Look at their faces. Say their names. Think of their grieving mothers and fathers, their fatherless or motherless sons and daughters, their partner-less wives and husbands. And be angry. These are victims. These are people whose only fault was to be in a country whose criminals are in charge, whose politicians are so evil they don’t care about any of their lives. Look at the names that are still unknown, whose families are still looking for them, hoping for life, and be angry. Their death was preventable. Their lives getting cut short this way was not inevitable. The government must pay for ..read more

I don’t know where to even start. I wanted to write about how Joe Akiki’s mom broke my heart. How Sahar Fares’ funeral tore me to pieces. How little Alexandra’s face, next to her glass, as they announced that she passed was so full of life, gone too soon. But I am still angry. And right now, I’m even angrier. The blog may have been retired for a while. But today, I want to use whatever reach it has left to say one message: The Lebanese government is killing us. Right now. Blocking aid, blocking rescue teams, arresting journalists. You don’t believe me? Well, here’s a French medical team saying ..read more

I was at my office, having just seen a couple patients in clinic, when my friend Elia texts me: “there’s been an explosion at the Beirut port, check on your family.” I had seen pictures of it on Twitter, affixed to the speculation that it was fireworks related. I didn’t think much of it until I saw a video in which a mushroom cloud ballooned over the port’s hangars, and expanded, taking everything in its wake. In the space of less than thirty seconds, the city where I grew up was essentially no more. Stunning video shows explosions just minutes ago at Beirut port pic.twitter.com/ZjltF0VcTr ..read more

Via Art Of ThawraIt took 13 days of the entire country being paralyzed for Lebanon’s politician to budge. In a statement in which he decried that “no one is above their country,” Saad Hariri – our now (former?) prime minister issued his resignation. His resignation comes today to the background of plenty of Hezbollah and Amal thugs storming the downtown Beirut area, beating up protesters, women, reports, breaking down equipment, and the tents those protesters were using to demand basic human rights. If anything, Hariri’s resignation can’t be more timely: he is resigning from leading a country ..read more

(Picture via Anis Tabet). Nata2 badri, as my mom would say. 72 hours have come and gone. Aoun, Berri and Hariri have finally come out of their weekend long slumber to unveil their country saving plan… and they think we’re actually going to believe them this time. The plan that Hariri unveiled today is offensive to every single Lebanese who had to suffer through their corruption for years. This so-called plan is an insult to the intelligence of the millions who have been starved over the years, and who were protesting in the streets over the last 4 days. It’s ridiculous that it took millions o ..read more

I’ve been writing about Tripoli so frequently on this blog, not only because I loved that city, but because the preconceptions that many Lebanese had of it – mostly out of biased media whose job was to alienate fellow Lebanese from the Northern capital. Those preconceptions varied from “tripoli is where ISIS is” to “there’s nothing to do there anyway.” Many Lebanese that I know have started their third decade of life without having visited the city. As Lebanon ends its third consecutive day of massive protests, the like of which the country has never seen, one thing is abundantly clear, regar ..read more

My heart broke two days ago when I saw my home country burn, quite literally, in front of our eyes. As firefighters and regular people alike risked their lives to save our forests and homes from turning to ashes, it seemed fitting that a country whose course was scorching earth culminated that way. The fire was literal and figurative. The trees burned, but so did people’s savings. The shrubs erupted, but so did people’s patience. Homes burned, and so did the fragile foundation on which the semblance of the Lebanese state remained. As the government botched yet another aspect of its job towards ..read more

There you have it folks, the Byblos Festival has succumbed to the pressure from Christian extremist bigots and canceled the concert of Lebanon’s top band Mashrou3 Leila, in a statement issued today. I have no words for how terrible this is for Lebanese freedoms, for Lebanese youth, music and our well being as a nation. As the lines of sensibilities of these different groups keep getting drawn around what makes them comfortable, we are all forced into a tighter and tighter space that is slowly becoming suffocating. Shame on the Maronite Church for not being confident enough in its teaching to ..read more

With each passing day, news transpiring out of Lebanon get more and more disheartening as the latest seems to be a wannabe “comedian” deciding it’s time for him to start a “conversion therapy group” for gay people in the country. The comedian in question is Charbel Khalil. I forget when the last time this man dabbled with relevance, but he wants to be in the spotlight again as he launches hocus pocus, unethical and unscientific torture methods under the guise of his namesake saint. In a series of tweets, Khalil announced his intention to quick start the “St. Charbel Project” to “help” gay men ..read more

Picture this, a song released over 3 years ago is suddenly noticed by the collective praying masses, and crucifixes are drawn. Picture this, a meme posted on a Facebook page lands you in court. It’s not a meme you even did. This is what is happening with Mashrou3 Leila, the top Lebanese band that has been the prime representation of Lebanese indie music all around the world. They’ve been on world tours, selling out arenas across the world. Their latest highlight was a show at the prestigious Olympia in Paris, where people like Fairuz have performed before. Except now, ahead of their August 9t ..read more