Lier 7?

Seriously, I’m still wondering and wondering about some of these newly opened roof tops or open air clubs!

Here is how it goes:

- You buy a land, basically in a strategic spot, which is logically “VERY EXPENSIVE”.

- You build a luxurious and pricey building (or open air space) in almost two weeks.

- You do some massive marketing campaigns, including radio ads, websites ads, Lebanese celebrities invitations…

- You organize huge openings where you invite everyone.

- Each weekend you bring some of the international stars for live performances (lately: Ke$ha, Alexander Stan, Adam Clay, …) including dancers, musicians …
By the way, rumors say that one of these artists got paid 200,000 $ for a 30 minutes performance!

The thing is, these clubs open two months per year, and some of these have to vanish before it rains or the place will be ruined!

Can you please explain to me how is this reasonably possible? Especially in an average country with mostly average people?

Thanks!

A Lebanese True Story

A friend of mine, who's a volunteer in the Lebanese Red Cross in Antelias (North Beirut), had an overnight shift this last Friday.
His shift finishes at 7h00 am, when he goes straight to work.

At 7h, he left the building to find out that his car was stolen from the parking next to the Red Cross center!

So the good guy Shady called the ISF (Internal Security Forces) immediately.

At 8h00 am, he asked someone in the ISF if they told their Information Branch about what happened?

And the answer he got was: 'We will tell them later on, it's still too early for them, haram!'

SERIOUSLY! these are the people we're trying to build a safe country with!

The poor Shady did some investigations on his own around that parking to see if there are any cameras or any witnesses, but none has been found.

And now he's desperately waiting for the thieves to call him, knowing that the ISF will do nothing!

If you don't know the usual car stealing process, it goes like this:

1. They steal your car

2. They use it in some ‘legal’ businesses (yeah right!)

3. Call you and sell it again to you (but less than its usual price! They are good guys after all!)

4. You bring the money and head to 'Britél' (somewhere in Bekaa), give them the requested amount and get your half-wrecked car back.

The ISF know where the stolen cars are, but can't do anything about it... Since the gang has its back covered.

Shady man! Keep on Surviving!

PS: Britél = Bretelle (or shoulder strap) in a Lebanese ‘bad’ accent ;)

Connect the dots

A teacher gave her 8 years old students the usual 'connect the dots correctly' test to solve it as one of their holiday homework which should take approximately two to three weeks.

Below is the test:

Most of the students matched the dots correctly except one student.
It took him around four months to finish his homework and it was all wrong!

His name was Najib.

Kindly help Najib finish his homework before he gets a zero.

PS: The characters in the above story are a figment of my own imagination and are not related to reality in any way ;)

Meanwhile keep on Surviving...

KSA's FC Barcelona

Last week, my good old friend Elie (@AccidentalTweep) was in KSA and he was so happy telling me that he bought me an FC Barcelona iPhone cover, or at least he thought he did.

Below is a photo of the cover:

Did you notice anything weird?
If you didn't, check the 'original' logo of FC Barcelona:

Maybe that's for another team or something! ;)

World Heritage Day in Lebanon

If you didn't know, The 18th of April is the World Heritage Day, or the international day of monuments and sites.This was designated by UNESCO in 1982 in response to a proposal by ICOMOS (International Council Of Monuments and Sites).
Each year, a theme is selected to help focus the celebration and promotion of cultural heritage across the world.
This year's theme is The cultural heritage of water.

As for Lebanon, the Ministry of Culture, in association with the "International Council of Museums", the "National Heritage Foundation" and the "APSAD" association will be celebrating this day by the opening of all museums in various Lebanese regions for free to the public for four days (Thursday 18th till Monday 22nd of May).

As for the archeological sites and Nature reserves, free access will be granted starting from the 19th until the 22nd of May.

The Archeological sites includes:

• The archeological valley of Nahr El Kalb.
• Beiteddine Mansion
• Municipality of Beirut
• Cathedral of St. George's Roman Catholic
• Church of St. George Maronite
• Al Omari Al Kabir Mosque
• Prince Assaf Mosque - Downtown Beirut,
• Castles of Majdal Anjar, Anjar, Baalbek, Niha, Sidon, Tripoli, Tyre and Byblos, in addition to the sites of excavations in central Beirut.

The Nature reserves includes: (by the way this is the first time that Nature reserves participates in this event)

• Al Shouf Cedar Nature Reserve
• Ammik - Bekaa
• Horch Ehden
• Tyre
• Palm Trees island (Jazeerat Al nakhel) - Tripoli
• Bentael
• Tannourine Cedar Nature Reserve
  

I would've loved to see Jeita in the above list as part of the New 7 wonders campaign (if you didn't vote yet, hurry up!).
Anyway, benefit from this to plan a special weekend to visit some of the places that you have never seen in Lebanon. :)

( Source: Lebanon Files )

Z Mystery Revealed!

The mystery is finally revealed!

The Z Liberation Cell are no thieves!

They were just calling for a change!

And Zaatar w Zeit's heroic reaction made it all happen:

• The re-branding is on.
• A new logo is released.
• And a whole new concept with a whole unique experience to be introduced.

To have a brief real/unreal idea of what happened, check the following comic strips:

1. The ZwZ Mystery Revealer Part I.
2. The ZwZ Mystery Revealer Part II.
3. The ZwZ Mystery Revealer The happy ending.

Most of the photos in these comic strips were uploaded by ZwZ fans on a Facebook page called Missing Z Domination and I can easily say that these guys are CREATIVE! check the rest of the photos on the same page.
You can check Zaatar w Zeit's official revealing video here (Loved it).

You will be noticing the changes soon, and of course it will begin from where it all started:

The Zaatar w Zeit's first branch in Sodeco :)

Taken from Plus961

Today's 16 Google doodles

Today is the 76^th Birthday of Roger Hargreaves, and this time Google decided to manipulate between 16 doodles each time you refresh the page.

So basically Google decided to create 16 doodles for Mr. Hargreaves and didn’t custom any doodle on Easter day.

A big thanks to Marie (@MarieNakhle) who got me all the doodles : )