Looking for an Arab Wife?

While I was browsing through a Lebanese newspaper website, my eyes fell on one of the advertising banners with the headline – Lebanese Women: Meet Lebanese women for dating & marriage – and I just had to find out more. After clicking I got directed to Arabs2Arabs.com, which at first glance looked like a localized version of websites similar to Match.com. Only not really, as their claim was “Arabs2Arabs.com is the fastest growing global marriage and matrimonial site serving the Arab and Muslim world.” Of course that reflected the societal hypocricy in the Middle East very well, I just had no idea that it extended online! Let me explain, this is a hookup site plain and clear. People join and flirt, meet, date and possibly have sex only it is labeled a wedding site for cover. This is actually quite interesting because mentality or self projection of Arab women is similar both online and off. I guess we just have to ask ourselves whether the values of “honor and virginity” still exist, or are just reduced to taglines.

Cedars of Lebanon

I am not actually talking about the actual forest located in the north of the country here. Cedars of Lebanon, is the last track on the new album of U2, No Line On The Horizon. The album was launched yesterday but the song was already available online to sample. The song does reflect its title on some level, playing a sombre sad slow murmur – similar to that of the country. The narrative is a recollection of a soldier disconnected from reality. I have to admit I can’t be objective about the whole thing. Being Lebanese I am biased and will go out and buy the CD anyways – I felt connected to the album even before listening to the song. What do you think?

blogs… on tv!

I tried to remember what was the first blog I ever saw. I thought about it for a couple of days and just came to the conclusion that I don’t know.  Maybe the right thing to ask myself is when did I first realize that blogs were labeled as blogs. They just seem to have appeared in my life or inserted even in a natural seamless way. I feel like I have been reading blogs all my life in one form or the other, when actually I know I am still discovering this whole world. I come from the Middle East, where up until today most of the people are just familiarizing themselves with the Internet and everything online is called a website (Blog is just a sound there for most people!).

what if runway fashion became… boring??

The models, runways and red carpet events all portray an industry of fantasy. At various moments most of us have coveted a Louis Vuitton bag or aspired to a Dior look. We all knew we would not fit into the new Herve Leger dresses but still loved to look at runway shows and see the many designs. We closely followed celebrities as they walked down the red carpet to the Oscars eagerly waiting to see what gown they chose and what designer had dressed them. Fashion is like a drug, the more you enter its world, the more addicted you become. This phenomenon was always anticipated, even though various elements were sometimes criticized – overspending, high prices, and impossibly-thin models. It is one of those areas of design that frequently transcends the real world.

beware! the blog

Although the term “blogging” is relatively new, creating a personal web presence is a hobby that has been practiced for more than 10 years. Online journals started sprouting up via personal webpages around 1995. In early 1999 official blogging sites, such as Livejournal and Blogger, kicked off an online community for writers. These professionally constructed sites came with the ability to create a username, publish your own journal post and join common interest groups within the website. It was websites like Livejournal where I first became addicted to the idea of blogging.

good laughs, innovation, and butt drawings

Common first experiences with media: films, concerts, novels, and having letters to the editor published, were all good old 20^th century firsts, but today I’ll recount a new one: my first blog.   Unlike those other firsts, this one relied on an Internet connection and only a snippet of time.   It was also unusual in that it lead to peels of laughter, a writing lab environment, and a way to procrastinate indefinitely. 

the rich are laughing at you!

The design of news stories become a little petty

To abbreviate Dickens for the present day: it is the worst of times. Everyone is holding fast to their money and has either suffered greatly at the claws of the recession or knows someone in trouble. Most of us with jobs are worried like hell for them. Yet, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a good portion of people is living the high life while you struggle. The recent proliferation of sensationalist news stories about the wealthy disheartens and points to poor decisions by the designers of our news: editors, reporters, and critics.

hot for…branding?

The economic downturn has set off a race of logo redesigns, but it’s questionable if these add any value. Most of these redesigns do nothing for the businesses they represent.

national pride transformed into island of shame

What you are looking at is real. This is the new proposed project off the coast of Lebanon in the shape of, well, a cedar tree! I do not know where to start talking about this.

yes we can design

Web-enabled transparency and feedback anticipates the future of Democracy

An alert and informed citizenry is an essential ingredient in any free and healthy nation. But are we well informed?