Lebanese Blogger Forum

Beirut is No.1!

2009-02-10T17:35:00.004+02:00

The New York Times has voted Beirut the No.1 place to go in 2009!

In a feature called "The 44 Places to Go in 2009", Beirut was first according to both the NY Times recommendations as well as reader recommendations. "From the Aegean Sea to Zambia, this year’s most compelling destinations are awash in sublime landscapes, cutting-edge art, gala music festivals, and stylish new resorts. To vote for your favorites, click 'recommend'." So make sure you keep Beirut No. 1 by casting your vote!

And make sure to check out the NY Times' Lebanon Travel Guide!

Gaza & the Holocaust: A Comparison

2009-01-17T17:19:00.013+02:00

The Israeli Government has not allowed international journalists into Gaza, despite the Israeli Supreme Court's ruling that they are to be allowed in. Therefore, it is our responsibility to ensure that you see the few images that have made it out of Gaza. The world must see the true face of Israel.

Compare the photos on the left from the Nazi regime to the photos on the right from the Israeli regime in Palestine. You’ll find the pictures in black & white in most American and other western countries history books, encyclopedias, libraries, museums. One, for instance, depicts a young Jewish boy with his hands up while Nazi troops point their guns at him and his family in order to expel them from their homes. They make you sympathize with the victims and support their cause for justice and a homeland. What you won’t find are the pictures in color; the Israelis practice the same tactics…

Despair, Inc.

2008-10-30T17:10:00.001+02:00

(No comment)

Assassinations

2008-09-11T11:24:00.000+03:00

Feb 2005: Ex-PM Rafik Hariri

April 2005: MP Bassel Fleihan

June 2005: Anti-Syria journalist Samir Kassir

June 2005: Ex-Communist leader George Hawi

Dec 2005: Anti-Syria MP Gebran Tueni

Nov 2006: Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel

June 2007: Anti-Syria MP Walid Eido

Sep 2007: Anti-Syria MP Antoine Ghanim

Dec 2007: Army Gen Francois al-Hajj

Jan 2008: Police investigator Wissam Eid

Sep 2008: Pro-Syria MP Saleh Aridi

Provided by BBC

Ahlan wa sahlan

2008-09-11T09:36:00.000+03:00

Hi again, looks like it is back to a pretty solitary experience here at LBF. That's cool in a way. We can revamp a bit and think about ways to improve the site. I had to get some kind of header.jpg up here because it was just too much to see things in such disrepair. So, a minor temporary fix until we can figure out what's next. Hope it's ok.

I initially made LBF to make a platform whereby a community of people could be made where one wasn't. And I have a feeling that good things have come of it even in the short-term. Even if this place just becomes a list of links, a portal to Lebanon, it's also ok. We could also be more ambitious and think of more creative things to accomplish. But inshallah, ....yimkin bookrah ..ha ha :)

I'm on meditteranean time no matter where I am. While I love to accomplish things, sometimes things need to develop organically. And that's what I hope we have here. Real relationships hoisting up digital connections instead of the converse.

Let's have a discussion. Tell me how you want this site to improve and if it's doing exactly what you think it should be doing, then great!

Let's just see :)

Best,
Lim

Chiming in...

2008-06-12T07:20:00.000+03:00

Been a long time. Missed you all.
Tell me about our beloved Leb'naaaaaaan.
I'm horribly out of the loop.

Anyhow, I've been around all my old CDs lately, therefore I've been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin.

First track on Led Zeppelin III is The Immigrant Song. So, will we continue to migrate or will we finally fix our own house and live in it and prosper?

Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying:
Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar,
Our only goal will be the western shore.
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
How soft your fields so green,
Can whisper tales of gore,
Of how we calmed the tides of war.
We are your overlords.
On we sweep with threshing oar,
Our only goal will be the western shore.
So now youd better stop and rebuild all your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day
Despite of all your losing.

This Says It All...

2008-05-15T23:10:00.000+03:00

Absolution

2008-05-10T22:03:00.002+03:00

To every Lebanese fighting another

I absolve myself of you.
I absolve me of the anger
dripping morbidly from turbid eyes;
of the hatred, loud and raucous,
and stupid;
of the ignorance engulfing you
like summer haze:
humid, and sticky, and slowly reeking.
I absolve me of your sins.

