marți, 7 octombrie 2008

OLD JEWISH LADY IN BEIRUT

The woman is obvioulsy very ill and very lonely. She lives in the building that used to belong to her family before the war. But her brothers left the country when it was clear that the Jews were not welcome in Lebanon anymore. After the civil war, being a Jew was the same as being a Israeli. It didn't matter that they were as Lebanese as everybody. But she stayed here, in Beirut with her parents, to take care of them and the shop they had. But then the Syrians took their shop. She has hired a lawyer to get her shop back. How she pays him is a mystery.

She lives with her cats in an almost empty apartment where the walls would fall on her at the slightest tremble. She's scared and paranoid as any person would be in her shoes. She's alone, with no money, no clothes other than those she's wearing and she turned into this dignified beggar in order to eat everyday. "Do you have something to give me to buy food for me and the cats? The BBC girl gave me 50 000 once. And the clothes I wear now. Do you happen to have a winter coat? You're my size. Not a new one, please. Just one you don't want anymore."
She used to be beautiful when she was young. She still wears a bit of make up. "You're from Europe. You have that Europan look. I have the Arab looks. You know, I have Spanish ancestors too. " She speaks perfect French. She doesn't even talk about Hebrew. She wants her life to be small and pass un-noticed.

duminică, 5 octombrie 2008

THE JEWS IN LEBANON

Some say they might be as few as 40 left. Others believe that there are still many, but they changed their names and now they pray in secret and avoid speaking Hebrew. I started to be interested in the story when I read this on Charles' blog.

I broke into the Beirut synagogue.

It wasn't hard. The gate has a lock on it, but it was knocked down, and the security guards no longer patrol the place as vigilantly. The Ottoman era buildings around the synagogue have been destroyed, and the edifice poses no security risk to the Prime Minister's Grand Serail or Future Movement leader Saad Hariri's future residence.

My friend and I climbed over the trees growing in the courtyard and walked into the main hall, decorated with 6-point stars. The front of the synagogue was desecrated. The holy documents were intentionally removed, but the other ornamental structures were destroyed.

When I met Charles, a Lebanese American, a friend of another friend of another friend, I had no idea he was the owner of Lebanese Political Journal, a blog I've always found interesting.
There were some 20 000 Jews in Lebanon in 1948. Official records list like 200 after 2003.

1948 Jewish population: 20,000
2003: Fewer than 100

When Christian Arabs ruled Lebanon, Jews enjoyed relative toleration. In the mid-50’s, approximately 7,000 Jews lived in Beirut. As Jews in an Arab country, however, their position was never secure, and the majority left in 1967.

Fighting in the 1975-76 Muslim-Christian civil war swirled around the Jewish Quarter in Beirut, damaging many Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. Most of the remaining 1,800 Lebanese Jews emigrated in 1976, fearing the growing Syrian presence in Lebanon would curtail their freedom of emigration. Most Jews went to Europe (particularly France), the United States, and Canada.

In the mid-1980's, Hezbollah kidnapped several prominent Jews from Beirut — most were leaders of what remained of the country's tiny Jewish community. Four of the Jews were later found murdered. Nearly all of the remaining Jews are in Beirut, where there is a committee that represents the community. Because of the current political situation, Jews are unable to openly practice Judaism.

In 2004, only 1 out of 5,000 Lebanese Jewish citizens registered to vote participated in the municipal elections. Virtually none of those registered remains in the country. The lone Jewish voter said that most of the community consists of old women.

The community has turned into a legend. Source of stories and secrets. Apparently there are a few shope owners in Downtown and on the Corniche as I could read in different Lebanese newspapers. They pray at home, as the synagogue has been vandalized during the 2006 war. There is also a Lebanese man, Aaron-Micaël Beydoun, a young muslim guy who started a blog on the issue a few years ago.

miercuri, 1 octombrie 2008

I LIKE - part one

As Raluca requested.

I like:
- the glittering lights of Beirut seen from the plane or from my balcony.
- the smell of the sea in the winter
- my coffee in the morning, the first thing that comes to my mind when I open my eyes
- fantasy novels written by Australian writers such as Garth Nix or Trudi Canavan.
-entering a bookshop and choosing books at frist sight without knowing anything about the writers. That's ahow I discovered the two Australians.
- watching Shreck for the 100th time. Ice Age too.
- windy summer evenings in my mother's garden
-sunsets
- fast Internet
- old silver jewelry
- stray cats in Lebanon who never cuddle
- little tiny kittens who show up from a huge fishery and miew at you under the table
- home made sweets
- fruit ice-cream
- cappuccino in Byblos, in a coffeshop in the old souk
- countryside trips
-mom's voice on the phone
- the smell of her embrace when I get home after a long time
-staying awake at night and writing
- having a glass of wine and talking to an old friend
- old women who always have a story to tell
- stories and fairy tales
- fantasy movies and sci fi
- people with imagination
- dancing alone in the house
- dreaming stories with plots and characters and remembering the dreams
- the smell of a library
- grandfather's records
- dancing tango with grandpa
- watermelons
- holding hands
- kissing in the storm
- Christmas mornings
- cuddling under a blanket on a stormy night.

UPDATE: How about MISHU, MARA, ALEX. You guys, Mara and Alex should write more often.

NEW REPORT ON ANTENA3

The Romanian priest in Lebanon and the two Romanian sisters helping him with the service in Romanian.

luni, 29 septembrie 2008

"North Lebanon became a real base for extremism and constitutes a danger for Syria"

Thi is what Bashar al Assad said during an interview that's gonna be published by the daily al-Bayraq on Tuesday. Does that explain the 10 000 soldiers digging trenches at the Lebanese northern border?

ANOTHER REPORT ON ANTENA3

duminică, 28 septembrie 2008

TWO DAYS IN TYRE



Stayed on the Corniche, on the tenth floor (thank you Tony for the two wonderful days), I saw the sunset from the balcony, the mountain in the south ( and behind the mountainn is Israel), got a glimpse of Naqoura glittering in the night.


Went on a trip though the souk (Thank you, Tony, for that too), felt all the smells possible and impossible.

And tried the local fashion. Not for too long, though. The scarf just didn't want to stay on my head.

