No smoke without fire: How are the Lebanese taking the smoking ban today?

Lebanese tobacco control law number 174 which prohibits people from smoking in all enclosed public spaces went into effect as of today but cafe owners are as expected protesting against this law and calling for exceptions to be made!

Those cafe owners had more than a year to adapt to this law, yet they chose to wait till the last day to express their concerns about it claiming that it puts their business at risk and might force them to fire a lot of their employees.

Some background to the 'event': A look at how the build-up to Lebanon's so-called smoke-free age went... Smoking ban? You cannot be serious! (as John McEnroe or Big-Mac would have said); O seriously??? (as his modern day counterpart would say.)

In hot news, the Lebanese smoking ban came into force today. Some reactions:

To say I’m excited about a smoking ban in Lebanon would be an understatement. I remember when I got the news via twitter while at a museum in Madrid last summer. I felt the need to share with anyone who’d listen, Lebanese or not.
What I didn’t think, however, was that one year later – as the ban is starting to come into effect – I’d actually see people vehemently against it, complaining about how the law is a violation of their rights, nagging about a state that can’t but feel powerful against those who are weak.

Almost a year since Tunisia's Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, Islamist party Ennahda, leader of the coalition government, continues to lose the confidence of those who rose up against dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in late 2010.

While the Jordanian art scene still has a long way to go to catch up with the bubbling passion happening in the music industry, there are a few art events every now and then that make you feel like not all hope is lost for culture in the kingdom.

One such event is Space on Board, which opened this Saturday at The Studio. A collaboration between 27 young Jordanian artists and Philadelphia Skateboards, the result was 54 reinterpreted skateboards lining the walls of the gallery.

An artistic impression of a not-so-perfect proposal!