Putting things in perspective: Looking at Japan from the Middle East

Some people from the Mid-East region would have liked to have experienced Japan pre-this calamity...

"Japan caught most of the world news for now from the earthquake that struck over there. The nuclear reactor power plant damage alone is critical news. Hopefully its contained and no disaster happens.

Click on the below link to see satellite pictures of some areas in Japan before and after the tsunami wave. I was planning to travel to Japan this year :’("

There are few different numbers of how high were the waves caused by the recent Japanese tsunami. But I think the first picture below explains the devastation very well. When you see cars sit on top of three-story buildings you stop pondering how high the waves were. And when you see a jet pushed away you know how strong and powerful this tsunami was.

Strong opinions on how 'not' to sell Lebanon: Not the sexy boozing women in Gemmayze, nor the size of the hummus that counts, says Mustapha.

"The Minister wants to “ensure high standards” for the participants, probably by scrutinizing them in person to see if they “measure up”. It’s as if he’s trying on purpose to piss off Lebanese women and feminists.

Minister Abboud has been heavily criticized for selling Lebanon as a boobs-and-booz kind of place, most recently in a series of mediocre ads that effectively waste Lebanese taxpayer money.

But Mr. Abboud is no stranger to vulgar and superficial notions of what makes Lebanon special. After all, he’s the guy who came up with the ridiculous idea that making the world’s largest bowl of Hummus is somehow testimony to our superiority in making that dish."

Bringing out Lebanon's unashamed snobbery (Lebanon does this that and the other best, after all) , "Beirut/NTSC has gone through the most famous advertising lines to prove to you, that once an for all, Beirut could fit with all of them and still manage to recount its story."


"Akin to Stella Artois beer, Beirut is "reassuringly expensive." Unlike the beer, this is not a sign of quality but of Snobism."

Gillette, the best a man or indeed Lebanese can get...

Back to Bahrain: But what has become of his nation and people?

"My mind is in absolute turmoil. Sitting in Vancouver airport awaiting my interminable flights to get back home, I can’t prevent myself from repeatedly asking: What am I going back to? A country on the prcipesce of civil war where one is marked by the sect he or she was born into. No longer people, but containers of hate the likes of which I have never witnessed, fueled blindly and criminally by so called men of the cloth on one side, and by those who think they have the most to lose."