But it was fun, and the lady in the souk was nice to show me how to it on. I had no idea there are actually two ways of wearing it.

sâmbătă, 27 septembrie 2008

SO THAT'S WHY THE SYRIANS SENT TROOPS AT THE BORDER


My guess is that they knew there was a possibility of a a bomb. But it happened anyway, with all the tight security and the mukhabarrat in the black Peugeut and slippers (as the Lebanese always joke around). 17 people dead, 14 injured. They don't know anything, they don't wanna say anything of course.
Of course it looks like Al Qaida. It's their style. If there was a lebanese faction trying to assasinate a politician, army leader or anybody else cause them problems they would have assassinated that particular person. Not 17 civilians. They wouldnt have used 200 kilos of explosive, although the pictures do not look as 200 kilos of explosive blew up in that area. A Sayinda Zeinab Mosque would have been blown up too. But anyway, 17 people died. Al Qaida must be pissed at Assad and his army at the border.

vineri, 26 septembrie 2008

BURIED IN THREATS

It seems like ever since Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh has been killed in a Damascus car bombing in February, the Israeli officials complain they get way more kidnapping and assasination threats. The threats target mainly senior IDF officers and security officials, Yedioth Ahronoth reports. The Israelis foiled 10 kidnap attempts in the recent years. Of course, the israeli paper does not say how many years. But it says this:

"The senior security officials told the cabinet that the defense establishment has most recently helped an IDF major-general escape a Middle East country after obtaining information that his life was in danger.

"Hizbullah's drive to abduct officers and other security personnel stationed outside Israel is skyrocketing," noted a source in the defense establishment.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged all Israelis to abide by the Counter Terrorism Bureau's travel advisories: "The government, through its various security agencies, is doing its best to map out all of the threats and warn the public. But responsibility lies first and foremost on the travelers."

WAR'S A NO NO, BUSH SAYS

I read in Haaretz a few weeks ago the Olmert was sort of upset because Bush refused to give him permission to attack Iran. Of course some of my Lebanese friends told me "Haha, they are afraid." Ya, right. Ok, now it's all in the Guardian. So something must be true. Israel would hit Iran anytime and they are ready for it. And that's why the Heybollah guys are ready for battle at the southern border. They need to defend their bank.

"The British newspaper The Guardian on Thursday quoted European officials as saying that the United States earlier this year refused to agree to an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

According to the report, "European diplomatic sources" said that "Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W. Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency."

The Guardian quoted the sources as saying that the issue was raised during a one-on-one meeting between Bush and outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert during the American president's trip to Israel in May to mark its 60th anniversary.

The sources reportedly attributed the American rejection of an Israeli attack to two factors: fear of Iranian retaliatory attacks on American targets, and concern that an Israeli strike would not successfully take out Iran's nuclear facilities, which are not concentrated in a single area, and some of which are subterranean.

Haaretz reported earlier this month that the U.S. denied Israel a security aid package including "bunker-buster" bombs, permission to use an air corridor to Iran, and an advanced technological system out of concern that Israel would use it to attack nuclear facilities in Iran.
"

marți, 23 septembrie 2008

YES, I HAVE TO CATCH UP

Well, it's been a nice period for the past two weeks. But I neglected this blog a bit and it seems I have to catch up on writing a few things here. In the meantime I read this on Naharnet.

Syria has boosted its military presence along the northern border with Lebanon, although Damascus stressed that the move is linked to a crackdown against smugglers.

"Nearly 10,000 Syrian special forces have been deployed in the Abboudieh region along the border between Lebanon and Syria," a Lebanese army spokesman said.

"We asked Damascus for clarification and we were told that the measures were strictly internal and on Syrian territory, and that they were in no way directed against Lebanon," he added.

The spokesman said the Syrian authorities have assured the Lebanese army that the build-up is aimed at cracking down on smuggling and other crime along the border.

The strengthened deployment is visible from the Lebanese side of the border.

Al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Tuesday said the Syrian deployment was "nothing but a cover-up" for digging wells along the border.

It said Syrian trucks have carried out a similar operation a few weeks ago on the Lebanese part of the village of Wadi al-Ashaer in Rashaya province.

Al Mustaqbal said the digging only stopped following the personal intervention of President Michel Suleiman.

Meanwhile, the daily Asharq al-Awsat quoted political sources as expressing fear that the Syrian move was likely a cover-up provided by Turkey or even France for any action to be taken against "extremists" in north Lebanon.

The sources, however, ruled out any U.S. cover-up for this measure.

duminică, 21 septembrie 2008

SECOND STORY ON THE WAY



I'm uploading the footage right now. It takes ages, but I'm in a Costa's Cafe in Sassine, so the ages are a bit shorter that in my home with the broadband shit for which I pay 35 dollars a month.

The story is about Frere Felician Tămaş again. But this time done properly. He even sings. The long story will be in Jurnalul National on Monday. Mr. Christian Silva took the pictures.

vineri, 19 septembrie 2008

duminică, 14 septembrie 2008

A TRIP TO BEKAA



It’s known as Hezbollah land. It has been bombed in 2006. It’s on the way from Beirut to Damascus. It’s one of the most fertile areas in the Middle East, where huge clusters of watermelons wait on the roadsides. Bekaa Valley is not the fortress I expected, except for the 6 or 7 soldiers who check the cars on the highway at the entrance in the valley.

To reach Bekaa you have to take Damascus road, cross the mountains and pass through the mountain resorts. The view is spectacular. Dr. Nabil Outa and his wife sit in the front. I’m in the backseat. Quite quiet. Too quite for the too many questions in my mind. Or destination: Rayak. A small town at about 10 kilometers from Zahle. We’re visiting Abdallah family. A family of physicians. Four brothers. Three of them graduated from medical school in Romania, as Dr. Nabil Outa did.

Dr Nabil is a small man, a moderate sunni. He and his wife are fasting. As he switches on the radio and settles on an Arabic music station which plays lots of habibi songs – that’s what I could make of Arabic so far - he asks me if I like Arabic music and without waiting for the answer he begins to tell me about the nice things a foreigner can find in the mountain resorts. He goes on and on in perfect Romanian about the slopes in the winter and the Saudi people who come to spend their holidays in the mountains of Lebanon. I can’t take my eyes off the window and I would have filmed everything if my camera wasn’t such a piece of sh…t.

This time Dr Nabil doesn’t talk politics. He usually tells me his worries and all his expectations. He lives in southern Beirut, although he’s a sunni. He and his wife are French Citizens too. They left during the 2006 war and they stayed for a few months in Lyon. The woman keeps mentioning “Fransa” and keeps comparing everything to it. Dr. Nabil was not impressed by France. He got bored there. He wanted to go back to his office in Corniche Mazraa. And that’s what he did. When they came back in September 2006 they found a note in the door of their apartment. The Hezbollah was offering them 300 $ to repair their house after the bombing. Dr. Nabil was very upset with Hezbollah at the time. Other people in the neighborhood had got more money.
On our way to Bekaa, Dr. Nabil didn’t ask me about the rumors I hear from fellow journalists. Nor about what I think of the politics, as he usually does. He shows me the highest bridge in the Middle East, “which was bombed and destroyed by Israel in 2006”. He told me to keep the camera out of the soldier’s sight. Not that I didn’t already know. Once we pass the military checkpoint, the air begins to feel dry and hot. I’d love to stop in one of the villages. But no can do says Dr. Nabil. We need to hurry cause Dr. Mohammed Abdallah is waiting. We take a detour through Zahle though. He can’t miss telling me that 20 of the doctors in the Zahle hospital went to school in Romaia and are part of his 1500 people association of former students in Romania who keep sending their children to study in the same country. Zahle looks different from the other city we passed through, Chtaura. Zahle is mostly Christian and the hill looks like a cluster of yellowish houses. Clean, ordered and beautiful. Disciplined.

