Election mania

Did I tell you about all the old men presenting themselves for the upcoming elections?

This is in Tripoli, North Lebanon. I count sixteen of them in one street.

Know your constituency...

In less than one month there will be elections in Lebanon, and there is no escaping the electoral campaigns. Posters for candidates/parties running in the different districts are literally everywhere, usually with either insanely stupid or offensive slogans, or just plain old ‘n’ boring faces of (old) men. But then there is Michel Mouawad. He is the son of MP Nayla Mouawad and former president René Mouawad, originally from the town of Zgharta. Michel himself is therefore running in the district of Zgharta, but I guess he spends most of his time in Beirut, considering this poster from his campaign:

We see a girl with one Lebanese flag on her cheek and one in her hand, presumably at a ‘pro-government’ (March 14) rally, on the left, and a guy with a gun and a yellow flag next to him, so presumably ‘opposition’ (March 8), on the right. Himself part of the March 14ers, Michel Mouawad’s question to his constituents is: ‘Who resembles you more?’ Keeping in mind that the last time a popular politician from Zgharta (Michel's rival Sleiman Toni Frangieh) became a minister in the government, the following party erupted in his hometown to celebrate his new position…

… I guess Mouawad either doesn’t know his people, or he’s appealing to a small minority of Zgharta’s voters. Neither of those is a very smart election strategy, if you ask me.

New Math

Now here's a website with some entertaining math:

Made by Craig Damrauer, and there is a new one every monday... enjoy!

Overheard in Beirut

THE WILD WILD NORTH OF LEBANON Guy from Tripoli, smoking a cigarette

Biology student from AUB: Smoking kills

Guy from Tripoli: I’m from Tripoli, you really think that’s what’s going to kill me?

A mix of Italy and Belgium, with much better food

I’ve spent the past week touring around with two teenagers (whom I used to babysit, but who are now old enough to visit me in Beirut!), their mother and her partner. For five days, we drove to every corner of the country, tasted every dish available and discussed every topic related to the culture, nature and politics of Lebanon. The most intriguing part, according to them? Lebanese traffic. They were fascinated by the use of car horns instead of side-mirrors or indicator lights, the inability of the drivers to stay between two lines on the road, and the seeming absence of a maximum speed anywhere. The best thing of the trip, according to one of the teenagers, was the trip to Baalbeck. Not the ruins themselves, oh no, he meant the ride there on the mini-van. Why? It was just like a rollercoaster, lasting an hour and a half!

A good second was the way back from the South, where we ran into this gem:

He seems quite comfortable there, doesn’t he? While that truck is going 100km/h on a three-lane highway… Overall verdict? It’s like a mix between Italy and Belgium, and we don’t know if that’s a compliment…