The Beirut Report

Another bright sunny day on Dunia TV

2012-01-22T20:05:00.004+02:00

As tanks and explosions plough through Syria's streets, and thousands of bodies pile up in its morgues, all is well inside the plush garden studios of state-backed Al Dunia TV.

While mothers wail in rubble-strewn villages, flowers are blooming to soft muzak on the show "Good Morning with Al Dunia":

Despite the everyday miseries of thousands, smiles are ubiquitous in the hosts' glass paneled box:

Today's hot topic: the annals of pregnancy and its potential complications. Here to explain is a certified, and smartly dressed gynecologist, or "women's doctor" as he was introduced.

He brought a series of charts with him:

And was deeply engaged in this "very serious" topic, which could concern many mothers:

Of course pregnant women in Syria right now may be a bit more concerned about getting to hospital without being shot, let alone the type of world their child will grow up in...

But never mind that for now. On to more fun topics like... horoscopes:

With the expert horoscope lady:

Which is great fodder for banter to get everyone smiling and laughing again:

It wasn't clear if readings differ based on proximity to the fighting.

Meanwhile the other anchor took viewer questions on her Ipad 2, 4G:

The cost of such a device is equivalent to almost half the annual per capita income in Syria, even in the best of times. Now many towns have reportedly been cut off from the grid and struggle to survive amid fuel and electricity shortages.

No worries, the chef on Al Dunia is whipping up a treat to warm all hearts, both shivering and worrisome among them.

Equipped with his matching scarf and apron:

And plastic gloves to ensure sanitary conditions are met...even when pouring water into the blender and cracking eggs:

Don't want to take any chances...

And before you know it, Voila!

A mushroom and swiss quiche.

The show continued, but I couldn't watch anymore.

Sadistic weather girl?

2012-01-18T22:14:00.002+02:00

Lebanese weather women (yes all of them are female) are better known for their tight jeans than meteorology skills.

But local station Al Jadeed is now taking the forecast to a new level with its nod to sadism and leather fetishes:

In addition to the elbow-length Darth Vader gloves, she's also wearing matching black leather pants.

Thank you Al Jadeed, for making one of the world's most perplexing countries even stranger.

Deck the halls with electricity

2011-12-27T20:59:00.003+02:00

Once again, Christmas lights are everywhere in Lebanon from the tiniest of villages to the sprawling urban suburbs. As every year, the municipalities are hard at work, hiring cranes and fleets of laborers to hang up their elaborate displays, with every town in seeming competition with the next.

Yet look closely at the photo above and you'll notice that although these decorative fixtures seem to be hovering in mid-air, they are actually attached to street lamps, which have been switched off for the holiday season.

For example, hundreds of Christmas bulbs have been illuminated in this major intersection, while the light polls they are attached to remain off, keeping the streets perilously dark:

There's enough power to light the giant Christmas tree, but not enough to help drivers chart a path through the lawless night:

And another neighborhood, where dozens of Christmas displays seem to be floating mid-air, sucking the life out of the lamp posts they adorn:

Ironically, one municipality's street lamps were powered down at night:

And yet turned on during the day!

Notice it is the same street and same municipality with the same triple star display attached to the light post. Amazingly, almost every post on this highway in Naccache that was powered off at night was on during the day.

Perhaps the sun wasn't bright enough for a member of Parliament driving by:

So Merry Christmas from Lebanon's municipalities, who manage to keep the streets pretty for two weeks and yet dark and chaotic all year round.

For more on Lebanon's decades-old electricity shortage and the vested interests that help keep it that way, see my recent investigative piece on the billion-dollar gray market in private generators.

Intimidation by air show

2011-12-13T04:29:00.008+02:00

Yesterday, the Lebanese were treated to an air show of sorts:

First there were two planes:

Then four:

Flying low over civilian neighborhoods:

Criss-crossing:

Shooting up:

Barreling down:

Looping endlessly over Beirut and its suburbs:

No this was not the Blue Angels-- the kind of show you might to take your kids to see. This is the type of show that actually comes to you, courtesy of the Israeli Air Force (IAF).

It's more of a nightmare air show, where the pilots zooming overhead are not performing, but engaged in real combat, viewing you sitting in your car as a potential target.

But Lebanese drivers kept chugging along, paying little attention to the F-16 jets steadily diving toward them:

Not even Katie Perry batted an eye:

The IAF has flown hundreds if not thousands of sorties over Lebanon in recent decades--either for reconnaissance, missile raids or just plain intimidation. (Here, people call the latter state-sponsored terrorism.)

With no real air force to speak of, Lebanon can't do much to police its own skies and thus the Lebanese have grown apathetic and somewhat desensitized to the constant threat of war literally looming above them.

I shot these images on my way to an 11AM meeting with an eye trained on the dashboard clock, hoping my IAF paparazzi moment wouldn't make me late to work. Other drivers barely seemed to notice what was going on.

When I arrived, a secretary remarked jokingly: "I guess they missed us," in a reference to the 2006 war, when IAF pilots dropped over a million cluster bombs across the country. "Maybe they have come to bring us an early Christmas present," she added, half-smiling.

Having grown up with skies full of streaks, I too have become accustomed to the IAF's near constant presence overhead.

But there is no getting used to those tiny red dots that sometimes appear below their tails, throwing up black columns of smoke seconds later when they collide into the earth and fill the sky with an earth shattering rumble.

Fortunately, there was none of that today, just one hell of a show--of force.

All this comes amid a series of curious events. Just before the IAF jets entered Lebanese airspace on Monday morning, a rocket was fired at a Lebanese village by an unknown assailant. And over the last two weeks, Israel exchanged fire with an unknown group on the border, while a United Nations convoy was hit in an unexplained bomb attack. Meanwhile Hezbollah claims it is routing CIA spies in Beirut by the dozen.

Curious times under the restless Lebanese skies...

Packaging fear, broadcasting rage

2011-11-26T21:19:00.008+02:00

"Have you heard the news," a passenger asked the driver last night after he boarded a shared taxi in East Beirut.

As a cheap way of getting around that packs strangers together in a tight space, the shared taxi or service (pronounced in French) has always been a window on the nation's conversation.

"A young saint was going to pray and she was killed by a Syrian," the passenger announced, answering his own question.

"Those beasts," he continued. "Lebanon is full of them--foreigners. There is no more room for Lebanese anymore," he said, shaking his head.

The driver protested the generalization, but the passenger persisted, saying ominously: "The Syrians are everywhere."

The killing he spoke of was that of 28-year-old Myriam Al Achkar, who was brutally murderd last week near a monastery in Mount Lebanon, reportedly by its watchman, a long-time Syrian resident.

The taxi passenger's account of her death was a near verbatim parroting of the script read by an LBC television news reporter the previous night during a prime time news show.

The clip, which has since been removed from LBC's website, opens to the sound of violins as the camera drifts up the monastery steps in slow motion:

The reporter begins:
Myriam Al Ackhar-- in her ascent to the heavens-- never knew a savage beast was waiting for her, waiting to steal her dreams in life and its beauty.
She was too young to become a saint. She was martyred as she went to pray--like she did every afternoon, at the village church... That day, she was praying to find a job.

The reporter concludes vaguely:
Sweet Lebanon has become an arena for strangers (read migrant workers), pleasuring themselves as they please without hindrance.

Violins continue, then soundbites with the victim's family, grouped together and shrouded in black.

One begins in a somber voice:

"She was killed in our village, a safe place with the finest of residents. Now there are many foreigners... they are living among us. Look near your home, maybe you will find one."

Quickly the tone shifts to rage and a cacophony of screaming ensues as other family members take to the camera, their eyes piercing with rage, fingers pointing in vengeance. In summary:

The Christians are being targeted because "we are too forgiving." We hear the culprit may escape to Syria. The family are good people, they pray. But we will not take it anymore.

(Now rising trumpet sounds heard in the background, growing louder as soundbites get more angry.)

We will not let some "fatherless Syrian" do this to us. We will shut down the streets. We will mobilize all the Christians of Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. We will butcher the killer as he butchered Myriam. We are not afraid of anyone. "We know how take care of ourselves!" one woman shouts to cheers and clapping from the crowd of mourners.

"The girl was not in Gemazye out having a good time. She was praying in the village!" the woman adds in reference to Beirut's trendy bar district.

Fade out and cue opera music with wavering falesttoo as the casket is carried and women wail, all in slow motion:

"Mariam was innocent. She was a virgin," another mourner says. "She went to heaven as a virgin." A priest adds: "Mariam is a martyr of the church."

Again the reporter speaks, this time questioning Lebanon's ban against the death penalty:

What does a mother do... when a beast deflowers* such a butterfly of beauty and love, only because she resisted him...
Is Lebanon's international commitment to ban the death penalty more important than a family's loss of the ones it loves most? How long will crimes go without severe punishment?

Perhaps the reporter set out to do journalism, but the script he has read-- packed with unchecked adjectives, metaphors and assumptions-- is nothing short of fairy tale: In this case, Little Red Ridding Hood is the Virgin Mary, and the wolf lurking in the woods is the beastly Syrian, who hails from a pack of unruly "strangers" unleashed to wreak havoc on the land of milk and honey that is Lebanon.

How this fantastical script was approved by LBC's editors, particularly the show's executive producer, Lebanon's most famous talk show host, Marcel Ghanem, speaks volumes about the type of television being produced by so-called news organizations in Lebanon.

Rather than creating powerful content that educates and informs audiences, such organizations cynically mirror and amplify the latent fear and loathing that lives in minds of many Lebanese. Local TV stations substitute research and good old-fashioned reporting for unbalanced, shoddily constructed pieces masked in special effects and springing from visceral, misinformed xenophobic stereotypes.

LBC competitor MTV Lebanon has also produced a similarly superficial, one-sided, unsubstantiated report, painting the migrant worker "outsiders" as a menace to Beirut neighborhood without interviewing a single one of "them":

The tragic killing of Al Achkar was an opportunity to dig deeper and shed light on serious questions, for example, the state of violence against women in Lebanon as activist Nadine Moawad articulates in her recent post "Rest in Peace Myriam Achkar"

The thoughtful post examines the myriad of obstacles women face in reporting rape in Lebanon today and the danger of evading discussion of the issue by suggesting, as a family member did, that rape at nightspots was more plausible.

"In our country, we tell women not to get raped," Moawad writes. "We don't tell men to not rape."

At the same time, medical reports now suggest Al Achkar was not raped as previously reported--again underscoring the lack of fact-checking in TV reports.

If there is actual evidence suggesting the culprit may escape, as family members say, then that evidence should be checked and presented to the audience-- otherwise it is pure here-say and has no place in the report without strong qualification. If indeed evidence of suspect flight does exists, questions and reporting should be focused and specific. What do security sources have to say? Have individual foreign nationals escaped prosecution from similar crimes in the past? If so, when, where, how--and what are the analyses?

To balance the criticism of migrant workers, some are asking questions about migrant labor demand in Lebanon (particularly from the Church) regulation and related vigilante violence as Elie and Mustapha have done in their respective posts.

As expected, the online conversation by bloggers and citizen journalists has been richer and more probing than the often reactionary, thoughtless fare being peddled as news programming by Lebanese broadcasters.

But social media is also a mirror for the many Lebanese who have absorbed the fear-mongering work of LBC and others. Myriam has already been beatified by a Facebook page devoted to her:

It would be unfortunate if her tragic death becomes yet another tool to stoke rage and intolerance. But thanks to the efforts of irresponsible Lebanese television editors, it may already have, as the passenger's rant in the service taxi would indicate.

---

*Translations of some words is approximate. Please suggest better translation where appropriate.

UPDATE 27/11/11: Incredibly, LBC has issued a reaction statement, claiming its script was "neutral" and pinning the backlash on the "distraught" emotions of the family. A shame that such a major news organization either cannot see or admit the role it has played in packaging this story. Equally strange, LBC has re-posted the video on its youtube page:

Public performance banned in Downtown Beirut

2011-11-12T19:31:00.013+02:00

I've experienced many disturbing episodes in the corporate-owned and operated space known as Beirut Central District (BCD) or "Downtown."

I've been banned from taking pictures of historic buildings under demolition; I have been detained by police for documenting one of the BCD's oldest neighborhoods as it was being razed; I've even been censored by those protesting the space, namely Hezbollah, whose members forcibly erased my footage of the tents they used to occupy BCD in 2007.

However last night's incident tops the list petty policing in the luxury shopping district imaginatively branded Beirut's "City Center" by its billion-dollar developer, Solidere.

Last night, nothing happened to me, but rather I witnessed the humiliation and harassment of another--a defenseless middle-aged gentleman in a shameful incident that spoke volumes about the sincerity of the firm's newest corporate slogan "Solidere: Places for Life," as heard endlessly in a spot on CNN International.

It all began around 11PM last night when I approached the clock tower at Place d'Etoile, a vestige of the French colonial city modeled on its Parisian counterpart, now refurbished into a pedestrian high street.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a crowd of dozens of people clapping and congregating in the open space--Downtown's largest--to the sound of a man singing soulful Arabic songs. Perhaps I had misjudged Solidere for having orchestrated a largely elite neighborhood, free from the nuisance of the poor and underprivileged and all things serendipitous or cosmopolitan that bring actual "city centers" to life.

But moments later, reality came crashing in when a police officer abruptly pulled the man aside in a threatening fashion to the surprise of the onlookers, who hurriedly dispersed. Clearly this bit of unregulated entertainment was unwanted and needed to be silenced.

As he stood quietly amid the stream of passersby, I walked up and asked the man, who seemed less than five feet tall, where he was from. He announced excitedly that he was Jordanian and represented Rotana, one of the Middle East's largest music labels. Whether the speech was a stage act or bout of lunacy, this short, enthusiastic entertainer could be considered anything but a threat to the public.