We drive through very fast and we continue our way to Rayak. The hospital of the Abdallah brothers seems huge. Until we find the entrance in the residential complex where the four brothers live. Very similar to the presidential palace in Bucharest. Four huge orange houses, in a huge clean park with lawn, flowers and a swimming pool where a bunch of kids splash and laugh. Dr. Nabil had never been there before. His wife mentions Fransa again. They’re trying to act normal, but they seem overwhelmed. We ring the bell of a huge wooden door and a Indonesian maid opens it and invites us in a room which seem more of a museum than a living room. A collection of old Wild West guns, Louis XV like furniture, a beautiful stylish lady of the house, Persian carpets and a huge plasma TV where we could see outside the front door. The lady of the house and her elder son, a 18 year old who’s just been admitted to the second best university in Lebanon and is disappointed it is not the most expensive, invite us to sit down. Dr Nabil explains my presence quickly and then we leave to the hospital. The wives remain in the house. I’m obviously treated as something between a man and a woman. The camera and the tripod seemed to impress as much as that.

Rayak Hospital was a huge building, extremely well furnished as far as medical equipment is concerned. I had to wear special equipment to film in certain areas. And I’ve been able to film in the hospital prison. A detainee was in a coma, probably after an “accident”. The other seemed a very merry guy willing to have long conversation about how “perfect” everything was and how he got there because of a stupid person who went to the American Embassy to renew the false American passport he had forged. He had got 7 years for that. But everything was “tamam”, meaning perfect. The policemen guarding the two cells were having lots of fun with this particular guy.

We met Dr. Mohammen Abdallah in his office. His Romanian was not that good anymore. I had to shout the questions and rephrase them in very simple words. He still keeps his Medical School manual in the office. Now he wants to go to Romania and build a hospital there. He wants to see his old friends from school and mushy stuff like that. And then we headed back to the house for the Ifar, the Ramadan dinner. An amazing experience and a whole different story.

joi, 11 septembrie 2008

MISSED ME?

I've neglected this blog for a couple of weeks because I started blogging in Romanian and it kinda caught me. You know, explaining in Romanian what living in Lebanon and adjusting here means to a journalist my age. It turned out nice, but it needs lots of work and it's taking quite some time to update.
The last couple of weeks have been more active than my first days here. I filmed a report at the Lebanese Red Cross, a center in Dahieh, the widely feared Hezbollah stronghold. It felt quite normal to me, but, hey, that's just my opinion. Rana, a journalist friend of mine, was amazed. “You went there? In your first week here? I don’t have the courage to go there so easily.” Well, Romania is not that important and I'm not that BBC star reporter to be watched very closely. And speaking about BBC, one of the reporters who had been to Beirut wrote and e-mail to me saying I should be careful in the Red Cross Center in Dahyieh because it had been threatened by a terrorist group. Thanks, Steve. Apparently it was not the same center.


The story with the volunteers in Mreygeh center in Dayieh turned out really nice. Of course, it needed more filming. It took me three weeks to get the approval from the Central Headquarters. The Press Office Chief called me and asked me for a meeting in order to "discuss" my project. Ok, fine. I went. He kept me there for an hour or so, asked me questions about who I work for and what exactly I want to do and then showed me his own work - pictures of the war in 2006. Pretty nice pictures. And at the end he told me that I have the permission to film in the ambulance, the ambulance in the street and pretty much all. And of course the interviews and inside the Center. Somebody should have called me in a couple of days. That was a week ago. Actually, it seems to me like ages ago. Nobody called. So I sent back home the footage I already got from the Mreygeh center.

It was pretty wonderful. I really loved filming that story and talking to those young people. I come from Romania, where 20 year old kids don't think about volunteering in the Red Cross. Far from them the thought of doing anything like it. Clubs, dancing, music and that's pretty much all the youth in Romania think about.

I met here, in Beirut, a bunch of kids who dug people from ruins of the houses bombed in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Houssein, one of them, had asthma. But he went to Qana, in southern Lebanon to help people. He found his own pictures all over the internet two years ago. And he still has them on his computer. One of the pictures was of his house. “I went there to take a shower and I came back to the center. And the next morning my house wasn’t there anymore. It was bombed.”




The other Houssein, a 23 year old fresh engineering school graduate, was 21 during the war. He was in the South in a refugee center. But he had to dig out people trapped under the rubble of the houses bombed in southern Beirut. “We were trying to give them oxygen. But some of them didn’t make it”. I felt like talking to an old person, yet he was just 23. And he was so well acquainted to death and accepted it so easily.

And then there was Bassam Mokdad.




THE Bassam Mokdad. The Red Cross volunteer who was all over Reuters and AP during the war. The volunteer who has been in the Red Cross for 23 years. The guy who spent half and hour separating the body of a mother from the child she had been embracing in the bombardment. And he told me the story so easily and so naturally. As if what he had done was so natural. I think we still have footage in the TV station Archive back home with him among the rubble at Qana.

And after all the struggle and after saving and losing people under the rubble, while hearing the bombs falling, they stayed in the center and tried to have dinner while one of them was playing the guitar. “We had to stay human and still feel we are alive”, Houssein, the 27 year old with asthma, told me while showing me the pictures on his laptop.

The younger Houssein showed me the ambulances. Very well equipped. Oxygen masks, medical kit with everything in it. And of course, helmets and bullet proof vests. A must in Lebanon. And then he showed me where an ambulance was hit by a airplane. An ambulance from Zahle, a Christian town in Bekaa Valley. “ We had painted the cross on the top of the ambulance, so that they could see it clearly from the helicopter or the planes. But they bombed it. And they hit right in the middles of the Red Cross. It was on purpose, you see. A volunteer died and 7 were wounded”.

vineri, 22 august 2008

THIS IS NOT NEW, BUT...

