Persiflage & Paroxysm

Folks, stop blaming the F&B industry for your bad eating habits. You demand speed and abundance on the cheap and you get just that: Cheap food that is abundant and fast but barely fit to eat. Think a little on where your food comes from: That juicy steak you ate at an expensive restaurant was, and this is pretty certain, once standing for months flank to flank and head to tail in a cramped, hot, and sweaty ship’s hold. That meat you ate once lived a horrific, short life, it was pumped full of medication to keep it alive just long enough for it to reach the slaughter house. And we all saw the slaughter house on television. So, the next time you feel like steak, buy a young, healthy calf and raise it yourself, preferably let it run free and graze on green pastures. If you can’t afford such luxury, then you don’t deserve steak! Thus is capitalism. It’s the same for chicken, and I know how we all love our chicken, our shish tawouk. Trust me, after a visit to an industrial poultry farm ...

Four leaf clovers do bloom in Lebanon An opinion with suggestions and some analysis by Hani M Bathish Talking to friends in the Gulf recently, I began to piece together the complete depressing picture of what is actually going on over there, on the job front at least. I had always kicked myself ever so slightly for allowing my big mouth to get me into hot water with the powers that be over there, culminating in my departure from a very cushy job, all on a point of principle. Today, the tables seem to have turned ever so slightly. If what a dear and close friend of mine said to me over Skype the other day is anything to go by, then the vast majority of my friends and former colleagues in Dubai that lost their jobs are facing great difficulty finding new ones. With most people still paying off huge debts and interest on debts they accumulated during Dubai’s ‘good life’ phase, I suspect the local courts will be kept quiet busy and debtors prisons will be filling up fast. “It’s not the Dub...

Dear Municipality, I write this letter to you with a pain and swelling in my knee. Today, while walking along Hamra Street, I stepped on a paving stone which I thought was solid, it wasn't, it wobbled, I lost my balance, my ankle twisted, I skipped twice on my other leg to try and stop myself falling, but to no avail. I came crashing down, full force on my knee, and I have you to thank. So, thank you. I write this letter in the hope that you would take a moment to read it and examine the photos I uploaded and maybe consider doing something about this unacceptable situation. I am a native of Ras Beirut, although I can't afford to live there. I would like to vote in the next municipal election and I don't have to tell you who I will 'not' be voting for. I don't have to tell you what Hamra represents for tourism in this country and to see wide gapping holes in its pavement, exposed cables, and grass begining to grow in these holes, makes my heart sink. I wonder wha...

Let no one say this blog does not have a lighter side. Today, with the sun brightly shining I thought I might discuss something that is close to my heart: magazines. I am a firm believer that the age of printed news is long gone, unless you live under a rock in some isolated pocket of wilderness somewhere, chances are you can get faster, fresher news on your mobile phone. But, magazines are a different story altogether, they are designed with content in mind and published to remain a valuable reference for years to come. Rummaging in my attic recently I spied an old, well worn, cover-less copy of Playboy magazine, September 1974 issue. But before your mind wonders and your scroll button moves down the screen looking for racy images or details, this will not be a discussion of cheap American erotica. The magazine I found was a treasure trove of another kind, albeit, a treasure trove whichever way you look at it, and I’ve looked at it whichever way humanly possible. It’s a time capsule, ...

I can see clearly now the fog is gone… But I’m not going to break out in spontaneous song… Nor am I going to sing for joy and extol the azure sea and blue sky, the glistening white snow covered peaks, or bright golden sun, because these things will continue to happen regardless of mankind’s condition. As I said, I can see clearly now, but I don’t like what I see. Lebanon is a great if small piece of real estate, so great in fact that its people can barely resist raping its bounty and leaving behind nothing but gapping holes, smog shrouded concrete and steal protrusions, silent seas, bald hillsides, utter, complete, and absolute ugliness. Mankind should know all about ugliness. We are slowly dying of unnatural causes, our greed, our lack of respect for or enforcement of laws is killing us all. There is hardly a young man or women I know in their early twenties to mid-30s who doesn’t know someone of their generation, friend or family, who isn’t suffering and slowly dying of cancer. The c...