adidasss

I got a question for you (we small insignificant nations gotta stick together ), how much (and in what respect) does Lebanon differ from other Arab countries, and how much does Arabic differ from country to country. What do you most like about your country and what do you hate the most?

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“Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.” - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle.

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lucifer_sam

What's the deal with Brits and baked beans? Are you just the victim of vicious stereotypes or do you really have the worst palates in the world?

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first.am

FaSho

North Carolina isn't up there bro. It's way different from our southern bretheren.

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noise

don't be down on baked beans. i lived in the UK for a few years and really developed a taste for them. now, when i come across a store that actually stocks them, i am sure to buy several tins.

no fry-up is complete without them!

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my flac collection

NumberNineDream

Yes we should stick together

Arabic countries in General:

There's a huge difference in dialect, as actual "Arabic" is a dead language, so I can't really understand Moroccan or Kuwaiti, unless they talk Official Arabic (as in the Arabic used in the Quran). Lebanon and its surrounding countries (Syria - Jordan - Palestine) have a lot of similarities, in dialect, habits, History, food, music etc ... Arabic countries can be separated into groups, that are very different from each other. I think we can have the middle-eastern countries, the coutries of the Arabic Gulf, North East African countries, West African Countries and finally the ones in Center Africa.

Concerning Lebanon:

I guess the weather differs a lot from the other countries, I think we're the only country where it snows in the winter. We can ski in the winter and go to the beach in the summer.
Our educational system is a bit different also. Most educated people speak 3 languages, or at least understand French, English and Arabic. There's a lot of different sects, which makes it a bit hard to live, but it's always better than having one religion forced upon us. We're the only country that hasn't signed a peace contract with Israel (other than Syria, but that's another story), and also the only one without a dictator ruling us.
We don't really have a good democratic political system, but we have a bit more freedom than in all other countries.

What I like about my country:

_I think it is the easier Arabic country to live in, there's a bit more freedom to women. We don't have to wrap a towel on our head, or be banned from driving.
_There's some artists we can be proud of, and that I don't think I would be able to know if I wasn't born here.
_The people in Music and Film are part of a very small society. Which makes it much easier to know everyone in the business, and to be known in the whole country. And if you're known in Lebanon, you're known in all the Arabic countries.

My many dislikes:

_We have no decent internet connection, DVD, music or book store, and the good artists are always shadowed by fake commercial ones.
_Lebanese people tend to feel they're the higher population on Earth, which is ridiculous considering how retarded they are.
_We have no civil law, the law treats everyone considering his religion. So we're not all equal in the face of the law.
_A mother can't give her nationality to her son or husband (mostly to ban Palestinians from getting the Lebanese nationality this way).
_Gay people are considered perverts and criminals, and can be put in jail for being so.
_Everyone is born with his parents' religion, and there's nothing called "Atheist" or "Agnostic" in law. So now, I'm considered to be a Christian Maronite, though in reality I'm not. Plus, we don't have civil marriage, which makes inter-sectarian marriages even more difficult.

I guess that's about it for now.

Can I ask the same questions about your country ? As I don't really know much about it either... and we do need to stick together.

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Bulldog

Obviously I know they're not bands, but Scott Walker, Zappa and Beefheart are, of course, American. Therefore, your place is alright in my books



^ = the smuggest smiley I could find. I didn't watch last year's 6 nations, but I remember your lot coming to Twickenham in '08 and basically tearing us apart (I was watching it in a Scottish pub too, which wasn't exactly fun). Revenge is sweet!

adidasss

@numbernine: Sure, Lord knows nobody else is gonna give a shit...

Ok so you may or may not know this but we have a similar language situation in the Balkans, there are 4 nations/countries where people understand each other perfectly well (with slight variations in accent): Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia. That's why in the olden days when we were all a part of the same country (Yugoslavia, you young'ns may not have heard of it) it was called serbo-croatian. Then all the bad shit happened in the 90s and we became very touchy about distinguishing them and proving they're VERY VERY DIFFERENT AND SEPARATE! Edit: Oh yeah, and we write phonetically so as soon as you know the alphabet you know how to spell. (:

Anyhow, my likes: Absolute freedom of press (excluding promoting violence or hatred etc), which I think a lot of people take for granted.
I like the coastline, it's very diverse and well, without sounding too patriotic, beautiful. Especially in the south.
Oh and I like it's location, it's very close to all the European cultural centers, for example, Venice is like an hour and a half away from the city I live in. Vienna, Bologna, Budapest and Munchen are like 5 hours, which is still manageable.
Also, this may sound weird, but compared to some other nations, we're not an "ugly" nation. Plenty of beautiful men and women walking around.

Dislikes: The people. General mentality is still fairly conservative, but the proximity of the European union is slowly changing that, at least in terms of legal rights and stuff (for example, homosexuality has been decriminalized in the 70s, similarly to other western nations and we even have some limited domestic partnership rights. Still a long way away from marriage and adoption rights).
Artistically, we're probably the least talented of the ex-Yugoslav nations. Seriously, there hasn't been a good film produced in this country for....well I don't think we ever made any good films! In comparison, Serbia and/or Bosnia have Kusturica, Makavejev and Denis Tanović (who won the Oscar for No man's land). It's similar with music, especially contemporary and alternative music. I feel sick when I think a nation like Iceland, which has like 300 thousand people has produced a fair number of internationally recognized artists. I don't think that's ever gonna happen here.

We make up for it by being good at sports I suppose, like football, tennis, handball and waterpolo (yes, that's a sport). We used to be good at basketball too (silver at the Barcelona Olympics) but that's gone down the shithole ever since.

So there. (:

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“Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.” - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle.

Last.fm

NumberNineDream

^ Well I remember Croatia almost beat Brazil in the 2006 World Cup... Very good team you got!

Well in sports we used to be very good in Basketball. We were the silver medallists in the Asian cup for more than 10 years (we were never able to beat China with all their NBA players). We even got to the World Cup in 2006, and beat France.
But everything got ruined last year, when even Basket got politicised.

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littleknowitall

Ah yes I remember that well. Always the next one though :p

Urban Hat€monger ?

What match?

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