PICTURES OF THE DAY

مظاهرات لبنان بالصور

عدسة إيلاف: تصوير جو الحاج

أنصار "حزب الله" وحركة "أمل" قبالة المقر المركزي لحزب الكتائب وسط بيروت

آلية للجيش أمام طريق مقطوعة

نار تحت تمثال المغترب اللبناني عند مدخل بيروت الشمالي

أنصار لعون قطعوا الأشجار... وطريق المرفأ

مقنع بالأسود يساهم بحجرين

المشهد بين مبنى جريدة "النهار" وضريح الحريري

صفان من الجنود بين أنصار "حزب الله" و"أمل" ومقر الكتائب المركزي

صور من الوكالات (رويترز و أ ف ب)

متظاهر من انصار التيار الوطني الحر يمشي قرب إطارات مشتعلة في مرجعيون

الجيش اللبناني يحاول منع متظاهرين موالين للمعارضة من رمي الحجارة في بيروت

المعارضة ترمي الأخشاب على السيارات المحترقة فيما يقف الجيش اللبناني مراقبا

الجيش اللبناني يراقب معارضين يشعلون الاطارات في طرقات بيروت

أمين عام حزب الله حسن نصرالله الذي دعا للإضراب متحدثا في العاصمة بيروت

مناصر لحزب الله يدفع بإطار مشتعل إلى وسط الطريق فيما
تظهر صورة نصرالله في الخلف - على طريق مطار بيروت الدولي

فؤاد السنيورة دعا اللبنانيين لتجاهل الاضراب واعتبار الثلاثاء يوم عمل عادي

دخان كثيف يغطي سماء بيروت جراء الاطارات التي أشعلها مناصرو المعارضة

In the bekaa

Opposition Protesters Paralyze Lebanon

Tuesday January 23, 2007 3:16 PM

AP Photo XPK119

By SAM F. GHATTAS

Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Hezbollah-led protesters paralyzed Lebanon Tuesday by burning tires and cars on major thoroughfares in and around the capital to enforce a general strike that aims to topple the government.

Clustering in small groups to man the blazing roadblocks, opposition supporters escalated their nearly two-month protest. Commuters were stranded and silence hung over many commercial districts amid reports of scattered violence.

Police said seven people suffered gunshot wounds in disturbances between supporters of the guerrilla group and pro-government activists in central and northern Lebanon. Michel Aoun, a senior opposition leader, told Al-Arabiya television that the wounded were all members of the opposition.

Police and troops deployed in the thousands across the country worked to open roads, sometimes negotiating with protesters, but refraining from using force. In some instances, the military separated the opposition and government supporters, who scuffled and hurled rocks and insults.

Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and other opposition leaders called the strike, which was backed by labor unions. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his supporters urged citizens to ignore the call, a move endorsed by banking associations and business leaders.

Soldiers and firefighters moved in to remove the obstacles clogging streets, but black clouds could be seen billowing into the air around the capital and on major highways in testament to their limited success.

Witness accounts and TV footage suggest that the opposition had shut down many neighborhoods and suburbs of the capital, Beirut, as well as areas around the country. But Beirut Mayor Abdel-Munim Ariss put on a brave face, telling Al-Arabiya television the city was functioning normally.

Many workers stayed home, either in support of the strike or in fear of violence. Some schools which had earlier said they were open sent cell phone text messages to parents announcing closures because of the unrest.

Blazing roadblocks cut off the road to Beirut international airport and the highway linking Beirut with the mountains and the road to Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Aviation officials said the country's only international airport was operating as normal, albeit with fewer staff.

The director general of Civil Aviation, Hamdi Shawq, told Al-Arabiya that the airport was working, but passengers were having difficulty getting to and from it.

Five flights arrived at the airport, six others left but another seven flights were canceled.

Government officials described the disturbances as an attempted coup.

``It is one of the chapters of the putsch,'' said Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh. ``This will fail as in the past, and the legitimate government of Lebanon will remain steadfast,'' he told Al-Arabiya television. In another television interview, he called the protesters ``thugs.''

Another Cabinet minister, Ahmed Fatfat, expressed concern that there would be more violence between the rival sides.

``The opposition is attempting a coup by force ... This is not a strike. This is military action, a true aggression and I'm afraid this could develop into clashes between citizens,'' Fatfat, the youth and sports minister, told Al-Arabiya.

The strike came two days before Saniora and his economic team seek financial aid for Lebanon at an international donors' conference in Paris. The opposition has also said the grants and loans - which local analysts set at around $5 billion - would only increase the national debt and further weaken the economy, hard hit by the summer war between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel.

A Saniora aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the prime minister was still in Beirut following the developments, contrary to earlier media reports that he had left for France.

The strike has deepened the existing political divisions. The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, made up of mostly Sunni Muslims, Druse and Christians, backs Saniora. The opposition is led by the pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim Hezbollah, and includes also some Druse and Christians.

