Lebanese Public Opinion

Online data indicates that Lebanese public opinion might have started moving away from partisanship and back to the center.
The graphs below plot the online readerships of four selected Lebanese newspapers. They are in order:
Almustaqbal, a newspaper with a partisan March 14 perspective
Albalad, a newspaper with a rather balanced perspective
Al Akhbar, a newspaper with a partisan [...]

Let There Be Love

Those ubiquitous “I Love Life” billboards turned out to be a political teasing campaign on an unprecedented scale. But don’t worry, the good stuff should be known by December 23rd.

Anyone who’s been to Lebanon lately has seen them. They’re literally everywhere; “I love Life”, “J’aime la vie”, “Ouhibbou l7ayat”. A statement in three languages that [...]

Shocked By Your Shock

To Arabs and Muslims, what’s most newsworthy about the Ahmadinajead Holocaust conference is the strong Western outrage.

The Economist called it “Ahmadinajead’s strange version of History”, the New York Times called it “a circus of Holocaust denial and racism argued by discredited scholars”. Unfortunately to those oracles of Western opinion, the “strange version of history” is [...]

In Search Of an SOB

Is Israel against democracy in Lebanon?
Raffi, a reader, wrote this comment on a previous post:
The Pro Senioura comments in Israeli newspapers mean to systematically undermine his authority , integrity and popularity. The worst thing that israel needs now is a PM like him , an educated popular PM who has excellent relations with both the [...]

The Other Sanioura

By a twist of fate, the name of our Prime Minister is the same as that of a Lebanese sweet. This has caused an unexpected windfall to the sweets’ makers.

Support the Lebanese government with coffee or with tea

If the Sanioura is not the top selling Lebanese sweet today, it is definitely up there. In the [...]

Hostage Of Her Religion

If you think that Hezbollah and Amal represent all the Lebanese Shiaas, think again.
Nisrin Yaghi, A Shiite who supports a “free, just and independent Lebanon” writes in the Daily star that she is taken hostage by her religion:
Many Lebanese Shiites [..] are bewildered by the position taken by both parties “officially” representing them. It [...]

The Great Miscalculation

Hassan Nassrallah’s opposition will fail because of one grave error: The misreading of the Sunni public opinion.
Omar Karami was supposed to show up and make a speech on December 10, but he didn’t. Not even Karami wants to be the “Clean, nationalist honest Sunni with integrity” that Nassrallah had promised will lead the next government.
But [...]

Tripoli Demo Pics

I went to the pro-government demo in Tripoli yesterday (which was a stone-throw from my house). I’ve never seen anything that large and boisterous in this otherwise sleepy city. Here are some pics (Click for larger images).
Most apartments in Tripoli have flags on their balconies:

The view from my place:(I recommend you click on it)

The view [...]