"They said I am bothering them," he pleaded to me in reference to the security officers, a usual mix of army troops and policemen, standing watch from the curbside. He propped up his chest and saluted as one walked past.

Hearing his story, I lamented the lack of free expression and asked him (perhaps irresponsibly) to sing some more.

He gathered his breath and suddenly bolted out a swinging Arabic note with impressive timbre "Give us Hurriye (freedom)," he sang, "give us freedom," he repeated, delivering the line directly to troops facing him across the street.

Some of the soldiers cracked smiles and a small crowd regathered, clapping enthusiastically at the lyrics. But the fleeting moment of ease was disrupted again when a stern-faced army solider, clearly annoyed, made his way toward the singer from behind. He gripped the man's arm, yanked him backward and this time marched him out of the square entirely, adding a few expletives for effect.

"Why did you take him away," I asked the burly soldier, having followed him to the opposite end of the square.

"That man is crazy," he said loudly, gesturing a finger toward his head.

"Is it illegal to sing here?" I asked.

"It is illegal to gather publicly," the solider said. "Public gathering is forbidden in the square."

"What is the square, if not a place for public gathering," I countered.

"Thats not your business," he quipped, sensing my incredulous look. "This is a security issue. Our responsibility is security. Now move along," he added firmly, before turning away and quickly walking off.

Other officers also left but a few remained near the clock tower, keeping watch over the crowd, as seen to the right of the photo below:

So what was this feared security threat, I wondered.

Were the Mandarins of the Lebanese government finally realizing that the time had come for them to worry about joining the fate of their regional dictatorial counterparts, beset with demonstrations in public squares?

Or were both the army and police under orders to ensure that those who profit from Downtown's faux public space be limited to the millionaires who can afford to rent its exorbitantly priced retail spaces?

Indeed "Downtown" was ranked the most expensive neighborhood in the Middle East last year, seemingly in line with Solidere's mission of creating the region's "finest city center" according to its chairman's message.

Rather than attracting Beirut residents-- the vast majority of which cannot afford its shops--the BCD has evolved into a destination for affluent visitors and high wealth foreign nationals. In fact, last night the streets surrounding the clock tower were dominated by oil-rich Saudi Arabian and Arab Gulf tourists:

A boon to the economy no doubt, but one that largely feeds elite establishments, rather than the majority of businesses.

Perhaps those international investors watching Solidere's adverts on CNN will need to place a sizable Asterix denoting the growing list of exceptions to its slogan, which now adorns many city streets:

Places for Life*

*Does not apply to most Beirut residents, journalists, photographers, and now, street performers.

Shortchanging Lebanon: The everyday racket of coin skimming

2011-11-07T02:17:00.004+02:00

Small change has always been a touchy subject for vendors in Lebanon. No one ever seems to have it and thus asking a cashier for it is considered taboo for many, if not most shoppers. I'm not sure how this stigma over small amounts of cash evolved, but it appears to be growing and certain businesses are taking advantage by pocketing excessive numbers of coins all day long.

As far back as I can remember, mom-and-pop stores, i.e 'dakakeen,' often claimed to lack change on the questionable premise that they did not do much business. As a result, many kept cashier drawers full of small packs of Chiclets gum and offered them to customers as a replacement to 250 Lebanese lira (LL) notes, equivalent to $0.16.

Several years ago the 500LL and 250LL notes were replaced with coins, a move which seems to have aggravated the problem by providing yet another excuse for small merchants not to carry 'bothersome' coinage in their registers.

Now, even more insidious than the Chiclets scenario-- and its dubious equivalency rate-- at least one major Lebanese establishment has decided to stop providing change altogether, in the amounts of 250LL and 500LL, creating an average transaction skimming of $0.16 to $0.33.

I noticed this trend after several back-handed episodes at the wildly popular Lebanese fast food chain, "Zaatar W Zeit":

Image: www.beirut.com

While I do appreciate their new menu, particularly the "Spizy Chicken" sandwich (despite its obnoxious spelling) Zaatar W Zeit's shortchange policy is absolutely unprofessional, dishonest and verging on outright thievery.

Case in point: On four out of four visits to their Zalka branch over recent weeks I have been denied change of 500LL or $0.33 without exception.

Worse still, cashiers repeatedly failed to apologize or even acknowledge the shortchanging by continuing conversations with other staff members or staring blankly ahead as I patiently awaited the remainder of my money. At this point, Zaatar W Zeit cashiers must know that most diners will give up and simply accept the extra, albeit illegal tax of up to 30 cents or more on their purchases. How embarrassing would it be to ask for such small change, particularly if out on a date, many may think.

Yet even if one persists, he will be met with more excuses, such as "Sorry, we're all out," as I was told on three separate occasions. Finally, on my last visit two nights ago, a cashier leveled with me, saying nonchalantly: "We don't carry coins."

"Nice policy," I said, to smirks from the boys behind the counter. Clearly unlawful, financially dishonest and yet totally acceptable in their eyes.

"Next time order something that doesn't need change," one of the waiters suggested. Great scam odds, I thought, considering more than half the restaurant's menu items are priced in factors of 500LL and 250LL.

While 30 cents might not sound like a lot, Zaatar W Zeit's large two-storey Zalka location is open 24 hours per day and is often packed with dozens of customers into the early morning hours. I wonder if the "no change" policy applies to all seven branches across Lebanon and several more in Dubai and other cities.

With hundreds of potential transactions per day--if not per hour-- that wouldn't be a bad chuck of (extorted) change.

Shotgun sale in Beirut

2011-10-29T15:52:00.000+03:00

It's a little disconcerting when you see a massive outdoor campaign for shotguns, especially in Beirut, especially with the price advertised in bold-- as if they were home appliances.

Equally disconcerting: The store behind the billboards sells hunting goods, although hunting is technically banned in Lebanon to protect endangered wildlife. Worse still, I've seen many Lebanon "hunting" stores display machine guns in their windows.

But fear not Beirut fashionistas and visiting foreign nationals. Diesel jeans are still in abundance:

Phew.

Cyberia rep admits 90 percent of customers still lack upgrades

2011-10-22T22:43:00.008+03:00

Over a week ago, when I last posted on this, leading Lebanese ISP Cyberia promised faster internet "in a matter of days." Now they're changing their story and speeds are still among the world's slowest, and getting even slower.

Instead of the promised 4mbps, for which I was charged $84 per month, I recently registered an astounding 0.08 mpbs:

That's barely a quarter of 1990s dial-up speeds!

After repeated attempts, I finally got through to Cyberia's 'support' line (which has been busier than a radio station lately) and was kindly informed that the upgrade would be complete by "the end of the month." This would mean I-- along with thousands of others-- paid the full price for a package that never existed. I honestly do not know what business in the world could get away with that.

Imagine paying your cable company a premium fee for movie channels and the provider saying "sorry, we couldn't provide your movies this month, but we're keeping the money anyway!"

"This is not America," a Cyberia customer representative quipped, in response to the analogy.

America?? Even Nepal and Sri Lanka have twice the speed of Lebanon! Hell, all of Sub-Sahran Africa is faster. But the voice on the other end was not moved. His script probably read: blame the government.

"The government told us we could offer the speed on Oct. 1," he said. "We were technically ready, but Ogero has not switched the lines," he added in a reference to the state appointed telecom operator. "When will they do it? I have no idea."

The rep then admitted that barely 10 percent of stations operated by Ogero had switched customers, leaving some 90 percent of 70,000 subscribers overpaying for falsely promised services this month.

"The bandwidth is not enough for Lebanon. We are also not getting the service we paid for," he added, pleading for empathy. But those additional fees are simply being passed on to customers.

"You are not paying," I said. "We are."

So the question remains: Who pocketed our money for new packages that never existed?

And is the media looking for answers yet? No! They're still busy reproducing fake news!

Instead of holding the government and ISPs accountable, the press is parroting more outlandish statements, with the minister now claiming "Lebanon will be put on the map as being one of the fastest connections in the region."

The report adds: "High speed internet, which has been activated in Beirut... should be available in the rest of the country in two weeks."

How could that possibly be true if my ISP is telling me barely 10 percent of subscribers have been upgraded and not enough bandwidth has been made available for the country?

It's time for the Ministry, Ogero and ISPs to be upfront with customers. Why was a service sold when it could not be provided, and where has our money gone?

Internet overpricing with impunity

2011-10-14T02:54:00.004+03:00

It's now been two weeks since Lebanese internet service providers began charging customers more money for falsely promised faster internet speeds. Beginning on October 1, Lebanese ISP Cyberia, for example, began charging about $84 per month for a speed of 4mbps, as shown in this zoomed in shot of the receipt above:

However 14 days later, speeds have not changed. In fact, they are slower than ever. Instead of 4mbps, I'm currently getting a mere 0.22 mbps according to speedtest.net:

That's slower than 1990s era dial-up speeds, and for a price of $84 per month!

What's worse, when contacted over the phone, Cyberia representatives didn't seem to think this was such a big deal. "The problem will be fixed soon," a tech support representative informed me. Hard to believe having been misled before, but even if it were true, who would be accountable for the last two weeks of slow internet at high prices? Would a credit be issued to the perhaps thousands of customers who have overpaid? I was referred to the sales department. But the representative also evaded responsibility for the overcharging, laying blame in the government's court. Apparently when Telecom Minister Nicolas Sehnawi promised fast internet would be released in late September, the infrastructure was not ready yet. Still, Cyberia offered its customers 4mbps internet and charged $84 for it. Where did that money go?

The Cyberia representative offered no explanation and no credit, saying only "it will be fixed in a couple of days enshallah." That was four days ago.

Even more insidious has been the lack of accountability at the government level and the media's participation in their impunity.

Take Minister Sehnawi's most recent statement published uncritically and in its entirety by The Daily Star, in its latest piece: "Sehnawi says faster internet connections are being delivered."

Seemingly out of touch with reality, the minister fails to address polls that claim the vast majority of subscribers have yet to receive the services they are paying for. Instead, Sehnawi focuses his attention on "ministry subscribers" which he claims "have begun" to experience upgrades. Is he talking about ministry employees? It is not entirely clear, but if so, how does such a vague and esoteric statement relate to the overwhelming phenomenon of overpricing and lack of service experienced by the broad constituency he has been appointed to represent?

As a journalist, the saddest link in this chain of public and private sector unaccountability is the nascent and thus complicit role played by the local press. By republishing the minister's statements without question-without providing the context of reality that readers deserve- the media has become little more than a medium in the hands of government.

Yet this may come as no surprise to regular readers of the paper, which has recently produced imaginative headlines ranging from the patently false: "Fast internet on track despite delay fears" to the wildly outlandish "Sehnawi: Lebanese internet to be world-leading."

The latter is difficult to fathom considering Lebanon currently ranks as the slowest internet worldwide, beating out Zambia, Swaziland and Bolivia for the dead last spot of 172 out of 172 countries surveyed by the Net Index by Ookla, at the time of publishing this post.

Perhaps the Star's recent stint of positive coverage is related to a critical piece I wrote for the paper last month:"'Fast' internet unveiled, but is it worth celebrating?" Following that article, I received an angry phone call from a high-level ministry official interviewed in the piece, who informed me that I would not be offered any more interviews in the future.

One must wonder. Is access to ministry officials really worth the cost of running propagandistic pieces on their behalf? Readers would hope not, judging by the usefulness of the minister's recent statements.

New York Times: Shiites are not cool?

2011-09-27T15:16:00.014+03:00

photos: New York Times

Unfortunately, the paper of record is reinforcing sectarian and Orientalist stereotypes by publishing yet another superficial piece on the rich-kid Beirut party scene.

The most obnoxious line in the article rests on the completely baseless assumption that being cool in Beirut is largely a Christian affair:

"... Beirut’s art-and-party crowd — which consists mostly of French-educated Maronite Catholics but includes doses of Christian Orthodox, Sunni Muslims and Druse..."

Not only does the reporter blatantly marginalize Muslim Sunni and Druze contributions to the city's beautiful people as mere "doses" but completely excludes Shiites from the so-called "creative class" of well-to-do kids that he romanticizes throughout the piece.

In fact, Shiites are only mentioned twice in the article and both references paint them as single-minded supporters of Hezbollah's armed wing, a dimensionless characterization that has been perpetuated by the Western press for decades.

By contrast, references to Christian neighborhoods use the adjectives "charming" and "posh".

The Times should know that Lebanon's jet set does not discriminate based on religion. Those who have money can be found at all the country's elite spots, whether they be Sunnis, Shiites, Druze or Christians. But that isn't the point really. The most interesting creative and social-change inspiring stuff happening in Lebanon today has nothing to do with going to a rooftop nightclub. It's a shame that editors at the Times and elsewhere continuously fail to see beyond the very Orientalist notion that posh parties equate modernity or newsworthiness.

Colonizing the streets of Beirut

2011-09-26T16:55:00.007+03:00

A few days ago, while driving through the northern suburbs of Beirut, I was fortunate enough to glimpse a curious crane operation underway. Of course, having grown up in this country, I immediately knew what was going on. Like so many aspects of Lebanese public life, the nation's highways have become an arena for competing territorial-political claims.

In this case, the flag being hung was that of the Lebanese Forces (LF), one of many civil war-era militia groups that have evolved into political parties over the last twenty years. Last Sunday, the LF held an annual mass commemorating LF fighters that have been killed over the years and the flags, which went up earlier in the week, were apparently an ideal way of promoting it.

The banners were strung up on every other highway lightpost over a significant chunk of the Lebanese coastline, stretching at least from Dbayeh, through to the neighborhoods of Jal el Dib and Nahar el Mot (See below).

Much to my surprise, and illustrating the breadth of the campaign, I noticed the same yellow crane (with same company logo visible as the first image of this post), a full two days later, when I was on the coastal highway again. Apparently it was an ardous 3 day operation as the crane team had now worked its way to the opposite side of the freeway in the suburb of Dora.

