A possible solution for the Lebanese Housing Bubble?

House prices in Lebanon keep rising up, we’re talking triple, x 4 or x 5 the price that it had 3 years ago, I wrote about this in February 2008, and things have only been getting more expensive and worse! Anyway, this thing over here has been referred to as Lebanese Housing Bubble (we all are waiting for it to burst sometime soon, and we will all be covered with gum?), you can read about the main reasons behind this bubble here (Wikipedia).

Two of the main reasons that led to this bubble are:

1-      Lebanese expatriates who are financially comfortable are buying houses back in Lebanon, and landlords are taking advantage of the potential buyers wealth

2-      Foreigners, mostly from the Gulf (meaning, REALLY financially comfortable), have also been buying a lot of villas in the Lebanese mountains with crazy prices indeed.

Where does this leave the Lebanese young person in his/her late 20s employee? Sitting there wondering how the hell he/she is going to save around 40’000$ as a first payment, for a 200’000$ house, that is barely 120sqm, and not built in a luxurious manner, not even close! Whereas the minimum wage in Lebanon is around 300$, and the average salary for someone who’s been working for 5 years is less than 1500$. Do the math please.

My suggestion is the following; two prices:

·         Price X which is affordable for Lebanese residents

·         Price Y which is X + W for foreigners, and the W goes to the government, this way there would be a control on the pricing (haha what a dream) that landlords set.

This way, the politicians in Lebanon can steal the money and have an even better life, I mean.. the government can benefit from this money to balance the country’s debt and invest in projects that create more job opportunities in Lebanon and open more business opportunities with other countries and improve the country (someone wake me up please…)

Oh, and how the hell are those landlords pricing their houses? Whatever happened to how old a building is, the facilities provided in the building (blu-ray in the elevator etc..), the luxurious items used to build it, the parking spots, the electrical doorway, the fancy concierge, the location of the house…

Everything seems to just be EXPENSIVE wherever and whatever it is!

Apparently, there seems to be a sort of similar problem in the UK.

Image courtesy of: TheFinancialHelpCenter.com

I would also like to share a comic that a fellow blogger/comic Sareen drew about that same subject a short while ago:

To view original post, please click here

Bass Guitar Winner - Congratulations

Okay so I compiled the list by order from this post, by removing my name and the comments repeated by the same person, so I only took their first comment.

I removed KJ who is a resident in Dubai and also Najib who lives in North Africa and who aren't linked to Lebanon at all, so they don't meet the 3rd condition. So the order of the participants is as follows:

1.Zoe
2.Bilal
3.Abzyy
4.Arabianism
5.Hussam
6.Mich
7.Dany
8.Liliane
9.Beshr
10.Rabih Atallah
11.Fadi
12.Archangelus
13.ritamou
14.Rany
15.hanouna
16.Nader
17.Malek
18.Sarah
19.Ziguratha
20.Joseph Ghassan
21.Chantal
22.Boucha2ra
23.Serpico
24.Jinan
25.Michel Youssef
26.Nour K

(okay I included myself, because after posting the competition I started missing the bass lol)

Anyway, so I went on twitter and asked for someone who did not participate in this competition to choose a number between 1 and 27, I got many replies, the first was a reply from @3amor (first time I saw his twitter handle btw, wasn't even following him, but he was following me). So, him being the first person to give me an answer, qualifies him as the winner chooser!

And he chose -->

I got other answers, but it was already too late. (please check the time so you know am not cheating or anything!!)

So congratulations to Rabih Atallah!!!! You win this BABY :D

Treat it well ;)

Wanna collaborate for some funky comic?

So do you suppose Sareen from Inkontheside.com will accept? ;)

 

 

How come Turkish tourists don't come to Lebanon?

Two colleagues of mine came back from a road-trip they did last week to Turkey, they visited Antakia, Kapadokia, Iskandaroun and Mersin. So when I asked them how it was, they both replied: “it was.. nayce” Like the word nice barely kicked off from their mouth.

Anyway, we all know that Istanbul is a very nice place to visit, so is Mar Maris (for beach, night life and outdoors adventure lovers). So not all Turkey is “okay” like the above mentioned cities, and because they only went for 5 days so they had to be not far away from the borders.

Nevertheless, they said there weren’t much to do there, except for shopping, and at the end of the day all groups sort of end up going to the same places and doing the same thing for fun. Boat party (a lousy one apparently), and a cave party (traditional wedding, they said that one was cool), some shopping, leather catwalk (where they bought leather jackets, which I'm not so sure they were for good prices), etc...

However, one of my colleagues added something interesting while telling me about her trip, she said they ran into so many Lebanese, everywhere they go, they would see Lebanese people there, and all came with different tours.

Question: How come, Turkey has so many Lebanese tourists visiting it(now that visa is no longer required between both countries), but on the other hand, we don’t see that many Turkish tourists in Lebanon? I did not see any, did you?

