Beirut's very first Social Media Awards

English

The beautiful nerds of Lebanon have done it again! After the greatest GeekFest Beirut's ever witnessed (Ok, fine, it was the only one I attended, but still it was pretty awesome) some of the most creative and witty young talents of our webnation have gathered to bring us yet another outstanding event: The Social Media Awards.

We, the online community, proposed nominees in specific categories which were then shortlisted and you can now review them all on the SMA website to vote for your favorites. Now beware, you can only vote once in each category so choose wisely.

Here are some rules that you should take into consideration: 

1. Voting will start on April 1, 2013 and end on April 25, 2013.

2. Your votes will represent 50% of the final results, while the judges re-voting will represent the other 50%.

3. You can log-in only through Facebook and Twitter to submit votes.

4. You can only vote once for each category.

5. You cannot change your votes once you submit them so be careful when you are voting.

6. To navigate to other categories, use the progress bar (white dots) at the bottom of the page.

7. If you vote for all 32 categories, you will have a chance to win 2 tickets to the final award ceremony at Phoenicia Hotel on April 29. Once you vote for all categories, you will be prompted to enter your email address for the draw.

8. You can only vote from a personal account. Votes from accounts that do not represent a person (on Facebook or Twitter) will not be counted.

9. Votes from duplicate accounts (Facebook and Twitter of the same person) will not be counted.

10. Votes from fake accounts and accounts newer than March 30, 2013 will not be counted.

11. The Social Media Awards is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and accounts and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sect, location, age, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression, disability, employment, or any other form of segregation.

12. The Social Media Awards reserves the right to disqualify nominees or users in the case of cheating, dishonest behavior, copyright infringement, trademark violations, promotion of illegal activities, abusive behavior, or promoting explicit content (such as pornography, drugs, or violence).

13. If any of the finalists is found to be cheating or spamming, that finalist will be disqualified from the competition without warning and all detect cheating voters will not be counted.

Source: The Social Media Awards

So who are your judges?

Nemr Abou Nassar (Stand up comedian)

Fida Chaaban Chaaban (Editor in chief of RAGMAG magazine)

Omar Christidis Christidis (Founder and CEO of ArabNet)

Tom Fletcher ( Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Lebanese Republic)

Mohammad Hijazi (Online Collaborative)

Ziad Kamel (Founder/CEO of The Alleyway Group)

Leila Khauli Hanna (Professor at the American University of Beirut)

Octavia Nasr (Journalist)

Shada Omar (Journalist)

Darine Sabbagh (Online Collaborative)

Nicholas Sehnaoui (Minister of Telecommunications in Lebanon)

Maya Zankoul (Author and visual artist)

Source: The Social Media Awards

Many of the nominees in my humble opinion, deserve the recognition and I am proud to see Lebanon giving Social Media the attention it deserves. So much work is being done by our online Lebanese community and most of the times, without any media coverage or visibility.

That is why this first edition of The Social Media Awards is so important. It is the beginning of, I hope, a long lasting tradition that will not only allow important members of the online community and their work to gain recognition with the wider public but it will also encourage current and new Social Media actors to come to light and know their efforts are actually appreciated.

This year, it appears some people were bashing (as haters always do) and to be honest, I too was hoping to see other candidates make the list of nominees and as much as I do not have to be in agreement with all the choices that were shortlisted (in my humble opinion, again) one thing is for certain, this is a first step. An excellent one even. And I am confident each SMA edition will be a learning experience to the online community as much as to the organizers, and will raise the bar for the Awards to come. So let us start, shall we? And by doing so, let us get involved and make sure upcoming events will continue to develop and grow.

I am still in the process of casting my votes. It turns out it requires more attention that I expected and since with (clicking)power comes great responsibility, I would like to make sure my voice truly represents me.

So far, I have focused on the categories close to my heart: NGOs.

Two of my favorites are actually competing and not only do I admire the work that these organizations have been doing, I have nothing but absolute respect for the ladies behind them. I am in awe of what they have already achieved and I can only see greater accomplishments in their future.

Source

The first one is One Wig Stand. They need no introduction if you follow this blog: Bras For A Cause Middle East and Make The Cut: Hair Donation Campaign are two of the many initiatives this NGO has successfully managed to run both locally and on the regional scene offering women battling cancer with support, hope and most importantly empowering them to go beyond taboos and to shine as human beings, fighters and women. Inner beauty and inner strength will grow even stronger when you allow them to glow on the outside as well, and this is what these initiatives are about. Be as fabulous as your spirit, ladies!

