Category: Social

  • History repeats itself

    True Story: They FINALLY removed the "iso and elissar" poster from dbayeh highway! Joy! Happiness!

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    I'm sure they will replace it with a cultural event!

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    Or environmental! Or educational! Or even artistic!

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    BUT NO.

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    Presenting... Elianor & Elissar!

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    NOOOOOOO!!

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    I'm left with drinking it away.

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    Believe it or not, this story is 100% true! [Well, except the drinking part, it’s not true just yet.] I wish you all a lovely Monday, with today’s song ‘Wild Horses’ & I’m not exactly sure who sings it… Enjoy! 🙂

    Wild Horses


  • A miracle at Lebanese banks

    Breaking news! Lebanese banks & postal services implement numbering system to avoid waiting in line and to save time!

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    BEFORE: we had to wait in line.

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    THEN, THE MIRACLE: Numbering system

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    2- Get informed of "THE MIRACLE".

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    3- Nag about it and try to negotiate a faster deal. "But my transaction is fast!"

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    4- Resignedly go to miracle and not know how to use it. "Hmm. This looks like toilet paper!"

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    5- Have someone explain the "right" way to use it. "you only get one ticket!"

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    6- go back to waiting in line

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    7- When your turn finally comes 40 minutes later...

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    When your turn comes, lady interrupts

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    "Madame get a number, please!" "But my transaction is fast!"

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    Take the lady to step 4 and repeat to fade

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    If you’ve been at a bank [that I won’t name] or at Liban Post lately, then you have surely noticed the new “numbering” system. I had to wait about 40 minutes for my turn to come, so I thought that I might as well observe and analyze the different interactions happening there! 🙂 I wonder how long it will take for the new system to be understood by people coming for transactions!

    I’ll now leave you with this beautiful song, covered by Eva Cassidy “Song Bird”. Have a beautiful day! 🙂

    Songbird 2

    That this post is being added live at LAU social class!

  • Exotica… The Comeback! Moukarzel… The Fall Down!

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    And if I might ad, the execution of the C&F ad is terrible, as it is clearly a cushion inserted into the woman’s clothes, and not a baby.

    Again, I’d like to thank Exotica and their creative team for responding positively to the criticism of their campaign [I knew from trusted sources that the reason they updated the campaign is because of the reaction they saw through social media]. If that’s the case, then they are pioneers 🙂 What do you guys think about the other campaigns I just shared?

    Exotica is now all over the Lebanese blogosphere: Raafat Hamze analyzes the campaign change here, and there is Plus961‘s, Liliane‘s & Joe‘s take on this.

    On another note, I got back from Zahleh [as you might have noticed :P] and will update you tomorrow! Have a beautiful day with this smooth song from Spirited Away soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi!

    21 Always With Me

  • Consumption, creation and Arabs

    I was very lucky to illustrate 2 cartoons for the presentation of Donatella Della Ratta at the Young Leaders Social Media Cafe. Dona is the manager of Creative Commons Middle East, and we are now helping her organize the 1st CC Salon in Beirut, so stay tuned! 😉 Here are the 2 illustrations:

    1- “From Bedouins in a desert to media savvy terrorists: those are the Arabs in the eyes of the West. How do we get rid of this??”

    2- “Switching from the culture of consumption to the culture of creation. Can Arabs do it?”

    And here”s a photo of Dona”s presentation [credits: Darine Sabbagh]

    The cartoons are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

  • The language dilemma

    The latest post on BeirutSpring blog reminded me of a [very sweet] message I received by email from a reader.

    It read:

    “Dear Maya,

    I drew something about *your blog*, I hope you like it even though it’s a criticism 😀 I spent a lot of time on it… It’s not good enough, but I tossed the coin 😉 Maya, please read this: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/02/28/101744.html“

    And had the below illustration attached:

    To answer you, Rocky  [and to all of you asking the same question] 🙂

    Thanks again to all who participated yesterday to the celebrations! 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll be “officially” announcing the winners!

    Until then, here’s Kevin Shield’s Ikebana from the soundtrack of Lost in Translation 😛 . Have a beautiful day 🙂

    10 Ikebana – Kevin Shields

  • Apocalypse Now! (or Waiting for Godot)

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    I can’t say I was disappointed the tsunami didn’t happen (or happened in the shape of a small splash on the shore). At least I got to sleep [ 😛 ], and many people got their homes & business saved. In the hope this is the last natural catastrophe to hit this planet 🙂 And the last time the media make a HUGE FAKE buzz. If only they were able to prevent the bigger disasters like Haiti’s…

    Anyway, see you tomorrow with a BIG surprise 😉

  • For better & for worse

    Last week on my way to work, I bumped into the latest exotica campaign for mother's day. It showed a mother and daughter with huge ear, and the slogan was "For the good and the bar, thank you Mom". Oh my! Where have their chic visuals gone?

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    Then few meters later, another, except this time mother and daughter have oversized noses. "Hmm.. Are they seriously profiling certain physical traits as BAD?"

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    Class Setting. Lebanese Society 101. "In the look-obsessed country we live in, we often see scenarios as follows".

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    This campaign reinforces the complexes a lot of young girls have about how they look. Now, they might start blaming their mothers for genetic inheritance, instead of them understanding that a big nose -ear is actually, NOT, bad.

