Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Lebanese blogger Habib Battah narrates how he was held against his consent, forced to delete photographs of ruins from his phone camera and repeatedly assaulted in this post on the Beirut Report. When he reported the case to his local police station, the officers in charge said it was his word against theirs. He adds:

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Qifa Nabki writes:

“Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water has launched a new [billboard] campaign promoting the benefits of off-shore oil exploration for the average citizen. The ads contain shots of smiling people aside captions like: “My children and I are staying in Lebanon“ or “I’m going back to work in Lebanon!“”

He continues, sarcastically “Why stop there? I think the Ministry needs a nudge in a more ambitious direction” and suggests adding: “Streets free of traffic jams, private jets, manaqeesh (a pizza-like Lebanese dish) with salmon and caviar, space exploration” etc.

KAFA (Enough Racism and Violence) posted [Ar] that the migrant domestic workers in Beirut celebrated Labor's Day by holding a demonstration in which they demanded an end to the Kafala System [Sponsorship System]. The demonstration culminated with a gathering in a public park where the workers shared different aspects from their respective cultures.

The Eleventh Room posted some funny tweets about Beirut’s first Social Media Awards event. They said the Social Media Awards hashtag #SMABeirut was going strong on Twitter days after the event. They added:

“As we were going through them, we couldn’t help but laugh out loud at some pretty sarcastic/hilarious ones. So, we thought we’d share them on our blog.”

Najib at Blog Baladi won the ”Blog of the Year” award in Beirut's first Social Media Awards event. He wrote this post about the ceremony in general with comments on some aspects of its organization. He also includes comments about the attitudes of some of the attendees such as those of celebrity Haifa Wehbe, among others.

Music for a better future. Screenshot from Mideast Tunes’ Indiego campaign video.

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Lebanese blogger Rita exposes the terms and conditions of the “Pan Arab Web Awards Academy” competition which makes the participants “buy” their award in this post.

M. Lynx Qualey, blogger, who is interested in Arab and Arabic literature, wrote a series of posts introducing acclaimed Arab poets, novelists, and short-story writers’ favorite Arab reads of 2012. She started with a list of nonfiction books, then followed by a list for poetry [En] and fiction [En].

The year 2015 will be the Lebanese year for oil and gas exploration according to a timeline, which is supposed to be approved by the cabinet, and which is posted by the Lebanon Spring Blog.

“If it’s true that there are many players involved in match-fixing, of which 9 players are in the National Team, then you can kiss Football goodbye in Lebanon.” This is how Blog Baladi summed up his response to reports about the match-fixing scandal that has been going on for years and of which nothing was done to stop by the knowledgeable game officials.

Cloud of Lace posts beautiful images of the Christmas decorations from various cities in Lebanon during this year's (2012) celebrations.

Marie, 14, was forced to move to Lebanon by her aunt to become a maid. Once there, she was regularly raped by her employer. When he realized she was pregnant, he threw her out the house. After giving birth alone, she threw her baby from the 8th floor of a building.

Assanatou Baldé investigates [fr] the plight of young Malagasy girls migrating to Lebanon to escape the social crisis in Madagascar. Other testimonies of torture and physical abuse are collected in the report, including recurring insults, overwhelming working conditions and forced intercourse with animals.

Enough Waiting, it is our right to know their fate. The banner is from Beirut Walls blog

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Nadine Mazloum puts together a collection of Lebanese Twitter user reactions to Independence Day (Nov 22). She ends her article with a sarcastic comparison of the various occupiers of Lebanon in which France wins the first place. Thus, France is called upon to come back, especially now that oil was discovered in Lebanon.

Angelina Jolie in Lebanon: Why are you dressed like this?

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American Actress and UN Ambassador, Angelina Jolie is in Lebanon today [September 12, 2012] as part of her tour to support Syrian Refugees in Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

Commenting the event, Ivy from Lebanon tweets:

@ivysblog: Angelina Jolie's in Lebanon today visiting refugees – not only is she the world's most beautiful woman but also a passionate humanitarian.

Are tomatoes Christian? Check out Angie Nassar's blog post on Now Lebanon Blog, where she comments on news that a Salafist group in Egypt has posted reservations on tomatoes on Facebook.

As of September 3rd, smoking will be prohibited in public transportation, work places and closed public places, including coffee shops and restaurants.

Mohammad Hijazi explains that the law is unrealistic and that its enforcement will;

Generate a drop of roughly $282 million in revenues, representing 7.1% of GDP in the hospitality sector and lead to a loss of about 2600 full-time jobs.

The head of the Catholic Church Benedict XVI is to visit Lebanon from September 14 to 16. Father Alex, from Germany, hopes the visit is not late for the region and asks:

Which situation we will see in 1 month there? Let's hope and pray #Syria.

For more details about this trip, follow the official Twitter account @lbpapalvisit or the hash tag #PopeInLebanon.

From Lebanon, plus961 shares this video on YouTube showing a bank robber shooting an army officer, who happened to be at a bank they were robbing.

Following the missing people in Lebanon case that Global Voices Online posted about earlier, netizens are circulating a petition to issue a law about missing and kidnapped people on Daleel Madani website.

Following the first video released by the Anti Racism Movement showing blatant segregation at one of the Lebanese beaches, another video is published and this time is featuring 10 more resorts clearly discriminating against migrant workers.

Rami reported and posted a video of demonstrators who disrupted the Master’s graduation ceremony at the American University of Beirut to protest against awarding an honorary degree to Donna Shalala. The demonstrators protested Shalala's support for engagement with Israel.

“Personally I do not understand how a park can be kept closed for the public, letting only the privileged few enter upon a permit,” wrote leelouz in a post about the protest held to raise awareness to the insignificant amount of public green space and to demand the re-opening of the city's park.

Blog Baladi shares this advice: “Beirut has become so expensive that even expats no longer can afford it. Maybe we should stop building 1000 square meters apartments for Arabs to rent/buy and start building reasonable flats with rational prices for Lebanese and the average tourist.”

The British Embassy in Lebanon has announced an online discussion between the UK ambassador (@HMATomFletcher) and Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe (@HaifaWehbe), to take place on May 18 at 6pm (Lebanese time), tweeting under the hashtag #HaifaHMA.

Various organisations demanding the liberation of Lebanese prisoners detained in Syria are organising an event in the “Tent of the Families of the Missing and Detained” on Lebanese Mothers’ Day, today, 21st March 2012, in the gardens in front of the Beirut UN building.

Rania Massoud repost on her personal blog [fr] her article published by Lebanese daily L'orient-Le jour about a photography project undertaken by Tamara Abdul Hadi. ”Picture an Arab man” wishes to update the image of today's Arab men by photographing men from every Arab country in the nude.

“I’ve previously called bullshit on the claims that the government wants to protect us. Oops, I just wrote “bullshit” and broke clause #1 of the proposed law,” blogs Mustapha in his post  lambasting the Lebanese Ministry of  Information's plan to discuss a draft law which aims at “regulating websites and protecting their owners”.

“I always ask myself whether the Lebanese online community is actually making things better by raising awareness or is just trying to reach out to more people?” writes Najib questioning  the usefulness of social media in inciting action rather than just being concerned with tweeting and blogging. His post was in reaction to a video in which a man is shown abusing a foreign worker in front of the embassy of her country.