Homosexuality is not a trend nor an illness and people don’t choose to become gay. Blaming People for Being Gay is Like Blaming Them for Being Left-Handed.’
IDAHOT (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia) is a long day event organized and hosted by Proud Lebanon. During this day, various activities take place in order to address the issues related to this cause.
Read more on: http://blogbaladi.com/a-lebanese-tv-campaign-against-homophobia-the-first-of-its-kind-in-the-arab-world/
I learned the hard way that not talking to strangers in Lebanon is considered rude. You simply can’t get away with monosyllabic responses to taxi driver diatribe. Try it and you’ll be punished with cranked up radio volume, speeding, cursing, and vengeful huffing and puffing on one cigarette after another, ensuring you arrive at your destination looking like an electrocuted stinking clown. Bottom line: when you live here, perfecting the art of small talk with people you’ve never met before will get you places … and in one piece.
Read more on: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Life/Lubnan/2015/Feb-02/286016-lebanons-blurred-lines.ashx#sthash.k3R34pQ6.dpuf
Mar Mikhael is one of the last neighborhoods in Beirut still functioning as an area where poor and rich, cultured and uncultured, big and small communities live together,” said Georges Zouain, the head of Gaia Heritage. Gaia is now working on helping young Lebanese artists and creatives develop and improve their abilities in order to ensure Mar Mikhael continues to prosper. Read more here.
Patients across the region are needlessly dying from treatable cases of cancer due to fear, taboos and a lack of knowledge about the disease, according to doctors.
“There is public information that people need to know about but they do not, because there is a fear of knowing,” Dr. Joseph Kattan, head of the Oncology and Hematology Department at Hotel Dieu de France University Hospital, explained to The Daily Star.
Read more here.
In the quiet village of Saidoun in the Jezzine area of south Lebanon, a silent revolution is taking place. A fledgling organization founded by four Lebanese environmentalists, SOILS Permaculture Association Lebanon, is encouraging local farmers to abandon pesticides and chemical fertilizers in favor of self-sustaining agricultural methods such as composting, mulching and using natural, nontoxic insecticides.
Read more here.
Last summer Baalbeck International Festival announced it was not going to be held in the city’s ancient ruins due to security concerns. This was the first time since it was relaunched in 1997 that it was forced to relocate. Yet, in a decision that will be widely welcomed in Lebanon, the event organizers are now aiming to return to the city. “This year, we are planning to be in Baalbeck,” Nayla de Freige, president of Baalbeck International Festival’s executive committee, told Executive.
Read more here.
Hairstyles might not be the most obvious lens through which to trace Lebanon’s post independence history. In her biography of celebrity coiffure Naïm, however, Carole Corm manages to place his work in a socio-historical context that renders the book of interest to those more concerned with history than hairdressing.
Read more here.
How would you like to own 33 of the most interesting items in the world? This is the pitch behind a new Kickstarter project called the Mini Museum, which promises pocket-sized collections from objects spanning “billions of years of life, science and history”. For $239 (£143) backers of the project will receive a resin block containing various rare fragments. Everything from mammoth hair to a fragment of coal from the Titanic is included.
Read more here.
Keeping kids close to home normally means peace of mind for parents. Not so these days in Lebanon, where increasingly frequent bombings have left many shaken, putting parents in the unfortunate position of trying to keep their children safe by asking them to leave their country.
Read more here.
Voices From the Periphery
leo bites 