Lebanese Politicians Visit North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un

27 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by Zak in LB Culture, LB Social, Lebanon, The rest of the world, World

Tags

Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, Lebanese people, Lebanese politicians, North Korea, Satire

After visiting Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, third class Lebanese politicians (not main party leaders) continued their successful visits to the leaders of the world of free resistance; this time going to North Korea.

The Lebanese delegate met Kim Jong-un on Thursday morning and discussed how bad they believed the situation is in the west with their unbearable living standards, and how North Korea is on track to beat imperialism. Kim Jong-un expressed to the delegate how he experienced the corrupted west first hand while studying in Switzerland, rightly validating the reason why North Korean government employees currently get paid only 3$ per month.
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Health and Safety at Work in Lebanon on MTV

17 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Zak in LB Culture, LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, TV

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Construction, Health and Safety in Lebanon, lebanon, Media, MTV, Occupational health and safety, Safety, Serge Zarka, Tv

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@TheZako One of the subjects tonight is the one you proposed last week.—
Serge Zarka (@SergeZarka) March 16, 2013

I salute Serge Zarka the host of Seven – the weekly show on MTV – for his response to my twitter request and tackling health and safety in his last episode last night.

Orthodox Law: Back to The Future

03 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by Zak in LB Culture, LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Politics

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

elections, Lebanese Elections, Lebanese Elections 2013, Lebanese people, lebanon, Orthodox Law, Satire, sectarianism

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After nearly 29 years on the implementation of the federation of sects which started in 2013 with the Orthodox Gathering electoral Law, strong voices are reappearing again calling for the “correction of the injustice” that some minorities within the same big sects still face.

These minorities include the Maronites living outside Mount Lebanon, Shiites living outside the South and Bekaa, and Sunnis outside Beirut and the North. Their concerns revolve around their feeling of being third grade citizens within their big sects. These feelings led to the formation of extremist organisations like MMMM (Maronites Mad Max Man), MWSJ (the Military Wing of the Shiite of Jbeil) and DMB (Druze Militia of Beirut). Also, Sunnis show relatively more severe disintegration than other sects with another dimension of the clash being between the four main religious doctrines: Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanafi, and Hanbali.

Why a Government $25,000 Monthly Salary Could be Acceptable in Lebanon

30 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Politics

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Executives, Gibran Bassil, lebanon, Oil and gas, Petroleum Committee

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So what is an acceptable salary for a government or government-affialted employee in a country where the minimum wage is less $600 per month? I suppose the answer is not an easy, especially if the job differs massively from a role to another.

This issue was strongly brought up last week in the media with the big salaries allowed to the members of the newly formed petroleum committee in Lebanon. Minister Gibran Bassil wanted to pay them $25,000/m as a total package, but the cabinet reduced that to nearly $17,000 with a 17% allowance on top for not taking any employment at the end of contract (paid in two instalments at the mid and end of the employment). The approved compensation includes a $2,000 housing allowance.
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Gangnam Style: One Billion Views and The Decline of the Mainstream Media

21 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Social Media, The rest of the world, World

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Fox News, Gangnam style, one billion views, Psy, Social Media, YouTube

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Slightly away from politics this time, but not far from the media. I couldn’t get away from the fact a non-English YouTube video has just crossed one billion views and became the most watched online video ever. You probably guessed, it’s the Gangnam Style by Psy.

One billion views for a video supposed to be satirising the posh style of some area in South Korea is a massive number, considering the world online population is 2.4 billion. Unbelievable times we live in. A time when you don’t need to be first featured on the mainstream media (MSM) to be famous or talked about. You don’t need to speak English or originate from the west. You even can have some anti-American past like Psy. The video is unbelievably silly but cool. Lots of colours and moves with moving rhythms. I personally liked the kid at its first part.