The opposition has been camped out since Dec. 1 in front of the prime minister's office in downtown Beirut and has staged several protests to press its demands. Troops have been deployed in central Beirut for weeks to keep order. But the action has largely been peaceful.

Nasrallah urged supporters late Monday to participate in an ``effective and powerful manner'' in the strike. He reiterated the demand by Hezbollah and its allies for a veto-wielding share of the Cabinet - a request that Saniora has rejected.

Hours earlier, Saniora criticized Hezbollah's tactics, saying the Iranian and Syrian backed group wanted to give the world ``a disturbing picture of Lebanon.''

Hezbollah Strike Brings Beirut to a Virtual Halt

Khalil Hassan/Reuters

Demonstrators barricaded the road to Beirut airport, Lebanon’s only international airport.

By NADA BAKRI and HASSAN M. FATTAH

Published: January 23, 2007

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 23 — Thousands of Hezbollah supporters blocked streets and highways leading into Beirut today, bringing the Lebanese capital to a virtual standstill and raising already heightened fears that the nearly two-month long opposition protest could burst into open sectarian conflict.

Fadi Ghalioum/Reuters

Smoke from burning tires rising over the Al-Amin Mosque in Beirut during the strike.

At least a dozen people were wounded in clashes between Hezbollah supporters and the predominantly Sunni supporters of the government, as well as between Christian factions on either side of the divide, in the most dramatic escalation of the protests since demonstrations began on Dec. 1.

Protestors burned tires and set up roadblocks along major thoroughfares leading into Beirut while stores and businesses in many parts of the country remained closed in observance of a general strike. In some areas, groups of young men wielding sticks squared off and threw stones at each other, forcing the Lebanese army to intervene.

The Lebanese army used tear gas to disperse one of the clashes and fired in the air to disperse another scuffle, but otherwise sought to keep out of the confrontations. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who remained holed up in Lebanon’s Grand Serail, the seat of government, had pledged Monday night that the army would keep Beirut’s main arteries open.

Traffic in much of the city came to a halt, and many neighborhoods were blanketed in thick black smoke from the burning tires. The access road to Rafiq Hariri International Airport, the country’s only civilian airport, was blocked along with access to the port of Beirut.

The protest marks a significant escalation of the Hezbollah-led demonstrations that broke out in December. The Iranian-backed militia, together with Christian opposition parties, took to the streets last month calling for Mr. Siniora’s resignation and for early parliamentary elections to form a so-called unity government in which Hezbollah and its allies would have much greater say. Until now, the protests have largely been noisy but peaceful.

On Friday, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, called for the nationwide strike and announced plans to escalate the protests. Perhaps reflecting the growing sectarian nature of the crisis, stores and businesses in predominantly-Shiite and some Christian areas remained shuttered today, while stores in Sunni neighborhoods and mixed neighborhoods stayed open in defiance.

In some cases, store owners said, Hezbollah men forced them to close their shops and even locked some inside their shops.

Lebanese Shores Still Suffering from July Oil Spill

Six months after thousands of tons of fuel oil spilled into the Mediterranean when Israel bombed the Jiyyeh power plant, the waters are still spitting out black poison despite efforts to clean up the mess.
"The rain and the low tide have created new pollution zones," Ahmed Kojok of the Sea of Lebanon association told Agence France Presse.

On Beirut's sun-splashed Ramlet al-Bayda beach, a human chain passed buckets filled with large black chunks -- mixtures of fuel oil, sand and debris -- which were emptied by a volunteer into large white watertight bags.

"It's sad," muttered a fisherman who works for the association, running his fingers over dozens of seashells mucked together in a sticky glob.

The coast was polluted by around 15,000 tons of fuel oil after Israel bombed the plant south of Beirut in mid-July during its 34-day offensive against Hizbullah.

Since then, local and international civic groups and the Lebanese environment ministry have been waging a long battle against the black sludge that seeped into the sea.

A recent report by the European Commission's Monitoring and Information Center said "virtually all free oil at sea or in the harbors and marinas had been recovered by the end of September (2006)."

But many beaches like Jiyyeh and Ramlet al-Bayda continue to fight the pollution.

Greenpeace has described the spill, which polluted about 150 kilometers of the Lebanese coast, as an "underwater nightmare" and a "timebomb" because oil had sunk to the seabed. The environmental group has estimated it will take at least a year to clean the oil.

Over the course of six days, the Sea of Lebanon association filled 18 bags with around two tons of pestilent sludge.

"And we still have another week of work here," association member Mohammed al-Sarji said.
The team recently spent three weeks in Jiyyeh, where it gathered 122 bags of oil waste.

"In some places the dry fuel sludge was 40 to 60 centimeters thick. We were slicing it like cheese," said Kojok.