Fortunately this dangerous--and highly disruptive-work was being undertaken with full safety precautions--i.e. two men standing in the middle of the road waiving flags to warn on-comming traffic:

Interestingly the men used Lebanese flags as a hazard warning, a move that fit neatly in line with the campaign's nod to patriotism, with actual Lebanese flags (not to be confused with similar looking LF ones) being deployed by the crew at equal intervals:

Interestingly, the LF flag campaign comes to an end at the pedestrian highway bridge (also canvased) just before the port of Beirut:

And every subsequent light post leading to the city center suddenly appears naked:

This may be for good reason. The Beirut port area, a significant asset during both the civil war and post-war period, is also home to the headquarters of the Kataeb, a sometimes rival Christian militia turned political party, (with a relatively similar historical trajectory to the LF and most Muslim and Christian ruling parties for that matter). In fact, the same light posts pictured above were canvased with Kataeb party flags--also bearing a vague resemblance to the actual Lebanese flag-- earlier this year, ahead of a party event/occasion.

It's important to note here that the actions of the LF and Kataeb are by no means unique. As noted at the start of this post, territorial street claims have simply become a fact of life in Lebanon. The same is practiced by Amal and Hezbollah, which frequently dominate the airport highway, as well as the pro-Syria SSNP and pro-Western Future Movement, all of which also either stem from or continue to be armed movements. Thus what I'm trying to do here is not single out the LF's specific role or practices but the very common general phenomenon of laying claim to the city's streets, a core strategy adopted by nearly everyone in Lebanese politics. Due to the intimidating/ territorial nature of the factions ruling Lebanon, their practices including flag hanging are rarely questioned. I would pose a few:

Do the LF and others actually pay to advertise on these spaces? Do they require a permit or unwritten agreement from the municipalities to conduct such dangerous and disruptive highway work? Or do the cranes operate unilaterally on the premise that no one would dare stop them? If any political strategists are reading this--or anyone with access to the answers--I would appreciate hearing your comments.

Electricity godfathers rule billion dollar Lebanon market

2011-09-12T11:04:00.005+03:00

credit: The Godfather, Paramount Pictures

The Corleones would be envious. Lebanese generator owners are racking up tax free millions every month as the government looks the other way. But it can be a jungle out there. Step on someone else's turf and you could wind up beaten, hospitalized or shot--all for the right price. See my latest piece in The Daily Star for an inside look at the underworld of gray market Lebanese electricity.

Beirut decadence 2.0

2011-08-16T16:25:00.005+03:00

Forget the Lamborghini, come by yacht and "Get Low" with Flo.

MTV has just published my piece on the latest innovation in Beirut nightlife with Flo Rida (above), Ke$ha, Fat Joe and Eve all performing to a select crowd of "A class" clubbers at Pier 7.

But private gigs are the rage among elites worldwide, even with high-level officials in Iran. See my full piece at MTV Iggy for more details.

(This photo will make more sense when you read the article.)

Fast internet or false promises?

2011-08-15T19:01:00.003+03:00

Having held the title of world's slowest internet for years, Lebanese officials are now brimming with excitement and promising everything will be better in "coming weeks". For a closer look at what's being offered (and a reality check) see my latest piece in the Daily Star here.

(Chart above from Akamai shows Lebanon currently leads the world with most 256kbs connections at 60 percent of the population. That's a step up from dial-up)

Censoring Beirut heritage

2011-07-26T18:29:00.019+03:00

It won't be long before another historic building vanishes without a trace in Beirut. As one would imagine, there is a heated debate over the redevelopment of the city center, especially because it's being carried out by a private corporation (Solidere), founded controversially by a former prime minister. What shouldn't be up for debate however, is photography of historic buildings as they are being destroyed. But as soon as I began snapping shots of said demolition (see photo above), the troubles began.

"Hey you, what are you doing? That's forbidden" a heavy man exclaimed from a parking lot across the street.

"Hey, what? What's the problem," I replied.

"Pictures are forbidden," he said.

"Why, this is a public street isn't it," I asked.

"You are not allowed to take pictures of private property," he said with certainty, his tone increasingly agitated. "That's the law."

I was documenting the destruction of the building, I argued. "Please leave us alone and be on your way," he replied, adding "you've taken your pictures, now go on, leave us."

He then claimed to represent the building's owner and insisted I leave the area. When asked who the owner was, he became more anxious. "It's none of your business who the owner is! Now go on, get out of here! Check the law, bring any police. It's forbidden" he shouted, getting louder with every word.

"Don't people have a right to see the history of Beirut before its gone," I asked.

"KusUm Beirut (Fuck Beirut)" he said, before turning his back to me.

Upon returning to my car a couple of blocks away, I noticed a uniformed police officer standing across the street and decided to get his opinion. "Who told you not to film," he said, growing anxious himself. "Come with me."

I led the way and when we arrived the heavy-set parking attendant jumped up and faced the police officer, ready for a fight. "Filming is not allowed here," he said, raising his voice. "The owner does not allow it."

"Excuse me habibi, calm down," the officer said. "Filming of private property is only forbidden if you have a permit. Do you have a permit?"

"No," the man said, "but it doesn't matter, it's forbidden."

"If you don't have a permit, he can film from the sidewalk," the police officer said calmly.

The man began shouting again. He then accused me of infiltrating the building. "He was inside the building!" Suddenly another man appeared, whom I'd never seen before, agreeing with the parking attendant and accusing me of entering the building. "I'm responsible if he is injured (by the demolition). I will be sued!" the attendant said.

"That's a lie," I told the officer. "I was taking photos from the street. I never entered the building."

"I am liar!" the man screamed, throwing his hands in the air. "You are a liar! You've come here to cause trouble!"

Naturally, the screaming drew a small crowd and soon a couple of men on scooters and Solidere private security guards showed up and began firing away questions, interrogation style: "Where are you from?"

"Beirut."

"Where in Beirut," he added, looking suspicious.

More questions: what do you do, who do you work for, etc.

After a few minutes of back and forth, the men-- apparently Solidere undercover police--explained that I could not photograph anywhere, any building in the downtown area without a permit.

The police officer who accompanied me had remained silent the whole time. Then he turned to me: "Listen," he said, "this is Solidere. Don't cause problems, just go request a permit."

"But the building will be gone before I get one," I countered.

"What can you do," he said. "They are in control here."

"But you should be in control," I told the policeman. "This is the middle of Beirut." He shrugged his shoulders.

When the officer and I walked back toward my car, we encountered another officer, who had overheard our initial conversation. "What happened," he asked.

"Turns out Solidere owns the building," I said.

"Ahhh, Solidereeee," he said, stretching the name for emphasis. "Don't even think about taking pictures over there."

---

Here are some of shots I took before getting "caught".

It seems to be part of the Grand Theatre complex (adjacent un-destroyed bldg visible above on the same block) which I have written about here. The parking lot attendant/owner representative denied this however, saying "It's just an old building, where people used to live."

Yet judging by the architecture, the building seems to be as old as the adjoining Grand Theatre. If anyone has any information on the use of this building or its connection to the Grand Theatre please let me know.

On the subject of the Grand Theatre, I highly recommend Omar Naim's documentary on it, available here.

During the film, activists argue that the theatre should be preserved as a public space, a point that a Solidere representative seems to agree with during the film. Solidere even had murals painted over the construction walls, showing images that evoked memories of the theatre in its hey day.

Then I noticed this numbering on the blocks, which also seems to indicate some planned restoration work:

But a nearby worker said those plans have been abandoned as have those to create a public theatre space. The Grand Theatre, where legends like Oum Kultoum once sang, will reportedly now be turned into a boutique hotel. Somehow, I imagine the elite guests of said hotel will not appreciate photography either, and yet another part of Beirut's history will become off limits to the public.

UPDATE:

Solidere Project Manager, Tamara Mae Napper, has promised that the building under demolition will be rebuilt. She said: "Solidere has carried out a detailed survey and even taken moulds of the facade features and salvaged some architectural elements in order to reconstruct it." Responding to a Facebook thread, she added that the 1930s building was "in a poor state of repair" and "never had any functional or physical connection" to the Grand Theatre, though it seems to have been built around the same time. It is worth noting that the two buildings shared a continuous arched walkway which can be viewed in this picture I took a few years back. The two buildings also shared a common Solidere construction perimeter wall with similar artwork, as seen above.

It remains unclear what function the new building will serve, what, if any, access the public will have to it and to what extent it be "reconstructed". These basic questions can also be asked about the Grand Theatre. It is also unclear if Solidere will salvage any of the original building materials during its demolition such as the vintage 1930s glass sidewalk, colored glass ceiling and old signage--covered in this post-- or the original iron dome with roof opening as seen in Omar Naim's film.

Hezbollah wears NYPD?

2011-07-18T03:35:00.006+03:00

The Daily Star has just posted a photo essay by its correspondent Mohammed Zaatari, who visits "the largest amusement park in the region," funded by Iran and run by Hezbollah. Apparently the complex features a paintball attraction whereby rival teams face off as Hezbollah and the Israelis.

What The Star doesn't discuss are the NYPD uniforms worn by players, which begs the question: In the surreal world of Iranian state-sponsored theme parks, are the NYPD considered Israeli, Hezbollah or both?

Factory fire in Mazraat Yachouh

2011-07-11T20:14:00.003+03:00

According to The Daily Star, the factory is owned by Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud. The fire reportedly raged until morning despite several fire trucks on hand. I wasn't able to find much on the cause, but its safe to say that Lebanon's mostly volunteer fire fighters are usually unprepared for the calls they get, including a lack of fireproof clothing and breathing equipment. Here's a piece I wrote about them a few years back: "The unsung heros? Civil Defense Brigade take risks for free"

The Devil drives a Corvette?

2011-07-03T14:54:00.004+03:00

Apparently Satan was in Downtown Beirut last night... and sporting KSA plates.

I asked the parking attendant if he was Saudi or Lebanese. He said "a bit of both".

Backstage with DAM in Brooklyn

2011-07-01T17:48:00.003+03:00

Photo: MTV IGGY

MTV has just published my review of Palestinian rap trio DAM during their performance in Brooklyn. Click here to read the piece, featuring their new track "Mama, I feel in love with a Jew."

So who killed protestors on May 15?

2011-05-16T03:27:00.030+03:00

The answer was simple according to Arab television, which showed live video footage of Israeli soldiers firing machine guns at people throwing stones on Israel's borders. Some carried the border scene live for hours, repeating a familiar cycle:

First crowds approach the fence and throw stones:

Then, they run for cover as gunfire erupts:

Finally, unconscious bodies are carried out on stretchers:

But despite the live pictures, the events became increasingly vague when interpreted by American journalists, reporting not live from the scene, but over a hundred miles away in Jerusalem.

Take that day's AP story, which carries the headline: "At least 15 dead as Israeli troops clash with protestors"

Nowhere in this story are we told that Israeli troops killed any of the protestors.

According to the leading American news agency, the Palestinians were not killed by soldiers, they were killed by "clashes".

Take a look at the story's opening sentence or lead. In journalism, the lead is often the most important sentence where the writer attempts to convey--to the best of his or her ability--the gist of what's going on.

In this 50 word lead, the basic reality that troops killed unarmed protestors is nowhere to be found.

In fact, it is not until the 14th paragraph that we learn that soldiers even fired their weapons at all:

"When hundreds of people burst across the border fence into the Israeli-controlled town of Majdal Shams, surprised soldiers opened fire."

Still, despite the dead protestors, we are never told where or upon whom the soldiers' bullets fell.

Finally the 15th paragraph gives more detail about casualties. But still no word on who pulled the trigger:

"Syrian officials reported four people were killed, and dozens wounded"

Casualties are not mentioned again until the 26th paragraph, when the focus shifts to Lebanon:

"The military said it opened fire when protesters tried to damage the border fence. Security officials in Lebanon reported 10 dead."

Again, the military "opened fire" but upon whom? Ten are reported dead, but no one is reported to have killed them.

The 31st paragraph shifts the focus to Gaza:

"Palestinian medics said 125 people were wounded when demonstrators in the Gaza Strip tried to approach a heavily fortified border crossing into Israel."

This time Palestinians are wounded, not by the military of course, but by their "approach" to the border fence.

It is not until the same 31st paragraph, near the end of the article, that Israel is held directly responsible for a single death.

"One man was killed by an Israeli sniper. The military said he was trying to plant a bomb."

Most readers won't get that far, but if they do, they'll know the only army kill was justified.

Israeli troops are not held responsible for killing any of the other dozen dead protestors mentioned in this article.

In fact the word "unarmed" appears nowhere in the entire story. How could the AP, one of the world's most relied-upon news organizations, ignore such a detail? By omitting it, it is unclear where the balance of power on the battlefield lies. The reporter is clear when describing the actions of the protestors:

"... thousands of people approached the frontier, hoisting Palestinian flags, shouting slogans and throwing rocks and bottles at Israeli forces."

The armed troops, on the other hand, are described in pacifist, almost defenseless terms:

"When hundreds of people burst across the border fence... surprised soldiers opened fire."

Again, the reporter cannot seem tell us where this soldier "fire" landed although he has little trouble tracing the falling of rocks and bottles on soldiers.

The balance of power on the battlefield was also vague in CNN's reporting, which used the following headline on screen:

The clashes are fatal, but to whom?

By merely reporting "fatal clashes" the viewer is likely to conclude that it was 'another bloody day' in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the fatalities today are overwhelmingly Arab and the battlefield, overwhelmingly skewed. The fundamental reality that no Israeli troops were killed is obscured when the events are cloaked under the vague description of "clashes."

As a journalist, its hard to imagine how a scene where armed soldiers kill at least a dozen unarmed civilians (even if they have rocks) makes no appearance in the headline, the lead sentence or any sentence of the story.