My second vote went to The Nawaya Network, a well-deserving organization that has been tirelessly touring the globe to gain means (financial or otherwise) in order to empower our underprivileged youth by granting them access to resources they could not have dreamed of acquiring on their own thus helping them turn their talents and hopes into realities and consequently become assets to our nation. This is the kind of education we need for our children: non-politicized, unbiased, secular support for a united young Lebanon built by intelligent, successful young talents.

Source

It is just my own personal view but I believe many other organizations I love could have been shortlisted too and benefited from the media exposure, such as SANAD, Cupcake Box, Lebanese Laïque Pride, Ibtissama, Skoun, Nasawiya, and the brilliant Take Back Parliament campaign.

But I guess at the end of the day, it is not realistic nor reasonable to shortlist everyone at this stage of the competition, and ultimately, only one will win anyway although I honestly believe all the current nominees deserving of an award. Yet this is not L'École Des Fans, and as much as I would love to hear 'tout le monde a gagné' (everyone is a winner) we all know this is not possible.

Hey, a modest mention on this even modester blog cannot hurt, right?
So there, it is done ;)

Now it is your turn to give your favorite nominees a voice or rather a click... So who will you support?


Bookmarks

• The Social Media Awards official website
• Like The Social Media Awards on Facebook
• Follow The Social Media Awards on Twitter
• Join The Social Media Awards on LinkedIn

 

Find this blog on Facebook

Laïque Priders take the streets!

English

May 6, 2012: For the third year in a row, citizens of Lebanon assumed their duties and gathered in Beirut to demand radical changes of the country's confessional system and called for a secular state where all Lebanese can be equal under the same set of laws. This year's protest focused on:

• Enacting a unified Civil Code for the Personal Status Law. 
• Passing the Law for Protection of Women from Family Violence submitted by KAFA to the Lebanese parliament. We denounce the parliamentary committee distortions to the law draft and demand the full adoption of Kafa’s original draft that included criminalizing marital rape. 
• Abolishing article 522 of the penal law, which drops charges against a rapist if he marries his victim. 
• Amending the nationality law for the full right of Lebanese women to grant their nationality to their children and spouses. 
• Passing the Draft Law Prohibiting the Pre-Censorship on Cinema and Theatre launched by Maharat Foundation and Marsad Al-Raqaba. 
• Withdrawing the draft law Lebanese Internet Regulation Act (LIRA) proposed by the Lebanese Ministry of Information. 

Photo Credit: Sarkis Abouzeid (Source)

The Lebanese Laïque Pride : Asecular march towards citizenship

Protestors gathered in front of Sanayeh garden in Hamra and walked together to Ain El Mraisse. This year, a remarkable new element was added to the march: a Speaker’s Corner at the corniche, where everyone and anyone was invited to speak up and answer the question: "How would you change Lebanon?" 

I was very happy to be able to make it with my one-year old daughter Mia and my sixty-one year old dad. Three generations marching for the same rights. For a better Lebanon. For a better future. 

Will Mia and her baby brother need to keep on walking for sixty-one years, like their grand-pa'? We do not know yet but one can only hope our generation can make a change, not matter how slight.

Photo Credit: Rouba Abouzeid (Source)

Some were quick to discredit the march, their main argument being it is not an organized group and the goals do not include a comprehensive political, economical and social agenda. That is correct. 


The Lebanese Laïque Pride does not pretend to be a miracle cure nor is it a political party. 

It is a popular movement that was born from the people, for the people and that insists on remaining as such. Free from the grip of politicians and their greed.

And that is where the strength of the Lebanese Laïque Pride lies, I believe. 

Organized political parties with their supposed programs and big slogans which are only heard at elections time have failed to meet the needs of the people. They are so fixated on discrediting their competition, they cannot even hear those people or comprehend their needs!

Maybe, a movement led by the people themselves can be the redeeming alternative to political campaigns driven by politicians with and for specific individuals' agendas.

I was actually a little disappointed by many people I know. To be honest, I expected to meet half my acquaintances yesterday. Only two people I personally know showed up! Two! Maybe everyone I know is indeed out of the country. Or on vacation somewhere. Who knows.

I come from a line of seculars. At our household, this is the only system we understand, despite where we come from: a town based on "families" and deeply rooted feudalism. My dad's life was threatened at the heart of his parents' home when he was a young activist, on many occasions. And yet, this is the only person he can be. This is the only person I can be. 

So we always feel very excited and empowered when we take part in secular endeavors. And we naively assume those we see everyday and who share those same values would be as eager as we are. So yes, "only two" was a disappointment to me. 


But I am not at all disappointed by the Lebanese Laïque Pride itself, far from it. So many people, young and less young, gathered in spite of the burning temperatures and walked in sweat to make their voice, a unified Lebanese voice, heard in the main streets of Beirut, but also in the smaller neighborhoods where eyes were staring from windows and balconies. 