Credit to “NOW Lebanon” That is Changing to The Better

07 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Press, Social Media

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Censorship, Journalism, Lebanese Blogosphere, lebanon, NOW Lebanon, Press, Saad Hariri

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Lebanese twitterverse and blogosphere have rightly highlighted yesterday what it seemed an act of censorship by the traditionally pro-Hariri NOW Lebanon website. The unfortunate incident resulted with an anti-Hariri English editorial been taken down shortly after publication.

But to loudly shout ‘censorship’ and just stop, doesn’t give describe the full picture, and give much justice to the website that is trying to change. It is, actually, changing towards more balanced and professional reporting.

Nicholas Sehnaoui Syphons Our Money Off…to Israel

04 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Politics

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

BDS, Intel, lebanon, Mandriva, Nicholas Sehnaoui, tablets

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You probably heard couple of weeks ago how our Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui brought the future to our students (according to him), by planning to provide them with computer tablets. A deal, done with Intel Corporation Vice President for Sales and Marketing Group, comprised supplying the Intel product which could be powered by an operating system called MANDRIVA (you probably haven’t heard of it).

Laugh With Six Politically Correct Videos

23 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by Zak in Caricature of the day, LB Social, Lebanon, MB Social, MicroBlogs

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Tags

Jabal Mohsen, Lebanese government, Lebanese people, Lebanese Politics, lebanon, Politics of Lebanon, Satire, YouTube

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1 – This is how Lebanese government resolves all the country’s problems.

Lebanese Forces Show Their Comfort Zone in Public

24 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, TV

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Bachir Gemayel, Lebanese Forces, Lebanese people, lebanon, March 14, MTV, Sectarian violence, sectarianism

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It was not long time ago when I declared the death of the political peaceful argument of March 14. Now, I can ‘safely’ declare the near-completion of their combating formations. All what you need to do to know this, is to watch the festival that took place yesterday by the Lebanese Forces in commemoration of the 30th anniversary election of Bashir Gemayel as a President.

I was gobsmacked to watch a ‘Lebanese Resistance Anthems Concert’ (on MTV) glorifying the military past of the Lebanese Forces and Bashir Gemayel – after all their current talk about the peaceful resistance and building the state. Although it didn’t look very odd with the current chaotic mood and high sectarian tensions in the country. It did actually blend well in that scene…

Which Lebanese Celebrities Are Buying Their Twitter Followers?

22 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Social Media

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Celebrity, Marcel Ghanem, Social Media, Social network, twitter

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Who doesn’t want more followers on twitter? Every one should want more of them, especially if they are reasonably active on twitter. It’s nice to know that people want to listen to what you have to say; it massages your ego and makes you feel important when you are not a celebrity. So if you are a normal person, you usually work hard to earn followers.

But what if the tweeter (barely) is a celebrity? They cheat. Yes, cheat. Who has time really to work hard to earn these followers? Some just buy twitter followers. Not that they won’t have good number of them anyway, but they always want more, more and more of them. It makes them feel more privileged and gives them some sort of prestige – against each other.

What should We Do With Beirut Airport Road Blocking?

07 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Beirut, Lebanese government, Lebanese people, lebanon, Road Blocks, Satire

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Photo: source

Ok, so the airport road was closed again yesterday in Beirut, and reopened this morning. If there are signs of impotency of the Lebanese government, surely its helpless watching of this chaos is one of them (too many signs to list here). If the government can’t impose the rule of law and ensure the safety of its citizens, may be at least it needs to regulate that chaos.

Statue of Saddam Hussein Was Not Toppled Live on TV in 2003

23 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Politics, Syria, TV

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Tags

Addounia TV, Conspiracy, Muammar Gaddafi, Qaddafi, Qatar, Shaker Berjawi, syria, Tarik Al-Jadideh

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The state of denial of the Syrian regime’s orchestra has reached unprecedented levels. Denial of everything was what characterized the regime’s response to the uprising from its start in March 2011. The regime denied ‘anything’ happening at first, then denied the peacefulness of the protests, then theydenied the of existence of army defectors (but not so of armed gangs).