It reminds me of the kind of non-journalism practiced only a few weeks ago by TV stations run by Syria, Iran and Hezbollah, which took great pains to avoid the word "kill" when describing the death of unarmed Syrians civilians involved in "clashes" with Syrian troops.

Getting ripped-off by Iran's Press TV

2011-04-24T01:56:00.007+03:00

The photo above was originally published by Beirut Report over two years ago

With scores reported killed in Syria this week, I decided to check if Iran and Hezbollah TV could sustain their blatantly hypocritical policy of downplaying or ignoring the bloodbath.

Unfortunately, little has changed at Hezbollah's Al Manar and Iran's Press TV, with both influential news organizations choosing to favor the suppressive regime line over people out in the streets, when the dictator doing the suppressing is a close friend.

In fact Press TV even leads its coverage today with the headline "5 security forces killed in Syria" while the BBC, Al Jazeera and others are reporting over 100 protestors killed by Syrian security forces over the last two days.

Instead of covering the state's killings, both Al Manar and Press TV have honed in on the reported resignation of the well-known Al Jazeera personality Ghassan Ben Jeddou (photo below) as a top story.

A self-admitted and proud supporter of Hezbollah's leader, Ben Jeddou has now been quoted as saying Al Jazeera "incites and mobilizes" and "abandoned its policy of objectivity". Why Ben Jeddou chose to resign now that the focus is on Syria, despite four months of relentlessly reporting and encouraging of revolts in Tunis, Egypt, Yemen and Libya was not a question entertained by either Al Manar or Press TV.

What Press TV did do is copy-paste a picture from this blog without any attribution.

The above picture of Ben Jeddou originally appeared on this blog two and a half years ago, after I snapped it and posted it as the second picture in this post. Here are a couple of screen shots:

But this wouldn't be the first time I've been plagiarized on this blog and it has nothing to do with a news organization's politics. In fact, the pro-Western Lebanese website www.nowlebanon.com has also republished pictures from this site with no attribution. It's a trend I've noticed across several news organizations I've worked at in the Middle East, where plagiarism is seen as perfectly normal activity by both editors and graphic designers, who when lacking a picture often call out "just grab it from the internet!"

I doubt disregard for attribution at many Arab organizations will change any time soon (though I hope Press TV will prove me wrong) but in the meantime, I figure I'll keep pointing it out.

Libyan rebel with a cause... and a guitar

2011-03-31T13:14:00.007+03:00

I tuned into Al Arabiya the other day to find this jewel:

A guitar-strumming Libyan rebel. Notice the Bazooka strapped to his back.

He had a raw guttural sound-- part gitano 'Gypsy Kings' style, part bedouin folk-- and bolted out verses in both English and Arabic, swaying with passion:

I've criticized Al Arabiya news coverage on this blog, but I must say I did appreciate this piece. It's a nice break from the constant and somewhat repetitive reporting of upheaval and chaos we've been seeing on Al Jazeera and others.

Unfortunately, I caught the tail end of the report and didn't get the artist's name.

If anyone has more info or a link to a clip, please forward.

And on a wider note, it would be great to see more Arab satellite stations reporting on the music of these revolutions. Here in Beirut for example, the Lebanese rapper Ashekman has remixed the recent chants recorded from street marches against the Lebanese regime, and created this new track:

The chants Ashekman samples have been heard across the region, mainly "El Shaab youreed Eskat el Nitham" which translates to "the people demand the fall of the regime".

He also samples a chant I've only heard in Beirut, which suited the exercise of street marching through densely populated neighborhoods where people came to their balconies to watch the protestors: "Ya Shaab Al Balcone" --"Oh people on your balcony", "Inzel le'e shaabuk hon" --"Come down and join your people (down) here"

Music has always played a significant role in revolutions, from Africa to the Americas and the the situation in the Arab world today is no different.

UPDATE:

Great news! Beirut Report reader and good friend Bernie Kwan just sent me part of the Al Arabiya report he found uploaded to youtube. Enjoy:

Blackout Syria, replace with your favorite revolution

2011-03-25T22:29:00.014+02:00

Tonight, major Arab networks are leading their nightly news bulletins with grainy cell phone footage of angry crowds, gunfire and bloody bodies carried through the streets of Syria on stretchers (above). But those events were not very newsworthy for Hezbollah's Al Manar TV, which buried the story toward the end of its newscast for the second day in a row:

Instead of giving voice to people on the street-- as it has done just about everywhere else in the Arab world-- Al Manar is now parroting the regime line, favoring sanitized state television coverage over footage sent by citizen journalists risking their lives to shoot the story. Notice Syria TV logo on top left:

And while Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, BBC and others noted up to 20 had been shot dead by security forces Al Manar repeatedly failed to mention the word "killed" in its reporting, saying only some people had been "wounded", without mention who was doing the "wounding" in question.

The same was true of NBN TV, another pro-regime station in Lebanon, which repeatedly ignored casualty figures and steered clear of mentioning any role by state security agents in the violence. Instead NBN said Israel conspired by sending "100,000" SMS text messages to encourage the uprising.

On the other hand, both Al Manar and NBN have spearheaded the battle against Arab dictators over recent months. They both carried Al Jazeera's signal live from Tahrir square when it was blocked by Egyptian authorities. They have both created on-air promos supporting the people on the street from Tunis to Bahrain. NBN in particular has been airing a Gaddafi hate video, in which the Libyan leader is shown soaked in blood, striking a Hitchcockesque pose:

Even tonight, Al Manar went out on a limb for the Jordanian opposition, allowing dissidents in that country to speak freely on its airwaves, demanding justice from the ruling powers.

So what made it in to Hezbollah TV's headlines tonight? The election of a new Maronite Christian priest to the post of Lebanese Cardinal:

Top members of Hezbollah attended the service:

And where else but in Lebanon do Islamists go to Church? But I digress...

While freedom of expression is spreading rapidly throughout the region, viewers need be wary. Some TV outlets calling for change may indeed be doing so out of conviction, but they may also be looking to divert attention away from their own dirty laundry.

Of course this applies to both sides. Pro-USA leaning, Al Arabiya is now calling for the downfall of Gaddafi, but last month, they offered nothing short of propaganda for Mubarak.

Revolution for hire

2011-03-16T10:29:00.016+02:00

Last weekend, tens of thousands of Lebanese poured into the streets of their capital in what seemed familiar to the revolts happening across the Arab world.

The highway leading to Beirut was backed up for miles as people converged on the city center:

As I maneuvered through the traffic jam, there was a familiar sense of peaceable chaos-- people having a great time claiming the streets of their country:

Some even set lawn chairs out on the highway:

But this was no spontaneous outpouring. Although those speaking at the rally made comparisons to Tunis and Tahrir, Sunday's events bore little resemblance to the fight against tyranny happening throughout the Arab world. In fact, they may prove that Lebanon's revolution could be the most remote of all.

First, I noticed that many of the protestors arrived by bus:

Yet these weren't ordinary buses--they were branded ones, hired presumably by the man who branded them, billionaire businessman and former prime minister, Saad Hariri.

And his late father, Rafik, also a former prime minister:

I asked a police officer directing traffic how long it would take to get through. He wasn't sure but couldn't help volunteering his opinion: "It's money brother, money!"

Indeed, the Hariri dynasty and its associates helped orchestrate the rally weeks in advance by funding an elaborate advertising campaign urging its supporters to participate. Here are two of the hundreds of billboards that adorned the country's highways leading up to the rally.

The same slogans then found their way to the "protestors" during the demonstration, in the form of branded baseball caps and posters:

Responding to the police officers suggestion that these individuals were also paid cash to participate, I half-jokingly suggested that Hariri and his allies had likened the gathering to the events in Cairo's Tahrir square. He laughed out loud adding, "the Lebanese? They need 20 million years to reach Tahrir!"

Exaggeration of course, but when I finally reached Beirut's main square, I could barely believe what I saw:

That's right, while entrenched monarchies were being dethroned and fought against throughout the Arab world, the Lebanese "revolters" celebrated the King of Saudi Arabia, by erecting his poster in the main square:

The Saudi royal family has been a major benefactor of the Hariri's, however Saad and his pro-Western coalition have fallen from power. They've been unseated by the Hezbollah-led coalition, which has thrown its weight behind yet another billionaire businessman, who is also familiar face in Lebanese politics, also with far reaching local business interests.

And while Hariri's opponents may mock his 'revolution for hire', they too line their supporters pockets with patronage in the form of jobs, free health care, education and even reported cash hand outs. And while many in the Hezbollah coalition have criticized dictators like Gaddafi and Mubarak, they have also remained in power for decades and accept support from other unelected and dictatorial regimes.

Later that evening, I walked near the Lebanese Parliment building and noticed that it was under construction.

A police officer on duty told me that the renovation was being done to replace "aging furniture".

"Poor Lebanese politicians," I told him. "They need new chairs." He shook his head, saying the renovation had cost $18 million so far, and that was only the first phase.

"Each new seat will cost $2,000," he exclaimed.

"Poor Lebanese," he added. "They will dance for anyone that claps for them."

But many reform-minded Lebanese would beg to differ. A number of small protest tents have been set up around Beirut in recent weeks demanding an end to the current sectarian Lebanese regime and all its familiar faces. Their numbers have been increasing gradually from a few hundred in February to nearly 5,000 that gathered two weeks ago.

I took these photos from that rally:

Another rally is planned for this Sunday, and the hope is that more people will come, with gradual increases recorded every week. A long road ahead indeed, but there is a determination out there, especially among the young people:

Will they continue to put up- as their parents have- with the same faces, the same politicians and family dynasties that have ruled this country for decades, while failing to provide basic services? Time will tell...

Cairo is live everywhere...almost

2011-02-04T18:02:00.010+02:00

Households across the Middle East are being bombarded with live feeds from the revolt in Cairo. Yet some Arab stations are not interested--perhaps for political reasons. The vast disparities in today's coverage may have long term consequences on public confidence in local media and the governments that rule it.

Here's a quick round up. The following channels are widely available in homes throughout the Middle East, free of charge over satellite. These pictures were taken at roughly the same time (within a minute or two), this afternoon during the peak of protests:

Al Jazeera:

Al Arabiya:

BBC Arabic:

Al Quds (Palestine):

Al Aqsa (Palestine):

Nile TV (Egypt):

NBN (Lebanon):

MTV (Lebanon):

Future News (Lebanon):

Al Manar (Lebanon):

OTV (Lebanon) which carried Al Jazeera:

Al Jadeed (Lebanon):

Al Alam (Iran):

Press TV (Iran):

And Alhurra (USA):

But other Arab channels occupied a far different reality, choosing to downplay or outright ignore a story that has captivated the region like no other. Here's a rundown:

Syria TV (Syria) ran a live feed of a soccer game:

Ajman TV (UAE) ran a live feed of a horse show:

Oman TV (Oman) aired live children's programing:

Yemen TV (Yemen) aired a recorded celebrity talk show:

RAK (UAE) aired a Syrian soap opera:

Al Magrabia TV (Morroco) aired live prayers in Morocco:

And Noormina (Jordan) aired a recorded talk show:

It's no coincidence that channels based in tightly controlled monarchies and dictatorships have either limited or steered completely clear of Egypt coverage. But now that Arab viewers have access to a vast array of satellite channels, they may find their local coverage rather patronizing, and perhaps extend those feelings to the systems of power that maintain such media.

Whether or not Cairo's revolt leads to Mubarak's immediate departure, today's events have proven once again that access to information can no longer be restricted in the Arab world, and that the once-common approach to preserving power by silencing dissent is increasingly impossible in the age of satellite television and the internet. Viewers are likely to demand more from their local TV stations and more from the governments that produce them.

Al Arabiya: Mubarak's new mouthpiece?

2011-02-01T23:44:00.013+02:00

When watching Al Arabiya's coverage lately, one gets the feeling that the station's executives recently met with Mubarak's PR team and asked, "what can we do for you?"

The Saudi-owned 24 hour news network seemed to be covering events rather objectively at the start of the demonstrations, but over the last couple of days it has portrayed the protestors as wildly violent, while airing a series of promotional videos that resemble state-produced propaganda. The most egregious of these is a slide show clip that has been running all day long during commercial breaks. In it, we hear Mubarak's voice asking Egyptians to preserve stability and end chaos, played over slides of violent images:

And some glorifying the state's security services:

The overall tone is a nationalist one, closing with images of flag waiving as Mubarak's deep voice sounds a note of salvation and hope:

The promo video ends with the Al Arabiya slogan: "To know more", as if to say Mubarak's side of the story has been ignored, despite the fact that he's been in power for decades.

Another powerful montage opens every Al Arabiya report on Egypt, again using images of violence to depict the protestors as dangerous and harmful to the country's future. The piece zooms through tire burning and screaming protestors to focus in on a bandit-like character with menacing eyes:

The piece ends on with the graphic, "Crisis in Egypt":

Indeed Al Arabiya's anchors have regularly repeated the words 'chaos' and 'destruction' in describing events, echoing the soundbites of pro-Mubarak citizens, which are featured heavily in the coverage. A report on a relatively small pro-Mubarak rally was played at least five times this evening:

Other Al Arabiya reports seem to valorize the police, with images of citizens shaking hands with officers:

And fact boxes noting their vast--and perhaps intimidating-- numbers:

Al Arabiya is also devoting a lot of time to the economic cost of the protests, detailing losses in the hotel and tourism industry, again depicting the protest and the protestors as harmful.

Al Jazeera, on the other hand, paints a vastly different image of the demonstrations with guests and reporters touting their participants as brave, patriotic, brotherly and educated. Even American broadcasters have picked up on this theme, with NBC running a report last night about Egyptians volunteering to direct traffic and pick up garbage around their city. Asked why she was volunteering, one young protestor replied "because I love my country and I have to take care of it."