Ghada Mitri, spokesperson for the environment ministry, said that so far 1,100 cubic meters of liquid fuel and 5,440 cubic meters of debris, sand and muck had been extracted.

She said she hoped the clean-up will be finished "before summer" but declined to commit to a more precise timeframe.

Several obstacles could hamper the cleaning progress. Among them are the resignation of Environment Minister Yaacub Sarraf and the political crisis gripping the country.(AFP-Naharnet)


Beirut, 22 Jan 07, 10:23

As usual, both sides are to blame for Lebanon's latest brush with chaos

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Editorial

Once again the people of Lebanon are peering into an abyss of uncertainty opened up by the failings of their political leaders. As The Daily Star went to press on Monday night, the impact of Tuesday's general strike remained a source of worry for many as they pondered the possible repercussions of the latest battle of wills in Beirut.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has trumpeted myriad reasons to buttress the opposition's demand for more say in government. He has been slow, however, to precisely define the policies that he and his allies will enact if and when they have the power to do so. This habit of ambiguity has even extended to the nature of the protests the opposition has been conducting since December 1, meaning that every time the tactics change, a sense of foreboding ripples across much of the country.

The parliamentary majority has likewise trotted out all sorts of reasons to support their coalition's insistence that it should remain at the top of a largely unchanged heap. They have consistently fallen far short, however, of providing the various benefits - economic opportunity, social harmony, political equality, etc. - that are supposed to derive from the high-minded ideals that they claim to champion so avidly. "Democracy" that actively suppresses the representation of certain sub-sectors within society is an empty and insulting slogan. Likewise, MP Saad Hariri's calls to put "Lebanon first" hardly resonate among citizens who believe their country's leadership is no longer representative of the will of the people.

Every political party has the right to make its case, but its arguments should include more than just criticism of the other side - and its means of achieving its goals must respect the welfare of the polity in which it exists. In Lebanon these expectations have been turned upside down, with neither camp taking much notice of the socioeconomic crisis unfolding around - and because of - them as they engage in a fierce but feckless debate about differences that surely exist but are steadfastly ignored. Every political party also has the right to protest, but the current state of the Lebanese model might be too fragile to withstand the resultant pressures. If both sides miscalculate and end up destroying the very country they claim to love, where will that leave private citizens who just want to feed their families?

airport situation

Lebanon: General strike cancels eight flights at Rafik Hariri International airport

Posted: 23-01-2007 , 10:57 GMT

Eight flights were cancelled on Tuesday at Rafik Hariri International airport as roads were blocked by Hizbullah-led opposistion followers during street protests, an airport source told AFP. "Eight flights from Cairo, Muscat, France, Kuwait, Bahrain, Frankfurt and Qatar have been cancelled," the source was quoted as saying. "Flights are still arriving and passengers from two flights from Dubai and Amman are still in the airport. They cannot leave because the road is closed." Other aviation officials said the airport was operating as normal, albeit with fewer staff. The director general of Civil Aviation, Hamdi Shawq, told Al-Arabiya that the airport was working, but passengers were having difficulty getting to and from it. Five flights arrived at the airport, six others left. The LBCI said around twelve barriers, including sands and burning tires, had cut roads to the airport. Only two flights left early in the morning with passengers. © 2007 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)

as nayla said: wil3aneh! (it is in flames)

Mushrooming Riots Engulf Lebanon
At least 38 people were wounded in mushrooming riots between anti and pro-government factions in Lebanon Tuesday as the general strike called by the opposition to topple Premier Fouad Saniora's government developed into a bloody confrontation.
Security sources told Naharnet 25 of the casualties suffered bullet wounds in the running confrontations that spread across most of the country after the army and security forces failed to re-open roads blocked by the Hizbullah-led opposition.

The casualties included two of ex-MP Fares Soaid's bodyguards who tried to cover him when his car came under fire in the northern village of Mistita, near the town of Byblos.

Soaid, a prominent member of the March 14 majority alliance that backs the Saniora government, was not hit in the attack, police reported.

Tongues of flame shot up into the sky and thick-black smoke billowed from thousands of blazing rubber tires that blocked roads in Beirut, north, east, central and south Lebanon.

Meanwhile, trucks flying Hizbullah flags unloaded tons of debris, dirt and stones in at least 12 spots along the highway leading to Rafik Hariri International airport as army troops watched without trying to prevent them.

Hizbullah-run bulldozers moved to erect earth mounds along the highway, to prevent citizens from reaching the airport.

A statement by the civil aviation authority said the airport remains operational, but passengers have not been able to make it to the facility.

In Beirut's Mar Elias commercial thoroughfare, hooded supporters of Hizbullah and the Shiite Amal movement also blocked traffic by blazing rubber tires and rocks.

However, some motorists insisted on driving through the blockade. A lady, driving a dark blue Mercedes, was attacked by protestors who tried to smash her vehicle's wind shield.