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    .If I want to associate their slogan with a visual, it would not be as funny. Billboard showing mother beating child.

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    Or... HIV positive mother and daughter

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    As you can see, there are far worse things a mother could give to her children than a big nose - ear. Things they, in fact, could never possibly thank her for. In all cases, I have one thing to say: Thank you Exotica for the good and the bad! ;) In the hope the next campaign will catch up!

    You might say I am overreacting. However, the reason I am, is because I believe huge billboards have great influence on the large amount of people who cross them daily. Big corporations should thus think twice before shouting such messages at us. And I do know that “it got people talking about it”, but wouldn’t it be better if it also, on the way, got through a more responsible message?

    Anyway, I just had to say what I think about this campaign, it’s been bothering me everyday when I pass by it. Now, back to music, here’s Sarah Vaughn’s Broken Hearted Melody. Have a wonderful day 🙂

  • Defining Entrepreneurship #2

    Web entrepreneur: I spend my days browsing "websites" in order to eventually get hit by a brilliant idea that has already been implemented 10,000+ times.

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    Green entrepreneur: i know how to seize every single opportunity be it mountain climbing or scuba diving

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    tech entrepreneur: i got an ipad before you!

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    social entrepreneur: we used to call it PR but the terminology was changed to fit the entrepreneurship era

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    Music entrepreneur: my latest clip "hobbak nar" was a revolution in the arabic music biz. i had the brilliant idea of bathing in corn flakes. it was the right thing to do, my song has been top 1 since.

    Got more ideas? share away! :-)

    [NB: This post (& the previous one) are criticizing the way the  concept of “entrepreneurship” has been overused & abused on the web lately, in the Arab world specifically. Yet it does not deny in any way the existence of  “true entrepreneurs” who work/have worked very hard and of whom we are extremely proud 🙂 ]

    The content of this post was “crowdsourced over a friendly chat in Cafe Younes. And that was today’s lesson in Entrepreneurship 101! On a lighter note, the whole “entrepreneurship” parodies happening on Twitter are extremely hilarious, thank you #Maniachi team for adding laughter to our feeds everyday 🙂

    I’ll now leave you with the music of an artist I only discovered yesterday thanks to Raafat Hamze (who also happens to have great writings on his blog).

    Have a lovely day! 🙂

  • Making-of Meedan video

    meedan video storyboard

    I was approached by Meedan to design/animate a short video explaining the concept behind the website “in plain English” and “in plain Arabic”. A BIG thank you goes to the lovely Mohammad Kayali (from Hyperlink Podcast) who recorded the sound & translated the text to Arabic on a very short notice, and to SMEX Beirut for providing me with the flip cam to do the video recording. Here’s the outcome in English!

    Meedan in Plain English from Meedan on Vimeo.

    Go to Meedan News & scroll down for the 2 versions!

    And on another note, what’s a Monday morning without some music! Here’s the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun.

    In other news, this blog was happily selected to be Blog of the Week on Lebanon Aggregator because next week we’re turning 1 year old! So happy about it! Thank you so much! 🙂

    Have a great week 🙂

  • iPhone Apps for Lebanese needs

    Post featured on itoot.net

    I was very excited to collaborate again with the amazing Qifa Nabki on designing icons for iPhone Apps tailored to fit the Lebanese lifestyle needs!

    To know the story behind every app, click on the image below!

  • Curiosity killed the cat

    Finding some old video tapes

    I can’t believe the DVD guy WATCHED the videos I sent him. Not only did he watch them, but he also had the guts to comment about the fashion & lifestyle of the 80’s and how we spent our time back then. Wlak at least don’t SAY that you watched them! Apparently he didn’t have much to do during the day. Lebanese & their curiosity.

    Anyway, I just felt like holding a pencil and scribbling & here’s what came out 🙂 Couldn’t possibly let you go to your weekends without a quick post!

    Have a lovely weekend my darlings! And here’s Chick Corea’s “Love Castle” from his album “My Spanish Heart”.

    01 Love Castle

  • The return of the kamikaze

    Remember when I told you about the kamikaze phenomenon about a year ago?

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    Well, I witnessed a highly enhanced version of it. On Dora highway. Which proves that our population is getting more and more enlightened.

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    Presenting.. the kamikaze family! "Yalla mama, when I say go, we run!"

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    .Go!

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    Mother and children crossing highway

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    .Mother pauses in middle of highway, wondering whether she should grab the papers dropped by her son. Cars around start panicking.

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    .They eventually crossed the road. And the boy cried for his papers.

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    .When will people wake up and smell the hazard of walking through a highway?

    I was horrified to see a whole family crossing the highway (autostrade) by foot!! What was the mother thinking? Has common sense disappeared from humanity? She even had a “thinking break” right in the middle of the highway to contemplate whether she should take the papers dropped by her little kid! Suicidal! This is just beyond my understanding, and the scene has been replaying in my head for the last two days. It was that disturbing and does not make sense to me. Thought I’d start the week with some road awareness, we can never get enough of that! Road idiocy is born with humans apparently.

    Here’s a song to brighten up your day by my very adored Nick Drake. “Time has told me”. And check the lyrics for extra beauty.

    Have a lovely week! 🙂