Category: Social

  • Quid Pro Quo

    Laila's Discussion with her granmother

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    *Nefrah mennik = you get married (translation for non arabic-speaking readers)

    I thought social pressure for marriage starts for women in their early 30’s. But guess what! From the moment girls are born, they are brought up to “hope” and “dream” of the day they will get married (most women I know dream of this day). Marriage & childbearing is still regarded as the most rewarding achievement in the life of a woman, while all the other “career-related” achievements are only secondary and should be avoided if the financial situation allows it. This clearly causes a lack of confidence and sense of failure to some of the women who are not married – which I find completely wrong! I’m glad Kolena Laila initiative is giving me the space to say what I think about all this!

    Other Lebanese “bloggeresses” for Kolena Laila.

    • Café Thawra “Fighting the right ennemy”

    • Identity Chef “The Lebanese Laila: 5 lessons in Marketing & Self Branding”

    • Independence05

    • Lara’s photograph

    • … (let me know if I missed someone! 🙂 )

    Now before I leave you back to your holidays (for the fortunate ones) and to your work (for the not-so-lucky ones like me!) here is a song from the soundtrack of a movie that I’ve been CRAVING to watch, but haven’t had 2 free hours in a row to do so. Walk The Line <3 The song is ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ sang by Joaquim Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon for the movie … Enjoy, and have a great day 🙂

  • I can feel it coming…

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    It’s here! It’s Christmas fever. Christmas is in 2 days and I still didn’t get all the gifts for friends & family, and the TRAFFIC isn’t helping!!  But anyway 🙂 now is not a time to complain! It’s one of my favourite times of the year (except for the items listed above). I love the lights and the gifts and the whole spirit! Have a great day (to those of you on vacation) and to the rest of you who like me have to work until the 25th… GOOD LUCK 🙂

  • On Exotica's Christmas Blog

    My Different Christmas is Exotica’s Christmas Blog that completes their whole Christmas campaign which encourages people to get creative this season! They approached me to prepare a guest post on their blog, and I was more then happy to participate 🙂 CLick on the image below to view the submission:

  • Taxi?

    /

    /

    /

    /

    /

    /

    /

    /

    /

    /

    /


    /

    /

    /

    /

    /


    /

    /

    /

    /

    /


    /

    /

    /

    /

    /


    /

    /

    /

    /

    /


    In case you don’t know, this saying means “run from him, he will follow you”.

    So my darlings, I’ve missed you so much, and I’ve missed doing those posts that I just do for the fun of it! Since a lot of you has been asking me about the slowness in posting such posts, well, I have to tell you that it’s 4:30 am when I posting this, and I just had to do it after I finished the huge load of work that I had for the day. I have A LOT of work in the horizon, so I’m sorry if I don’t post as often as I used to. Have a bright day unstalked by taxi drivers! 🙂 Grr can’t take a walk without at least 3 services honking to ask me if I want a ride. Well, NO! Because if I wanted one, I would be telling you! Uft!

  • Maxime Chaya – Steep Dreams

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    Yes, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow is Maxime’s book STEEP DREAMS’ signing, at Villa Audi, Sofil. From 10.00 am to 8:00 pm! Here’s the poster, click on it for more info, or just visit the website: www.MaximeChaya.com. A big thank you goes to Samer Karam (with whom I worked on the website), for giving me this chance 🙂 Can’t wait to get my copy of Maxime’s book tomorrow! Hope to see you all there 😉 Have a great day!

  • AIDS… in Lebanon?

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    _ _

    Translation of Arabic sentences:

    “B3id el sharr: God forbid!

    Sayer bi zahi2 hal TV: TV is so boring lately

    Sketo Naji tole3 ma3o sida. la2to mnel philipiniyye: Rumour has it that Naji is HIV positive! He caught it from the domestic worker at his house.

    Lah ya 7aram ya Rosanne. Shou hal ossa!: Oh no! Poor Rosanne.. What a disaster!”