The apparently determined lady sped-on hitting three of the protestors, who were evacuated later by an Amal ambulance.

In Beirut's Corniche Mazraa commercial thoroughfare, a two-hour confrontation raged between Hizbullah-Amal elements, on the one hand, and Sunni supporters of al-Mustaqbal movement, headed by parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri.

The confrontation started when the Hizbullah-Amal elements erected a barrier made up of blazing rubber tires along the main highway and blocked traffic.

A crowd from the predominantly Sunni Tariq Jedideh residential district took to the street, equipped with sticks, stones and iron rods, and engaged the Amal-Hizbullah elements.

Both factions hurled rocks at each other and all of a sudden staccato bursts of automatic rifle fire echoed across the area. At least six people were wounded before an army patrol intervened and managed to re-open the road.

Cautious calm prevailed, but groups of young men were seen staking it out at street corners, which indicates that the confrontation could break out again.

In north and Mount Lebanon, members of Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces took to the streets to reopen roads blocked by followers of Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and Suleiman Franjieh's Marada faction, the two Christian groups allied with Hizbullah.

Violence broke out nearly three hours after the opposition blocked roads and the army refrained from intervening to reopening them.

In the Northern Akkar province, seven members of Hariri's Mustaqbal movement were wounded when armed elements of the Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) opened fire at them as they arrived at the town of Halba on their way to work, security sources reported.

They said one of the wounded was in a critical condition.

In the Sofar mountain resort east of Beirut, three SSNP members were wounded when unidentified assailants opened fire at their car, the sources added.

The opposition has been trying in vain since Dec. 1 to topple the Saniora government. The confrontation Tuesday pushed the nation a step further towards the threat of civil unrest that the majority alliance has been trying to avoid.(Outside AP photo shows a soldier trying to extinguish burning tires and inside photo shows smoke of burning tires and debris over Beirut)


Beirut, 23 Jan 07, 08:20

lebanon in big mess

Five injured in Lebanon clashes

Five government supporters have been injured in Lebanon in a gun battle with opposition supporters during a one-day strike organised by the Hezbollah-led opposition. Security sources said members of the pro-government Future movement and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party exchanged fire in the village of Halba on Tuesday. Earlier reports from the Reuters news agency had said one person was killed in the gunfight. At least five others were wounded in two shootings in Byblos and Batroun as supporters of the Hezbollah-led opposition blocked roads with rubble and burning tyres. At least a dozen people were hurt in scuffles elsewhere, mainly in Christian areas. Lebanese soldiers fired into the air to keep stone-throwing crowds apart in Beirut and on a highway to the north. Airport blocked Dozens of protesters blocked off the only road leading to Beirut's international airport at the start of the stoppage - which began at 04:00 GMT. Several Arab and international airlines suspended flights to Beirut, and shops and businesses in the capital remained closed. Black smoke billowed over Beirut as the army deployed armoured vehicles at major crossroads along with hundreds of soldiers. Lebanese security forces struggled to open blocked roads obstructed by protesters. "Siniora out, down with the government," Hezbollah followers chanted as they lit tyres in central Beirut, close to the prime minister's office. Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah MP, told Al Jazeera that the government was to blame for the protests. "These people had to do this to make their voice reach the government. What would the people do when the government becomes a dictatorial one?," he said. 'Coup d'etat' The opposition, led by the Shia group Hezbollah, is calling for veto power in the cabinet and new elections to be held. The Western-backed government of Fouad Siniora, the prime minister, has shrugged off the demands. Instead, it is preparing for an international aid conference in Paris on Thursday that it hopes will yield billions of dollars for Lebanon's economy, but has been criticised by the oppostion for increasing the country's debt problems. Ahmad Fatfat, the Lebanese minister of Youth and Sports told Al Jazeera that the strike was an "aggression against the Lebanese people". Samir Geagea, head of the Christian Lebanese Forces, and an opponent of the strike, said the protests had nothing to do with democracy or freedom. "This has been transformed into a coup d'etat. It is a revolt in every sense of the word," he said.

a letter from a beirut mother

Dear All,
I am writing to brief you about the news here.

As you all heard today the opposition began another
round of mobilization with the intention of speeding
up its pressure on the government, after realizing
that the sit-in down town didn’t achieve results. In
fact, it seems that the opposition had placed itself
in a tight corner from the time when it asserted that
it will not resolve to force in order to change the
government. Jumblat has already hinted to this fact,
when he retaliated to the threat of the sit in by
saying “Sit in as long as you want it will be
something for us to watch”.



Today the opposition went a step forward but again the
14of March bloc retaliated by sending its militia to
the streets resolving to arms in certain areas, and
threatening a new and devastating house to house war
among the Christians and between Shiite’s and Sunnis.