I absolve me of your children,
dull and arrogant,
and devoid of hope.
I absolve me of your tongue,
its beautiful words
gone blind.

I absolve me even of myself,
this guilt of being,
this exhaust of writing,
this ball of fury in your throats.
I absolve me even of this,
the need for absolution.

Freedom & Peace To Lebanon

2008-05-11T00:38:00.000+03:00

قوم فوت نام ..

2008-05-09T04:55:00.001+03:00

قوم فوت نام .. وصير احلم
أنو بلدنا صارت بلد

قوم فوت نام .. هالأيام
حارة بيسكرها ولد

هاي بلد ؟؟ لأ .. مش بلد
هاي قرطة عالم مجموعين
مجموعين ؟؟ .. لأ
مطروحين ؟؟ .. لأ
مضروبين ؟؟ .. لأ
مقسومين
قوم فوت نام .. وصير احلم

قوم فوت نام
كدوش الفرشة يلا قوام
وتغطى وسمك الحرام
وتمسى بنفس الكلام
تابع برامج بالسكام

كلها أغاني عن الوحدة الوطنية
كلها أماني في المسيرات الأمنية
كلها تهاني في صيغتنا اللبنانية

وقوم فوت نام

ماهو تلات ملايين
عالتخمين
هودي اللي جوة البلد
والباقيين مفروطين
كل شوية في بلد

هاي بلد ؟؟ لأ مش بلد
هاي قرطة عالم مجموعين
مجموعين ؟؟.. لأ
مطروحين ؟؟.. لأ
مضروبين ؟؟.. لأ
مقسومين ؟؟.. لأ
قوم فوت نام .. وصير احلم

كلمات و الحان : زياد الرحباني

صباح الخير يا بيروت

2008-05-09T12:37:00.000+03:00

The Hakawati

2008-05-06T07:14:00.000+03:00

I am very proud and happy to present to you the latest masterpiece by my great friend, the sinfully underrated Rabih Alameddine: The Hakawati.

But don't take my word for it, check out the amazing blurbs it got from the likes of:

Andrew Sean Greer
Amy Tan
Junot Díaz
Jonathan Safran Foer
Aleksandar Hemon

The book also received starred reviews from:

Library Journal
Booklist
Publishers Weekly
Kirkus Reviews

Jailed Saudi blogger in Solitary Confinement

2008-02-25T11:27:00.000+02:00

Seems the Saudi virtue police are done with their female hair chase fixation, now they are on the loose in cyberspace.

What would any country that suppresses the slightest form of freedom of expression and of positive criticism expect?There goes the answer: Suppress civil expression of the educated class, and you get droves of bearded illiterate hair-chasers and uncivil terrorists..

Ah Yes! they already have plenty of those, I wonder why?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Arabian Business.com by Amy Glass on Sunday, 24 February 2008

Jailed Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan is being kept in solitary confinement and subjected to daily questioning, members of his family said on Saturday.

Al Farhan's mother said Saudi authorities allowed her son to briefly telephone his family from Jeddah's Dahban Prison on February 12, his first contact since his father-in-law was allowed a short visit on January 5, reported Saudi daily Arab News.

Despite his on-going imprisonment, Al Farhan told his mother he was "all right, and that he was not being harassed", quoted the newspaper.

His family's requests for further visits have been denied, and it is unclear whether he has received access to legal assistance, Arab News said.

Al Farhan, a popular Saudi blogger, was arrested in Jeddah on December 10, but has not been informed of the charges against him. His detention is believed to be the first arrest of an online critic in the kingdom.

The authorities are believed to be holding Al Farhan for his online criticism of government policies, including detentions without charge and trial of prisoners of conscience.

These criticisms include the government's ongoing detention of nine men arrested in February last year after calling for government reform.

Mansour Al Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said earlier this month that there was no update on the Al-Farhan case other than his previous statement that he was being held for interrogation for violating non-security regulations.

Al-Farhan's blog - Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, shoura and all the rest of lost Islamic values - has posted a letter, allegedly from Al-Farhan, which states he believes he was arrested because he "wrote about political prisoners in Saudi Arabia".

