Of all the interesting projects born out of Beirut’s recent burst of creativity, few come close to being as groovy as Beirut Jam Sessions.

We just wanted to thank everyone for the support you’ve shown for our blog. We’ve had 5,352 unique visitors per month on average and our first goal is to reach 100,000 per month. Thanks again and don’t forget that everything we do is under a Creative Commons license. You can also check out our Fb […]

On this day of remembrance, let us shut up for a moment and reflect on its significance. Now, we all have this friend or family member who will complain about how Lebanon isn’t all that independent and we all have that other friend or family member who is already painting his face red, white and […]

by Joey Ayoub Students from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Lebanese American University (LAU) have each staged sit-ins in support of the murdered children of Gaza. I have participated in the AUB one and here is a shot of the sit-in taken by myself. It happened around 40 minutes ago (Noon, Lebanese […]

This is a late but still relevant reflection on the concept of identity in light of last month’s bombing in Achrafieh. In Madagascar, we used names and titles with an ease that can only suggest certainty. We were certain of who we were. We were the Malagasies and the Lebanese and the Norwegian and the […]

I am unfortunately unable to finish my article on the moral necessity to denounce the Catholic Church as suggested by the symbolic boycott of the Pope’s visit to Lebanon in September. I am traveling in 3 days and will be unavailable to finish such a demanding task. I was hoping to write a long article […]

By Joey Ayoub We have finished the report on the Karantina Slaughterhouse and are currently finishing translating it into Arabic, French and Armenian. We are about 10 active students who are dedicated to seeing a concrete change happening in the Karantina Slaughterhouse. That being said, we decided not to publish it before September when the […]

By Joey Ayoub We, the Environmental and Public Health class of AUB, just came back from our visit to the Bekaa where a food safety ‘debate’ took place between our Microbiology Teacher, Dr. Rabih Kamleh, and the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Hussein Al Hajj Hassan. In light of recent events that took place – I’m […]

The following post is an eye-witness account of the horrors happening inside the Karantina Slaughterhouse. I have visited the slaughterhouse last Monday the 2nd of July with my Environmental and Public Health Class of the American University of Beirut. This post is accompanied with graphic images and a video which are placed at the bottom […]

The following is the HRW report on Lebanon for the year 2011 Downloadable Resources: World Report Chapter: Lebanon 2012 (PDF) More coverage: More Human Rights Watch reporting on Lebanon 2011 was mostly a year of political paralysis for Lebanon. The country had no government for the first six months, and while political life resumed in […]

J’ai donne une interview a L’Orient Le Jour concernant le projet “Humans of Lebanon”. L’article. You can find the English translation on the Facebook page here. 1- Pouvez-vous m’expliquer le concept de “Humans of..” en quelques mots? “Humans of..” a commencé avec un homme, Brandon Stanton, qui décida de faire un “recensement photographique” de la […]

By Joey Ayoub Humans of Lebanon was started as a sort of unofficial sequel to Humans of Beirut. What we do is simple: we post photographs, amateur and professional alike, of human beings in Lebanon. Anyone can participate. If you feel you have something important to share, please send us your photograph(s) to humansoflebanon@gmail.com We […]

One of the main features of the Gary Ross science fiction action film The Hunger Games is the extremely disturbing and ridiculous looks of the wealthy and powerful inhabitants of The Capitol. They are shown to enjoy the glamorous and yet abhorrent event that are the Hunger Games. They are not so different from us […]

by Joey Ayoub I sent an e-mail to Prof. Noam Chomsky almost a year ago on the 28th of March, 2011 and received a reply less than 2 hours later. Dear Prof. Chomsky, First of all, I’d like to thank you for everything you’ve done, you’ve really been an eye-opener for many of us. I […]