some guy in lebanon

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I spent this afternoon at Microsoft Lebanon’s beautiful offices in Downtown Beirut, discussing Open Source Technology, software piracy, and several Microsoft initiatives. Their publicist also sort of offered me a job…! Prior to my meeting I had lunch with Nick in Martyr’s Square – We didn’t have much to say to each other, but it [...]

A simple update – Life is getting both more and less complex in Beirut – More complex as my job evolves into more and more of a consulting position, less complex as I get to know the city better and settle into a routine… Other than that, there’s isn’t too much to report – I’m [...]

I know I haven’t been good at keeping up this week but things are well. Thought I would share a photo of this amazing car I saw on Gemayze St as well, and a sight of Eckhart Tolle on Hamra St:

You’ll find a deck of pictures from my trip to the Cedar Reserve in Shouf, Lebanon, here: http://williamcurtisdonovan.com/photos/?album=1&gallery=10 – the first half of the gallery is of pictures on the way from Beirut to the Reserve, with some amazing pictures of the Shouf area where Karma is from. There will be a second gallery shortly [...]

This afternoon I took the time to import my blog that I kept while I was in Jordan. You can now find all the posts at http://www.williamcurtisdonovan.com/category/jordan This way everything’s in one spot and I should get a noticable boost from the content. It is funny to look back on all those posts – In [...]

Link to the Original Article, Published December 5th, 2008, Daily Star BEIRUT: Lebanon is well-positioned to offer web development, digital marketing, and information technology services to local, regional and international clients, according to several owners and partners of companies in and around Beirut. These experts agreed that Lebanon’s global position for IT services, outsourcing and [...]

Link to Original Article Published in the Daily Star, Published December 3rd, 2008 BEIRUT: The American University of Beirut (AUB) on Monday welcomed esteemed Harvard Business School professor John Quelch for a discussion on the ramifications and theories of his most recent book, “Greater Good: How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy.” Quelch, the senior [...]

Hamra pub has weathered 44 years of wars and sieges By yours truly – This is the most fun I’ve ever had writing anything. Ever. Pictures are my own and were not featured in the original article. Click here for the Original Article from the Daily Star, Published December 2nd, 2008 BEIRUT: The speakers filter [...]

Waiting waiting waiting – Patience patience patience. This is my new mantra, and I’m not very good at it. Waiting to see what will happen at the Daily Star with my proposal, waiting for other people to make decisions about various other business ventures, waiting waiting waiting. This weekend I spent Saturday morning finishing Robert [...]

I’ve written and re-written the intro to this post half a dozen times. How does one sum up the feeling of being 9000 miles from home on Thanksgiving? It’s not exactly a good feeling – Actually it’s not much of a feeling at all – More of a sort of nagging non-feeling. I think that [...]

I have not been good about staying in touch (besides the excitement of TWO stories published on international news wires in two weeks…) – I am really awaiting the return of my all important laptop computer from the Apple store so that I can upload my pictures from the past two weeks. I have some [...]

From the Daily Star, November 25th, 2008, by Yours Truly: Click here for the Original Article from the Daily Star, Published November 26th, 2008 BEIRUT: Agreements, not controversy, dominated a discussion at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on Tuesday between Rami Khouri and Michael Young, the former a regular contributor to The Daily Star’s [...]

This time of year can be a little awkward for me, history being what it is. More to the point, given that I’m all the way on the other side of the world, to be fair it’s more than just a little strange this year…! But luckily yesterday gave me lots of reasons to smile! [...]

From the Daily Star, written by yours truly: Click here for the Original Article from the Daily Star, Published November 24th, 2008 BEIRUT: Amid rave reviews and the glow of high-definition television screens as far as the eye could see, the 13th edition of the Levant’s Information Technology Exhibition at the Beirut International Exhibition and [...]

Hey hey hey – so I moved today from Hamra in West Beirut to Gemayze in East Beirut. I’ll try to find a good map to show where I’m living, given the Newspaper’s office and Nick’s house. Here’s a photo gallery with the trip today across town, plus pics of my new home and my [...]

I’m sitting here at work, crafting a document which represents the future of the Daily Star’s website, which will be submitted to several of the decisions makers here a the newspaper. I’ve just finished building a mockup for the new “Latest News” section, and I’m jamming out to Linkin Park in Beirut, Lebanon.

In Jordan I was a victim of what Middle Eastern doctors apparently like to call “travel sickeness.” Whatever it is, I’m sure I only exaserbate the problem with my habit of not eating properly or staying well hydrated whenever I travel. Whatever the case, I am now emerging from several days of sleep and feeling [...]

I was the second person to arrive at the Captain’s Cabin at 7:30 PM yesterday, a bar here in Hamra where I’m staying in Beirut. I had been assured by several people that this particular bar had sworn to stay open until an American President was selected, many thousands of miles away… And so it [...]

I have arrived safely in Beirut after a long, long, LONG, flight. If you know me well enough you know I hate to fly. I’m staying with Nick Kimbrell in Hamra near AUB for the next few days, before I move into a place of my own. I’ll be stopping by the newspaper today but [...]

In this little clip, morons (the kind that REALLY give conservatives a bad name) give away bumper-stickers with the words “Obama for Change.” The “C” in change is an Islamic Crescent. The “g” in Change is a Soviet Hammer and Sickle. Fun. Ok, I get the socialist thing. Obviously Obama’s plan to tax richer people [...]

Update: Please note that this is a follow-up article to a previous post, “The Coming American Diaspora.” This post is now two years old – if you’re interested in the consequences and/or realities of living in the American diaspora, see this post about my life this past year, and this post about the year before [...]

Daily Star’s Nick Kimbrell Reports on the state of the Lebanese economy, given the current global economic volitility: BEIRUT: The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) senior resident representative to Lebanon praised the country’s central bank late Tuesday, saying the banking sector had few direct links to the current financial crisis and that Lebanon would likely prove [...]

Given that our government is in the process of radically socializing the American economy, and also given my increased interest in Libertarian Socialism, I am of the impression that we are about to witness a market-driven rapid growth of communes here in the United States. My general assumptions for such a communal movement include, Prior [...]

Nick Kimbrell published an excellent article today on the ongoing Salafi-Syrian crisis brewing in Northern Lebanon – an excerpt: BEIRUT: Lebanon’s leading Salafi cleric, Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal, has warned Syria to stay out of North Lebanon or risk opening “the gates of hell.” In an interview to be published in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anbaa, Shahhal [...]

Update: Also read “Part 2 of the American Diaspora – Economic Consequences of the Bailout” which is currently a top-ranked article on Google for the keywords “American Diaspora”! I can’t believe I wrote this in early October… guess I had a little foresight, eh? People ask me why I’m leaving the country – why I’m [...]