As I post this, Al Jazeera is now airing an investigative documentary it produced a few years ago documenting the routine use of torture by Mubarak's security services--a film that landed the director in jail. Al Jazeera's reputation for challenging authority rather than pleasing it, is undoubtedly a major reason why it continues to lead Al Arabiya and others in the ratings.

Lebanese TV defies Mubarak, broadcasts Al Jazeera

2011-02-01T19:50:00.008+02:00

In defiance of Egypt's crackdown on the media, several Lebanese channels have begun broadcasting a live feed of Al Jazeera. The move comes only hours after Al Jazeera's satellite signal was scrambled by Egyptian authorities. In response, the Lebanese channels have sacrificed their own regional satellite space, allowing Al Jazeera to be seen across the Middle East in the place of the Lebanese channels' regularly scheduled programing. In addition to Al Jadeed (above) whose logo appears in the top right corner, Lebanese stations OTV and NBN are also airing Al Jazeera:

The OTV logo appears in the top left corner in the photo above...

While NBN (above) aired a special message in a graphic below the picture that reads "We support our colleagues at Al Jazeera and the Egyptian people."

Al Jazeera, in turn, aired a message thanking the Lebanese broadcasters for their support:

By lending their satellite time to Al Jazeera, the Lebanese channels have helped reverse Egypt's move to block Al Jazeera's regional satellite footprint, which was accomplished by cutting off its access to NileSat, a major satellite operator based in Egypt. As a result, Al Jazeera disappeared from households across the Arab world, replaced by a black screen:

And in one case, a major Middle East cable provider, Orbit Showtime, aired cartoons in place of Al Jazeera's nonstop coverage of the momentous events in Egypt:

It's no secret that Orbit Showtime is backed by investors close to the Arab oil monarchies.

The fight to restore Al Jazeera is the latest development in a simmering media war that has seen the popular (and Saudi-funded) news network Al Arabiya rally in favor of Mubarak. More on that soon.

Getting roughed up by Hariri supporters

2011-01-27T01:55:00.011+02:00

During Tuesday's day of rage, as supporters of the billionaire Lebanese leader Saad Hariri took to the streets to protest his fall from power, five men wearing ski masks ran toward me as I filmed them burning tires on a Beirut street. "Hey you! You're filming us" they shouted. I quickly lowered my camera, but before I could even blink, they had surrounded me and one, breathing heavily, put his hands on my camera, pulling it his way. My heart sunk and I didn't let it go. "Relax," I said, "I'll give you the tape." Then one shouted, "Who do you work for? Who do you work for!"

Earlier that day, another mob of angry young men in the Northern town of Tripoli burned a satellite truck belonging to Al Jazeera, which has been critical of Hariri, who is backed by the United States. In Beirut it seemed that Hariri supporters were out to do the same, stomping out any media they didn't like.

"I'm independent," I told them. "I'm a director, I'm making a film."

"Oh that's interesting," one replied. But the curiosity quickly gave way to arguing. "Did you film us," one asked, panting. "Show us, show us what you filmed!" I opened my LCD viewer but suddenly the rewind button wasn't working. More arguing as they hovered over me. Quickly, the army is coming, one said, panicked.

"Go, go, just get out of here, now!"

I pulled out my key and began to put it into the door, but the shouting continued, and my hand, now shaking, could barely find the keyhole. Finally, I pulled open the door, but another man stood in my way.

"No, he filmed us, we can't let him go."

I looked straight into the pair of eyes behind the black ski mask and said: "I swear to God, I did not film you." He stood speechless for a moment and I quickly jumped in the driver's seat. The boys scattered and I sped off. My relief was only temporary though. When I looked up, the road ahead was filled with smoke and more flames.

There seemed to be no way out so I buried my camera behind the passenger seat. I pulled up to a lone man in a ski mask tossing tires into the burning mess.

"Can I film here," I asked.

"Sure," he shrugged.

As I pulled over to park, I noticed a few older men dressed in black who seemed to be responsible. Insurance, I thought.

"Please come see what I film."

I showed one of them everything I was shooting in my viewer--to prove I wasn't capturing any faces and thus avoid more trouble with the young hooligans. The man, in his 40s, turned out to be quite friendly. But it was an uncomfortable feeling. One of his colleagues dressed in black stood behind me as I panned over the flames and asked that I zoom in on a nearby mosque. He held the bottom of my hand and moved it into position. Two figures appeared at the balcony near the top of the minaret.

"Yep, there are (Hezbollah) guys up there," he said. Snipers, the other added.

Boys sped by on mopeds, some popping wheelies. Testostorone levels were high.

It was time to leave--I'd been lucky enough for one afternoon. But then came a few machine-gun totting Lebanese army soldiers. One last shot, I thought.

As the troops passed in front of me I lowered the lens, careful not to get their faces. One stared at me on approach and asked if I had filmed him. "No, just your feet, " I said with a smile. "Really? Come with me." He grabbed a hold of my elbow and others encircled as we walked toward a commanding officer.

"What did you film" he said, slouched in a plastic chair.

"Just feet".

"Just feet" he repeated, giving me a look of disgust. "Go." He turned to the men who brought me. "Back to your positions!"

As I walked to my car, the Hariri men were suddenly concerned for my well being.

"What did they say," one dressed in black asked.

"Nothing," I smiled.

He nodded and chomped into a breakfast sandwich.

******

Looking back at that day of chaos and anger, irony and absurdity, one image remains fixed in my mind--that frenzied young boy and his hands gripped around my camera. What if the army weren't coming? What if he was alone without his friends to argue with? Would he have smashed my camera into bits on the floor?

During the years I've spent covering Lebanon, I've often been stopped and questioned, especially by members of Hezbollah or the Lebanese security forces, who have at times politely erased my photographs or footage. But never once did members of either of those groups approach me with such unchecked anger and threatening behavior as displayed by Hariri supporters. It's interesting here to note the amount of time and money Hariri and his American allies have invested in demonizing Hezbollah as a dangerous death cult-- unfit to lead a country. Perhaps they should think twice about the volatility of those on their own payroll before making assumptions about the danger posed by others.

Nasrallah live: Iran vs. Syria

2011-01-23T23:16:00.015+02:00

It was no surprise tonight that nearly every Lebanese TV channel (above) ran a live feed of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah's speech. The Hezbollah leader, who speaks only by video conference for fear of assassination, is arguably the most powerful figure in Lebanon--his words could ignite or help resolve the country's ongoing political crisis. So wall-to-wall coverage was a no brainer on local TV--except for on Hezbollah opponent Saad Hariri's channel, which expectedly ignored the most important story of the day for emotional reasons.

More interesting was the coverage beyond Lebanon's borders. As a powerful player in a breaking story impacting the entire region, Nasrallah's words were picked up by the two main Arab news networks, Al Jazeera:

And Al Arabiya, which leans toward American policy, and cut the speech short to bring in a Hezbollah opponent's comments.

The contrast between Iranian and Syrian coverage was more dramatic.

Both Al Alam and Press TV, Iran's Arabic and English language mouthpieces, viewed the speech as breaking news and aired it live, in its hour or so entirety.

But for Syria TV, the event passed without a mention during the nightly newscast that was broadcast at the same time as the speech:

Could it be a reflection of politics? Are news editors employed by the Iranian government allowed to be more trusting of what Nasrallah has to say than their Syrian counterparts? Does it speak to the Syrian philosophy on power, i.e. that voices of authority should come only from Damascus?

Or was it simply a question of newsworthiness? Of course Nasrallah, a key ally on the eve of a major crisis, had stiff competition in Syrian newsland: today's report on the Syrian pound's performance.

New Hezbollah demonstration strategy?

2011-01-18T23:32:00.007+02:00

Tonight many Lebanese fear that Hezbollah's resignation from cabinet last week will be a case of history repeating itself. The last Hezbollah withdrawal from government--in November 2006-- was followed by a bitter two year political crisis, during which the party of God and its Christian allies succeeded in shutting down a relatively small part of Beirut around the prime minister's office. This time however, the action could be broader, judging by what appeared to be a trial run for a new strategy early this morning.

At around 7AM, groups of young men mysteriously gathered at key intersections and neighborhoods across the Lebanese capital and then disbanded one hour later. Local broadcaster MTV developed an interesting graphic for the story:

After listing each neighborhood where the young men gathered, it then connected the dots to form a rather intimidating net cast over nearly half the city:

According to news reports, members of the opposition such as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called the gatherings "spontaneous" outbursts of protest against the government, but on today's talk shows, pro-government politicians sarcastically questioned the possible spontaneity of multiple gatherings around the city at 7AM. MTV also said some of the men appeared to be holding walkie talkies.

If accurately reported, the scenario is hauntingly familiar to late 2006, when Hezbollah and its allies marshaled young men equipped with walkie talkies around the prime minister's offices, who, accompanied by tens of thousands of anti-government protestors, easily overwhelmed security forces in the area. The army, fearing a split among its ranks, remained neutral and basically stood and watched for 17 months as boys ruled the streets of the capital.

Back then, Hezbollah said its take-over/demonstration was motivated by a government conspiracy to destroy them--a theory which was more or less confirmed by wiki leaks documents that alleged close cooperation between Israel and Lebanon's then defense minister. Hezbollah viewed its actions, which were largely non-violent, as a democratically-sanctioned act of civil disobedience, an act that helped win the party and its allies increased power in government at the time. Today, Shia-led Hezbollah says its existence has been threatened once again, this time by the imminent start of an international tribunal that seeks to frame it--according to Hezbollah-- in the murder of Rafik Hariri, Lebanon's most powerful Sunni figure in recent memory. So how will a democratically -framed revolt against the government take shape this time?

If the map above is accurate, such a broad act of civil disobedience could have far more de-stablizing effects then the 2006 action. As opposed to the relatively unpopulated neighborhood surrounding the prime minister's offices--an area known as downtown--the areas illustrated in the above map are heavily populated, mixed Sunni/Shia areas that have been known for fighting between the sects in the past, especially among groups of young and highly territorial boys. As opposed to the little resistance displayed by security forces downtown, the desire to challenge potential road blocks outside one's home may be much greater and more violent.

Hopefully all sides have learned at least some lessons from past conflicts and will be very cautious about the inflammatory nature of Beirut's streets. Additionally, the army has deployed in all the neighborhoods where gatherings took place. Once again, the Lebanese will look to negotiations by regional powers-- now underway between Qatar, Syria, Saudi Arabia and others-- for a deal to prevent further escalation. Then again, the consistent failure to come up with homegrown agreements could lead to a patchwork solution at best, not unlike the now expired Doha accord of 2008.

The Fairuz scandal

2010-10-04T22:43:00.004+03:00

Listen to my interview with Claire Bolderson from the BBC World Service on the career of Lebanese diva, Fairuz, the Arab world's only living legend. Following a royalty dispute, lawyers have threatened to prevent the 75-year-old from performing live.

War or Tennis?

2010-08-03T16:49:00.005+03:00

As the Lebanese Army faces an air attack from Israel, killing three of its soldiers in the most dangerous escalation along the volatile southern border in months--if not years-- Lebanon's MTV has decided the show must go on:

All morning, as Lebanese army tanks smolder after the rocket attacks, tourists scurry and the entire population fears another war, MTV's sports anchors continued their commentary during the live broadcast of 2010 Lebanese Tennis Cup.

Lebanese love slogans about the country's uniqueness. Like "the only place where you can ski and swim at the beach in the same day". How about "Lebanon: where war competes with tennis"? Clearly tennis has won this round. Now that the match has ended, MTV has begun covering the 'clashes' in the south.

Sex sells... washing machines?

2009-11-29T19:15:00.004+02:00

Yet another example of how much the Lebanese advertising industry loves to push the envelope.

This Whirlpool campaign went up mainly around the Christian suburbs east of Beirut:

But did it go too far?

Following some racy ad campaigns in the mid 2000's--and an uproar from some conservative groups who splashed paint on a number of billboards-- the state censorship authorities imposed new regulations calling for all outdoor ads to be pre-screened before going up on the streets. It's unclear if those rules are still in effect or if the censorship boys merely have a soft spot for transparent underwear and knee-high boots.

Hidden Villas of Beirut

2009-11-23T08:12:00.008+02:00

One of the great things about walking the streets of Beirut is discovering the capital's hidden and often abandoned mansions, known locally as villas. Some can simply be found off the beaten path such as this castle-like yellow building:

It seems to have been converted to apartments and was very well kept:

Interesting to note was its surviving perimeter wall--used to block the unseemly sight of the neighbors?

When I asked around, people living nearby referred to the building as "Villa Kettaneh"--Kettaneh being one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in the country. If anyone can verify if Kettanehs actually lived here, please let me know. I've driven down this narrow side street dozens of times without ever noticing it!

In fact, driving is a problem when looking to spot Beirut villas, especially the more traditional ones, which are often cloistered behind a dense patch of trees and bushes. Because many of these villas are located on busy city streets, they would appear as nothing but a patch of greenery when zipping past in a car--as one would do in Beirut.

But when walking (something many Beirut residents try avoid) the details of the streets and their buildings come alive. For example, while shooting some photos near Villa Kettaneh, I spotted a kind of steeple roof I had never seen before a few blocks away:

So I decided to get a closer view:

Turns out it was one of those typical bushy patches I'd driven past a million times before, but barely glanced at for more than a second.

On foot though, and from a distance, shapes emerge from the dense foliage and the abandoned past seems close to being revealed-- that is, until you reach the front gate.

These rust-caked steel doors leave almost nothing to public view. Thanks to the civil war however, they are pock marked with tiny shrapnel holes and one near the bottom was large enough to fit my camera lens into. The hole was so small I could only see inside by viewing my camera's LCD screen:

Intrigued, I tried to get a better view by sneaking into an alleyway around the corner...