They even denied the fall of Tripoli and Qaddafi in summer 2011 saying everything was pre-recorded in Qatari studios and Aljazeera fooled us by airing the film which led later to the actual fall of Qaddafi.

The Case of Resistance in Lebanon (18+)

07 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, MB Social, MicroBlogs

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Tags

Angry Lebanese, Beirut, Hezbollah, Ikhtak Malla Balad, Lebanese government, Lebanese people, lebanon, Satire, YouTube

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I want to introduce to you Mr. Sodico, an angry bird – sorry Lebanese – speaking about his country and the resistance in it in the below video. The video is in the Lebanese slang, so apologies for non-Arabic readers.

Not All Victims Are Martyrs, Please

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon

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Tags

Bab Al-Tabbaneh, Jabal Mohsen, Lebanese Civil War, Lebanese Martyrs, Lebanese War, lebanon, Martyrs, Religion, Sectarian violence, Tripoli

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Why everyone who is unfairly and unexpectedly killed in Lebanon becomes a martyr? I think It’s a Middle East-wide problem, but let’s talk about Lebanon for now. Martyr for me is someone who got killed, with a personal readiness to die, for his country or a legitimate national cause.

In Lebanon, people get killed in car accidents, family disputes, normal crimes, street conflicts and of course in sectarian fightings. We use the term loosely to the extent that all the killed individuals can be called “martyrs”.

Asbestos: Another Government Tactic To Kill The Lebanese People

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Asbestos, Hazardous waste, Health and Safety in Lebanon, Lebanese government, lebanon, Occupational health and safety, Safety

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As if the Lebanese government is in short of methods of how to kill its own people. Every now and then, we get either environmental disasters like dumping hazardous waste in the ecosystem or health disasters like having to deal with corrupted food.

Al-Akhbar Website Featuring Israeli Adverts

24 Thursday May 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Press

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Al-Akhbar, Google, lebanon, Press

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While reading Al-Akhbar English website, I was faced with Israeli adverts near the target article. It was a bit of shock for me, but fun at the same time.

An Underwear Security Arrangement Between Lebanon And U.S.

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon, USA, World

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Al-Qaeda, Edmund Heddad, Freedom, Haifa Wehbe, Humour, lebanon, Maya Diab, Satire, Superman Underwear, Terrorism

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Credible defense sources informed Lebanon Spring blog that a major security agreement is underway between the governments of Lebanon and the United States of America.

The security agreement will foster close relations between the armed forces of both countries while combating terrorist or comedian bombs. The sources confirmed that the two countries will specifically focus their efforts on underwear after their major known breakthroughs in this field.

Lebanon Spring Blog is One Year Old – Happy First Birthday

01 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Culture, LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Social Media

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

arab spring, Blog First Birthday, Blog One Year Old, Blog Statistics, Blogging, First Post, Lebanese Blogging, Lebanese Blogosphere, Lebanon Spring, Statistics

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Today, Lebanon Spring blog is one year old, so I will allow for this post to be slightly personal; it’s about me and my blog.

Continue reading »

Organised Theft of Lebanese Beaches’ Sand

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon, Politics

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Beirut, Corruption, Environment, Ghazi Al-Aridi, Lebanese government, lebanon, Lebanon beaches

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This is how organised corruption works in Lebanon: you get the Public Works Ministry to contract out cleaning part of the public beach to a contractor, with the main benefit going to some lucky connected developer owning the nearby sea-resort, while the sponsor of this contract gets paid out from selling the surplus of the beach sand, or the whole sand they extract and transport away.

Lebanese bloggers should do a Code of Conduct

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Press

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Blogging, Blogosphere, Censorship, Lebanese Blogosphere, Lebanese Internet Regulation Act, lebanon, LIRA, Press, Stop LIRA

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There is no doubt the Lebanese blogosphere is united against the law-proposal of the Minister of Information Walid Daouk to regulate online websites in what has became known as LIRA (the Lebanese Internet Regulation Act).

