Archive: lebanon
21st March 2010
A 30-year-old Sri Lankan maid, Ambagla Mudian Silage, hasjumped to her death from an employment on the fourth floor of a building in Jal el Dib, Lebanon.
Suicides by domestic workers are common in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East but usually occur at the home of the employer. In January… Read more
24th February 2010
An opinion poll highlighted by the Qifa Nabki blog shows strong popular support in Lebanon for abolishing confessionalism. Fifty-eight per cent are in favour, plus a further 10% who favour abolition but think the time is not right. Only 22% oppose abolition.
Interestingly (but not surprisingly… Read more
18th February 2010
In a survey among doctors in Lebanon, 60% viewed homosexuality as a disease that needs medical assistance and 73% said it needs psychological counselling.The findings are in one of two reports presented at a meetingorganised by Helem, the Lebanese LGBT organisation, last week. The other report is… Read more
14th February 2010
Today is the fifth anniversary of the explosion in Beirut that killed former prime minister Rafik Hariri and at least 20 others – an event that triggered the most extraordinary period in Lebanese politics since the civil war.
Five years on, though, it's difficult to say what the Cedar Revolution (… Read more
4th January 2010
Once again, a Filipina domestic worker has plunged to her death from a balcony. Theresa Otero Seda, 28, died in the Sanayeh district of Beirut. She had apparently slashed her wrists before falling.
Matthew Cassel's blog describes the scene, highlighting the off-hand attitude of emergency services… Read more
25th December 2009
Fouad Makhzoumi, a Lebanese billionaire and former arms dealer, is at the centre of a political row in Britain after it emerged that one of his companies has donated £100,000 to the Conservative Party during the last four years.
But besides his support for the British Conservatives, he has also… Read more
21st December 2009
Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri sat face-to-face at a state banquet on Saturday with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad – whose regime has been widely suspected of assassinating his father.
Hariri's bridge-building visit to Damascus seems to have cautious support from a range of Lebanese… Read more
2nd December 2009
The abolition of political sectarianism in Lebanon was identified as a national "priority" in the Taif agreement that ended the civil war 20 years ago. The agreement set no time-frame for abolishing it, and nothing was done.
Following the parliamentary elections last June (and five months of… Read more
20th November 2009
A lengthy post on the Qifa Nabki blog tackles the sensitive question of Lebanon’s 400,000-plus Palestinian refugees – more than half of them living in camps:
The living conditions of these refugees – most of whom were born in Lebanon – is dismal. They have few civil rights; they are banned from… Read more
4th November 2009
The Lebanese Shia organisation, Hizbullah, is on its highest possible state of alert, according to The National. Besides confirmation of this from an unnamed Hizbullah military commander, the paper notes signs of unusually strict security measures on the ground.
“In 20 years, I have never seen… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