His arrest and imprisonment has sparked the launch of several campaigns and appeals for his release by international and Saudi NGOs, including the Arabic Network for Human Rights, Reporters without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

I am Beirut

2008-02-05T23:57:00.000+02:00

This is a slightly sappy, but touching and heartfelt, chain email that came across my way (I took the liberty to edit it a bit before posting it). You might have already seen it. I have no idea who wrote it; but if you do, please share the knowledge.

I used to be a beautiful city… Some people say I'm still as beautiful as I was before... I don't like me anymore… I scare my kids away… I kill my people unintentionally… I starve them to death… I even turn some of their brightest days to a funeral in a split of a second…

Every day I stand there, waving to all these people, mostly young, leaving on these big airplanes… Jealousy kills me, knowing that they will go and enjoy grocery shopping in a street I've never heard of, smiling to a stranger who doesn't even know where their country is… Working hard and becoming successful… I wish they could be here with me, becoming successful with me… I feel helpless without them, thousands and thousands leave, few come back while I sit waiting and waiting and waiting…

A girl came to me the other day, young and beautiful… Wearing that white dress made her look like an angel. Stood at the "Corniche" with a coffee in her hand… She was staring at the sea with words coming out of her eyes

"I miss you Beirut.
I miss your weather, miss your sea breeze.
I miss staring at you at night from my bedroom balcony… when the world is sleeping and there is only you and I miss feeling loved.
I miss belonging to you, miss feeling the security… You don't know how hard it is to wake up every morning wondering if your parents or friends are ok, until you read the news and make few phone calls in case there was an explosion… Try harder Beirut…"

Tears filled my eyes and anger filled my heart… Didn't know what to say to comfort her! My body is heavy and scattered, my land enjoys blood and every now and then one of my veins explodes and many of my innocent kids die… I can't help it... I try...

"I want to come back and live here Beirut, next to my family, next to my dad and brother… I want to raise my kids in Beirut, just the way I was raised… Never knew the difference between a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew… never heard about terrorism… Want my kids to grow up on discipline, respect, beliefs, freedom… and mostly integrity. What happened to you Beirut? You're no longer the same…

I turned and left, didn't want to hear her anymore… She kept calling me but I never answered... She broke my heart, only because she was telling me the truth! I'm no longer Beirut she once enjoyed when she was 4… They took my magic away…

Ashamed I am… I starve my people to death; I have no shelter for them anymore, no security, no love among each other… I'm in pain, I want to endure more, maybe, maybe someday my people will understand the pain I'm going thru and help me stand instead of walking all over me… I don't blame them; they are hungry and poor…

She left on one of those big airplanes few days later, sad she looked back at me hoping to come back and see me at least in the same condition, but we both knew it was not the case; I screamed and screamed hoping for her to hear me…

I order you to come back… Yes I can't promise you security but I promise you that you and me can make it together, come back and bring all those people who once left… because I miss them, miss their faces and their laughs… Come back and fight for me, clean my body from rotten creatures, change the world for me, help me stand… I can't do it alone.

I'm your city,
I'm your mother,
I'm your child,
I am Beirut.

BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA!

2008-01-24T17:45:00.000+02:00

DON'T DELAY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

The years-old blockade of Gaza is at crisis point: with the humanitarian crisis growing, the southern border has been breached and 350,000 Palestinians are pouring across. The situation is out of control--the world must step in. To prevent catastrophe and protect civilians on all sides, your voice is needed urgently: Avaaz is running an emergency global campaign to international, European and Arab leaders, calling on them to stop the siege, oversee open borders and help broker a ceasefire. They’ll deliver the petition when we reach 150,000 signatures - please sign the petition, then spread the word:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_end_the_siege/8.php?cl=50706608

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, the National Council of Arab Americans, Free Palestine Alliance, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Palestinian American Women's Association together with Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and several other organizations are calling for emergency protests demanding an immediate end to the Israeli blockade and siege of Gaza. Protests will take place on January 25-26 at Israeli embassies, consulates, U.S. federal buildings and other locations. Here is a listing of emergency protests taking place over the world the next few days:

http://al-awda.org/alert-gaza3.html

If you are planning your own protest for Gaza, please write to info@al-awda.org so they can post information about your action on their website:
http://al-awda.org/

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People of the world watch in horror as the racist state of 'Israel', with the support and encouragement of the US government, engages in a genocidal project to eliminate the indigenous Arab people of Palestine.