But the brush from years of neglect was too dense to make anything out:

Amid this virtual urban rain forest, I came upon a shanty-roof settlement of Syrian migrant workers. They claimed that some men had squatted in the house for a couple of years but then abandoned it, without saying why. I'd heard similar stories about other abandoned villas, which begs the question: who owns these historic homes, and why have they been abandoned in the first place?

One answer often heard is that the owner was some wealthy Lebanese businessman who fled the country during or before the civil war in the 1970s and never returned, only to die abroad with no direct heir or interest in reclaiming the property.

Whether or not such cases actually exist, there are bound to be hundreds of stories waiting to be told behind the decaying gates of these once majestic homes. Abandoned or refurbished, the hidden villas of Beirut add a little flair to the ever-mysterious, and thus somewhat magical state of affairs in Lebanon.

'New' government, same owners

2009-11-11T22:50:00.020+02:00

(photo credit: tayyar.org)

Lebanon is under new management this week, but the country is still largely owned by the same company--well it's more of a holding company with a dysfunctional board of directors. Of course there are many new faces and much interest in them. For example, the Angry Arab has called new telecommunications minister, Charbel Nahhas, "a brilliant economist" and he's touted Rayya Al Haffar, the new finance minister, as apolitical. She is also the first woman I believe, to have ever occupied such a high post in government.

The White House meanwhile, says it looks forward to working with the "next" Lebanese government "on behalf of the Lebanese people" in a statement issued earlier this week.

But I'm not so sure that the words "next" and "new" should be used to describe who is governing Lebanon. As any Lebanese would know, it's really not about who the new ministers are, but who they represent. This means that very few of the folks who actually rule the country will be physically present in the cabinet. (A cynic would say the rulers control the ministers by remote.)

(photo credit: tayyar.org)

Those who do rule Lebanon--the board of directors, if you will,-- met around a similar table last June just days before the actual parliamentary election.

Except they had cushier black leather chairs:

Most of the men at this power meeting lead the political parties that the new ministers belong to--so instead of speaking about the new government in terms of the new ministers' personalities, Lebanese will be speaking about who the new ministers "belong" to--in other words, what board members got what.

For example....

Nabih Berri, head of Amal (right) ended up taking home 3 ministries while Amin Gemayel, head of the Kate'b only got one...

Meanwhile Samir Geagea, (left) head of the LF party took 2 ministries, Walid Jumblat (right), head of the PSP, took 3 ministries, and Michel El Murr, head of the influential Murr family, saw his son take the coveted Defense Ministry as well as the deputy premiership, a position he often occupies himself:

Member of parliament Butrous Harb (below left) was invited to the pre-election board meeting last June and this week received the crown for Minister of Labor. However Geagea (right) like Gemayel, is not a member of parliament, proving you don't have to be elected to be on the board.

Then again, some board members are perhaps so important that they don't even attend board meetings, sending proxies to those as well. These include Michel Aoun (5 ministers), who sent one of his advisors (right) to attend the pre-election meeting:

And Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (2 ministers), who sent MP Mohammed Raad as his proxy:

(The fact that Hezbollah only received two ministers adds yet another layer of opaque complexity: i.e. the number of ministers may not necessarily reflect true political power)

Interestingly, the pre-election meeting last June was full of smiles. It was meant to assure Lebanese citizens that the election would go smoothly. But the board members are not always (or even often) friends...

Indeed board members (and their relatives) have launched several bloody wars against one another over the last few decades resulting in tens of thousands of deaths in Lebanon.

But at last June's meeting, despite street battles a year earlier, the board members had refashioned themselves into country club buddies:

If not closer...

Hopefully I am underestimating the power of the new ministers, and perhaps they will be allotted some wiggle room to carve out meaningful reforms. But for the most part, Lebanese politics, by virtue of its lack of significant, non-personality cult based institutions, will remain nothing more than a soap opera, following the ups and downs, the make-ups and break-ups of the board members (elected or not), and whatever crowds they choose to associate with (America, France, Saudi Arabia, Syria Iran, Israel etc) at any given point in time. Because at the end of the day, most Lebanese will tell you, it's every man (or board member) for himself.

Digging up Beirut

2009-11-05T00:12:00.016+02:00

Solidere, the company rebuilding downtown Beirut, has taken a lot of flack for transforming the most ruinous part of the Lebanese capital into posh fantasy land. Whether or not some of this criticism is valid-- one would be hard pressed to ignore the archeological benefits of tearing down large chunks of the city, and peeling off layer upon layer of its 5,000 year old history in the process.

In fact, large swaths of the Solidere project are slated to become archeological viewing areas, and at the same time, new digs keeping popping in other places--probably not so ideal for investors. The latest I noticed was in the central parking lot, which is slated to become a futuristic high rise and shopping complex designed by Jean Nouvel:

(photo credit: dezeen)

...but not before the archeologists have their way on part of the plot:

On the street level, to the right of the diggers, I noticed several stacks of black plastic crates filled with artifacts. I asked one of archeologists--a college-aged guy with a long pony tail--what was inside.

"Bones," he replied, deadpan.

"How old," I prodded.

"These are from the Muslim period--about 1,200 years ago."

He later explained that the site was comprised of graves, but the dig was now moving deeper, into the Roman period: "We're not sure if we'll find more graves there."

The dig was being coordinated by the Ministry of Antiquities, he said, and would probably be covered over to make way for the new high rise. But another archeological site just up the road--also on prime real estate--would probably remain in tact, he said optimistically.

The reference was to a dig adjacent to Beirut's old synagogue, which I had taken pictures of earlier:

According to the archeologist, that site had been a former horse racing stadium. Developers had been given an alternate piece of property, he said, so that the ancient floor could be preserved.

Finally, work on a third Beirut site recently caught my eye in the heart of the downtown seafront area. This fort-like structure has been abandoned for years, couched in between some of the new developments, such as Nabil Gholam's Foch 94 office complex and other buildings.

Hopefully the nearby pile-driving work has not disrupted its ancient foundation:

Of course there are those who will argue that many new projects have taken less care than those mentioned above--though what I have chosen is a completely random sample.

I'll never forget a story that was once told to me by an old watchman at the construction site of Beirut's largest mosque. The sprawling Istanbul-like structure was completed a couple of years ago, but at the time of construction a friend told me he had spotted several ancient structures hidden behind its tall plywood perimeter wall--visible only from his office located in a nearby high rise. So one day, back when I used to work downtown, I decided to ask the watchman on my way to the office, if any ruins did indeed lie behind the wall. "No, they are all gone now," he replied casually. When I asked where they'd gone, he said they were taken "to Normandy," a giant landfill site that has been turned into a sea reclamation project. Basically he meant the ruins were trashed.

"How many trucks," I asked, assuming the site was as big as my friend suggested."Three" he replied cooly, before leaning back in his plastic chair. (In Lebanon, truck means huge industrial-style dump truck.)

I'm not sure why an old watchman in his dust caked chair would make up such a story. But in Beirut, everyone has a story--it's hard to know which ones to believe.

Talking Sex in Saudi Arabia

2009-10-26T21:26:00.003+02:00

This weekend I did an interview with the BBC World Service about the infamous case of Mazen Abdul Jawad, a 32-year-old Saudi man who has been sentenced to five years in prison and 1,ooo lashes after talking about his sex life on television.

Click here to listen to my interview on BBC's Newshour (@4:10 into the program), and watch Jawad's interview below:

(Click here for an English subtitled version.)

In addition to Jawad, I was asked about the fate of 22-year-old Saudi female journalist Rosana Alyami, who has received a considerable amount of Western media attention after being sentenced to 60 lashes for her alleged involvement in producing the show for Lebanese broadcaster LBC.

Interestingly, the Saudi King has pardoned Alyami today. The pardon follows an embarrassing media storm in which, during interviews with the press, Alyami claimed she had no part in producing the program about Jawad. More importantly, she shot back at Saudi authorities who claimed LBC was operating illegally in the country by noting that the Saudi information minister had appeared a few weeks earlier on the station, which in fact is quite well established in the country.

Yet LBC has taken much of the blame in this case. In addition to sentencing Alyami, Saudi authorities have also reportedly shut down LBC's offices in Jeddah and also sentenced other journalists associated with the station.

Meanwhile Jawad's lawyer has reportedly claimed that LBC, somehow manipulated his client by "tricking him" into participating in the show.

To be sure, LBC may have exercised poor judgment in this case. To talk about having sex with a neighbor outside of marriage--as Jawad admitted to doing-- may have serious consequences for the women in question in a society like Saudi Arabia.

However in my interview with Newshour, I point out the irony in that LBC is not only one of the most popular stations in the Kingdom, but also owned to a large part by a prominent Saudi billionaire prince and media mogul.

In fact, many of the controversies involving Arab television today, whether they be over sexy music videos or "immoral" reality shows have actually been produced to a large extent by Saudi investors.

The case of Jawad's interview should be seen as part of a long running struggle in Saudi society on many levels, not least of which is today's pardon issued by the King against the ruling of the religious courts.

Lost Beirut: Long Beach Plage

2009-10-24T04:31:00.030+03:00

Beaches are a sort of institution in Lebanon. For many, they symbolize the country's relatively liberal social norms when compared to other Middle East states where having a dip in public is often the preserve of foreign tourists rather than locals.

The Lebanese beach, of course is a key component in romantic notions of 1950s Beirut as the "Paris of the Middle East"--even in times of crisis, it would not be unusual for Western peacekeepers to be bedazzled by the sight of Lebanese women in bikinis when landing their military craft ashore during one flare up or another.

Whether or not one agrees that Lebanese beaches are a cause for celebration, it is clear that the institution has only become more hedonistic as the decades have passed. Today, resorts like La Rivera and Oceana are the site of wanton displays of steroid injections and silicone implants--at Edde Sands, Fashion TV Arabia sets up a catwalk for lingerie models. Thousands of dollars in champagne are sprayed over the bare skinned revelers every Sunday as adult pools are turned into daytime nightclubs, VIP sections and all.

But recently I was asked to go back in time when some Lebanese friends in New York, who have not been back to Beirut since the 1960s, begged me to photograph their all time favorite resort: Long Beach Plage. Being more familiar with the current "Miami" type spots of today, I had never heard of Long Beach, and was surprised to find it still existed. It was virtually hidden behind a crumbling amusement park near the seaside promenade.

I pulled up to the front gate, thinking it had been completely restored (and thus boring) due to the kitsch Pepsi sponsorship:

Though the outer walls bore the scares of decade's old street battles:

But as I drew closer to the entrance booth...

I spotted some vintage material and was intrigued:

Behind the reception desk, the 'golden days' had been immortalized in a giant photograph on the wall:

Then more vintage signage:

For some reason, I just love this stuff--fragments of 'glorious' Beirut, which was in the midst of being destroyed when I was born.

The overall sitting area had been somewhat restored with new parasols:

But the cabins (a fancy French term for lockers) looked as though they hadn't changed much since the pre-war days:

At this point, I was pretty happy with my find. But then I discovered the ultimate prize... the kiddie pool:

This thing had retro written all over it:

Growing up with the PVC type slides of Six Flags, I was shocked to find that old slides like this were actually made with concrete:

I wonder how that felt going down!

Beyond the kiddie pool though, much of Long Beach Plage was quite run down. The gym wasn't looking too hot:

Neither was the basketball court:

In fact, only a handful of people were milling around during a beautiful sunny day. When compared with today's glitzy resorts, Long Beach remains but a patch of forgotten cement in the shadow of Beirut's ever changing skyline.

I met Mohammad, who told me he had worked at Long Beach since the 1960s as a waiter. He reminisced about the 'good old days' before the war in 1975--back when the Lebanese lira was strong and he made a small fortune in tips, enough to travel to Europe, he said, and buy a new car.

He lamented the loss of Long Beach's luster as one of the Beirut's premiere resorts, once boasting a giant pool, possibly the city's largest, seen here in the center of the old photo:

This was confirmed by Lebanese friends in New York who referred to it as "Al Jahash" because of its size.

But now the giant pool had been concreted over, Mohammad explained, pointing out that the water had run flush up against the curved wall shown here:

and out across the central area:

Still, despite the changes, Long Beach seems to continue to draw some of its old regulars:

And it's still beautiful to watch the waves crash routinely against its sea walls...

over and over again, in between brief intervals of calm...

...perhaps the only constant element of life in Long Beach's turbulent past.

---

For those, like my New York friends, who wonder what has become of Beirut beach life, here is a sample I found online from a typical event at Edde Sands. Caution, this video is not for the squeamish:

And a less produced piece:

Nasralla Lingerie

2009-10-19T08:39:00.008+03:00

This photo was taken in South Beirut--an area known in the Western media as a "Hezbollah stronghold". But Hezbollah's leader, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, is not the only Nasrallah in town. (Of course the shop above probably doesn't mind banking off the name recognition).

In fact, South Beirut can actually can be a pretty fashion conscious neighborhood.

Just take a look at this store window nearby:

When taking this shot, the owner, a 20 something guy, rushed outside to confront me: "Isn't it beautiful," he said with a huge smile on his face. "I made the design myself," he added, proudly describing himself as an avid reader of fashion magazines and always "up-to-date" on the latest trends.

New 'Lebanese' car model

2009-10-15T02:18:00.017+03:00

I've just stumbled across this video and I think Lebanese everywhere need to circulate it widely:

Although this commercial was originally broadcast some time ago, it seems to have made little impact. Sadly, littering remains the norm in Lebanon--witnessing someone throw garbage out the window of the car driving in front of you is a routine, if not daily occurrence.

Business owners can be even more destructive as commercial dumping also seems broadly acceptable.

Here are some recent pictures I took of a beautiful mountain neighborhood defiled by reckless nearby shop owners:

And cement industries:

Sadly most dumpers go unpunished, with little to no law enforcement or fining. Lebanese government apologists will cry that there are other priorities with the country in political paralysis. But seeing that those problems have not been solved for the past three years, one sees little excuse why the country's so-called leadership fails to tackle pollution, a relatively straight-forward problem.

