it democracy, where nobody ever goes home a looser. Continue reading “Where is our Voice?”
Triumphant over Who?
“That Hezballah (Party of God) shall be triumphant” (فإن حزب الله هم الغالبون) as their slogan says. But triumphant over who?