The Lebanese complain they have been called by alleged Israelis inviting them to access a website that promises 10 million dollar reward for anybody who might have information on the fate of 5 Israeli soldiers missing in battle. One of the is Ron Arad, the Israeli pilot of Romanian origin who was shot down at the beginning of the '80s.

One editor for The Daily Star and three Associated Press staffers were among those who received the calls on their mobile telephones Thursday. A foundation spokeswoman refused to say if it was behind the calls.
Last month, similar messages in Lebanon criticized Hizbullah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and prompted Lebanese outrage over what some officials said was the Jewish state's tampering with Lebanon's telecommunications system.
Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil said last month that he wrote a letter of protest to United Nations chief Ban Ki Moon protesting over the messages, calling them a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the summer 2006 war with Israel, Daily Strar reports.

PREPARATIONS FOR A NEW WAR?

It may seem unlikely that Hezbollah might get ready to attack Israel. But they seem also serious about it. Since i got the Internet connection, crappy but still a connection that works from time to time, even if it throws me out often, I'm getting in touch with what the local press writes and what the agenda is here. I found two news stories on two diferent outlets today. One is on Now Lebanon :

The Italian daily Corriere Della Sera on Friday reported that Hezbollah officials visited Russia in early July and struck a deal whereby Moscow would supply the party with anti-missile systems and anti-tank missiles.
The newspaper reported that three high-ranking Hezbollah officials showed great interest in buying Russian weapons that had proved effective in the recent war with Israel.
The three officials, the paper added, entered Russia on Iranian passports and visited “Expo 2008,” an exhibit of military technology and ammunition, in the region of Sverdlosk from July 9 to July 12, 2008.

The other was on Naharnet:

Hizbullah to Israel: Expect Huge Surprises Soon
Hizbullah threatened "earth shattering" retaliation against Israel which the group accuses of killing its top commander Imad Mughniyeh in a car bombing in Damascus last February."Retaliation is coming soon," Hizbullah official in south Lebanon Sheikh Ahmad Mrad said in remarks published by the daily Al Akhbar on Friday. "Retaliation is going to be earth shattering and there will be huge surprises," he vowed. "Resistance weapons will stay in the hands of Hizbullah until Palestine is liberated," Mrad pledged. He declared that Hizbullah would go deep into Palestine and vowed that "Israel will no longer exist on the map."

I might go to the South next week. It depends if we get permission or not to film in Bint Jbeil and a few other villages. It takes time for them to verify me and Antena 3 too. It shouldn't be difficult. I've got nothing to hide. :)
One of my friends is trying to find one or two Romanian doctors working in hospitals in the south. And it also depends on renting a car for one or two days. But we might just make it.

joi, 21 august 2008

ANA HAS INTERNET. ANA VERY HAPPY

:o)
Finally. I am back in business. Now I can say what everybody says - you're not alive anymore without Internet. The ISP guy came and set the antenna on my building today. Cute little guy, very shy, didn't speak English so I had to gather my French from the back of my mind.
I told him I was from Hungary. :) Well, yeah, of course, most of you wouldn't agree with that. But I've been warned that Romanian girls here usually work in night clubs or super night clubs and of course do not have a very nice reputation.
I paid 200 dollars for the nternet connection. 165 the installation of the antenna and the wires, and 33 the subscription. That's quite a lot. And it's not even the fastest one. I asked why it was so expensive. And the guy answered in French: "Parce que vous etes en Liban."
Here's an explanation I hear often. The reason it was so expensive is that I had to pay for the whole building to get the antenna. But it's not like I had a choice. There are not many people living in this building. There's me, then the girl living at the third floor whose boyfriend's name is Mario ( i know this cause they had a fight yesterday, the guy slammed the door and left and she was at the window crying and shouting "Mario, Mario"), then there is my landlord's father who's almost 90 and then there is the office of the doctor wityh the Romanian wife. So who else is gonna have internet here.
Well, I hope it's gonna be worth it and I'll turn up with lots of reports. Everybody's telling me that I'm gonna get busy very soon. looking forward to that.

luni, 18 august 2008

REACHED THE DESTINATION: BEIRUT

Now that I made everybody relax and told them I am ok and nothing happened to me yesterday (other than a trip to Byblos with the Lebanese bus on a 50 degrees Celsius day ) I can write about my first day here.

The road here was tiresome, cause I had to wait in the Budapest airport a lot. My butt and back were sore from sitting. Thank God I had the laptop with me and bought that wireless adaptor on saturday morning. I chatted, I read, and then i read again, and i fell asleep on the way from Budapest to Beirut. I arrived at 3 30 in the morning, and i had to stand in a line for an hour or so to have my passport checked.

This time it was the children's flight. Soooo many children. Like 20 babies in the plane. Last time i came o beirut I ended up sitting with a whole family of arabs, the women wearing hijabs. And the stewardess in the plane didn't serve me dinner cause she thought i was with them. Bitch!

Well, Beirut is hot. I've never been here in the summer. And the heat is killing me. The humidity too. You get sweaty in an instant. I never used the hot water in the shower and i'm sneezing. The trip to Byblos yesterday was depressing. The service, the share a ride taxis that everybody uses here because of the lack of public transportation, cost like 2000 Lebanese Pounds a ride (1 euro). And I'll have to take a service everymorning to go to the bus station near the City Mall or Nahr El Mot area (try to say it for a change, it makes people laugh when i say it) where i can get the bus to Byblos. The way to Nahr El Mot would cost me 4000 Lebanese Pounds, 2 euro, because it's very far from my place in Ashrafieh. The bus to Byblos is 1500 LL, one dollar. And then another 2000 LL for the service from Byblos to the Lebanese American University where I am to study for the next two years. Then the way back. Around 10 dollars a day. Then the bus. That's a whole story. They drive with the doors open because of the heat, you might get to sit next to a sweaty smelly drunk man and they're usually very talkative. No AC, crappy cars, dirty benches. I miss the subway and the trains inn Romania. They are much cleaner, as unbelievable as it may seem! No train here. They used to have trains long time ago. But they stopped. The explanation for that : you know, Ana, this is Lebanon! Ok, I'll need to work my ass off to get a car very soon. It's full of old Beetles here. And I will probably get one of those.

Apart from the transportation and weather problem, everything seems to be fine. My apartment is great. Thank you, Ben, for telling me about it. And thank you, Bassem, for taking care of it for me. It's in Ashrafieh, quite close to the center, it has a huge veranda, more or less of a view and no nosy neighbors. And a book shop downstairs. And a dentis's cabinet on the first floor whose wife is Romanian.