As long as the opposition is trapped to its promise
never to enter into a civil war the 14 of March bloc
will keep the upper hand. Its bet is that Aoun’s
popularity will gradually wane because people will
finally get tired from continuous mobilization. The
other bet is to divide the opposition mainly the
alliance between Hizballah and Aoun, which places a
big pressure on Hizbollah as a pure Shiite opposition.




We still have to wait and see how things will develop
in the region between on the one hand Syria and the
US, and between Iran and the Saudi Arabia and US on
the other hand.



In the mean time we are still here. The elderly people
were content to stay at home today. Dad had to
interrupt his daily outing to the restaurant because
all the restaurants in Hamra were closed. Mounir went
to work and did his walking on the cornich (cornich
mukhalef as he hasn’t been walking for the last month)
and I had to sleep yesterday at work and wasn’t able
tonight to reach further than Ras al-Naba’> Driving
through Ras al-Nabah at night reminded me of the
situation during the 1974 events just few months
before the outbreak of the war. The army all over the
street and on every corner directing you away from
Western Beirut and the burned tires on the street and
the blocs of sand rising infront of you puts you in a
state of fear.



Did the protestors frighten the government?

Well few days from now we will know whether the
opposition has another scheme. In the meantime no body
worries whether the confessional and political tension
might break here and there and claim many lives. The
14th of March group is ready to resort to any method
to break the opposition. Even the worst scheme i.e.
resorting to a dreadful sectarian mobilization against
the Shiite inhabitants of the Sunni areas.



I have to leave you now.



Love to all and keep in touch.

from Kim Ghattas

Every morning, in the studios of the Voice of Lebanon radio station,
the phone rings off the hook.

Opposition protester
Anti-government protests from last year are now anti-reform protests
When people hear the jingle of Shakawa al-Naas, Arabic for People's Complaints, a popular call-in show, they know the time has come when they can vent their frustrations and complain.

But it's not really about consumer problems, refunds that have not arrived or hotel bookings that have gone wrong. Instead the show is a telling indicator of the terrible state of public services in Lebanon.

One man is angry and fed up with power rationing.

READ MORE>>>

now they know how it sounds constantly over lebanese and palestinian heads

2 sonic booms rock Ashkelon

Residents of southern city wake up to sound of blasts, fear Qassam rockets fired at city. Police inspection reveals blasts caused sonic booms from IAF aircraft

Shmulik Hadad

Published:

01.22.07, 10:17

Two intense blasts were heard in the southern city of Ashkelon on Monday morning, causing great frenzy in the city.

The residents were afraid that Qassam rockets had landed in the city once again. However, following an inspection police reported that the sound was most likely caused by sonic booms caused by Israel Air Force aircrafts passing over the area.

just found it funny :) ehhehe, it is about time our neighbour just get a taste of how war planes sound like...

an update on what has been happening

well just to update you on what has been happening
according to the latest mess we r enduring in lebanon.

in short well all news taken from naharnet quickly :

1-
Hariri Orchestrates 'productive' protest against Opposition's Strike
Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri on Sunday urged the Lebanese to ignore a general strike call by the Hizbullah-led opposition that seeks to topple Premier Fouad Saniora's government.
Hariri, in a statement distributed by his press office, stressed that "any productive effort is an effective response" against the general strike set by the opposition for Tuesday.


2-
Nasrallah Pledges "Very Big Action" Soon Against Government
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has pledged that the opposition alliance would mount an "effective" action in the coming days in its campaign against Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government.In a long interview with Hizbullah's Al-Manar television Friday evening, Nasrallah said Hizullah's consultations with its allies were drawing to a close.

"I believe this action will be effective, very important and very big," he said, urging the Lebanese to support the plan.

He said the opposition would announce Saturday or Sunday the steps to be taken but would not disclose details of the action.

The Hizbullah-led opposition has been camping outside government headquarters in downtown Beirut since Dec. 1 in a bid to bring down Saniora's cabinet.

3-
Israel to Nasrallah: Don't Test us
A member of Israel's security cabinet warned Hizbullah Saturday not to "test" the Jewish State, after Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah hailed the resignation of Israel's military chief of staff.
"Israel will know how to draw its conclusions about this war, and I advise Nasrallah not try to put Israel to the test again," Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer told army radio.

Lieutenant General Dan Halutz stepped down Tuesday, shouldering the blame for Israel's failure to achieve its objectives in a 34-day war against Hizbullah in the summer.

"When I heard the news, I was happy," Hizbullah's Secretary General said in an interview with al-Manar TV station Friday night.

Nasrallah predicted that Israeli Defense Minister Amir Petetz would also resign his post over the outcome of the July-August war.

Responding to Nasrallah, Israeli Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon said Halutz had "succeeded in restoring calm on our northern border (with Lebanon) and of allowing an international force to be deployed in southern Lebanon."

He added that "Nasrallah is hiding under ground and he will continue to do so for a long time to come."

