George Bernard Shaw once said, "The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship." He knew well that censorship and freedom had long been enemies, and had he been alive today, he would probably not be very impressed with the state of progress we have achieved as a country. Lebanon has a long history [...]
We live in a world that is obsessed with prediction. Since the dawn of humanity, we have longed for predicting the future. We did this using the stars, bones of dead animals, tarot cards, and even visions and dreams we experienced. Yet, apart from pseudoscience, humanity first gained the powerful, reliable tool of prediction with [...]
Beirut is a city of indulgence and exclusive delicacies, where the state and religious institutions have failed in creating a sense of community. Forget about the clichés about the East and the West or the burqa and the miniskirt. The real gap in Beirut is that between public decay and private extravagance. Five-star hotels that [...]
The first “The Future is Female” T-shirt appeared during the early 1970s. The design was inspired by Labyris Books, which was the first women’s bookstore in New York City, owned by Jane Lurie and Marizel Rios. Established photographer Liza Cowan took a picture of her musician girlfriend Alix Dobkin wearing the T-shirt. The photograph was then used [...]
Native to Lebanon, and some African and other Middle Eastern countries, is the carnivorous mammal known as the Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena). Misconceptions surrounding this animal abound. These false notions have been propagated and passed on from generation to generation, creating a distorted image of the hyena. This distortion has become stuck in the minds of [...]