So tonight I'll get my own Lebanese number. Celebration needed. So tomorrow I'll be able to call people around and have meetings and do the stories I wanna do. :) Well, thank you Bassem, again. A SIM card here is more or less 100 $. I was amazed too. He got mine for 60 $. I really need to buy this guy a present. A big present.

vineri, 15 august 2008

FROM BUCHAREST TO BEIRUT

This is it. I'm moving tomorrow. With 35 kilos of clothes, a few books, 5 pairs of shoes, a camera, a tripod and a laptop. On Sunday at 3.20 I'm gonna be in Beirut again. This time for quite a while. I'm gonna go to school to the Lebanese American University for the next two years and I'm gonna try to make a living by shooting news for Antena1 and Antena3. It's gonna be a whole different life, but I wanted the change so I'm happy to have made it.

Tomorrow I'll be for 7 hours in Budapest, cause I chose not to book a direct flight. It seems Malev, The Hungarian airlines, is much less expensive than Tarom, the Romanian Airlines. The fuel prices didn't seem to reach Hungary as they had and effect in Romania. I remember I went to Beirut in November 2007 for like 500 EUR. Now they charge you 500 EUR for just an one way ticket. Now you have to pay almost 1000 EUR for a return ticket. Pretty big difference. Malev on the other hand, charged me 360 EUR, one way.

Fortunately, I'll be going to a nice apartment in Ashrafieh, a two bedroom apartment, with a nice living room, and a huge balcony. 500 $ a month. Or around 300 EUR. Not much compared to Romania, where you'd pay at least the double for the same flat.

I'll be out of the internet for a few days until I meet the owners of the apartment and convince them I have to have Internet there. Other than that they have everything else in that house. I was very happy with it when I finally got it.

Well, that's that. I'm off tomorrow at 4 pm.

joi, 31 iulie 2008

luni, 28 iulie 2008

THREE WEEKS LEFT

I haven't been that active lately on the blog. It seems the more time I spend in the newroom, the less I have to say. It's tiresome to just cover news and watch the newswires everey 5 minutes and do that for 8 hours a day, not getting up from the chair. I've got three weeks left until I move to Beirut. It's the thought that keeps me going, although it's scary enough. Alone, with a small camera in a foreign country for two years, trying to make new frieds, new sources, contacts and write a Disertation thesis.
Good thing I have a house there at least. It turned out the American friend of Lili, one of my frieds, who also wants to move to Beirut, left Lebanon for the US and left me the apartment he had rented in Ashrafieh. It's a two bedroom apartment, fully furnished, on the top floor of a building on top of a hill, no elevator, but who cares - I have to lose weight anyway :P - It's got three beds so my friends can stay over . The owners are a nice couple who insisted on not having "funny business" in the house. Well they might hear lots of noise sometimes, but that's because I'm used to dancing around the house. And, yeah, I can't promise I won't have a party or two on the huuuuuge balcony :).
Other than that I can't wait. I'll be busy the next three weeks, cause I have a few Frnch friends coming to do a reports on the Romanian doctors leaving this sinking country and I have to help them meet people and shoot inside a hospital in a town close to Bucharest. And I have to visit my parents and then I have to pack and I'm off on the 16th. Oh, yeah, and I have to find someone to spend 7 hours with in Budapest cause I have to wait for the Beirut flight. Lots of things to do, huh?

PARIS HILTON IN REPO! The Genetic Opera



The movie is pretty violent, you can see it even in the trailer. But Sarah Brightman really sings. Why exactly they chose Paris Hilton to star in this movie, I have no idea. cause my impression is that she's shouting not singing.

duminică, 27 iulie 2008

TOTALLY LOOKALIKES


I found these on a website and I liked them very very much. Especially the Bush lookalike, of course. But Posh Spice is something else. Maybe becasue I like Never Ending Story a lot.
But the Pope? Will he join the Dark Side?

miercuri, 23 iulie 2008

THE WAR CORRESPONDENTS TRAINING - video



It took three long week to look at the footage again and put together a few things. It's not as great as it could have been if I was a bit more patient. But I hope it's fun. :)

You can find the whole story here.

IS THE EARTH ROUND OR IS THERE A WAR OUT THERE?



I really thought humanity had solved the problem of Earth being ROUND. But hey, all things are relative.

They must have solved all the issues there, and the whole war thing is just disinformation, right? Cause otherwise I can't explain why the Iraqi TV is airing a talk show on how flat the Earth is.

I found the video on Memri tv, and organization which monitors Middle East tv stations. They post really interesting stuff on their website.

marți, 22 iulie 2008

ARE THE PALESTINIANS TRYING TO MAKE A STATEMENT?



This happened on July 2. A palestinian ran his bulldozer in a bus full of people. 3 women died. Huge scandal.

Today, July 22, 20 day afterwards. Copycat. New, guy, new bulldozer, same action. At least 5 people wounded.



Do they have the right to do this, I was asked. I have no idea. I think nobody has the right to do this. But I remember that on July 2 I watched this video.

luni, 21 iulie 2008

BE A GOOD DAD!

Oh boy, I hate my dad for not doing this to me when I was little.

A Romanian cash point fraudster took a picture of his young son rolling in £20 notes.
Adu Bunu, 34, was jailed for five years on Monday. He was part of a gang of international fraudsters on target to make £1 million in weeks.
Bunu posed his smiling baby son on a bed covered in more than £4,000 worth of £20, £10 and Euro notes and sent it to relatives back in Romania to boast.
LINK


The dad.

Of course, everybody in this world knows the Romanians are the top of the top when it comes to cash point frauds and credit card cloning. They did it in the UK, they did it in Spaina, Italy, Germany. They even got to Florida or Tunis. Most of them got away. But to steal a great deal of money and then take a picture of your own baby and send it to your relatives? It definetly proves Romanians have lots of imagination when it cme to enjoying being rich. And they do it all for their children, don't they?

duminică, 20 iulie 2008

IRAN FROM INSIDE: "Iran can attack Dubai or any target. It is dangerous"

It seems my friend from Iran is better now and he forced himself out of that depression. We have very interesting conversations lately, after a while when we didn't even talk at all. He seems to have got a few forbidden books and studied the history of Islam. Right now he hates it and feels sorry for the Persians who became the "victims" of it. It's a bit shocking coming from a guy who used to be a convinced practican muslim when he was about 20.
This morning he asked me if I knew how the negotiations in Geneva went yesterday. I told him there was no change. Iran had said something like "no, no, no and no".
He knew about number 3 in the US State Department taking part in the negotiations. Then he said something quite interesting. "I thik that they wont attack right now. Coz Iran can attack Dubai or any target. It is dangerous". Weird, I thought. A few months ago he made fun of Iran's army and nuclear facilities.