Structural routine maintenance [Quoted in The Daily Star]

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon, MB Social, MicroBlogs

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Beirut, Citation, Construction, lebanon, Occupational health and safety, Press, The Daily Star

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In reference to the recent collapsed building in Achrafiyeh in Beirut, and frenzy over Jal al-Dib bridge in northern suburb of Beirut, Stephen Dockery wrote a good story in The Daily Star about Lebanon’s collapsing structures. Stephen quoted me in his article.

I told Stephen:

I wouldn’t say Jal al-Dib is bad in its structure or design, it just wasn’t followed with maintenance.

We desperately need routine maintenance regimes in place for public assets, rather than reactionary plans. Moreover, construction projects, which could have adverse impact on the nearby structures, should go through rigorous approval procedures, not only for their permanent designs but for their temporary designs that serve them for the duration of the construction period.

The aim of any law should be protecting public and private assets, and maintaining the public health and safety – which are really low on the Lebanese agenda.

Please click here to read the full story in The Daily Star.

The religious farm of Lebanon: marital rape is allowed

04 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by Zak in LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, TV

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Al-Akhbar, Domestic Violence, Free Patriotic Movement, Future Movement, Islam, lebanon, Marital Rape, Non-governmental organization, Religion, sectarianism

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It’s very pleasing and reassuring to see members of the Lebanese parliament drafting a law to protect women from domestic violence, or rape in some cases. But such law can never pass without our disease getting in the way – religious Lebanese theocracy. Some MPs want to remove the reference to rape in the new law, thus making it useless in practice, and keeping our laws dating back to the middle ages. Apparently, according to this opposition to the law, rape can’t happen if the couple are married, and this law tears the ‘social and religious fabric’.

New rules for TV political debates in Lebanon

15 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, Politics, TV

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

Fayez Shokor, lebanon, Moustapha Allouch, MTV, Press, Satire, YouTube

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In reference to the above video that took place last night on MTV and the new innovative way of conducting TV political discussions , the VAFB (Virtual Association of Fake Bloggers) demands the implementation of below actions to enhance the freedom of expression in the country:

Debaters to be placed in a closed studio free of flying objects smaller than 1kg, but they are allowed to bring their own steel chains up to only 1 inch in diameter.
Up to 3 chairs to be present in the studio for the free use of participants. They can be used on first come first served basis.
Referee or TV host to be placed outside the cage (sorry, the studio) behind armoured glass with full visibility of the match events.
Each debater to have his own area with The Blue Line separating the different areas.

Debaters to be allowed to express their opinion freely in the way they see fit, but any logical argument is considered foul and the player can lose points for this.
Light swear words are not allowed. Only heavy ones. Continue reading »

New transport plan for Beirut’s traffic problems

08 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by Zak in LB Politics, LB Social, Lebanon, Politics

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Beirut, Lebanese government, lebanon, Public transport, Traffic congestion

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The daily commute in Beirut massively imbalanced against the use of any public transport methods (or may be the lack of them!). Traffic jam is a real problem over there where the bulk of commuters use their cars for their daily movements. Lebanon is so desperate for alternative and new public transport systems. Without looking at traffic figures, I see the proposal as a combination of many solutions, which are existent somewhere else, tested and proven. Executing one of them rather all of them could render the implemented solution redundant:

1. Park and Ride: building parking outside the city of Beirut, where cars park for the day or longer, and passengers from outside the city take the bus to centre. This ‘Park and Ride’ system exists in tight cities like Oxford in UK. Parking and ride fees are subsidised to reduce the problems of the congestion and parking spaces in the city. Potential locations will be near the main access points to Beirut: Khaldeh, Choueifat, Kfarchima, Hadath, Furn Al Shebak, Sin El Fil, Jdaideh, Hazmiyeh, Dowra and others.