For his part, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres dismissed Nasrallah as not understanding democracy, adding that "Israel will come out of the current crisis stronger than ever."(AFP-Naharnet)


in short we are so going to have a good time...
hope all goes well , and hearts cool down so we can stand strong facing the whole regional crisis that is deeming to make sure to destroy us ... and we know and we r making sure to destroy ourselves... i do not get it ... do u ?

i do not love to live... By Mazen Kerbaj

i do not
LOVE LIFE

and i do not
LOVE COLORS

and i do not
LOVE BLACK AND WHITE

and i do not even
LOVE grey

and i do not
LOVE ANYTHING AND ANYONE

is it possible that me also
WE WANT TO LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY


note to the lebanese reader: please feel free to print this drawing and forward it to as much people as you can.

note for the international reader: do not try to understand this drawing (and the one before). they are directly connected to the situation on the ground in lebanon today.

The Advertising War


- "even in the usa they are answering the "i love life" campaign."

Pix taken of pepe abed in 2003

Pepe Abed Of Lebanon

those are pix my partner took of Pepe during one of our trips to byblos back in 2003
actually that was the last time we saw him

he was like always telling people about how he keeps in good shape by swimming in the sea for 40 min everyday and how his love to lebanon always grew day by day looking out from his restaurant...

always excited telling people his adventures and very funny stories

the portrait of Byblos Man

PEPE :( ABED

Lebanon loses a legendary link to its golden age

Lebanon loses a legendary link to its golden age
Adventurer, entrepreneur and all-around bon vivant Pepe Abed left his mark in more ways than one
By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

BYBLOS: He was a legend in his day - an adventurer, an explorer, an entrepreneur and a ladies man. A consummate host of the likes of Marlon Brando and Brigitte Bardot, he was the epitome of Lebanon's golden age and an institution in his own right. And now, he is gone.

After 50 years of pioneering Lebanon's tourist potential with the Acapulco beach club in Jnah, the Bacchus hotel and nightclub in Beirut, the Admiral's Club in Tyre, the Hacienda in Amshit and his personal refuge, the Byblos Fishing Club, Youssef Gergi Abed - known to all as Pepe - passed away last month. He was in his mid-90s. With his death, Lebanon lost the gloss on its nostalgia for what Pepe so often referred to as la dolce vita, the local spin on the sweet life.

"He was more than a restaurant owner," says Pepe's son, Roger Abed, now in his 50s, as he walks a reporter through the nooks and crannies of the Fishing Club on a cold and quiet afternoon. "He was a very important man. Some people they build. Some people they destroy. Pepe built. He made cities. He promoted Lebanon. He inspired people with the good life, the good food. Of Lebanon people used to know Pepe and Baalbek. The tourists used to call him the king."

There are few tourists in Byblos these days, their absence due to the winter weather or the recent war. But the most notable absence is Pepe, with his yachtsman's cap, seafarer's jacket, bushy eyebrows and easy smile. He lives on, however, in the thousands of old photographs adorning the walls of the Fishing Club, in the hundreds of press clippings about his heyday that are collected in meticulously bound and labeled notebooks, in the labyrinthine rooms of the Pepe Foundation that was established in 1997, and in the winding street that hugs the Byblos harbor, named in Pepe's honor two weeks ago.

Though he was born in Rmeil and one of his forebears was the mayor of Medawar, Pepe spent much of his time as a child and young adult in Mexico. As the story goes, a millionaire cousin named Miguel enlisted Pepe as his personal secretary and whisked him all over the world. In the early 1950s, Pepe, who was by that time a jeweler, returned to Lebanon to see family.

"He fell in love with his homeland," says his son. In due time, Pepe was running a jewelry shop in Downtown Beirut, in the old Souk al-Taweeleh. At this point, versions of the story vary - the store burned down or was burglarized - but either way Pepe wasn't insured. He decided to shift gears and try his hand at tourism. He bought a wide swath of land in Jnah and created the Acapulco, introducing mariachi bands, Mexican trios, cockfights and beach parties to a local public that went wild.

"It grew and grew," says Abed. "It was like a Mexican village in Lebanon - 14,000 square meters, 180 bungalows, a nightclub called La Perla."

Abed had been studying in the UK and returned to Lebanon in 1959. He joined his father in business. One day, the elder Abed took a trip by sea to Byblos and fell in love.

"He came by boat from his beach club," says Abed. "There were only a few fishermen here." Those fishermen were living in 12th-century caves that had been built by Crusaders from Genoa. Pepe started buying the caves one by one, and together they became the Byblos Fishing Club.

"Everyone thought he was crazy. Fifty years ago, there were no highways. It used to take us some time to get here," Abed recalls. "For us to come to Byblos from Beirut was a trip. Byblos only became famous as a tourist place when Pepe came here."

