Public transport

An apartment square meter on the cost is varying from 1000 Dollars minium (in jounieh) to 2500 dollars in Beirut. The need for affordable real estate prices couldn't be more important. Yet as we all know real estate is the one commodity that can't increase. Or can it?
How about living in the villages. Prices there are still affordable. But the main problem is that people need to commute every day to their in beirut and its suburds.

The solution:
- A train line that passes across the coast.
A train is the fastest land transport available. It could get you from batroun to beirut in less than 30 minutes. It is never congested. Once there you could take a service.

But why stop there. With global warming, rising fuel prices, high car prices, congestion. Why not have a reliable bus system. A bus system that can get you around the city, to the suburbs - anywhere in lebanon- and take little time and little money.

Both these ideas are not far fetches. Both are applied in Europe and work well. But they need government subsidies, as they should. But the benefits are huge.

In fact why stop there.

If we want to go all the way, why not have telepheriques (arial tramway) that take you over to more mountains on the cost. Houses are cheaper there, and with telepherique they could become a good alternative to a house on the coast.


And how to fund these projects. Oh I don't know, what does the government do with all those taxes they levy on us. How about they stop stealing it and start giving it to the people.

Renewable Energy and water

Solar water at every roof, reusing gray water, black water treatment plants. Using salt water to clean cars and the street. Osmotic energy.

Plenty of measures that we can take in lebanon to mitigate climate change

Hot Flat and crowded by Thomas Fiedman

A book that I have enjoyed more than his more popular "The World is flat". Some about reading about renewable energy and being a computer engineer( with and educational background in electricity). This book made me turn off my TV when I am not using it, and made me think about pursuing a Masters degree in Renewable energy ( M.Eng EE).

But mostly this book is about why it is important to preserve our ecosystem ( http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/21/why-scientists-are-searching-for-cures-underwater.html). Why it is important to develop a taxation policy to encourage investment in green energy.

Even though targeted at American and covering to some extend chinese policy the appeal of the book is global. Anyone interested in the environment will find this book interesting.

WikiLeaks and US government

Anyone thinking the information was a leak by the American government. People could have been monitoring private's Manning internet usage or were familiar to his affinity for Wikileaks. The information that he was privy to was not relevant to his job.

Another thought, the information leaks doesn't seem to cause as much damage tot he united states as it does some foreign governments. Could it be that the American government were sick and tired of being told one thing in private by world leaders and then hearing them say something else in public. Maybe they wanted to out their hypocrisy.

The maybe again the information wasn't important enough to be kept safe, and the story of the leak is more important than the leak itself.

Anyway here's a time magazine article about it's impact:
http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...034284,00.html

Originally Posted by Time Magazine
I understand that these revelations embarrass the Arab regimes, which publicly speak only of the Palestinian cause but privately plot against Iran. But why is that bad for the U.S.? The WikiLeaks data powerfully confirms the central American argument against Iran's programs: that they are a threat to regional stability and order, not merely to Washington's narrow interests. (Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu quickly pointed this out.) In fact, the simplest confirmation of the fallout can be found in Tehran's reaction to WikiLeaks. Alone among world leaders, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims that the documents were actually leaked by Washington. After all, they expose as an utter lie Ahmadinejad's constant claim that he has befriended all Arab states and that, if not for Washington, Iran would be beloved by all in the region.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...#ixzz17RhyiSGR

Are we incapable of evolving

I can't help but think that we as a people are incapable of evolving. I grew up in a conservative christian environment and I always rejected its political dogmas. I always thought that the principles of liberalism freedom and democracy would triumph in our land. Then came 2005 and for a while my beliefs were validated. I saw muslims and christian unite around a common goal that of freedom and democracy. However the cedar revolution of 2005 was a very brief illusion, we saw how muslims with the 4 way alliance sidelined the main christian political representative.

Now, if that wasn't enough the worse was yet to come. This christian representative who claimed to represent secular aspiration of all the lebanese went and struck a politically motivated sectarian deal with the worse possible enemy to our internal coexistance. He made friends with Mr. Nasrallah a year after the latter had dragged us into a war with israel. He reneged his principles and the policies that got him elected in 2005 for the dream of becoming president of this country.

So, I became a march 14 supporter again and voted for the alliance in the 2009 election, only to find ( to my disapointment) that they too have abandoned their principles. They who have lost so much to syria have went and made peace with this criminal state. They who have lost so much on account of hizballah went and embraced the party.

I find myself deeply disappointed with all the political parties in this country, yet I am stuck. I can't find a way to leave and staying here I can't find any glimmer of hope in our ability to progress.

Plan Dalet

A Racist plan by the state of Israel to ethnically cleanse post 1948 palestine of the native Palestinian population so that the jews can become a majority in the land. Ilan pappe's ( The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine) work is a must read.

Summary of the world is flat

http://www.wikisummaries.org/The_World_Is_Flat

yes summaries are difficult :)

Religion and Government in the middle east

We need a new revolution of ideas in the middle east. We need to start looking critically at religion and the role it plays in government. We can't keep allowing the religious to control our political life. It is time for a new age of enlightenment in the middle east.