"They have the missiles bought fom North Korea. I was in Tehran and I met some people from a company". The guys he had talked to worked for a company in charge of the weapons trade for the Iranian government, he said. "Iran has suspended his nuclear activities from last month. They have developed third generation of centrifuges too."

Are you sure, isn't it just propaganda?

"I am sure. They have lot of companies registered in China. And when they want to buy some equipments they start from China and if it does not work, they try it from Japan, Korea and even European countries. It is complicated. There are a lot of smugglers helping them". Then I got busy and couldn't continue the conversation and he logged off. I can't wait to ask him more.

sâmbătă, 19 iulie 2008

A REAL HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

Reuters.


His name is David Remes, and he's a lawyer. He represents 16 Yemeni prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba. He took his trousers off during a news conference in Sanaa, Yemen, July 14, 2008. He resigned today because of this show off in Yemen. Well, I remember a trainer I had some time ago, who told me that if you do not get attention to your cause, you do not use the right means of protesting. Werll, if the world hadn't given a shit on the 16 Yemeni prisoners in Gunatanamo, now the whole world knows about them. So I'd pay this guy a great deal of money if he were my lawyar.

And, nice underpants I might say. And since we're speaking about underwear, here are some Romanian underpants our Antena3 correspondent used for a stand up during the floods in his hometown. Nobody knew him before this shoot. Now we all know him. I hope you all get my advice.



Reporterul amfibie :)
Vezi mai multe video din Stiri »

vineri, 18 iulie 2008

TO DIE IN JERUSALEM, NOMINATED FOR EMMY AWARDS FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY AND BEST JOURNALISTIC INVESTIGATION

The Israeli documentary film "To Die in Jerusalem," which tells the story of a relationship between the mother of a suicide bomber and the mother of a young girl who was killed in that same attack, has been nominated for three Emmy Awards.

The movie, directed by Hila Medalia, follows two mothers: one of whom is the mother of Ayat al-Akhras, an 18-year-old suicide bomber; the other is the mother of one of Ahras' victims from the 2002 terrorist attack, 17-year-old Rachel Levy. The movie's climax is the face-to-face meeting between the two women. (Haaretz)
















JOURNALISM SEMINAR IN GREECE

Dear all:

We invite you to help us recruit outstanding journalists and journalism students for the
Euro-Mediterranean Journalism Institute organized by The Fund for American Studies and the Greek Association for Atlantic and European Cooperation, under the auspices of the Secretariat General of Information, Ministry of State, of the Greek Government. Alumni have always been our best source for new participants, and we hope that you continue to help us grow and thrive. Please feel free to forward this email to students and professors who might be interested in learning more about our programs.

The Euro-Mediterranean Journalism Institute (EMJI) brings working journalists
and journalism students from around the world together in Greece for an 8 day
seminar. EMJI was developed in order to empower journalists with the knowledge
and skills needed to objectively report on a variety of international
political, economic, and cultural issues. Additionally, while attending the
Institute, participants hear from working professionals and area experts, meet
with professional contacts, and form important networks.

Instructors and guest
lecturers at the Institute will be drawn from the United
States and the Euro-Med region. They will include economic and public policy
experts, journalists, government officials and corporate leaders. This
combination of instructors will ensure that students learn from both theorists
and practitioners. This year, the Institute will be held from October 18 - 26,
2008.

The Final Admissions Deadline for EMJI is August 1, 2008. Please encourage
qualified journalists and journalism students to apply for the Institute by
this deadline. Generous donations from supporters of The Fund for American
Studies have allowed us to offer substantial scholarships to those who are
admitted to the Institute.

For more information about EMJI and an online application form, students can
visit us on the internet at www.tfasinternation al.org
. If you have any
additional
questions, please feel free to contact Brigit Moore by email at
international@ tfas.org , by phone at 001
(202) 986-0384, or by fax at 001 (202) 986-0390.

joi, 17 iulie 2008

"THOU SHALT NOT STEAL"



Hamas TV Bunny Assud Is Tempted by Satan to Steal and Is Sentenced by Children Viewers to Have His Hand Chopped Off.
These are excerpts from a Hamas children's show, titled "The Pioneers of Tomorrow," which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 11, 2008.

ISRAEL LAUNCHES AN INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST HEZBOLLAH. ON YOUTUBE

Israel launched an international press campaign today meant too underline that Hezbollah is in fact a terrorist organization. The Prime Minister's Information Service together with the Foreign Ministry announced they are willing to sent to any media outlet interested footage and documents that show the Ethical values of the Jewish State and the true face of Samir Kantar, the guy they say killed a 4 year old girl by smashing her head on a rock.
The Foreign Minitry has uploaded a video on Youtube where Ofir Geldman explains in Arabic language who Samir Kantar "really" is. Here it is.




Do they really think that after 60 years of war in the region the Arabs are gonna watch the video and think "look, an Israeli who speaks Arabic! Gee, we were wrong to think they were evil when they bombed us. They uploaded this video on Youtube, so they must be nice people. We should believe this guy from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs when he tells us Kantar is a killer! ".

And YES, I know I'm doing exactly what they want me to do and post this on my blog.

miercuri, 16 iulie 2008

THE FORGOTTEN LEBANESE PRISONERS

AFP photo credit, via NOW LEBANON. Mothers of prisoners taken by Syria protesting.
While Lebanon celebrates becoming “the first Arab country in the Israeli-Arab struggle to close its detainee file,” as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah put it in a July 3 speech, many Lebanese still languish in Syrian prisons.
The exact number of prisoners and detainees is not known, and Syrian authorities have a history of keeping silent on the issue. During the civil war, approximately 17,000 people disappeared. Following the war, the arrest and disappearance of those expressing opposition to Syria’s continued presence was common.

Here is the Whole story on NOW LEBANON, written by Matt Wire.


AFP Photo credit
In the meantime it s striking. Very much striking. Nasrallah suddenly gets out and salutes the crowds and brags abut the prisoners swap and he does it in person, and he does it in a moment when everybody expected him to get out and give a speech and brag about the prisoners swap with Israel. Pretty stupid, huh? Cause after the 34 day 2006 was with Israel the guy spoe at press conferences through a screen. He was broadcast to the press room and he never got out in public for a speech. And besides, after Imad Mougnyah's assassination is Syra if you said "boom" behind his back he'd have definetly have a heart attack. What the hell was this guy thinking?
Oh ya. And then this. Breaking news.
The Voice of Lebanon radio station reported that it has received phone calls from residents of Beirut and South Lebanon complaining of an Israeli infiltration into the telephone network, delivering short messages threatening individuals and Hezbollah.
Haha. It seems the Israeli government started an sms campaign text messaging the Lebanese. I imagine the SMS: "Silence! We kill you!"

