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The Lebanese Celebrities Running For Parliament

Elections and nominees might make for a good movie plot?

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Even though Nathalie Fadallah running and Myriam Klink not running made the biggest splash (not the TV show) when it comes to the celebrities choosing to take on political life, Beirut.com has compiled a list of other famous people who decided to run as well.

Nathalie Fadlallah

Nathalie fadlallah parliament

As established, she is running for one of the Maronite seats in Tripoli. She runs a modeling agency and was a former model herself. She wants to bring her “revolutionary” ideas to parliament. If you know what I mean.

George Kordahi

Georges Kordahi

He used to be (not sure if he still is) the presenter of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and he’s running for one of the Maronite seats in Keserwan. His use of the Arabic language gives me the creeps. No one simply pronounces those letters that accurately. No one.

Toni Khalifeh

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The TV presenter who ridiculed the Ethiopian maid who…

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Egypt’s Cultural Scene Under Threat? | Egyptian Streets شوارع مصر

Several weeks ago, President Morsi appointed a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Alaa Abdel-Aziz, as Minister of Culture.

Initially, this sparked concerns that the Muslim Brotherhood intended to ‘purge’ Egypt’s cultural scene by installing Islamists into influential positions in the Ministry. These concerns were quickly dismissed by the government as absurd.

Yet in just few weeks, the new Minister has fired the heads of the Cairo Opera House, the Fine Arts Sector and the Egyptian General Book Authority. The Minister also attempted to fire the head of the Academy of Arts, but the law states that he can only be fired by a Presidential decree.

The sackings were yesterday followed by the resignation of the Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Culture, Said Tawfik, over what he called “a plan to destroy Egyptian culture.” The Supreme Council for Culture is arguably one of the most important parts of the Ministry, as it is responsible for setting policies and organizing activities.

In a show of support for those who were sacked, workers and artists at the Cairo Opera House cancelled a planned opera show – Aida – and announced a strike in solidarity with the sacked head of the Opera House and to protest the ‘Brotherhoodization’ of Egypt’s culture

via Egypt’s Cultural Scene Under Threat? | Egyptian Streets شوارع مصر.

The Neo-Dictatorship of Hezbollah: Rami and Marwa Olleik

Being neo-dictators will not get you re-elected nor protect your interests or Lebanon’s

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Hezbollah’s practices towards Lebanese citizens, whose protection theoretically justifies the party’s entire existence, have been nothing short of unacceptable lately, especially against Lebanese Southerners who became outspoken against some of the party’s practices.

Imagine the following scenario: you live in a town in Lebanon with a predominant political affiliation. The party in question decides to do something with which you don’t agree and you decide to speak out. The next thing you know, you are thrown out of your house and forbidden from returning to your hometown or even attacked on your way home.

This is Hezbollah’s did with two Lebanese Southerners Shiites who dared speak against its involvement in Al Qusayr or against the party in general.

The case of Rami Olleik was always baffling to me. He was a militant Hezbollah member, swiftly rising among the party’s rank, until he came to believe that the party’s entire ideology…

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Yahoo faces uphill popularity struggle | Technology | DW.DE | 29.05.2013

Yahoo is no longer a recognizable brand – at least not amongst the 20-somethings we spoke with. And who can blame them? While Google has spent recent years locking in its customer base by adding in service after service, Yahoo has had less success. And services like Flickr, Tumblr and Summly may not help because they have not been rebranded, so Internet users may still feel that they have little or nothing to do with Yahoo.

via Yahoo faces uphill popularity struggle | Technology | DW.DE | 29.05.2013.

Smithfield To Be Acquired by Chinese Meat Processor

Smithfield Foods Inc. announced May 29 an agreement to be acquired by Chinese meat firm Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. The “merger agreement” values Smithfield at approximately $7.1 billion, including the assumption of Smithfield’s net debt, or $34 per share in cash, a premium of 31 percent over Smithfield’s closing stock price on May 28.

The agreement already had been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies. Shuanghui International is the majority shareholder of Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development Co. (www.shuanghui-international.com), which is China’s largest meat processing enterprise and China’s largest publicly traded meat products company as measured by market capitalization.

“This is a great transaction for all Smithfield stakeholders, as well as for American farmers and U.S. agriculture,” said C. Larry Pope, pres/CEO of Smithfield. “We have established Smithfield as the world’s leading and most trusted vertically integrated pork processor and hog producer, and are excited that Shuanghui recognizes our best-in-class operations, our outstanding food safety practices and our 46,000 hard-working and dedicated employees. It will be business as usual — only better — at Smithfield.

via Smithfield To Be Acquired by Chinese Meat Processor.

Adventures in open water swimming #4: Of wetsuits and jellyfish

Open water swimming is a challenge and a wet suit definitely makes it easier. My mother used to swim 10 miles out and ten beck in Providence, RI in the 1930s and kept up until in her early 60s.

Fit and Feminist

Editor’s note: Before I begin this post, I wanted to say hi, welcome, wilkommen, bienvenida, bienvenue, and holy shit, there are a lot of new readers here.  I am sorry that I was not able to respond to every comment, but I got overwhelmed.  I did read all of them, though, and thank you to all of you who said nice, supportive things about my post.  Y’all know how to make a lady feel good. 🙂

Wetsuits are controversial in the sport of triathlon.  There are concerns that some people wear them as sort of a crutch, to make up for a lack of swimming ability and allow less than skilled swimmers to take part in races they are not adequately prepared to do.  It’s easy enough to see how this might be the case, as a tri-specific wetsuit is made up of a rubberized neoprene that basically turns…

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