God's Judgement

I have to say I have been feeling injustice lately. A lot of unjust things have happened to me, members of my family. I have have spent some time thinking about them, but there is nothing more I can do. I see no way of correcting these wrongs in this life. So I started thinking about how God is going to judge us all in the end. And I started having very bad thoughts about those people who have wronged me. I started thinking that well I would like God to send them to hell.

But this is completely against Christian doctrine. We are supposed to forgive the people who trespass against us or else God will not forgive us. So this leads me to think about whether there will truly be any justice in the end. I mean if you forgive against those who wronged you in the end, maybe God will forgive them as well, and then you might end up in heaven with these same people and they won't be punished. So no justice in the afterlife as well.

Thoughts on the world is flat

I have been reading this book for a while now, I have to say the last 200 pages seem to be the hardest to overcome. The main point of the book were made a few chapters back. I have been thinking about summarizing the book once I am done with it, but I am not sure how easy that will be. I will try to cover some of the main topics of the book in this post.

Friedman's book is a journey into the world of outsourcing which took the business world by storm starting sometime in 2002 ( ??). He calls this phenomena "the world going flat", in that the competition playing field for work has flattened allowing people from different countries to compete for the same work or job. He attributed this "flattening" to the advances in information technology and the internet which has allowed people to collaborate online. He elaborates on the examples where outsourcing has taken place, and gives some advice to business people on how to deal with this new flat world.

The rich to subsidize the poor in lebanon

This is about the new proposed rent law in Lebanon. Recently the bank deposits in Lebanon have increased dramatically. So much so that the banks have stopped taking deposits because they can't return the high interests that they advertise. So the new law is in the books to free the old rents in Lebanon, forcing a big part of the population to buy mortgages. And Guess who would benefit from all the mortgages, the rich that's who.
The rich who have money in the banks in Lebanon will get high interest from the mortgage pavements that the poor will be making to pay for their homes.

Of course, Harriri was able to take people's properties for free in Solidere. That is not a problem. But what is the problem is those people who live in old rents who have payed for their properties. And they don't even want to give them adequate compensation so that they can get new homes. They are proposing 20% of the real estate value.

Another point about those homes. Why did the property rise so much ? This is because Iraqis have come to the country and started buying property. Now, I am not against giving refuge to those people God knows they suffer from a persecuting in Iraq, but why allow them to buy houses. Why allow Lebanon to be sold to Arabs ?

In Beirut the price of a 1 square meter is 2000 dollars. No working class Lebanese can afford these prices.

Crisis of Faith

I have found Jesus again a couple years ago after a series of unusual/ paranormal events took place in my life. These events always had a scientific explanation, but I have preferred to believe in the mystical explanation. However recently I have started to question that explanation again. And When I started, I turned again to the bible.

The problems that I had with that book rose again. Namely, how can God exist and have given us this book, when some events in the book never took place, like for example the flood. Anthropologist today believe that the flood never happened and the story of Noah etc.. if pure fiction. So, how can God be real given that.

Potential Real Estate Bubble in Lebanon

Real estate prices have gone up in the past year. This was mainly driven by gulf Arab investors and Lebanese expatriates, who have come and invested in the country. The price of real estate today is well beyond the means of the regular Lebanese wage earners. There is a potential that the price bubble won't last and that eventually it will burst leaving many who have bought mortgages with similar problems as the mortgage owners in the United States.

Unfortunately Lebanese banks are not learning from other people's mistakes. They are making it easier for people to get mortgages they can't afford. All this is bound to create problems when the day inevitably comes and the bubble bursts.

Just a thought.

The world is Flat

Been reading Thomas Friedman's "The world is Flat" version 3.0 for some time now. This book is about outsourcing mainly, and how it is changing the world. He touches on many facets of the issue. and does a fairly good job on many points. Where he does a poor job however is when it comes to describing the way outsourcing companies take advantage of their employees.

I work for an outsourcing company right now, and it provides the main source of my income. But the company is away from offering a good wage. I have worked for other outsourcing companies before and they were even worse.

Friedman will leave you with the idea that if you are earning 100 dollars as a software programmer in some third world country, that is a good wage for you. He will contrast that with the average wage being payed in the country. What he won't talk to you about is that on a 100 dollars a month you will lead a very different lifestyle than what you would lead were you earning 5,000 dollars a month. He won't tell you that you won't be able to afford basic food, that you will be cutting on necessities and eating rice or one meal a day.

I don't earn a hundred dollars but my salary is far from 5,000. I do work making software and work with people from America. They do the same job that I do, but for some reason just because I am not living in a first world country I would earn less and thus live worse off than them.

The idea that 5,000 dollars in america is the equivalent of 100 dollars in india or a 1000 dollars in brazil etc... is 100 percent wrong. The price of food is everywhere the same, the reason why people can make it through the day in one country on a 100 dollars is because of the quality of the food. In america you wouldn't consider yourself well fed if your main source of food was wheat.

Of course some might argue that there is a difference in rent. This is largely true, but still it doesn't justify the wage difference between 100 dollars and 5,000 dollars.

More to come...