Photo Credit: Rouba Abouzeid (Source)

No quotas. No majority. No opposition. One unified Lebanon, made of Lebanese citizens from all walks of life, fighting for one unified nation. Lebanese citizens. Citizens.

One of the most striking and painfully true chant I heard around me was "I am not a sheep"! Painfully true, because it is hard to imagine, in this day and age, we need to remind our (so-called) leaders of that fact.

My dad, the eternal optimist who believes any secular effort in the right direction launched by any group deserves our support, was extremely pleased with the turn up. He told me he is always pleasantly surprised by the new faces and young blood he meets at those events. It means secularism is not some faraway, imported concept. It is a real need. And as young minds grow and understand, they make that need their own. So it is no shock, every year, new people representing their younger generation join the fight. And we must support them in that fight for a better nation for all.

Photo Credit: Rouba Abouzeid (Source)

Political parties with their broad programs (or lack thereof, come on, you know it) can keep their wide national goals. At the Lebanese Laïque Pride we aim small (maybe) but specific and definitely achievable. We do not ask for much. But what we ask for is definitely reasonable. We do not claim to fix every problem there is in Lebanon. But we know those problems we focus on are fixable, now. And funnily enough, they do not require that much effort or any budget from our parliamentarians. Just some common sense and the will to actually make a change, not just babble about it.

Find this blog on Facebook

BEE like Beirut

English

Beirut is like a beehive this month, so gear up for an excellent May 2012! 

Why don't you Bee Like Beirut too and join all the little ants running around town this month? OK, all the excitement might have got me a little confused. The animal world was never my haven anyway, I hate mosquito bites too much. In any case, ants, bees, mosquitoes, who cares?

What matters is 

it all starts today at Metropolis - Empire (Sofil Center)

Scrapbook: A Month Of Lebanese Cinema, dedicated to films produced locally between 2010 and 20122; for your eyes only. 

Yes, the trailer does not lie, one of our personal favorites, Gate #5 الحوض الخامس will be screening starting May 10. The highly promising program also features:

Scrapbook Program

• Sector Zero | القطاع صفر by Nadim Mishlawi - Starting May 3 
• The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni | اختفاءات سعاد حسني الثلاثة by Rania Stephan - Starting May 17 
• My Father is still a Communist by Ahmad Ghossein - Starting May 24 
• It's All Lebanon by Wissam Charaf - Starting May 31 
• Marcedes | مارسيدس by Hady Zaccak - Starting May 31 
• Yamo | يامو by Rami Nihawi - Starting June 14 
• Ok, Enough, Goodbye | طيب، خلص، يلا by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia - Starting June 14 

Each film will be screening for 2 weeks and all are in Arabic with English subtitles. Tickets are sold  for 8,000 L.L. and Scrapbook Passes are at 40,000 L.L. Students also benefit from a special discount (5,000 L.L.)


Also this Sunday, May 6, Maz Jobrani will be performing to help raise funds and awareness for SANAD and the seculars of Lebanon will march once again to demand their rights at the The Lebanese Laïque Pride.


Last but not least, I have to end with a quick reminder: my sister is running the Course des Héros taking place this June in Paris in order to collect donations for Cancer Research. Your help is extremely important and highly appreciated so please spread the word, especially to your friends and acquaintances who reside in France, as their donations are tax deductible.



Bookmarks:

Metropolis Cinema Official Web , Facebook and Twitter

Scrapbook event on Facebook

The Lebanese Laïque Pride on Facebook, Twitter, and this year's March

SANAD on Facebook and Maz Jobrani's show  

Gate #5

Sector Zero

OK, Enough, Goodbye

Marcedes

Find this blog on Facebook

Sorry seems to be the hardest word…

English

Apologies my dear, faithful reader, I know you feel left out; and rightfully so. Yet, my disappearance has nothing to do with you. I hate to use clichés here, but truly: it is not you, it is me. Involuntarily, no doubt. Still, I take the blame. 

The truth of the matter is, I am incarcerated in Mommyland. It breaks my heart you have been losing sleep over my absence however some things cannot be helped. Perpetuity is indeed a long time, but thank God I do get a day out every once in a while, on probation of course. So here I am, at your service, for an hour or so. 

I could give you a double bill of rantings: one on Mia and one on Jad. I could talk bottles, milk, diapers and colics. Paracetamol, antibiotics, syrup and suppositories. I could throw in some sleep depravation somewhere. But I refuse to use this time nagging. 

What I will do instead is volunteer a few hints of what you can while you wait for my next day out ;)

Beirut's cultural scene is buzzing these days, so here's how you can enjoy interesting art events and why not, even do your share of good deeds. 