Those that can be thanked are the hard working men of Sukleen, Lebanon's biggest garbage collecting company. I've almost never spotted one not working.

As Lebanese pollute with abandon, Sukleen has always been there to pick up the mess. They've been there after all the protests, most recently after the sit-ins in downtown Beirut:

I think the Lebanese people need to do more to applaud their efforts, including Sukleen management. Sadly I've often spotted the men being hauled around the city, piled into flat bed trucks. (Of course many are maltreated migrant workers--another major problem for Lebanese.)

Hats off to the men of Sukleen, the hardest working folks in Lebanon.

The country would be a much bigger mess without them.

Sneaking into the "Grand Theatre"

2009-10-09T03:18:00.033+03:00

(photo credit: nareg)

I recently got a peak inside the Grand Theatre, one of the last remaining relics of pre-war Beirut.

Today the theater is surrounded by the refurbished structures of the BCD (Beirut Central District): a multi-billion dollar private construction project that has turned the oldest part of the Lebanese capital into a posh shopping and restaurant district.

But 15 years after reconstruction began, the Grand Theatre remains gutted and abandoned.

Although it's exterior has been restored to resemble the sandblasted look of the new neighborhood, the theater's interior tells the story of Lebanon's painful civil war as well as its fabled pre-war glory. The building is said to date back to the 1930s.

(photo credit: Beiruti)

The company at helm of the BCD project (known as Solidere) has fenced off the theater building for years, with forever delayed plans, according to some, to turn it into a boutique hotel. But on a sunny afternoon, I managed to sneak across the barricades in the hope of documenting this gem of the old city before it meets the unknown fate of 'rebuilding' crews and their hotel-obsessed investment firms.

My excursion began at the outer construction wall--errected by Solidere years ago to promote the BCD project by evoking the rebirth of downtown's landmarks.

Once inside, all was eerily quiet. I had the strange feeling of entering forbidden territory, frozen in the past and deliberately hidden from public view.

I came around the side to the front gate:

Upon entering, I looked up to discover the remains of a colored glass ceiling:

Then I came upon what appeared to be a central chamber:

Suddenly the stage stood before me:

I was amazed to find the old curtains largely in tact. Below the stage, it seemed Solidere crews had reinforced the foundation:

The central pillars had also been reinforced, although these renovation works did not look fresh; they may have occurred years ago at the outset of the BCD project in the mid 1990s or thereabouts:

It's interesting to note the vintage blue paint--I've seen this before in many of Beirut's old buildings. Perhaps the color was in vogue prior to the start of the war in 1975.

It's also interesting to note the old murals and graffiti, left by militias and perhaps even invading armies who laid claim to the theater space at one time or another:

Most intriguing though, was a large image painted on the wall facing the main stage:

It looked like a disappointed angel of sorts.

Here's an unobstructed, albeit blurrier view, showing both wings:

What's also fascinating about old Beirut buildings is the surviving signage. Here are a few shots from the shops that occupied the theater's ground level facing the street (now the construction wall).

This seemed to be some sort of restaurant or bar:

Notice the funky vintage roof:

Then I found all the old theater chairs stacked up in one of the ground floor shops:

The last thing I'll point out is the sidewalk.

Upon closer view, it's actually made up of fitted glass pieces that were once transparent.

I'm not sure what this style is called but I've seen it in Manhattan as well, along some of the sidewalks of older buildings.

Before leaving the Grand Theatre, I took one last look at the new city beyond its fabricated walls:

I wonder how long it will be before the Grand Theater is also 'cleansed' of its troubled past.

At least some of those memories seem to be captured by the Lebanese director Omar Naim, in the 1999 film "Grand Theater: A Tale of Beirut", which I've just discovered online.

(poster credit: LCM)

I'm eager to see a copy if anyone knows how to obtain one.

Beirut stars in new Snoop Dogg video

2009-10-05T23:02:00.005+03:00

The new Snoop video "That's Da Homie" is out and Beirut is playing a staring role!

You read it first here when I broke the story for CNN, a piece later picked up by 411mania and other sites.

I was really surprised by the level of exposure, having assumed Beirut would be one of many cities highlighted in a tour montage. Instead, Snoop's Beirut after party (filmed at Skybar) anchors the entire clip!

Stay tuned for my un-aired footage of the Beirut show and after party.

Iranian State Department?

2009-10-04T21:42:00.006+03:00

For a minute, I thought the world turned upside down: the Iranians are giving a press conference at the U.S. Dept of State?!

Then again, I was watching Lebanese television.

Tehran, it turns out, seems to have modeled its foreign ministry briefing room on that of arch nemesis, Washington.

See Hillary's briefing room for comparative purposes:

(photo credit: State Department)

During a recent press conference in Tehran, the Iranian spokesman was asked why the Islamic Republic copied America's propaganda room style, while shunning all other things Western, such as neck ties.

The spokesman smiled and responded: "Of course we did not copy America and its Zionist enterprise. If you look closely you will see that they only have one national flag in their room."

(photo credit: UPI)

Just kidding, I have no idea what the minister was talking about.. although it probably was America.

Beirut ranks 175th globally, really?

2009-09-29T23:02:00.017+03:00

According to a recent report by a Mercer, a U.S. consulting firm, Beirut is one of the least hospitable places on Earth when measured against the firm's annual "quality of life" index. It ranks 175th out of 215 countries surveyed.

I find this news a little hard to digest.

Even within the Middle East, the people at Mercer say the Lebanese capital doesn't perform well. They say its "quality of life" trails behind that of Kuwait City, Riyadh and Jeddah (see chart above, courtesy Byblos Bank).

Why then is everyone dying to be in Beirut?

The New York Times has rated the Lebanese capital number one city to visit in 2009. This summer thousands of Saudis, Kuwaitis and other Gulf Arabs flooded its streets, as they do every year, eager to spend loads of cash in the city's luxurious bars, restaurants and hotels.

Yes, tourism and quality of life are totally different indicators and yes Beirut has many problems politically and economically. Corruption is widespread, there is a huge gap between rich and poor, traffic and state services can be terrible. But these problems exist in different forms in other cities. (Why does it take me 45 minutes to travel 5 miles in NYC?)

Plus the Mercer survey is not about reporting wealth distribution or political mobility for average citizens. It's intended largely as a tool for multinational corporations in assessing hardship allowances for executives sent to live abroad.

Judging by the endless stream of parties thrown by diplomats and executives in Beirut, I wonder how "quality of life" is defined.

Beirut has its disadvantages and so do other cities on the list, especially in the Middle East. But when it comes to climate, geography, attractions, cultural diversity, entertainment, dining, social life and personal liberties, Beirut is at the forefront. (Thus the high tourism numbers, especially from Arab countries.)

Perhaps these factors did not carry much weight in the final assessment; but again, how does one define quality of life? Is infrastructure more important than entertainment and social relations?

I admit, doing business in Beirut can be challenging yet at the same time, the cost of living (such as groceries/rent) is much cheaper than Western capitals--while income taxes are relatively non-existent. Yes there is political violence (aimed mainly at politicians), but crime is insignificant compared to Europe and the US.

Beirut has plenty of other problems: the internet is slow, cell phones are expensive--but still. Panaoromaic views of the sea on a daily basis, cheap housing, beaches, mountains, sking less than an hour away... beautiful retreats urban and rural, layers of fascinating history to explore, exciting nightlife, the list goes on and on...

It may not be conventional, but Beirut definitely has quality of life, heaps of it. To rank the city 100 places behind Dubai and 125 places behind New York and 50 places below Kuwait just doesn't seem right.

Perhaps it would be interesting to visit other cities ranked on the bottom of Mercer's list and see if "quality of life" there is as bad as they say it is.

Hariri Vs. St. Georges: Eternal Standoff?

2009-09-26T04:54:00.012+03:00

Those who designed the statue celebrating the life of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri may have never imagined that it would gaze upon a massive billboard condemning his legacy.

The giant "Stop Solidere" banner, draped over the battle-worn St. Georges Hotel, has gone up and been taken down several times over the past few years, most recently this summer.

Its placement embodies an epic real estate battle between the St. Georges hotel's owner, Fadi Al Khoury, and Hariri-- a war that began while the former Prime Minister was still alive and now continues well after his death in 2005.

Though Hariri is often celebrated today as the architect of Lebanon's rebirth (including by American diplomats who saw him as an ally against Syria) his project to rebuild downtown Beirut, known by the French acronym SOLIDERE has been heavily criticized within Lebanon. Among his staunchest critics is Mr. Al Khoury, who claims the multi-billion dollar project is unconstitutional and governed by corrupt interests. (To be clear, it also limited St. George's access to the sea, and thus hurt Al Khoury financially.)

In a bizarre twist of fate, the blast that ripped apart Hariri's motorcade (just steps away from his memorial site) also blew off the entire front facade of the St. Georges, an iconic 1960s Beirut hotel which had been under reconstruction at the time.

For its part, SOLIDERE denies any wrongdoing. Supporters say the project serves as an important investment magnet, attracting much needed foreign capital and tourism to Lebanon by restoring the capital's image from that of a bullet riddled ghetto to that of a modern glass and steel metropolis. Turning downtown Beirut into a de facto private corporation, with the largest shareholder as prime minister, does seems to hint at a conflict of interest though.

Nevertheless, and despite several lawsuits and Hariri's brutal assassination , Solidere is going strong today. Apartments in the area are selling for $5 million and up (way up) and hotels under construction or nearly complete include the Four Seasons, Hyatt and Hilton. In fact, Hariri's statue now looks out onto a sprawling mega yacht marina, a testament to the wealth that has been drawn to the area.

But for journalists, Solidere has always been a tricky subject.

As the biggest corporation in the country, its hard to ignore. Yet because of its large shareholding by the late prime minister and now his son (who is also set to become prime minister) covering the subject can be somewhat problematic, to say the least. I hope to share more of my personal experiences-- both with Solidere and Mr. Al Khoury at some point. For now, to read more about the controversy, check out some of the articles on this site.

Lebanese fried chicken

2009-09-23T08:22:00.010+03:00

Some would have us believe there is a clash of civilizations on the horizon. Not when it comes to fried chicken.

Watch out KFC--Lebanese Fried Chicken (LFC)--is on the offensive. The Beirut-based firm is apparently going global--they've recently changed their name to "LFCI" or "Lebanese Fried Chicken International."

My friends say it tastes the same, if not better than KFC--and at about half the price. (I'm trying to stop eating fried stuff, so I watched them feast.)

But there is a long road ahead for little LFC. Kentucy Fried Chicken is a huge player in the Lebanese fast food business, maintaining about a dozen massive outlets in the country of 4 million. (Their employees even have a facebook page.)

LFC will be competing, as most Lebanese restaurants do, with a ridiculously large menu:

Including value meals with hummus:

Good luck LFC!

Beirut Report on CNN

2009-09-10T04:05:00.003+03:00

Here's CNN's broadcast of the video I shot of Snoop in Beirut.

My piece begins airing at about 3:00 minutes.

UPDATE: The article that goes with the video has just been uploaded on CNN's site, here.

After Beirut, what's next for Snoop?

2009-08-25T04:12:00.022+03:00

Snoop Dogg and his band threw an outstanding show in Beirut last week. I got a behind-the- scenes look at all the action while shooting a piece for CNN.

The Dogg was very down to earth during our interview and it seems he truly had a good time here, especially at the after party where he waved his hands in the air and then MC'd at Skybar--the place where everybody who is anybody (or at least so thinks) wants to be in Lebanon this summer. Below are some photos I snapped in between shooting the video.

Stay tuned to CNN next month for my full report which will air on the program, "Inside the Middle East" as well as an upcoming article that will be posted on CNN's website. I'll be covering my interview with the show's promoter who promises to bring Snoop back for a full Middle East tour.

---

Snoop strolls off the runway and into Beirut airport's VIP lounge. He awaits passport check with head phones on....

Snoop gets into the front seat of a brand new Benz before pulling out of the VIP terminal's private driveway (head phones still on). He's flanked by the show organizer, who's behind the wheel. I'm assuming they talked business the whole way to the hotel:

Snoop takes the stage a few hours later:

He was sporting some serious bling...

Then it was on to the after party at Skybar, an open air club on the Mediterranean. It's one of the hardest places to get into in Beirut:

Snoop and his band took the VIP balcony sections, overlooking the crowds:

Snoop's drummer, who tore down the house a half hour earlier, was impressed:

As were other members of the band:

Though some preferred to mingle:

As for Snoop-- he was barely visible amid the throngs of groupies:

Of course Champagne was served Beirut style, with sparklers:

The after party ended around 3:30AM, then it was back to the Phoenicia Intercontinental for the hotel party which apparently lasted till 7AM... but since I don't have pictures of that, you'll have to use your imagination as to what happened next.

Snoop in Beirut

2009-08-18T18:03:00.004+03:00

American hip hop legend Snoop Dogg (pictured here on the cover of a local newspaper) will be performing this Thursday in Beirut. CNN has asked me to cover the event so stay tuned for updates. I've been in touch with the show's promoter Roger Kalaouz and Associates, who says this is the best summer Lebanon has seen in decades, with performances over the last few weeks by the Pussy Cat Dolls, Kelly Rowland, Deep Purple, Akon and others. You can read more about my interview with Kalaouz on Cnn's website here.

A couple of things that didn't make it into the article: Kalaouz said he was working on other big hip hop acts this summer but didn't want me to mention them just yet--but trust me you've heard of them. Also, when asked why he chose to bring Snoop to Beirut, he said: "It's for my young daughter--whatever she requests from me I will do..." Kalaouz was tight lipped when it came to costs associated with the show, but made sure I knew he paid top dollar to out bid everyone else in the region: "That's the power of R, K & A" he said in a reference to his events company.