PRISONER SWAP BETWEEN ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH

Photo credit. AFP Photo
The five Lebanese prisoners released by Israel.

Need I say I wish I were there? Some of my friends are and they are pretty happy. Most Lebanese are very much in love with Hezbollah right now. Well, of course, all besides some people, art directors, who were so buried in their work that didn't even know something was happening today in their country and that they actually shouldn't have been working. (I'm not delusional, I haven't eaten any mushrooms like Paris Hilton, so if you can't figure out what I'm talking about, I'm telling you I'm teasing someone. :D That's a grin.)

So, as I said, Hezbollah won again. That's what happened at first sight. They promised they would bring the prisoners back, so they did. Now everybody loves Nasrallah. I'm surprised why the whole gang including the president is on the Beirut airport waiting on the red carpet for Samir Kantar to arrive. The guy is pretty controversial. The Israelis convicted him to life in prison for smashing a 4 year old girl's head on a stone and killing her father in front of her. He denied doing it. So the Israelis treated him as a common murderer, the Lebanese think he's a hero.
They did the deal. It's the eighth since 1991. So what? Will it ever end between Israel and Hezbollah? I don't think so. On the other hand, the new president Michel Suleiman slipped a weird statement in Paris: that the Lebanese would take Shebaa farms back by force if the Israelis don't wanna talk. So, my illusion of peace is a just that, an illusion.
On the other hand there are a few warrior voices in the Knesset too.
Israeli Knesset Member Aryeh Eldad to Haaretz: Israel should bomb Lebanese celebrations of the prisoner release. Might I say that it was no nice of Hezbollah to keep it as a secret that the two soldiers were dead until the last minute? Not very fair at all.
AFP Photo
The coffins of the two Israeli soldiers. One was killed in 2006 in the attack and the other was wounded. Nobody knows what really happened to them.

I'm curious what the celebrations in Lebanon will be like. I hear they've got the guns out, the Hezbollah people.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LIVE IN LUKASHENKO'S COUNTRY



Anything to survive and forget you're in Belarus. The guy is the best referee in the country, they say. And he had a little glass of "pain relief". :)

marți, 15 iulie 2008

A LITTLE SOMETHING I DON'T UNDERSTAND

I get on my e-mail lots of announcement about fields trips and journalism trainings organized by famous NGO's for journalists in the developping countries in Eurasia end North Africa and Eastern Europe. The thesme are quite interesting, I 'd really wanna go to some of them. Some of them I actually attended, cause i got scholarships. But lately the scholarships are gone.
I was reading today about this thing on IFJ.
The Media21 Global Journalism Network is seeking applications for its next Global Issues media workshop (Nov. 24-Dec. 7, 2008), this time on the challenges of migration in the 21st century. The first part will take place in Geneva, Switzerland (three days) with expert panels involving key organizations such as IOM, UNHCR, ICRC, MSF, World Economic Forum etc. on diverse aspects of migration, refugees and trafficking affecting host regions such as Europe or North America but also source countries ranging from Mali and Salvador to Afghanistan. This will be followed by three days in Andorra as part of the 3rd Future of Europe Summit providing access to lead European and other international business, academic, NGO and policy representatives. Participating journalists have the option to take part in a week-long field trip either to northern/western Africa or eastern/central Europe.

Deadline for the Migration I Workshop: October 15, 2008. Costs: 5,400 Euros covering all travel, food & lodging, field trip and tuition. Limited grants are available.


The purpose of this unique programme is to provide experienced local and international editors, reporters and producers with a broader perspective of global issues: peacekeeping & peacebuilding; health; climate change, human rights; world trade…It seeks to promote more informed debate by putting journalists from around the world in touch with key players. Media21 works closely with diverse partners and facilitates interactive sessions with the international aid community, private sector, civil society, governments, military, academia, media... It also organizes practically-oriented trips enabling journalists to report first-hand from the field.


Applicants must demonstrate a serious interest and a firm record of journalistic achievement. The workshops are open to journalists with a minimum of three years’ experience, though priority will be given to mid-career and senior journalists. Participants are expected to produce two reports (articles, broadcasts blogs etc.) for their own media and to make these available to the Media21 website. (
http://www.media21geneva.org) As Media21 alumni, they are also invited to participate actively in the Global Journalism Network by sharing experiences, contacts and reporting.

For more information, please contact: Daniel Wermus at
dwermus@infosud.org or go to http://www.media21geneva.org

My quation is, which journalist do they think has 5 400 euro to pay for this training. I mean who journalist who needs it. Cause I can thing of a few Independent, Gurdian, NY Times people who could pay for it. But do they need it? I mean their newsrooms would always pay for their trips to all those places and report there independently, without the UN people telling them not to photograph that and not to talk to that person and not to step on the grass.

I mean if I had 5 400 euro I'd definetly go on my own with a cameraman and the whole thing would cost us less than that.

duminică, 13 iulie 2008

ANY YOUNG JOURNALISTS OUT THERE?

Jovens Jornalistas, the European Youth Press observer member organization, will host a Summer Media School in Lisbon, between 21st– 30th of September.

During 8 days 40 young media makers will work in one of the fourworkshops: television, radio, photography or printed media. You'llindulge in a rich learning environment and a fun experience, all runby young people for young people. Enjoy the exchange of knowledge andcultures, while relaying on team work. On your four last days, youwill be working online on your final project, which will call for yourcreativity. Don't worry, there is still time for party!

If you're between 18 and 25 years, active in the field of media(student in Communication or Journalism, young professional orfreelancer), you feel comfortable working in English and you havealready participated in an international event, come and join us!Send your application until the 2nd of August at sms_portugal2008@ sapo.ptThe participation fee is 250 euro. Travel costs, accommodation, mealsand working materials will be covered by the organizers.

Participants should come from one of the following countries: Portugal, Spain,Italy, Romania, Germany, France, UK, Belgium, Sweden, Austria,Hungary, Malta and Bulgaria (*). Applicants willing to participate,but coming from another country, should send an e-mail atsms_portugal2008@ sapo.pt!The application form can be found at http://s4.transfer./ ro/storage/05bf00ef65. zip

For any more information you may need, please contact asjc_bucuresti@yahoo.com

WHAT THE RUSSIANS KEEP IN THEIR BACK YARDS

The valuable cars most collectoir would pay a fortune to have. Found again on Eglishrussia.com
One of these sold for $107,250 at an auction in the US at the begining of the year. (Couldnţt help it, i did some research.)

I don't know about the others but Porche 911 is a $100000 car!


Now this is the best British Ssports Car ever made, they say. A collector would pay $10 000 for it at least .