Famous indeed. Among the more high-profile visitors to the Byblos Fishing Club were Swedish actress Anita Ekberg, French crooner Johnny Halliday, Kim Novak, Ginger Rogers, Ann Margret, the poet Said Akl, Czech President Vaclav Havel, Mexican President Miguel Aleman Valdes and Lebanese President Camille Chamoun, among numerous other heads of state.

Apparently, Chamoun's presidential successor, Fouad Chehab, was less than fond of Pepe, whom he nicknamed "pirate" due to Pepe's penchant for appropriating Phoenician, Roman and Summerian antiquities while scuba-diving off the coast of Byblos. However, Pepe did one better than most local collectors of cultural patrimony - late in his life he offered his entire collection to UNESCO. Plus, for his love of extreme diving, he earned the admiration of Jacques Cousteau.

In the 1960s, the Byblos Fishing Club had become a world-class destination for the decade's jet-setting glitterati, and Pepe had a veritable empire on his hands. In addition to the Admiral's Club, the Hacienda and the Bacchus, the family established a full-service travel agency to coordinate a seamless experience for a clientele of bold-faced names.

On a more intimate scale, ask anyone in Lebanon over a certain age about Pepe and you are likely to hear a story that ties the Byblos Fishing Club with their days of being wild, their carefree youth, their courting of their future wives or former girlfriends. Everyone in Lebanon, it seems, has a favorite Pepe story to tell.

Even members of younger generations who didn't live Lebanon's golden age have likely selected their favorite portrait - whether an obscure but historically significant French diplomat or Ava Gardner - from Pepe's wall of fame.

According to one profile published in the local press, Pepe considered those portraits his wealth. When the Civil War broke out in Lebanon in 1975, he lost everything: $15 million, his jewelry business and almost all of his empire. But apparently, he didn't care. He had his memories, his pictures, his stories. He still had the Byblos Fishing Club, and his life-long motto, after all, was asi es la vida, the Spanish equivalent of c'est la vie.

"My father once told me," says Abed: "'In life it's very easy to earn $100 or $1,000 but it's very difficult to earn a friend.'" Another bit of Pepe advice: "Beautiful women are very important. They are like vitamins."

Pepe was hospitalized a month before he died. "He knew he was fighting for his life," Abed recalls. The damage done by the war in Lebanon last summer - and in particular the horrific layer of sludge let loose by Israel's bombardment of the Jiyyeh power station, which coated Byblos in fuel oil - had been hard on Pepe.

When his son told him of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel's assassination, Pepe sighed and said: "I am leaving this world and Lebanon is still in this crisis." After a pause, he added: "I want you to trust this country and love this country as I did."

CLOSE GITMO

Top 10 things that you can do today to CLOSE GUANTÁNAMO

Today marks five years since the US authorities first transferred "war on terror" detainees to the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Despite widespread international condemnation, hundreds of people of more than 30 nationalities are still there: without charge, and with little hope of obtaining a fair trial. Though US authorities have repeatedly called the detainees "terrorists" and "killers", many have been released without charge.

Enough is enough!

Join activists worldwide TODAY in showing solidarity with the detainees and their families, demanding once more, and louder than ever, that the US government close Guantánamo!

Contact your US Embassy

Please follow the steps below. Write to and call your US Embassy today calling for Guantánamo to be closed and for detainees to either be released will full protections or charged and tried in full and fair proceedings. [If you are from the USA, please go to the next action: E-mail President Bush]

STEP 1– Send an email Copy and paste this letter into an email and send it to your US ambassador. Alternatively, you can print the letter and fax it or post it. If you prefer to write your own appeal, please read our letter writing guide.

STEP 2 – Phone in [Find the phone number here] Ring your US embassy, give your name and country and say that you want to make a complaint about the US detention centre in Guantánamo Bay. Tell the staff if you have already sent an email.. Say that you are concerned that hundreds of detainees remain held in the camp, with no charge, access to justice or right to challenge their detention (habeas corpus). Call for the closure of Guantánamo and ask for the detainees to be released unless they are to be charged and given a fair trial in regular courts. Thank the person you are speaking to for giving you their time

STEP 3 – Ask your friends to do the same today!

2. Send an email to President George W. Bush

Write to President Bush and call on him to close Guantánamo and bring the detainees to trial or release them.

3. Sail, fly, windsurf with the Close Guantánamo flotilla

This extraordinary journey, a unique opportunity to express your opposition to Guantánamo, will help to pressure the US government to close the camp once and for all.

Join us and invite your friends to travel with you to confront injustice!

4. Get involved locally

Find an event near you or contact your nearest AI office.

Visit our Close Guantánamo blog for activism opportunities in many countries.

5. Say 'Close Guantánamo on camera

You want Guantánamo closed? Say/sing/act it on camera in a 5 to 10 seconds video clip! If you can, shoot your video at a recognisable landmark from your city or your country.
Watch here a compilation of some of the videos received so far.