Finally, I promise you to write a post where I tell you about how you can be a tourist in your own Lebanon (meanwhile check this page I did), everyone knows I am not the obsessed blinded patriotic person who keeps saying: “Lebanon is the most beautiful country in the world”, however, I know Tourism when I see it, and I can see the amount and diversity in activities that can be done in Lebanon and they can be spread over a month doing different things on a daily basis. #justsayin

No VISA with LISA

It’s so cute and lovely to feel like a terrorist

It feels quite awesome and civilized to actually be able to travel to a country without needing to be issued a visa, or simply getting the visa upon arrival to the destination airport.

One of my most annoying deeds is to actually apply for a visa, preparing dozens of papers including when you got off the potty and stopped wearing diapers, so the embassy in question tells you to bring another paper, or asks you annoying questions, where have you been, where are you going, what are you going to do there?

I understand it’s for security reasons, I do, but when you have been to the same country more than 5 times, and you’ve come back, and not bombed anything, this kind of shows you’re not a threat.

Utter waste of time, days off and patience.

Countries that don’t require VISAS from Lebanese

Anyway, over here you can find the visa requirements for Lebanese to all countries including those that do not require a visa (recently joined by Turkey) and those who can simply issue you one once you land in their country (such as Armenia, to which I will be going to soon, *happy dance*).

Other interesting countries that don’t require a visa from us Lebanese are: Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti, Malaysia, Nepal, Maldives, Madagascar… Nice eh?

One of the things I used to envy when I see American movies, is when persons arrive to the airport, choose a random destination and immediately buy a ticket and go there. I always wished we can do such a spontaneous thing as Lebanese with only a Lebanese citizenship.

Hmmm, now this inspires me to write another post, about having more than one passport. Coming soon.

Bois de Boulogne, beautiful village

Bois de Boulogne - Mount Lebanon - Lebanon

Bolonia is situated in Mount Lebanon, just after Dhour Shweir and just before El Mrouj, the name inspired by the French who compared it too much to their own Bois de Boulogne, which is full of tall pine trees and many of them. It's the nature we don't see that much of in Lebanon.

I took some photos along the way to Zaarour, it was foggy today, but definitely a beautiful breeze perfect for running away from the humidity and super heat that has been reigning over Lebanon the past weeks.

That was my first attempt in taking photos while there is fog, so bare with me here, I shared different edits of the same photo in hope that you give me your opinion in which looks better.

Bois de Boulogne - Metn - Lebanon

Bass Guitar - FOR THE WIN. Who's it gonna be?

So as you can see here, Independence 05, aka moi, is giving away a bass guitar (Squier by Fender). This bass guitar is really like new, I barely used it, I got it as a gift on my 23rd birthday, woohoo that was long time ago!

Eye of the Nemr

Nemr is back from the US after being there for almost 5 months, and just did his first show since he's back in Edde Sands Jbeil on Sunday August 8th. I was one of the lucky people to have attended this show. The place was full!

Opening act was done by the half Lebanese half Australian Anthony Salameh, hilarious accent, that alone made me laugh, he's a very funny dude, look up for him whenever he's in your region.

A bit later came Nemr on the beats of Snoop Dog's song, which was "respect"! He started off too strong, too funny, everyone was cracking up like crazy. All I can say is, next time you hear Nemr doing a show in your town, make sure you attend, I guarantee you LLL --> long loud laughs!

Nemr "demonstrating" how a molesting uncle greets :P

Later on, I sensed that Nemr was getting pissed, and let me tell you why. He told us how he told some people about Lebanese nightlife and how awesome it is; so those friends of his started searching on youtube for some videos, and apparently they stumbled on Jad Choueiry's video. Not sure if the below is the one Nemr was talking about, but in my opinion, it's equally bad as the one he mentioned.

Okay so yeah.. people.. Lebanon is not about bombs and wars and political clashes, let Jad Choueiry tell you otherwise.. and the otherwise for him turned out to be:
- Booz
- Tattooes
- Very awkward and weird dancing
- Booties
- Boobs
- Thongs and sex
- ek.. ce...te...ra

I completely understand Nemr's frustration. For me, I always hated representing Lebanon as the land of bitchiness, apparently, this is what's being shown to the world, that we are the center of sexual trend, beach parties in the midst of the day that include dirty dancing and crap like that.

Yet, I'd like to see someone make a video about what really makes Lebanon such a great place. We don't have to imitate the west to show that we are "cool". This has been many Lebanese's complex, sure we have a nightlife, sure we're more open minded than neighboring countries, but this is not us, it is part of us, we have other values that are being buried under toilet seats and these are the values that we want to show.

Anyway, back to our topic: "Nemr". Welcome back to Lebanon, and for those of you fans out there, you can stalk Nemr on twitter, on facebook, and check out his blog.

This is Nemr with a fan, who set up his wikipedia page 

How many Thank You hand wave's did you receive today?

Okay, we all established that driving manners in Lebanon is becoming more and more of a nightmare. No more respect, no more kindness, it's a jungle out there in deed.

