Sound of the city

The car horn. Everyone in the city has their hand poised just above it ready to communicate all sorts of emotions. We’ve actually developed an entire non-verbal lexicon. A long beep expresses anger, two short ones are a hello to the local greengrocer, and so on. You can even express political allegiances by playing a tune. I wish they’d have every car horn removed when cars are imported. I think it would make the place friendlier and save everyone a lot of money on whisky and Xanax.

10 biggest Lebanese diaspora communities

•
January 6, 2016
•
Uncategorised

Ali Kesserwani

Carlos Slim Helu

 

The population of Lebanon is, at upper estimates, around 4 million – not counting the million-plus refugees.

But Lebanese living in Lebanon is just a drop in the bucket: Multiply that by two or three and you’ve got the number of Lebanese expatriates; we like to spread around quite extensively!

Here are the top 10 Lebanese expat communities around the world by population size, based on estimates, along with some of the most famous people form each country who are of Lebanese descent.

‘Provoke at your peril’: The Obama administration is sending a ‘message’ to Saudi Arabia

•
January 5, 2016
•
Uncategorised

 

Saudi Arabia cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, after Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran amid a row over the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric.  The US State Department on Saturday criticized Saudi Arabia's execution of Nimr al-Nimr.

It issued a statement expressing concern that Riyadh’s actions were “exacerbating sectarian tensions." On Monday, State Department spokesman John Kirby noted that Iran had arrested some protesters who ransacked the embassy, undercutting the Saudi claim that Iran's government had an implicit hand in the embassy attack.

This comment, and the administration's overall response to the spat, has led some experts to wonder whose side the White House is really on.