some guy in lebanon

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Hello all – Just wanted to provide an update. It’s been a little while -

Life continues to proceed a normal pace in Beirut… I can’t say theres much excitement but these days no news is good news. Work at Dia Diwan and the Daily Star are both good – It’s nice to settle into a steady cycle of work and relaxing.

Other than that, not too much to report. There seems to be plenty of things to do – I visited Tripoli late last week, which the first time in three months I’d gotten out of Beirut (not counting my short trip to Amman)

Things are well in Beirut – Though I have not yet entirely settled in to my new place, I can say that the transition is going smoothly. To share: The other night I sat in my living room, watching my TV as it played South Park, looking over my balcony, down the hall from my [...]

From InformationWeek:

Under a program called Project Match, IBM will help workers laid off from domestic sites obtain travel and visa assistance for countries in which Big Blue has openings. Mostly that’s developing markets like India, China, and Brazil.

The climate is warm, there’s no shortage of exotic food, and the cost of living is rock bottom. That’s IBM’s pitch to the laid-off American workers it’s offering to place in India. The catch: Wages in the country are pennies-on-the-dollar compared to U.S. salaries.

We all know the story now; we’ve read the papers. We’ve watched the television. We now know of the act, the face that Karma Hamady chose to allow us to see; and we know of its cunning and intent.

While the ramifications of her actions shocked the world, few could have grasped the scope of her death. For we all now know of Karma Hamady’s other life, her true life. The life of an artist, a free spirit, a talented musician with a genius ear, and yes, as we now know, one of the most notorious revolutionaries in history.

Karma and I decided to eulogize each other for fun. I am still writing her’s but here’s what she wrote about me: “Did You Know Him?” By Karma Hamady Nobody really knows exactly how old Will Donovan was when he died. Well, no one really knows exactly if he died at all. Some say he [...]

So, it’s almost been three month in Beirut. How time goes by in a flash! I won’t forget it… so, to recap, here are some things I’ve learned about myself in the past 87 days.

Another UPDATE – jeez…. Anyways, exciting news – not much to report just yet but I will deliver soon, God Willing. So that everyone can see that I still have a head (it has not been dislocated from my body by shrapnal, swords, or a taxi), and to see the awesome hat I have currently [...]

My father Michael very nicely linked my article “A Short Discussion on Israel and Palestine” on his blog. Thanks dad!

For those of you who are unaware as to why I haven’t published anything recently, it’s because I am waiting to hear about a number of things, namely, and most importantly, the legal status of The Daily Star, the paper I work for. There has been an injunction filed against it due to a credit [...]

Blame Israel, Syria, or whover you wish

I reported today that President Bush had commanded Secretary of State Rice to abstain on her vote on the resolution that she put forth to the United Nations Security Council calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and an Israeli withdrawal, after Israeli Prime Minister Olmert demanded that he do so. The AFP reported that Olmert had said this during a speech in southern Israel.

A friend of mine replied with a lengthy note on Facebook. Though I disagreed with him, it would be ridiculous to just delete his comments.

By Your’s Truly with the Very Much Needed Help of Florence Thireau – Original Article Can be Read Here Many say they skip demonstrations out of opposition to organizers BEIRUT: Protests continued in Lebanon and around the world this week, calling for an end to Israeli hostilities and global action to stop what the UN [...]

The AFP is reporting that Olmert claimed he ‘phoned in’ America’s vote on the UN Security Council’s resolution calling for a cease fire in the Gaza Strip.

Because media must be revolutionized!

Uri Avnery was born in Germany, a Jew who immigrated to Palestine in the 1930′s. When he was 15 he joined the militant Irgun. Avenery once remarked, “don’t talk to me about terrorism, I was a terrorist.”

In the early 1990′s, he started Gush Shalom, a left wing, secular Israeli party. Avenery first served in the Israeli Knesset in 1965, so he knows Israeli politics well.

BEIRUT: A Carnegie Middle East Center Seminar Thursday at the Rotana Gefinor Hotel in Hamra discussed the effects and repercussions of the Gaza war and the two-year Gaza siege. The discussion did not break much new ground, pointing familiar fingers and shying away from serious analysis on the role of civil society and the prospects of legal challenges to this latest Israeli action on the people of Gaza.

This most recent conflict began in late December and has cost hundreds of Palestinian civilian lives, despite broadly defined, and according to an American lawyer attending Thursday’s event, “ill-conceived,” military goals. Hours after the end of the seminar, the UN passed a resolution calling for a conditional cease-fire, subsequently rejected by both Israel and Hamas.

I had my first “Ah-Ha” moment as a journalist today. It helped me in many ways define what it is that a “Journalist” is supposed to be. First the moment itself – I was writing an article this afternoon on a seminar regarding the current Gaza conflict and the 2 year old Gaza seige. I [...]

Possible correction to the note below: Lebanese military personnel have arrested members of the Hamas in Lebanon organization, suggesting that the Lebanese government does not believe the PFLP was responsible for the rocket attacks on Israel. To put everyone at ease, it seems that World War 3 will not be happening this morning in Southern [...]

Still waiting to hear from people, places, and things here in Beirut – No news yet. But I would like to take this time to suggest to Israel that if you insist on attacking United Nations sponsored schools full of civilians and children, I suppose you’ll never be too worried about that nagging feeling in [...]

Make it a good year…

Note (8/19/09) – This post has been getting a lot of attention recently due to a link from a blog called ‘Dances with Klingons‘ – So I wanted to add a remark. Something that I didn’t understand when I posted this article, is the degree to which it is possible, if you have no dependents, [...]

From the Daily Star, by Your’s Truly – Published on December 27th, 2008 – Click here for the original BEIRUT: A strategic partnership between Lebanese technology companies EDM and eSharing is breaking the “go-it-alone” status quo of the Middle East IT sector. eSharing will develop enterprise resource software that interfaces directly with EDM’s new Global [...]

Dear Israel, Congratulations. Since you’re so good at starving a caged population of almost a million and a half people to death and then, to add insult to injury, kill more people in one day than they’ve killed with their toy rockets in a year, only to be asked politely by the Bush Administration to [...]

Although I find their analysis a little hackneyed and sadly standard, this is a nice article about the current calm and the future challenges facing Lebanon. As Nick said, “Using an unknown business man as the central pillar of a tired argument does seem like a stretch.” From the article: Construction cranes dot Beirut’s Mediterranean [...]

Merry Christmas friends and family! Missing you all as I sit here with Nick, Catherine, Andrew, Fidelius and Meg. All my love, Will

By Yours Truly, Published in the Daily Star on December 24th, 2008 – Click here to see original BEIRUT: The Education’s Ministry decision to make intellectual property rights (IPR) the theme of its SchoolNet project in 2009 highlights the growing prioritization of anti-piracy initiatives in Lebanon. Education Minister Bahia Hariri delivered a speech to a [...]

A new story about intellectual property law is pending, and will run in tomorrow’s paper!

Checking out and going home – Hoping for a better day tomorrow but at the very least I got my story done…

Is it just me, or am I almost out of money and lacking any type of guarantee that the Daily Star is going to make a move to make me, you know, solvent? Holding the line here in Beirut… but it’s feeling a little like the Alamo…

Writing two stories for the paper right now, one on Intellectual Property Law and Enforcement in Lebanon, and the other on Open Source Technology in the Levant