World Cup National Flags Invading Lebanon:
“Flags Selling Faster than Bread!”
Let’s have a walk around Beirut city. We bet you’ll find plenty of World Cup national flags dangling over peoples’ balconies. We’re also pretty sure you’ll find at least one in every ten cars with a flag attached to its windshield. A heat wave of world cup national flags has invaded our country people! The approach of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa this year has had almost everyone anticipate the excitement and energy that the special championship has to offer. We got supermarkets, toy shops, internet centers, sportswear stores and even street sellers all heavily equipped with World Cup merchandise like T-shirts, car accessories, key chains, flags, hats, bracelets and mugs to sell to the fervent Lebanese fans.
It’s a good time for business. Manal Stouhi owns a sportswear shop called Tchestico in Dohat Aramoun. “Flags are selling a lot! If we were selling bread in this shop, flags and World Cup accessories would sell even better,” she said. Stouhi even believes that if she were selling Lebanese political party flags (and aren’t they aplenty) World Cup flags would outsell them easily. “I think everybody has a tendency to develop a liking to sports while political parties are a whole different and complicated matter. Encouraging a football team is a lot easier than encouraging a political party,” she said. She also added that products with the Argentinean Lionel Messi’s pictures on them are the most wanted/bought products.
Speaking of Argentina; Sara Amhaz, is a 21 year old AUB student, who recently went into a grocery store in Jnah to buy a lighter, “I asked for a lighter and the guy gave me one with the word Germany and the picture of the German flag and printed on it. The guy almost shoved it in my face insisting I buy it because he believes the German team is the winning team this time and that they’re the best!” Amhaz angrily refused taking the lighter and verbally fought with the man on which team will be winning this championship. “I never bought anything from that guy,” she said. Instead she went into a neighboring grocery store and found what she was looking for: A lighter with an Argentinean flag printed on it. Hallelujah! “I’ve been supporting the Argentinean team ever since I was a little girl. My favorite player was always Diego Maradona and even if he’s not playing anymore I’m still with Argentina,” said Amhaz.
Not only are rival supporters fighting over who will win the World Cup, there are also those who are even willing to fight with their own family members in order to shield their favorite team.
Fadi El Khatib, the Lebanese basketball player currently playing for Champville SC in the Lebanese Basketball League, is a very loyal supporter of Italy who currently holds the championship’s title. “I’m making my two boys support Italy just like I grew up convinced that Italy has the best players and the best team,” he said. He even once had a verbal fight with his own cousin because his cousin was an Argentine supporter. The fight lasted for a whole week!
Contrary to all the fighting is the cooler and sweeter effect of the World Cup on some of our young citizens. Ibrahim Ballout, is the 24 year old captain of the LAU rugby team that actually won in the final game of the national championship this year in Lebanon. Ballout met his ex girlfriend back in 2006 when the previous World Cup tournament took place. Ballout said that they were each cruising in their own separate car with the Italian flag attached to their car’s radio antenna. It was solely because of the Italian flags that they socialized and go to know each other. With time they realized that they had a lot in common apart from their support for the Italian team. They later hooked up together.
Some people, like Ihab Al Aawar who works at Kono Pizza in Sadat Street, are so loyal to their preferred team that they’re willing to decorate their entire car with that country’s national flag. We hardly believe you can ever miss this guy’s car. You can see it parked in front of the new Pizza parlor with the field green color of the Brazilian flag surrounding and covering it all. He even has the BM metal logo on the hood covered up with a small Brazilian flag. “I’m not done with decorating my car yet, I still want to add a see-through windshield in the colors and shape of the Brazilian national flag. I simply love Brazil and I’ve encouraged its Football team players ever since I was a kid,” said Al Aawar.
With summer approaching, kids are avidly anticipating the aura of the World Cup South Africa 2010 by listening to new famous songs like Akon’s official 2010 FIFA World Cup song. Samer Wehbe is a 35 year old owner of a music store in Koraytem. “There are school teachers who come in here asking me for music CDs of world cup songs. These teachers tell me that their young students are very excited about the FIFA World Cup in South Africa this year. They’re refusing to listen to regular songs before their summer vacation starts,” said Wehbe. He also added, “It’s amazing in Lebanon how people get excited over events like the World Cup, I don’t think you’ll find people hanging flags everywhere in South Africa itself a couple of months before the games begin. I think Lebanese people enjoy challenging one another quite a lot”. When asked how many qualified World Cup country flags he sells per day, Wehbe answered: “Well I sell approximately 15 flags per day, I guess it’s because the event hasn’t started yet”.
Other preparations for the World Cup tournament this year are cafés around the country that are expecting clients to enjoy the games on big flat screen monitors with the traditional “narjileh” to enhance the atmosphere and lengthen their stay. Ruba Haidar is the public relations manager at Nafas Café located in Ramlet El- Baida. “We are well prepared for receiving the World Cup fans at our café,” said Haidar pointing at the several decorative flags in the café of most of the countries qualified to play in this event. She also mentioned that their café hasn’t really modified their menu prices to take advantage of the event taking place in less than a month.