"Kil meen, ido ilo"

Anyway, what I was thinking about today, is how often do we throw our car in front of another car and not let it pass, and then wind up blocking it because the traffic is stuck, or not necessarily blocking it, but really, would it have made a difference to let it pass? What, we're talking 10 seconds here!



Let the car pass, slow down, look out, maybe you will be blocking a road. I won't go into details, especially the Square blocking, oh my god, this is the ultimate stupidity evidence; the 4th car is the stupidest, yet the 3rd is also very stupid, you have to anticipate the possibility of a stupid 4th.

Just strive for that "wave" hand gesture you get as a thank you when you let a car pass or get out of its parking spot, or whatever.



I am personally working on becoming a kinder driver, I hope you do so too. Trying to cut down on giving and/or receiving the below hand gesture:

August 3rd Clash - Don't touch the tree

In case of war in Lebanon, Syria said it will stand by its sister. How exactly? Like they did before? What will Arab do? Isn’t this another grand déjà vu?

What was yesterday? Just a clash? A mistake? A preview? A role play ran by the oblivious Lebanese Army and the tree-cutting squad? A distraction from the international court’s declaration concerning Hariri Assassination?

Many theories indeed, but Nasrallah did say that next time, it will stand by its Lebanese Army. We were all happy to see that Hizballah didn’t interfere yesterday, meaning a war was prevented. But now that Nasrallah promised it will next time Israel cuts a tree… We should embrace ourselves.

Again, all that can just be talk, a pawn has been moved, unfortunately, the chessboard… is always Lebanon.

Why Not?

So why haven't we had U2, Linkin Park, Muse, Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tori Amos, Norah Jones etc… in Lebanon? Inno Why not? Can someone explain why? Do they charge that much?

Why not make a huge festival during the summer for only a certain type of music, Alternative music or Rock music whatever you want to call it, and it would be of an international level. Come on, do a market study, are you telling me we cannot attract visitors from the Arab World? Seriously?

Jihad el Murr? Anyone? Any investor wants to give me 5 million dollars and I will organize all that for ya.

Gosh… I don't want to wait till Coldplay (whom I saw in VA – k, I had to bring that up and piss you all off :P) band members are 90 years old and have no more fans, and then they would consider coming to Lebanon, i.e. Scorpions, Roger Waters, etc… (I did they see them, and they rocked, #justsayin)

… Okay, I feel a bit better now that I vented. 

Syria & Saudi Arabia, welcome, weltraffic

Apparently (and because I don't follow political news at all) the president of Syria and King of Saudi Arabia are visiting Lebanon (why?) tomorrow. As you can see, George Chehwan (who's that?) took it upon himself to display Welcomes to those presidents on huge billboards and Syrian and Saudi flags on the road. 

Anyway, for us, the poor Lebanese people, it means one thing and one thing only:

HORRID TRAFFIC

My colleague Chadi sent me these photos which he took on his way back from work today and thought it would be funny if I shared it with my dear readers. So big thanks to you Chadi!

4 years and counting

Early days of Independence05
For my early readers, you probably remember how this blog started. If not, just look at this date "28 July 2006". Yep exactly, it started during the July 2006 war, I had a lot to say, and I had many guest bloggers including Pascal Assaf, and thus the blog.

After the political posts, rooting dissing, getting pissed off... I simply ended up learning nothing and changing nothing. With time, I felt like I was drawn more into writing about Lebanon, socially, culturally, sarcastically and this is how Independence05, as you know it now, was born.

Interesting people I met
I met very interesting people because of this blog, I met with many journalists, activists, Lebanese expats, PhD students who came to Lebanon, and who wanted to understand more about "Lebanese bloggers" or simply wanted our help in being the voice for a certain cause. So definitely, this blog (even though it's not much) is one of the proudest things I have done with my life.

Readers, if you don't exist, this blog wouldn't
I really, really... really!!! yes I stress on "really".. want to thank you readers, the early ones who disappeared once the political posts disappeared, the Lebanese expats who enjoyed feeling close to home because of my blog (their words I swear) and the new ones especially coming from my twitter world (you guys rock) and most recently facebook (family, colleagues, neighbors..) which really means a lot to me, and definitely the consistent ones, who were there since the beginning and never left.

I really write for you, and I love hearing your feedback and comments, this is what generally makes my days, you. I learn from you, I don't post to post, I post to hear what you have to say.

4 years
4 years dears, and counting :) I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I love posting in it.

Gorillaz did an encore in Syria

In the history of concerts, I have never been to any concert in which the band didn't do an encore, they leave, we beg them, and they come back. You see, if we don't beg, it means they sucked! But Gorillaz didn't, they did wonderfully throughout the performance, at one people the audience booed. Read details here.

They performed yesterday in Damascus, and according to a friend of mine who attended the concert yesterday, they did perform an encore in Damascus' concert.

I personally agree with this comment, I think we were punished. Thus the no encore, more like the "plus moins". We are an epic fail sometimes.