The world community has denounced the government of 'Israel' for using its military for the purpose of collectively punishing the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, a clear war crime and violation of the 4th Geneva Conventions. The only power plant in Gaza was shut down today leaving the 1.5 million inhabitants without electricity, water, or any functional medical facilities.

Palestinians continue to endure starvation, aerial bombings, US CIA interventions, and Israeli army brutality. This murderous endeavor has caused the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians and the already fragile economy of Gaza has been decimated.

NO FOOD, NO WATER, NO BREAD!

SPEAK OUT TO DEMAND ONCE AND FOR ALL AN END TO THE SIEGE OF GAZA AND THE OCCUPATION OF ALL OF PALESTINE!

ORGANIZE STREET ACTIONS AND PROTESTS, CALL AND WRITE THE MEDIA AND YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES.

ORGANIZE COMMUNITY MEETINGS AND DELEGATIONS TO RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND EDUCATORS.

DONATE TO HELP THE PEOPLE IN GAZA!

For writing to the media, go to http://newslink.org/ for contact information.

We appeal to all people living in the US: contact your congressional representatives! http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home

If you are on Facebook, we invite you to join the event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8359587035&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10039277812

For more information, visit:
http://toibillboard.info/gaza_eng.htm

BREAK THE SILENCE ON GAZA! DON'T DELAY! TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

Yo What up?

2007-12-30T00:00:00.000+02:00

First, my apologies to my brethren inside and outside of Lebanon. I haven't been able to really do any blogging in the past year or so. What is going on? Seems like things have slowed down quite a bit. Any hope of reinvigoration? I would like to hear peoples thoughts on this matter.

Please give some thought to commenting on this post.

Lebanon has always been misunderstood. We are a very diverse bunch with many competing opinions. But there should be an arena online where we may all gather and express those opinions together. Violence or those advocating violence should not be a part of this arena.

Haven't we had enough?

The situation is on a knife's edge in several ways. Although I'm not blogging on it, I'm keeping close attention to what's happening from a distance. I know people are tired. And tired of the status quo. We simply need change and along with change comes fresh faces. I said that from the beginning and I'll say it again now. How can we achieve change that is fair for all parties involved? That, of course, is the question.

But the old status quo is hard to break from, similar to bad habits.
And Lebanon has a bad habit of regression. Not even regression, perhaps it's just stagnancy. As if we're stuck in a feed-back loop of insanity.

I'm not by any means saying Lebanon isn't thriving now. Because there are some bright spots. But we should be doing a lot better than we are now.

We need more cynical optimism.

I always have more to say. I just wish I had more time to say it.
That'll be all for now.

I hope everybody is doing well. I've missed ya.

Who needs a President?

2007-11-27T11:40:00.000+02:00

Call me a fool (not to my face), but I have this strange "free" feeling ever since the Presidential Post moved under the "Help Wanted" section. When Emile Lahoud left the Presidential Palace last Friday, I felt relieved that I lived to see him depart, and proud that regardless of all the traumas and scandals we Lebanese manage to bring on ourselves, and all the dependency and immaturity our political class never fails to display, that while we cannot as a people run our own affairs without hailing the whole world paratroopers and maniacs in, I was proud that we manage to get rid of those in authority eventually, peacefully, but not quietly. What is a 9-year term when it comes to a lifetime president, or to hereditary rule? I even felt a tiny shred of respect for the ex-President. He overstayed his welcome, but at least he walked out, and unlike other Arab rulers, was not hoarded out by an ambulance, a mob, or a funeral procession.

I do not want to act as a judge, so I will not comment if Lahoud has blood on his hands, in his veins, or elsewhere. Eventually, long as it may be, Justice shall prevail to either indict the criminals or to acquit the innocent.

Maybe it is that I am the only person in the country thinking -- drum roll -- do we really need a president? It's time to spurt out the suppressed feelings on authority, and a religiously branded officials in specific. Let me go through some arguments on the media on why we need a Maronite President - hopefully I'll run the same comparison one day when the House Speaker retires and no replacement is found:

1- Symbol of the country: Yeah sure, we have been the butt of half the world political jokes lately, and this is only the beginning. Sudan (home of Darfur, Halayeb, and Southern Sudan crisis) sent a peace envoy. Get it?