The line up compiled for your eyes only has something to please everyone: fine arts, performing arts, film screenings and even a little activism because well, there are some things worth nagging for over, and over, and over. 

So, currently running at the UNESCO Palace until April 15, an exhibition coming all the way from Switzerland by Lebanon-born painter Sayed Yammine.

Sayed Yammine UNESCO Expo (invitation)

All the details are available on Facebook, and for those who would like to get to know the artist a little more, here is an interview where he introduces his latest work and the subjects of his Beirut Exhibition:

Moving on to movie lovers now, with the screening of "Meet Me Halfway", the documentary produced by The Nawaya Network. Learn more about this awesome NGO and the people behind it on April 17 at the AUB. All the event details are available on Facebook.

And cherry on top: Cupcake Box will also be there, supporting this event! Yum!

May is also looking good so mark your calendars because on the 6th Maz Jobrani is returning to Beirut, with a cause! Tickets are on sale at Virgin Megastore and all proceeds will go to SANAD, a wonderful organization that provides care for terminally ill patients and their families in Lebanon.

Photo Credit: Maz Jobrani

And last but definitely not least, and also on May 6, The Lebanese Laïque Pride will take Beirut's streets by storm for the third consecutive year. Be there! The protest details are all available on Facebook.

Photo Credit: Lebanese Laique Pride

Find this blog on Facebook

Fight the good fights!

English

I was starting to freak out a little bit but things are back to normal now.

I visited my blog earlier and discovered the last article I had posted about Bras for a Cause had completely disappeared. It was nowhere to be found! Not in my drafts. Not in my posted messages. Nowhere.

Thank God for Google! I found out Blogger experienced some technical issues which led to posts being removed from some blogs. Everything is to be restored in the next few hours. And before I completely lost it, I rejoiced at the sight of a lot to BRAg about! back where it belongs :)


So apologies for all of this :)

--

I wanted to drop a line today to remind everyone of the Lebanese Laïque Pride happening this Sunday! 
Lebanon! Be there!
We're all counting on you!


Also, Bras for a Cause is revealing every day a new category in their competition so make sure to check their page regularly for updates. And start having fun with your designs!

Lebanese Laïque Pride 2011

English

On May 15, 2011 the Lebanese secular community is marching once again to demand their most basic right: a united nation ruled by unified civil laws, rights and duties that apply equally to all Lebanese citizens.

In a country like Lebanon, where differences seem larger than commonalities, where divisions seem easier than unity, where sectarian groups have at the very least one, sometimes more political parties (taking into account this tiny nation has officially acknowledged more religious and sectarian groups than an entire continent!) the concept of a unit gathering Lebanese citizens from all walks of life seems as improbable as  guilt-free chocolate (let's face it, sugar-free just isn't the same).

And yet, this group has managed to stay away from politicians' claws and remain true to their values and ethics. 

No politicians. No political parties. No sectarian groups. No affiliation whatsoever.

It's very simple; on May 15, all Lebanese will just be one thing: 

Lebanese. 

Nothing else.

2011 will witness the second Lebanese Laïque* Pride. 

*Laïque means "secular" in French

Looking back at last year's gathering and 2011's potential, it's hard to believe it all started with a simple debate on Facebook. What might have ended with a few posts between friends quickly snowballed into a massive event, mostly powered by social media and the will of those who have had enough with obsolete politicians and politics ruling their lives.

My parents' generation had been fighting for that same right for ages; fighting for a better Lebanon for them, and for us.

On May 15 we'll be marching side by side my parents and I.

My dad will proudly be carrying my five months old daughter Mia on his shoulders on that day. She can't march but she'll be there anyway, alongside her parents and grand-parents. For Lebanon. For herself. And for what this event represents to her generation and the future of her country.

And hopefully, this will be the last time she has to march for such a basic right. 

See you there, Lebanon!

Time: Sunday, May 15 · 3:00pm - 4:30pm

Location: From Aïn Mraïssé to Riad El-Solh - Beirut , LEBANON

For more details on the march in Lebanon and in other countries, check Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to the Laïque Pride mail list.

--
Lebanese rapper Rayess Bek's contribution for the occasion:

You can download the ringtone by clicking here.

The Lebanese Laïque Pride

English

Rayess Bek's contribution to the The Lebanese Laïque Pride - مَسِيرَة من أجل دولة علما which will take place in Beirut on April 25, 2010 at 11am.

Join the pride & march for a secular Lebanon!

Email The Lebanese Laïque Pride
Follow The Lebanese Laïque Pride on Twitter
Check The Lebanese Laïque Pride Blog
Add The Lebanese Laïque Pride on Facebook
Join the group & event on Facebook