My Beirut Chronicles

April 13, 1975 was the official start of the so-called Lebanese civil war. Why publish today videos of TV series that aired back then? Not out of nostalgia (maybe a little), but to show how unaware we were of the horrors to come.

Gebran Tueni. Many Lebanese know the name but how many still remember what he stood for? 13 years after his assassination on the 12th of December 2005, his ideas and his words are as relevant today as they were back then.

What Daech did in Syria and Iraq was sadly not new. It has been done before, over a century ago, by the forefathers of its former sponsor: Turkey. A survivor remembers and tells her story.

Des images qui auraient été filmées au Ritz-Carlton de Riyad commencent à circuler sur les réseaux sociaux. La somptueuse salle de réception transformée en lieu de détention, des matelas à même le sol, un fusil-mitrailleur posé dans un coin, ces images de la prison pas si dorée des princes et dignitaires saoudiens arrêtés font froid dans le dos.

For those who forgot, and for those pretending they forgot, here’s a reminder of what Lebanon is fighting against.

La classe politique libanaise, malgré les nombreuses divergences de ses différentes composantes, semble n’avoir qu'un seul maître à penser : Louis de Funès. Pas l’homme bien sûr. A l’inverse de nos politiciens, le cultissime comédien avait du génie. C’est le personnage détestable qu’il a incarné tout au long de sa carrière qui est en quelque sorte leur père spirituel.

La plupart des personnes arrêtées pour avoir tiré en l’air le soir des résultats du brevet ont été relâchées. Le ministre de l'Intérieur a parlé de pressions politiques alors que celui de la Justice a formellement démenti. Et la vérité dans tout ça, victime elle aussi d'une balle perdue?

Whether we agree with the protesters or not, is that a way to treat young men and women voicing their refusal of a third parliament’s term extension? What have they done to deserve to be so savagely beaten? Throw a few eggs and tomatoes at some MP’s car?

There were another side to George Michael's personality. One that made his political opinion known, loud and clear. He wasn’t an activist as such, even if the British Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said he was “a strong supporter of LGBT and workers’ rights”. Nevertheless, he took a very courageous stand against the US-led invasion of Iraq and ridiculed George W. Bush and Tony Blair in a hilarious video.

Gebran Tueni. Many Lebanese know the name but how many remember what he stood for? 11 years after his assassination on the 12th of December 2005, his ideas and his words are as relevant today as they were back then.

There’s nothing extraordinary about the following video, but yet it shows in less than 10 seconds the bewildering reality of Beirut: piles of garbage at every street corner, the erratic behavior of Lebanese drivers, the deafening concert of horns, the non-stop noise pollution, the shocking disregard for basic public and personal safety.

Décidément, Nawal Berry n’en finira pas de faire parler d’elle. Faut croire qu’elle aime ça. Après son esclandre en direct, désormais célèbre, elle en remet une couche en publiant une vidéo odieuse sur sa page Facebook.

Ne crachez pas trop vite sur Nawal Berry, elle n’est que le symbole médiatisé d’une société superficielle et capricieuse, où les journalistes dignes de ce nom n’existent pratiquement plus.

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is a comedian. Not a very good one. So he had to find a serious job on the side to pay the bills. He became Prime minister of Israel. As such, he has access to the media and indulges every now and then in throwing a joke.

Is Kuwaiti TV more open to debate about Islam than most European channels? When we watch the following video, we can wonder if that’s really the case.

When it comes to obscenity, you think you’ve seen it all. Then something comes along and proves, once again, that Lebanon is the black hole of decency.

"Soyons ensemble les derniers à pleurer, et soyons ensemble les derniers à être debout contre la barbarie et dans le respect de tous", a dit, la gorge nouée, retenant avec difficulté ses larmes, Hubert Wulfranc, maire communiste de Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray où le prêtre catholique Jacques Hamel a été égorgé par les terroristes de Daech.

On savait que qu’il était nul, mais pas à ce point. En marge du défilé du 14 juillet, Jean-Marc Ayrault a évoqué la Syrie et "le drame de la ville d'Alep encerclée et assiégée par les troupes de Saddam Hussein".

I’m not a football fan. So I wasn’t following the whole Euro 2016 hoo-hah. To be honest, I was following it in my own way, watching what was happening around it, and besides the always-happy-always-singing Irish, it was quite an embarrassment for Europe. But then, at the end of it all, a child saved the day.

After its last year’s stunt denouncing child marriage in Lebanon – a stunt that had a worldwide echo but no effect on Lebanese authorities – the NGO KAFA (enough) Violence and Exploitation produced a new powerful video demanding to raise the age of legal marriage in Lebanon. Because let's face it, child marriage means legal child rape, nothing else.