It seems that the Lebanese can’t wait for the games after all…
Add a comment June 12, 2010
#lausocial at #geekfestbeirut!
“Mom! Iam going to geekfest”…Mom said: “What??”…I said:”Nothing mom, Bye!.”
Friends called me: “Reem let’s go for sushi.”…I said:”No I am soryy I can’t, I am going to geekfest.”And then my friends replied: ” Wtf? what’s geekfest?”
Well my friends, #geekfestbeirut is a festival that happened at the Art Lounge next to Forum de Beyrouth.
#lausocial, our class with Ayman Itani, attended this festival and took credit of all the tweets and technological progress it accomplished. It was an event of fun, friendship, closure, technology, knowledge, and fundraising for Philippe’s heart transplant. It was an event to see people offline, besides seeing them online. I learned alot from #geekfestbeirut and mostly, from #lausocial.. I learned how to be a geek, how to talk to people I barely know in person, how to grow relationships with business people and friendships.
My life now is full hashtags, followers, and direct messages. But I like it because I have the choice when and where to use it. I can add now to my personal CV that I am an active member online, and I thank Ayman Itani, not because he was there to evaluate. I thank him because he was there to help, find a solution to everything, and most significantly; he was there to teach us and make us learn what we always ignored.
I love #lausocial and #geekfestbeirut. I love twitter and facebook. I <3 technology 
Add a comment June 1, 2010
New Media with the Old and New Generation.
New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies in the later part of the 20th century. Most technologies described as “new media” are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible, interactive and impartial. Some examples may be the Internet, websites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD-ROMS, and DVDs. New media is not television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or paper-based publications.
I was asked to discuss the issue of New media with 3 people of different age ranges. So I had to ask Karim15 years, Sara 21 years and Dalal 50 years about their personal view concerning New media and its effect on people. The first video (Karim’s) shows how the new generation is very attached to the concept of social networking and technology to the extent that teenagers nowadays cannot go on a day without contacting one another and communicating throught the easiest way possible. The second video (Sara’s) shows that aults and university students use the internet and new media frequently but in a balanced way so not to harm their health. Adults just use new media to communicate but to work and buy important stuff at the same time. Whereas the last video (Dalal’s) shows that the old generation such as our parents believe that new media is breaking the bond between parents and children and is invading the world in a more negative way because it is harming the mental and physical health of a person. The differences between the three videos is the excitement of the people treating this subject. For example, Karim was so enthusiastic that he cannot spend a day without using at least a thing related to new media. While Dalal was a little bit irritated and mad that new media is not helping her spend quality time with her children. But when discussing the similarities between the videos, we find the link between Karim and Dalal is Sara who uses the internet for fun and work at the same time. The similarities between the three videos is the belief that new media will always be there and will keep on invading our worlds because there is no end for such an invention.
This project was recorded on Blackberry 8900 (Bold1), sent to a Laptop through bluetooth, editted using windows movie maker, uploaded using Captiontube, and shared using Youtube. The easiest thing about editting the uploaded videos was the cutaways and insertion of titles and credits. Whereas the most difficult part of it was the insertion of captions! That was a disaster!!!!
My favourite part of the project was the idea of listening to different views and taking into consideration the opinion of the young as well as the old. But this feeling got interrupted when mistakes and bumps happen while working on such a project. For example, the laptop turned off because there was no electricity!!!!
To wrap it up, this project was an interesting one because it was fast, vital, and an easy one. It made me understand why parents and older generation are more attached to traditional ways of communication and why this new generation are very excited about technology. This leaves me standing infront of an open gate, and I will have to welcome everything new this life is offering me.
http://bit.ly/cCAQ2j
http://bit.ly/aJiUqQ
http://bit.ly/bfj3bi
Add a comment May 18, 2010
Talking to a Stranger !
Chatroulette is a website that pairs random strangers to a one-to-one chat via video, audio and text at the same time. If the user wants to leave the chat at any point they may click “next” to switch into a new conversation. Chatroulette was created by a 17 year old student Andrey Ternovskiy in Moscow. Andrey started this website after he used Skype in two days and two nights. In early November 2009, shortly after the site launched, it had 500 visitors per day. One month later there were 50,000. The site has been featured in The New York Times, New York magazine, and on Good Morning America, Newsnight in the United Kingdom,Tosh.0, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Chatroulette was even parodied in the South Park season 14 episode “You Have 0 Friends”. In February 2010, there were about 35,000 people on Chatroulette at any given time. Around the beginning of March, Ternovskiy estimated the site to have around 1.5 million users, approximately 33% of them from the United States and 5% from Germany.
My experience with Chatroulette was not pleasing. I was connected randomly with strangers , the thing that is irritating due to the appearance of a big number of naked or lifeless people. I didnot like the website as well as after pressing the “next” button, it took like 2 minutes to connect to another chat ( this means I saw what I saw !!!)
