It was great to see so many (hungry) friends supporting TOUFOULA's fundraising lunch at Tawleh!




Thanks everyone for helping TOUFOULA make a difference!



Tags: Lebanon, Toufoula, Maxime Chaya, Nabil Chaya, Karim Chaya, Caline Chaya, Lebanese, cancer, kids, children, civil society, ngo, lunch, Tawleh, restaurant, Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael, Beirut, Achrafieh

Just received this message from Maxime:

Even if the Chaya Bros. sounds like Adventure, Restaurants, Finances and Industrial Design... it can be something even better! This family can sure cook, especially when it's for a good cause!

The four siblings: Maxime, Caline, Nabil & Karim are all rolling-up their sleeves this Friday to cook for you!

On the menu: Daube, chicken with sumac, roasted fennel tar, and much more!

All from the heart, and at Tawlet (Souk el Tayeb) in Mar Mikhael.

Buffet at 50 $ (instead of 25 $) as a fund-raiser for TOUFOULA (toufoula.org)

what a show it will be!

tags: toufoula, lebanon, beirut, tawleh, souk el tayib, mar mikhael, gemmayze, lebanese, maxime chaya, nabil chaya, karim chaya, caline chaya, dinner, fundraising

DISCLAIMER: this blog post compares reality to virtual reality, from a purely anthropological perspective: Do people behave differently in virtual communities? This blog post is NOT about the election results! Please keep it civil in the comments section (we don't delete comments)


In preparation for the upcoming Municipal Elections in Lebanon, the Lebanese Twitter community has chosen to elect its own Mayor... And yes, as you can imagine, even in a virtual community of loosely coupled individuals, there's elections drama, tension, ballot stuffing, et al. Perhaps we are incapable of being civil, let alone elect intelligently and conscientiously?

Yes We Tweet! Vote for @Samerkaram

My pledges:
- Lower taxation on Tweets
- Implement a Tweet Stimulus package to encourage more Tweeting
- Invest in renewable energy Tweets for a greener Earth
- Close down Tweetanamo
- Fund the No Tweet Left Behind initiative

how about posting more frequently on Blogging Beirut?




Polls have Closed: If you're trying to make sense of the total number of votes (350), which is more than the entire Lebanese Twitter community, here's what happened:

Whilst observing the voting I noticed the following:
- Initially the vote tied at 50/50
- Then overnight the other candidate gained a 4% lead
- The following day, the vote tied again at 50/50
- And again overnight the other candidate gained a 4% lead
- etc.

What's interesting about these numbers is that in order to maintain the 4% lead, the other candidate had to increase votes ?exponentially? with every tie, as the total number of votes was growing (4% of 100 is less than 4% of 200). This meant that in the last 4% round, the other candidate acquired 30 votes overnight! Something smells fishy ;)

Twitter mimics Reality! Even in the virtual world, our elections ethics are lacking.


DISCLAIMER: this blog post compares reality to virtual reality, from a purely anthropological perspective: Do people behave differently in virtual communities? This blog post is NOT about the election results! Please keep it civil in the comments section (we don't delete comments)



tags: beirut, lebanon, yes we tweet, twtpoll, @samerkaram, @sdarine, mayor of the lebanese tweeple, humor, funny, elections

Photo courtesy of Clément Tannouri - www.clementtannouri.com

tags: lebanon, faraya, kfardebian, aerial, photo, picture, pic, photograph, lebanese, mount lebanon, snow, back country, skiing, patrouille des cedres, pdc, photography, maxime chaya

(UPDATED with 10 more photos!)

Maxime Chaya spent the whole of Sunday plotting the route for the upcoming Patrouille des Cedres

below are some photos captured along the path - notice the baby Lebanese Cedars, planted in 1977!

the next few days are going to be even colder...