6. Speak out and challenge

Alert all your email contacts. Write to your local newspapers, magazines and on-line media, or contact your local radio and TV station expressing your concerns about Guantánamo and asking them to link to your 'close Guantánamo' website.

Contribute to blogs and chat rooms.

7. Tell your friends about Guantánamo Bay

E-mail this page and ask them to spread the word.

8. Subscribe to our free E-Magazine

Our e-magazine is a great way to keep up with breaking news, action opportunities and other updates about this campaign.

9. Learn more about Guantánamo

Read about the latest developments, listen to people talk about their experiences in Guantánamo, access detailed reports . Staying informed is staying involved.

10.Put these banners on your site or blog

Right-click on the banner image and choose "Save image as..." or you can use the HTML provided below.



<a href="http://not-a-real-namespace/http://not-a-real-namespace/http://not-a-real-namespace/http://web.amnesty.org/pages/guantanamobay-index-eng"><img src="http://not-a-real-namespace/http://not-a-real-namespace/http://not-a-real-namespace/http://www.amnesty.org/images/homepage/banner_closeguantanamo_180x45.gif" /></a>

OPUS for Lebanon - if you are in London / COME

Lebanon United has pulled out all the stops to bring you a unique evening of classical and Sufi music for Lebanon.

This is our first event of the new year and we ask you to join us to help rebuild Ghandourieh clinic. This healthcare centre, owned by the municipality, was destroyed last summer and 12,000 people depend on it. Currently, the health needs of the local population are being met by a roving team of three doctors who work from a prefabricated container, which is staffed twice a week. But with your help, we can change this.

Please bring friends and family to:

Opus for Lebanon - United in Music

Tuesday 16th January at 7.30pm

St John's, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA

Box Office: 020 7222 1061 or www.sjss.org.uk

Tickets: £10, £20, £30

All proceeds will go to International Medical Corps UK - www.imcworldwide.org.uk
(UK registered charity no.1093861)

Please help us to spread the word!

Lebanon United brings together a group of like-minded individuals from different nationalities,
religions and political affiliations to help Lebanon in its time of need. It is a unifying thread for those with the will and desire to rebuild Lebanon.

Happy New Year From London

Happy Eid Al Adha (for whoever wanna celebrate)

well it is 31st dec , i think yes today is the eid al adha for all muslims ...
(as you westerners by now know the difference between sunni and shia
muslims thanks to the war in Iraq) well sunnis apparently celebrated yesterday , and today shia start their's.

Thanks to that we always had in lebanon 4 days adha because we start with sunnis for 3 days then shias start the next day of sunnis so we gain one day extra ... do you get what i mean? i am confused
...
aren't they just muslims..???

anyways i wish u happy eid ( i.e: xmas for the muslims) coinciding with the start of the new year 2007 ... is this significant ..?? is this a holy sign ???

Ya mami ,... i am freaking out thinking mentally now about the whole region...

isn't it so ironic that saddam was hanged on the first day of eid for some muslims (i.e sunnis started yesterday as u know by now) , and the start of a new middle east ...???

let me be poetic now : ' are we going to EVER have a peaceful middle east ?'
blahblahbla burghhhghburghh yuk yuk yuk....

With this thought i will leave you to celebrate a very peaceful
and forgiving and maturing new year

great health

wealth ( that would be good no?)

success

work

family

people you love

new year of love...

have a great new year

here is a cartoon by Imad Hajjaj about the state of the arab nation on this day of the eid ...
Translation :(sheep is the arab nation)




and whoever does not know about adha well in short (by wikipedia:

Eid ul-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى ‘Īdul’aḍḥā), or Eid-e Qurban (Persian: عید قربان Eide Ghorbân) occurs on the tenth day of the Islamic month of Dhul Hijja. It is one of two Eid festivals that Muslims celebrate. Eid ul-Adha is celebrated by Muslims worldwide as a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael for God. Others celebrate Eid ul-Adha as it marks the end of the Pilgrimage or Hajj for the millions of Muslims who make the trip to Mecca each year. Like Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha also begins with a short prayer followed by a khutba. In Mecca, the khutba is delivered at Mount Arafat.

It is celebrated on the 10th day of the month of Dhul Hijja (ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic calendar, after Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. This happens to be approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadan.

Eid ul-Adha is four days long starting the day after the pilgrims in hajj (annual pilgrimage to Mecca by Muslims world wide) descend from mount Arafat.)

happy eid ...... ( oups it is 4 days usually anyways??) yes it is ... hehhehe so in eid sunnis and muslims are one??? ) ahhh

it is not eid still

the eid in cpl of days maybe
sorry wrong timing...
hard to know when u r in london :(
if my granny was still alive i would have got an envelop with some cash to go buy some candies...
God bless you granny ...