Paying respect to Lebanon’s Ayatollah
From The Electronic Intifada: There is a lot to say about Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the Lebanese Shia Muslim cleric who passed away on 4 July 2010 at the age of 75. Unfortunately, much of what there is to say is being left unsaid for more of the same sensationalist reporting on this region [...]
Beirut protests Israel’s attack on Gaza aid convoy
Thousands take to streets of Beirut to protest Israel’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla
The long march for secularism
Images from yesterday’s march for secularism in Beirut. This is a good opinion piece in the Guardian on Lebanon’s struggle for secularism, and an article on the march in the LA Times. The impression that I got from most Lebanese friends when I asked what they thought of the march was something like, “it was [...]
Teddy Afro came to Lebanon
Before yesterday, many Ethiopian friends who I’ve come to know recently through a photography project I’m working on documenting the lives of foreign domestic workers in Lebanon found it hard to believe that their country’s top musical icon would perform in Beirut. One male Ethiopian friend who manages a shop and is savvy about Lebanese [...]
Plane crashes off Beirut coast
An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed into the Mediterranean Sea just minutes after taking off in Beirut early this morning. Ninety people (including seven crew) were aboard the flight bound for Addis Ababa that included 54 Lebanese and 22 Ethiopians as well as passengers of other nationalities. Early reports indicate that most of the Lebanese passengers [...]
Suicide in Lebanon
Theresa Seda fell to her death from a 7th floor balcony across the street from my home.
Photography
It’s incredible that scenes like this still exist in an age where I can photograph them with a camera on my mobile phone.
Book review: "A World I Loved"
This is my review of Wadad Makdisi Cortas’ memoir, A World I Loved. I highly recommend this book for people outside the Middle East who wish to better understand this region’s recent history. Book review: “A World I Loved” http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10869.shtml “This is my story, the story of an Arab woman,” Wadad Makdisi Cortas states in [...]
Beirut rains
The rains have begun in Beirut. Summer is over and in a matter of minutes the city has taken on a completely different feel. The air is fresher and the water is giving life to the dehydrated vegetation on my balcony and in the park below. I feel like this dude after a hot day [...]
Nahr al-Bared protest in Tripoli
Residents from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon gathered on 16 September to protest the Lebanese government’s halting of planned reconstruction of the camp that was destroyed in 2007 in a battle between the Lebanese army and militants from Fatah al-Islam. Hundreds of refugees from the camp and their supporters gathered in Tripoli, [...]
Lebanon's communists remember
Last night, hundreds of supporters of the Lebanese Communist Party and other leftist groups gathered just around the corner from my house near Sanayeh in Beirut. They celebrated the 27th anniversary of their first resistance operation in Beirut against the Israeli army after the latter’s brutal invasion of the Lebanese capital in 1982. The attack [...]
Ramadan in Nahr al-Bared
A Palestinian family prepares for the iftar meal outside of prefabricated homes in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp.
Marcel and Omaima
I finally succeeded in seeing these two perform tonight after years of trying. By far my favorite singing duo, well, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez might be close if they had only done more together. Expect a writeup of the concert in the coming days.