2- Preserving the Post for Christians: Huh? Demographically speaking, the Christians should press on a secular state – the sooner the better, and drop the religious confessional thing forever, and that goes to the rest of the Lebanese if they knew what's good for htem. The Christians do not need a post to keep them or to preserve them, and if they JUST cannot live wihtout that representation, they should realistically seek the Prime Minister's Post or the Parliament Speaker post. In reverse, the Druze go unrepresented in the top three posts, but Weam Wahab is the shining star and spokesperson of the opposition, comprising Maronites, Shiias, and Druze. MP Jumblat is one of the most influential figures in the Majority Party.

3- Protect the Christians: Let's quickly run through who invited the Syrians to protect the "Christians?" – Answer: a president. Who appealed for them to stay – Answer: another "two presidents" – Who ran civil conflict in the so called "East Beirut" – Answer: A presidential candidate assigned by another President at the end of his term. The result: half the Christians immigrated. So much for protection, representation, and preserving the symbol of the Republic. The so called "Christian politics" have done more harm to the christian presence in the last 50 years than 2000 years of Christian presence in this land.

Again and again we fall for the political lies, for the sectarian "bo3bo3" (monster), again and again we stand for our Feudal Masters in power - they manipulate us.

Having said that, enough with the religious labeling rubbish, it's time we think of ourselves as citizens, not tribesmen, or else – there won't be anyone of us left to tell where we went wrong – Christian, Muslim, or Monkey worshippers for all I care.

Mapping Fallacies

2007-11-01T19:31:00.000+02:00

This is a letter I wrote to the editors of Now Lebanon in response to their feature titled "Mapping alliances: Where the Arab states stand on Lebanon and Syria":
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=14910
However, much to my disappointment, it seems that they do not welcome criticism. So I though I'd share my thoughts here:

In discussing Syria, you mention that 'Since the so-called Cedar Revolution of Spring 2005,... Syrian intelligence operatives are believed to have been responsible for the assassination of as many as eight leading anti-Syrian Lebanese figures.' Your use of the passive voice can be quite misleading to the audience, in a sense that it utters what strikes the uninformed reader as the only theory there is, and as objective, in a sense that it is not contaminated by physicality ('this person' or, better, 'I' think this). I think that a minimum of objectivity needs to be payed ode to by stating that there is another theory stating that these assassinations have been conducted by the Israeli intelligence upon American request.

Mind you, I seriously doubt - then again - that you are the least bit concerned with objectivity if you say '[g]eographically, it [as in Saudi Arabia] might also be considered the father of the moderate Arab axis, extending through the Gulf and across most of North Arica - in contrast to the more confrontational Syrian and Iranian axis.' I do not understand by what virtue it is that you deem Saudi Arabia a moderate country; if by lifestyle and internal policy, it is oppressive, unsecular (to say the least), and undemocratic (again, to say the least). If by foreign policy, it is clearly biased to the American axis, and its system is sustained by the US government. It is terribly dangerous to try to equate the 'American' with the 'moderate' and, worse still, I fear that this is exactly what you know you are doing. This applies to the ease with which you described Egypt and Jordan as 'moderate' as well.

What I am most concerned about, though, is your legend and the way you labelled its two extremities as 'Pro-Syria' and 'Pro-Lebanon'. Again, you are making use of a seemingly objective medium as the map in a propaganda all too obviously biased to what is 14th March and not, mind you, to what you called 'Pro-Lebanon'. The current conflict is one between two parties inside Lebanon (March 8th and March 14th), those in turn representing forces outside of Lebanon (the American axis, imperialist and capitalist, and the Iranian axis, anti-imperialist and unsecular), and is by no virtue a conflict between a single unified entity called 'Lebanon' and another called 'Syria'. Again, it is at best simplistic and at worse hypocritical (as in biased but pretending to be objective) to try to equate the 8th March party (yes, a full-fledged Lebanese party, at least as full-fledged Lebanese as the 14th March party) with any country outside of Lebanon (Syria). Likewise, claiming that the 14th March party represents 'Lebanon' denies the latter from almost half of its population (I do not wish to get into the number game now, that is not the least bit my point) or, put worse, disregards the voice of almost half the Lebanese in what pretends to be a democratic system.

Does this remind you of anything?