It all reminds me of an old Moskvich my dad used to drive when i was a little kid on the crappy roads going to the villages my grandmother used to live in. I used to feel so special at the time, during the communist 10 years of my life, that my dad, unlike most Romanians who drove crappy Dacias, used to drive a foreign car. Haha. Moskvich 2140, Russian, very solid, so solid it was even difficult to turn the wheel! It looked like this.



I used to get really sick while sitting in the back seat on the road to grandma and asked father to stop every 15 minutes. Then i used to get lost picking spring flowers in the woods.
By the time I turned 15 it was all rusty and deserted in our back yard, and the cats were very fond of it. It stayed there a long time, until it almost began to grow roots. That was when my mom got angry and made my dad get rid of it.

WHO'S EATING THE SWANS IN KENSINGTON GARDENS?



Hyey Mister, you interviewed the wrong person! There. Polish people do not eat swans. They are the plumbers who take care of your bath pipes or whatever.

Here's who eats the swans. I remember the Daily Mail article on a migrants camp where they found a few swan carcasses. And here's the description of the place.

"A Romanian bible and cooking equipment could be seen outside another tent, while putrid food and thousands of feathers were nearby the third."

How about that, huh? I mean we, Romanian journalists, are very used to this particular story. It happened ten years ago in Vienna, too. That's why these birds are almost extinct there. And the story turned into a national joke already.

sâmbătă, 12 iulie 2008

ASTONISHING STORY

The kind of story that really matters. Beyond missiles, beyond the Axis of Evil.

His name is Ahmad Batebi. He was arrested in 1999 after he appeared on the cover of the Economist with a blood stained t shirt belonging to a friend who had been wounded during a protest.

I read the story here, on New York Times.

That picture has cost him 8 years in the Iranian prisons. Not pretty at all, as some of my friends say. I remember being shocked at an 18 year old Kurdish kid story, back in March. My friend, Hasan had told me the story and he wanted me to publish it here.

Ahmad Batemi went through hell. Most people wouldn't make it.

"His jailers thrashed him with a metal cable, beat his testicles and kicked in his teeth, he said. They held his face down in a pool of excrement. They tied his arms behind his back and hung him from the ceiling. At other times, strapping him to a chair, they kept him awake night after night, cutting him and rubbing salt into the wounds."

"Twice he was led blindfolded to the gallows. Once the noose was left around his neck for 45 minutes, and he passed out from fear, he recalled. The second time, he sat, waiting, as a prisoner on each side of him was hanged. "

He left Iran a few months ago, he was smuggled by the Kurds to Erbil, in Iraq, and finally made it to the US. His intervew for the New York Times is here. There is also a video.

vineri, 11 iulie 2008

I COULDN'T HELP POSTING THIS :)

Bassem linked me to BoingBoing.com, Iran You Suck at Photoshop
They had a little contest on Photoshopping the picture with the Iranian missile test. Very funny. Check it out. The Iranzilla is my favorite. Obviously, because I like cats.

Wel, it seems like there is a world wide Photoshop frenzy on the Iran Missiles picture. There are some more on NYTimes Lede blog .


And if you follow the links you get here, in the Danger Room .


SO WE HAVE A GOVERNMENT. A HUGE ONE

Lebanon has a government starting today. :) YAY!
I'm as happy as the Lebanese. A while ago my Yahoo messenger went wild with windows form my friends letting me know of the huge miracle.

michael: finaly we have a goverment halilouya
luca anamaria: :)
michael: i m gonna shoot some people coz i m happy lol
luca anamaria: :))
luca anamaria: yeah, that's the way to do it
michael: hehe a la libanais
michael: e
michael: if we r sad we shoot, if we r happy we shoot
luca anamaria: i know
michael: if we want to have fun we shoot

Well,I hope there will be no shooting.And I'm sorry I'ill miss the wonderful party Downtown Beirut tonight.

So I went to check the news on Naharnet.
Yeah, a government. A HUGE government. 30 ministers for a tiny tiny country. A government twice as big as the Romanian one.

3
0 ministers from the seven major sects in a nation made up of 18 religious communities.

5 Maronites, 4 Greek Orthodox, 3 Catholics, 3 Druze, 6 Sunnis, 6 Shia, 2 Armenians.

Quite a bunch of people, quite difficult to manage, I'm sure.

Well, now, that there is a government, my rent will get more expensive.

joi, 10 iulie 2008

SO THEY WERE TALKING SHIT TO AMERICA

It seems like the Revolutionary Guards are very fond of Photoshop, cause the missile test pictures contain one missile too many. Hehe. The picture sold by AFP to most of the mainstream media contained 4 missiles, while the same picture obtained by AP had only 3 missiles. Both news wires got the pictures from the same source, Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The story is on New York Times.

France Presse picture.

AP picture.

It reminds me of the story Hassan, my friend in Iran told me a while ago about the Iranian president visiting his hometown. Hilarious. The national TV footage showed thousands of people applauding, while local tv which does not have the same digital technique, only showed a few local students forced by the teachers to leave the classes in order to cheer for Ahmadinejad. My question is, what happened to the guys who gave the real picture to AP?

TALKING SHIT TO AMERICA

Iranian Revolutionary Guards practicing war-game maneuvers test-fired nine missiles today in the Gulf. At least one, the government in Tehran says, has the range to reach Israel. The US already says is backing Israel if it decides to attack Iran.


The tests, shown on Iranian television, come as the Iranian president accuses the West of trying to assassinate him using high radiation in his room while he was in Rome for the Food Summit. Imagine that, how else would you kill Ahmadinejad other than use nuclear stuff? Isn't that ironic? Hehe.

Seriously now, Iran's military display came just a day after the United States and the Czech Republic signed a deal in Prague to allow the Pentagon to deploy part of its contentious antiballistic missile shield in Central Europe. Damn, that makes us a target. I doubt the Iranian missile would reach us better than a suicide bomber in the Prague railway station.

It does sound serious though, cause the United States and British warships have been conducting naval maneuvers in the Gulf — apparently within range of the launch site of the missiles tested by the Iranians.

This whole thing reminds me of Maz Jobrani, Iranian American comedian. Here he is. And tell me he's not right.

WHOA! I KNEW IT!


NYAHA! As a good friend of mine would say. I knew there was something wrong with this guy. I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. Hehe. Now I know. Baldy!

Belfort, French Rock Festival. Marylin Manson is attacked by a man who swipes his hat, and in doing so pulls his wig off ... pretty funny actually. Security then whisks Marilyn away with a coat over his gleaming dome.

UPDATE: Ha! It seems the video is not real. French magazine Entrevue says they called the organizers and Manson wasn't even at the festival.