Two other services similar to Chatroulette are: Omegle and Oovoo. I personally prefer Oovoo since this program should be downloaded and users have the choice either to talk to strangers or add their friends and chat live. I prefer Oovoo because a person can control his choices more and choose what atmosphere he/she wants to be in.
My personal insight on the global appeal of randomly talking to strangers on the internet is not motivating. Personally, Skype is the best program for chatting via video, audio, and text. People can add eachother based on their names and it is more descent and popular. We use such services in order to communicate faster and feel that the person we are talking to is real and close. Such services inhance social networking and live communicating.
Chatroulette, in my opinion, will pick up in Lebanon due to sexual frustration resulting from conservativity in some ares of the country as well as the traditions and beliefs of the society . People will try to break the taboos using such website especially that it is booming at this stage .
Add a comment May 15, 2010
Foursquare Application
Foursquare is an application that inhances us to connect with people using it. Through foursquare, users can know where their friends are hanging out . They can also know their friend’s feedback concerning that place. This way , Foursquare activates the circle of contacts and is a very fast and easy way to communicate through social networking.
Personally, I would like to be the mayor of Roadster Hamra, Mandarine Verdun, Annahar newspaper Downtown, and Buddha Bar Downtown.
The installation process of Foursquare is very easy, you can run it automatically from you phone, computer, or blackberry !!
Many business opportunities may arise using foursquare. For example, if a manager of a place posts on Foursquare a job vacancy, users might apply. Moreover, Foursquare is a road to advertise a place since it helps in marketing due to the circle of contacts and public relations through it.
Through connecting between friends on Foursquare, people might be motivated or discouraged to try a place and that is according to the people’s feedback posted on the application. In addition to the interaction that could happen if people on foursquare are heading to the same destination! Do you believe in blind dates ? This way of social networking can also help #lausocial to communicate far away from the traditional way that phonecalls provide.
I will use Foursquare each time I enter a new place that captures my attention either in a positive way or a negative one. Whereas, I wouldn’t use it if I already posted about the place Iam heading to or if my visit is somehow ‘confidential’.
Add a comment May 10, 2010
New Media!! How much do we know about it?
I will be asking 3 people about their opinion on NEW MEDIA.
1- Sara Amhaz, AUB student (majoring in Psychology), 21 years (she uses fb 8 hours a day)
2- Karim El Khatib, Rawda Highschool Student, 15 YEARS
3-Dalal Ibrahim, Mother, 50 years
I will be asking my interviewees those 5 questions:
1- What does New media mean to you ? How is it changing your life?
2- Do you think you are getting closer to people and growing friendships through new media? Or you only communicate with your old friends?
3- Do you think new media will develop and invade the world or will just stop where it reached?
4- If you have to invent something related to New Media, what would it be?
5- What is the latest thing you bought that is related to technology and new media and why?
Add a comment May 1, 2010
My blog is now under Creative Commons :D
<a rel=”license” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/”><img alt=”Creative Commons License” style=”border-width:0″ src=”http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/88×31.png” /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel=”license” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/”>Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License</a>.
Add a comment April 17, 2010
Again Maya Zankoul visits Us :)
On Thursday April 15th, Maya Zankoul visited us at lausocial class. She presented to us the advantages of using Creative Commons, a website about copy rights and sharing your work as journalists. It was really a fun session since Maya informed us about the Creative Commons Salon that happened in Beirut yesterday. I am looking forward to meeting Maya again, as well as I really wanted to attend the cc salon but I had work so….
Anyway, wish you best of luck Maya and thank you so much and Mr. Ayman 
for helping us through everything…catch you on twitter @MayaZankoul
Add a comment April 17, 2010
Conference at LAU about Prostitution
A very interesting conference was held at LAU on Thursday, April 8th about prostitution around the world. The presentor described prostitution as a problem and tragedy not as a profession. She had a very obvious sense of humor when talking that she made all the listeners in the room laugh. Moreover, she admitted she is a feminist for she have been seeing many forms of sexual abuse against women. Ms. Gunilla S. Ekberg showed videos about prositutes talking about their experience which made many women in the room tear. Moreover, she mentioned that 7000 000 women all around the world are victims of prostitution. This conference shed light on the issue of prostitution and pictured it as a problem in which its victims must be helped and not tortured. I personally, wish that all people understand some women’s lives and not judge them based on what they do, because they say: Everything happens for a reason.
Add a comment April 10, 2010
Antoine Naaman, Our New Guest
Antoine Naaman is a specialist in everything related to technology, and he visited our class on Tuesday March 30 and Thursday April 1st. The session on Thursday was very interesting since we discussed everything concerning mobile phones and smart phones. Antoine helped us download many interesting applications on our phones. As well as he answered our questions and presented us a slideshow. We took pictures of him during the class and I wish we can meet him once again to capture everything we have missed before his new ideas and information.
Add a comment April 4, 2010