2007-10-23T02:30:00.000+03:00

A cross-border raid, soldiers killed and captured: Hezbollah-Israel 2006, or PKK-Turkey 2007? And yet, out of great similarities are born great ironies: while the US is now crying out for “restraint”, restraint was the farthest thing on its mind last year. It doesn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to envision what the US reaction would be if Turkey started shelling the Green Zone in Baghdad, and bombarding its bridges. Suffice it to say, I don't think Condi will coolly accept it as “the birth pangs of the Middle East”… As our good old saying goes, “If you have no shame, do as you wish!”

At least that didn't go unnoticed, even in the US:

Another brave man falls...

2007-09-19T18:12:00.000+03:00

MP Antoine Ghanem was just killed.

Of course he is one of 14 March, part of Amine Gemayel’s bloc, who are at the opposit side of Aoun.

Antoine Ghanem was recently called a “kitty” by the glorious General Aoun. I wonder now who is the “kitty”? The brave men and women of the independence movement, threatened by death and assassination on every corner or those who are in league with the assassins, peacefully hiding...

Boycott “1000 Places To See Before You Die”!

2007-09-16T19:38:00.000+03:00

It has come to my attention recently that the bestselling book “1000 Places To See Before You Die” (which now has a Travel Channel show based on it) has a gaping omission that is simply shameful and unacceptable. It lists no sites worth seeing in Lebanon, a country that contains 6 of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites; by comparison, for instance, the list includes 10 sites in Israel, a country that contains 6 World Heritage Sites as well (counting the one in Jerusalem as being in Israel, which is disputed still). (You can find the list here, so you don't have to buy the book.) I frankly can’t think of a reason for the glaring discrepancy other than political bias. You’d think a fair and balanced list (not ala Fox News) of 1000 must-see sites would at least include the World Heritage Sites (the total of which is 851 properties “forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value”).

I invite you to write to the editors of both the book and the TV program, post on your blogs, and spread the word that this disgraceful bias is simply unacceptable. We cannot let this shameless slant of American media (which in turn is piped to the rest of the world) to simply continue; it ends up becoming a self-propagating myth and an self-fulfilling prophecy. We may not be able to turn the tide, but we can certainly try to stop it. And there is some momentum gathering in self-respecting institutions to counter this tide (see for example the recent publication by Harvard and University of Chicago professors, Walt and Mearsheimer, of ground-shaking book, The Israel Lobby). So, let's do something about it!

Here is a link to a posting about the same subject matter on the Daily Star forum.

Beirut named “World Book Capital 2009”

2007-09-16T21:40:00.000+03:00

The Director-General of UNESCO announced the nomination of Beirut as the “World Book Capital 2009” at the conclusion of the selection committee meeting which began on 3 July. Held at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters, the meeting brought together representatives of the three main professional associations in the book industry and UNESCO.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/
story.asp?NewsID=23154&Cr=unesco&Cr1=book

2007-09-14T01:19:00.000+03:00

Missing My Lovely Beirut...

(Manara, Beirut, 2007)

Twenty-five years ago...

2007-08-20T22:00:00.000+03:00

...During the summer of 1982, NPR sent a crew of three to Lebanon to report on the Siege of Beirut. In this reminiscence, the audio engineer for the team reflects on his first foray into covering the news:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12531265

(with audio clips and a slide-show)

One Year Later

2007-08-02T17:19:00.000+03:00

Mercy Corps in Lebanon
A Letter From the Field

"Mercy Corps was working to strengthen Lebanese society long before last summer's 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. But today, during this critical stage in the country's history, our efforts have a new sense of urgency.

On a recent trip to Lebanon, I saw firsthand how Mercy Corps understands that a peaceful Lebanon will be built on the foundation of young, motivated leaders. We've focused much of our work on empowering young people: offering leadership training in Beirut neighborhoods, hosting youth retreats and
sponsoring activities from community cleanups to basketball tournaments.

As we approach the one-year mark of the beginning of Lebanon's recovery, I invite you to read about how Mercy Corps is helping Lebanese youth build a positive future:"
http://www.mercycorps.org/countries/lebanon?source=E136

Joy Portella, Mercy Corps Communications Director

UNICEF also has a photo essay titled "Lebanon, one year later":
http://www.unicef.org/photoessays/40328.html