    _ _

    So, today is World Aids Day 2009. In Lebanon, sex and all its derivatives are still rather taboo subjects. Besides, the not-so-alarming numbers of HIV-positive people makes the issue not-so-alarming comparing to other political or social problems. However, why wait until it is spread like in some other countries? The increasing sex-tourism approach to Lebanon, combined with the very high lack of STD awareness in Lebanon (mainly due to non-secular school systems) AIDS is very vulnerable to spread, and to spread fast. Let us not forget to raise awareness about it everytime we get the chance.

    Other Lebanese bloggers on World Aids Day:

    • Café Thawra

    • Chantal

  • ATMs & Sukleen union

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    .

    .

    .

    .

    .


    It really bothered me seeing all those pieces of paper on the street in Jounieh (for a bank that I won’t name 😛 )! Usually when ATMs are inside the bank, they have a trash can next to them (which minimizes the thrown tickets), but when the ATM is on the street, it can get really messy! Good thing we have Ella to calm us down 🙂 Here’s a song dedicated to you! ‘It’s Only A Paper Moon’ by Ella Fitzgerald. Have a lovely day 🙂

  • Lecture & workshop at AUB

    Poster
    Lecture poster

    So my darlings, as you just read in the poster, I will be giving a lecture & workshop at AUB, in the department of Fine Arts & Art History, this wednesday from 3:30 to 6:00 pm. So all of you who are interested are most welcome to attend and participate.

    The planned schedule is as follows:

    • 3:30-4:15 lecture about the use of art & blogging to make social impacts, or for self-knowledge and better understanding of our society and surroundings.
    • 4:15-6:00 workshop focusing on illustration/sketching as a way of self representation in social situations that bother us.

    If you want to participate to the workshop, don’t forget your pencils, papers and try to prepare a storyboard of 5 scenes depicting a story that happened with you, that has impacted you on a social/political level to discuss and develop during the workshop.

    Here’s the link to the lecture announcement on the class’ blog and on AUB bulletin.

    See you there 😉

  • Traffic Solutions

    1-friday-eve-traffic

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    2-last-friday

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    3-this-friday

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    4-all-cds-in-car

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    5-all-radio-channels

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    6-solution-count-your-hair

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    7-twice

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    8-let-s-do-it

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    http://slotscliftourteetry.com wp-image-2309″ title=”9-999-1000″ src=”https://mayazankoul.com/amalgam/amalgam/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/9-999-1000.jpg” alt=”9-999-1000″ width=”446″ height=”518″ />

    Now if this gets boring, you can push the challenge to level 2 by combining Y.A.S.’ song in the background “wa7ad, tnein, tleteh, arb3a, setteh, tna3sh, setteh, tna3sh… (it can get really confusing!) Yea so I have really exhausted all the possible ways of passing time in traffic, and yesterday evening, from Beirut to Jounieh, was HELL! Hope the weekend will make it up. Have a lovely weekend all 🙂

  • Round table

    1-salon-du-livre-round-table

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    2-attendees\

    (more…)

  • At the Salon du Livre

    I will be participating to a round table discussion around the theme of blog-turned-books at the 16e Salon du Livre Francophone in Beirut, BIEL, Agora, on Sunday, November 1st at  4:00 PM. There will also be Nathalie Bontems & David Hury from Chroniques Beyrouthines, Tania Hadjithomas Méhanna for publishing the blog ‘carnets de l’hirondelle’, Samer Karam from Blogging Beirut, & Ghassan Salameh from Kibot. The moderators of the discussion are Nada Akl & Elodie Morel.

    Salon-du-livre-francophone-de-Beyrouth-27-10-2009_medium

    Click here for the Facebook event. See you there 😉

    P.S. The discussion will be in French, if you want to bring your translators 🙂

  • Joke-smoke night

    1-posters-clear

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    2-misinterpretation

    (more…)