This Blog is Against Cyber Censorship

March 12th, 2010 Lebanon, Technology, Uncategorized, arab, blogging, campaign, internetTags: censorship, cyber, internet, online

@Global Voices Online

January 6th, 2010 arab, blogging, diary, videoTags: ab09, gvo, Lebanon

I looked horrible and/or funny

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/01/04/featured-author-layal-al-khatib/

One Year after the war on #Gaza

December 28th, 2009 Palestine, arab, blogging, campaignTags: arab, awareness, gaza, hashtag, Palestine, twitter

Trending Gaza on twitter was successful yesterday to spread awareness about the brutal Zionists’ assault and siege.

Spread the word. The whole world must know the truth!

Follow and Contribute to the Twitter hashtag #GAZA

كلنا ليلى – في لبنان #KolenaLaila

December 22nd, 2009 Egypt, Lebanon, Uncategorized, arab, blogging, campaign, diary, female, language, male, memory, society, sportsTags: campaign, Egypt, female, feminism, initiative, kolena-laila, Lebanon, male, online, women

Lebanese Racism?? Tell me something I don’t know!

December 21st, 2009 Lebanon, arab, racism, وآكلةTags: bus, Lebanon, racism, Syria, tripoli, دير عمار

http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/170128

If you think this is the first time racist criminal acts were committed by some Lebanese(civilians) against the Syrian People (also civilians too)

You’re wrong okay??

2nd Arab Bloggers Meeting #ab09

December 18th, 2009 arab, blogging

I’ll make it short..

Thank You!

I met Great Bloggers

I learned alot!

And I had so much fun

It was great meeting everyone there..

Looking forward to seeing you all again next year (or sooner )

Salamat!

To know what Arab Bloggers from 19 countries did in 5 days in Beirut..

Check the meeting’s blog or tune to the #ab09 twitter hashtag

Yeah..about that Egypt/Algeria match

November 20th, 2009 Egypt, arab, racism, society, sports, tv

I’m not a football fan and I won’t be but I have to say these few points regarding this whole “crisis”:

GAZA

To those who mentioned “Gaza” in their arguments. Yes Gaza deserves more attention, Yes this shouldn’t happen. Yes if 1% of the effort and energy spent into the rage and hate was directed to Gaza when it was under attack it would have been much better. But dear “patriotic” person, you have to know that Egypt and Algeria are both ruled by tyrants. So if they decided to stand up for a decent cause. I think they should start with theirs.

(Again not saying that protesting at an embassy over a football game or whatever that happened because of it is right. And Yes I wished that all of these crowds did the same for Gaza.)

BROTHERS

It’s not new to see racist comments from both sides. Come on people, since when we Arabs weren’t racists? or sexists? or sectarian?  We’re killing each other..why are you surprised we’re fighting with people from a different country!!

I mean in Lebanon, people are fighting over the assholes they follow. You shouldn’t be surprised..it’s in our blood and genes!

PRESS

I hope you all burn in hell!! Especially who used VERY low ways to make this worse. Shame on you!!

I have a final thought or a question actually.. Why is it that the Egyptian people were the only Egypt supporters in the match? At least here in Lebanon, I’m not aware of a romantic relation with Algeria or a hate one with Egypt either…Is there something I’m missing here?? Or maybe just a coincidence?

Kolena Laila: Call for Volunteers

November 2nd, 2009 Egypt, Lebanon, arab, female, societyTags: female, feminist, kolena-laila, society

Laila is calling for your help this year. Click the banner to read the announcement:

Please Spread!

RTL This

October 5th, 2009 Uncategorized, arab, blogging, internet, language, rtl-thisTags: arab, blogs, rtl, rtl-this, tempates, themes

It has always bothered me the very limited collection of RTL(right-to-left) blog templates/themes..whether it’s for Blogger, Wordpress or Drupal or any other Blogging platform or CMS. Web Designers and Developers might not find a problem since they can flip it themselves in couple of hours depending on the design itself.

The other part of Arab Bloggers (the majority) do not have the enough skills to do such tasks. So we end up with:

1. A very limited number of RTL themes that we see everywhere (especially Blogger)
2. And the many many LTR (left-to-right) themes that simply don’t look nice with the Arabic content (although usually they’re very beautifull themes)

The ideal solution I want? Is to convince all of the web designers and developers of the world to include an RTL version of their themes! We have to wait for that a really long time..

So what can we do? communicate! We can share our ideas and skills to help enriching this poor space of the web. There are really beautifull themes out there and they will look even more beautifull if they fit well with our Arabic content.

I will start hopefully before the end of this year to share my own tips and tricks on how to deal with the RTL side of the web. I’m not a guru, and I’m not a pro, but I want to share what I know and learn what you know. I have thought of naming this learning experience “RTL This”. What do you think? I’d love to know your opinion..

Eid in Lebanon

September 24th, 2009 Lebanon, Religion, Sectarianism, arab, greetings, music, racism, society, وآكلة

It’s known to the Lebanese themselves and any visitors that we (the Lebanese people) are party animals..we sure know how to party, no matter what the occasion is (sometimes there’s nothing to party about). It doesn’t bother me actually since I kind of like it . But what’s bothering me about the Lebanese People is how divided, secatrian and full of false patriotism we have become lately. Even with the only thing we’re good at…partying!

Last Sunday (First day of the Eid), we were simply starving at 11 PM. By chance, we went to” Dahab , Bchara El Khoury” (not the night club Gold, the restaurant version). We found out (by chance too) that there’s a “party” -of course-. Some guy on keyboards and another one who started to sing along with him. The guy was clearly drunk, but he was hilarious and did have a nice voice. The audience (us included) was happy and singing and dancing with him.

The performer started to sing patriotic songs -of course- and the audience got more excited -of course-. Not because they loved the great country of Lebanon, but because he started to change the song for each region (Jnoub, Baalbak, Shmall, Jabal, Beirut..etc). So in less than a minute, I knew where each group came from.

Not just that, I knew their political orientation as well..Yes dear reader, the “YEAAAAH” of the Lebanese Party Person comes along with hand gestures that might seem retarded to non Lebanese (even to me they are) where they declare which moron they support.

And to be sure on how divided we are, the singer decided to mention President Suleiman and the Army of course..they didn’t get much “support” but when he switched to the song of the Syrian series “Bab Alhara”(I swear he sang it) the whole audience went crazy!! I mean WTH people!!!!!

We claim we care about Lebanon but we don’t give a damn. We only party like hell!!

Happy Eid everyone!