Lebanese elections: sex, lies and propaganda

2009-06-05T10:06:00.029+03:00

Lebanese go to the polls this Saturday in one of the Middle East's most closely watched elections-- meaning it's one of the few in the region that's not completely predetermined by dictatorial rule.

All the major powers have a stake in the outcome. The United States has sent both Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to this country in the space of less than a month. The Iranians, the Saudis, the Egyptians and the Europeans are also looking for outcomes that suit their interests.

The streets are full of candidates faces:

But in addition to the international community, Lebanese manufacturers and advertising companies are also looking to profit from the polls. These include Diamony Lingerie, which mimicked politicians' back-to-back image strategy:

Here's a closer view:

Also getting in on the action: Bob's Dinner, a new Lebanese franchise restaurtant:

In some cases, the politicians seemed to be in direct competition with marketers:

And in other cases, the line between consumerism and politics was completely blurred with some parties employing models to sell their campaigns:

Meanwhile, other companies used the elections to their advantage, doing their best to fool consumers into thinking they were selling politics.

For example, while stuck in traffic on the highway yesterday, a man passing out fliers handed this to me through my passenger window. The first line in bold type reads: "Vote for the best"

Inside, the text resembles a political manifesto:

But the reforms and changes it calls for are nothing more than a refurbishing of home furniture.

On the back of the flier, this furniture repair company lists its phone number and location:

Lebanese on both sides of the election battle are predicting dire consequences if "the other side" wins. On the one hand, the fear is Iranian domination. The pro-Western alliance says if Hezbollah's coalition wins, Lebanon will face international isolation and war. Meanwhile the anti-U.S. alliance says that if they lose, Lebanon will continue to be a puppet state enslaved by Israel and corrupt business interests. Either way, the private sector seems quite confident going into the poll.

False parrallels in Gaza

2009-01-09T13:59:00.011+02:00

Last night ABC news ran a piece on the trauma experienced by children on both sides of the Gaza border. It's an important topic and good for ABC for covering it. But a completely inaccurate and misleading assumption was inherent in the report, which is available on ABC's website (seen above).

The video package about the children is introduced by anchor Charles Gibson as such: "Youngsters on both sides of the border are being killed, injured and traumatized". Then the following graphic went up on screen:

ABC listed the United Nations as the source of these statistics , but the network's news team left one critical word out of their graphic representation: Palestinian. In fact, the UN's reporting of the figures was actually based on Palestinian medical sources in Gaza. The story about the child deaths was actually first published by the Associated Press, which is clear in its headline that those killed are Palestinian:

But why did ABC decide to drop the word Palestinian from its reporting of the death toll?

At the very least, one would have expected anchor Gibson or the reporter, Jim Sciutto, to have clarified that the dead and injured children were actually Palestinians. But this never happened. Instead, Sciutto introduced his report as such: "Israeli and Palestinian children live such separate lives, but they share the same fear: fear of rockets, fear of air strikes, fear of losing loved ones."

In his moving report, Sciutto captured the voices of two Palestinians children and two Israeli children.

But in the Associated Press report, around a dozen Palestinian children are profiled and no Israeli children are ever mentioned, let alone reported dead.

In the AP story, there are eight photos of dead, wounded or crying Palestinian children. ABC chose to run a few of the AP photos but also added images of Israeli children. ABC then broadcast the series of photos as a slide show, without identifying the victims as Israeli or Palestinian.

AP's approach to the story reflected that of many international broadcasters such as Al Jazeera and BBC World. These broadcasters have made a clear distinction between Palestinian injuries and deaths, and have repeatedly established that the hundreds of Palestinian casualties far exceed the dozen or so fatalities--mainly military ones--- on the Israeli side. For international broadcasters, the power dynamic on the battlefield is clear.

But ABC and other American broadcasters have taken a different approach. They have often juxtaposed Israeli and Palestinian realities as somehow being similarly difficult. The determination to create such a distinction involves creating a false parallel in the reporting, and this has often been bolstered by a trend of omitting information. For example, reports that have aired on NBC and ABC over the past two days have routinely dropped the Palestinian death toll, as if not newsworthy enough to report.

But now, by using Palestinian figures without identifying them, the desire to frame the story has become so powerful that the news networks have apparently been driven to outright manipulation of the facts. In this case, viewers are mislead into believing that there is no distinction between the casualty numbers of Palestinian and Israeli children.

Two Worlds: US and Arab TV on Gaza

2009-01-07T12:09:00.015+02:00

Watching Gaza on Arab and American TV is like watching two different worlds. For Arab channels, Gaza is breaking news all the time. Every Israeli air raid is covered live; blood and carnage flow into Arab households 24 hours per day. But on American TV, Gaza is usually a 2-3 minute news package often competing for air time with celebrity and gossip news. This week for example MSNBC anchors were consumed with photographs of Sarah Palin's grandchildren and the allegedly scandalous life of her son-in-law. Other "big stories" include the children of actor Ben Affleck and President Elect Barrack Obama.

While Arab channels covered the bloodbath at UN schools that were hit by Israeli fire,

MSNBC looked into the lunch menus of Obama's children:

Arab channels reported over 100 killed yesterday. One wonders how the American coverage would have differed if the death toll was Israeli.

What if 100 Israelis were killed yesterday. Would the story compete for air time with children's lunch menus?

For the most part, American networks have so far devoted limited resources to covering Gaza. Many have just two reporters covering the story from the Israeli side. Israel has banned Western reporters from entering Gaza.

But Arab news channels have direct access to the conflict zone, with reporters often Gazans themselves, experiencing the air strikes first hand. And rather than a couple of reporters, Arab channels have a network of bureaus and correspondents across the region. See this live shot from Al Jazeera:

Arab TV has also covered the reaction to Gaza from across the Arab world, a part of the story that is often under reported by American correspondents based largely in Israel. And while Americans see a war between Israel and Palestinians, Arab audiences are constantly reminded of the role of the US taxpayer--helping provide the Apache helicopters and F16 fighter jets doing much of the shooting.

For more on the differences between Arab and American media's approach to Gaza, see my latest piece "In the US, Gaza is a different war" on Al Jazeera's web page.

Obama propaganda

2008-11-02T06:34:00.009+02:00

I discovered this last minute bit of propaganda taped to a wall in a New York subway station a few days ago. It features a picture of an opened Bible with the following verse highlighted:

"For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

The quoting of scripture seems ironic considering that anti-Muslim groups often allege the Koran to be militant while discounting the possibility of Bible verses being used as a weapon.

Whether or not the candidates want to admit it, the fear of Islam and Arabs has played a major role in this election. Americans from both backgrounds say they have been ignored by the McCain and Obama campaigns (See my latest article on Al Jazeera.net)

With so much propaganda flowing, it almost makes public relations sense for the campaigns to avoid the groups.

For example, the DVD "Obsession", which was mailed to some 28 million American households this month, suggests that the world is in denial of Islamic extremism, which is tantamount to Nazism in its bid to take over the planet. Worse still, the film claims it is very difficult determine how many of the world's one billion Muslims could be susceptible to such a belief. "The bad thing" according to one of the film's speakers, is that Muslims "are spread throughout the world," including the West.

Al Jazeera: TV setting or agenda setting?

2008-10-24T19:35:00.018+03:00

It seems someone at Al Jazeera had an exciting idea for a talk show set. Who needs a typical, boring studio shot of a skyline when you can have real tanks sprouting out of the ground right behind the anchor?

Whether or not this was the thinking, Al Jazeera went full throttle with the idea, employing a serious production crew to capture the new 'Arab victory' museum created by Hezbollah in south Lebanon, as the backdrop for a talk show that aired last week.

The exhibit, which went up this summer, is largely a homage to Imad Mughniyah, the Hezbollah commander that was assasinated earlier this year. But the show, hosted by Ghassan Ben Jeddou (seen above) was not about Hezbollah explicitly. It tackled the general subject of Arab armies and Arab victories, looking at troop morale and national support; reasons, presumably, why there have been far more defeats than victories.

In addition to two Lebanese analysts, the show also featured a guest from Cairo over satellite link.

I interviewed Al Jazeera host Ben Jeddou when I was managing editor of the Journal of Middle East Broadcasters (see interview). We spoke soon after the summer war of 2006, when Ben Jeddou landed an exclusive interview with Hezbollah leader, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah. He was very open about his admiration for Nasrallah, but maintained that he could put these feelings aside as a journalist.

The show last week avoided any lengthy discussion of Hezbollah but the Lebanese analysts (neither identified as being supporters of the group) spoke of the importance of resistance as a national sentiment leading to victory. Much of the time however, the cameras focused on the exhibits, which seemed to speak for themselves, comprising a virtual voice among the punditry. They include destroyed Israeli tanks and the Hezbollah weaponry used to attack them.

Also on display were pictures of the men who carried out the attacks:

Naturally, footage of the exhibits add a bit of excitement the show and a nice break from the monotony of talking heads. But the museum is far from being a neutral space as the backdrop of a supposedly objective conversation. Of the many shots, perhaps the most telling was a wide angle cross section of the stage:

In this shot we see a giant poster of slain Mughniyah with the title "Martyr" above his image.

In some ways its not surprising to see Ben Jeddou in this context. His show sets have recently gained much publicity for their elaborate nature.

This summer Al Jazeera apologized for a show in which Ben Jeddou hosted a celebration for the freed former Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar, which included musicians, fireworks and a large cake with Nasrallah's picture encrusted on top. The network said the show "violated its ethics policy".

But this case illustrates more than the question of Al Jazeera's editorial judgment. It also highlights the power of the war museum as a cultural fixture. Not only does it provide an experience for every day visitors, but it also functions as a frame for public debate, whether or not it is directly addressed in that debate.

Guilt by photography: the Lebanese press does it again

2008-09-15T06:52:00.006+03:00

After reading my previous post, a friend pointed out this article from the Al Akhbar newspaper as a further example of the photo selection process that has become shamefully routine among the Lebanese press. The article discusses a government agency that has been accused of mismanaging international aid received in the wake of the 2006 war. But before going on to read the article, and thus actually judge the integrity of its reporting, it seems that Al Akbar is trying to tell us something. Here is the close up:

Perhaps someone has got has hand stuck in the cookie jar?

Photo editing: the license of the Lebanese press

2008-08-25T18:44:00.013+03:00

Lebanon has a vibrant media scene, but as has been said before on this blog, propaganda too often penetrates what passes for acceptable journalism. Most disturbing is that Lebanese media organizations justify editorializing their pages as a rebuttal to other media outlets doing the same thing, i.e. 'if they use propaganda than we have an obligation to counter it.'

It's a vicious cycle and its taking on ever more subtle approaches, such as picture editing. Take these recent examples from Naharnet, a website affiliated with the An Nahar newspaper, one of Lebanon's oldest and most prominent publications. I have written about Naharnet before here. It leans toward the pro-Western voices in the country.

Here is a picture that went with a story last week about Walid Jumblat, who is part of the pro-US March 14 movement.

And the close up:

Now here's a picture that went with a story about Michel Aoun, the Hezbollah-allied leader:

And close up:

From a journalistic point of view, it's really amazing that Naharnet could run the Jumblat picture as a news-related item when it is nothing more than a political propaganda poster. In it, we see Jumblat superimposed over a large crowd of supporters, emphasizing the populist narrative that has been claimed by the March 14 movement. This compares to the image of Aoun, who is potrayed as angry and unreasonable.

Of course Naharnet is just one of many Lebanese broadcasters and publications that habitually slip in their own points of view to color the story. We have seen this regularly in Future TV and Al Manar, which represent both ends of the pro-, anti- Western perspective, and both claiming to voice the true opinion of the people. Ironically, neither side seems willing to trust its own viewers to make decisions objectively, free from graphics and selective manipulation.

Special effects propaganda

2008-08-02T21:15:00.008+03:00

Over the last few years Arab television propaganda has made some interesting technological strides, particularly from Lebanon. One of the most celebrated tools is the crane or boom camera, seen in the photo above (courtesy Al Jazeera), over the audience. Crane camera use was very big in the well coordinated coverage of the recent prisoner exchange by Hezbollah channel Al Manar. (To read more about this, see my latest piece in Variety here)

During the exchange Al Manar used not only one but two sets of crane cameras; one to shoot cermonies held in South Lebanon when the prisoners crossed over from Israel, and another to cover the rallies in Beirut. Crane cameras have become essential for any major political event in Lebanon during the last 3 years of political turmoil. They are used by Al Manar as well as pro Western channels like Future and LBC to highlight the size of the audience and thus give more 'populist' weight to the event organizers and their cause. Here are some screen shots from the recent rally in Beirut celebrating the prisoners' return, courtesy BBC:

In the following two stills we can see the crane camera slowly traveling over the audience from up close:

Flying camera shots not only keep viewers at home entertained--breaking the monotony of the stationary wide angle crowd shot-- they also boast numbers and political power.

Leaders of the anti American opposition, for example, have often pointed out that they can draw massive crowds at only a few day's notice, while pro-US groups spend months marketing and promoting a specific day, such as February 14,when former prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005 .

Ironically it was the pro Western alliance led by Hariri's son and other Lebanese politicians that helped popularize the trend in boom camera usage, which largely debuted later in 2005 during the massive rallies that were organized to call for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. At the time, the Syrian president had criticized the rallies and their organizers, saying crowds had been exaggerated by creative camera techniques and called on them to "zoom out" to reveal the true size of those gathered. As a result, cranes and other shooting techniques were employed by pro-Western TV channels and protesters soon adopted the phrase "zoom out" as their own. It later picked up speed in the Western press and the movement became known as "people power" which was celebrated by the US government as a vindication of Bush policy.

By buying up its own set of crane cameras, it seems Hezbollah has been somehow inspired by the rhetoric, championing a people power television strategy of its own.