Crossposting - السوق “المثلي”: أموالنا مقابل ماذا؟

Originally posted in Bekhsoos

مش كل مين أخد أمي صرنا نقلّه عمّي، ومش كل مين بني مصلحته على مصريات المثليين صار مقام لمثلية أو محب للمثليين. وانما بظل الظروف الاجتماعية الصعبة اللي بيعيشها المثليين كثار مستعدين يدفعوا اللي فوقن واللي تحتن تيشتريوا وهم القبول. واللي بيزيد الطين بلّة، التواطؤ الحكومي.

أولا في الترانسفوبيا بالاماكن المثلية او القابلة للمثلية، بالنهاية المراة الترانس بتروح على مطارح ما بيروح عليها المثليين/ات، والاماكن المثلية بتفتش على حجة تتشحط النساء الترانس. ليش؟ إذا منشوف قشور الموضوع منقول انو النساء الترانس عندن صيت انن لما بيضهروا بيكونوا رايحين يلقّطوا زبونات.

I am a 24/7er are you?

I have just received the final version of the call to action for the 24/7 Campaign, which is a campaign to demand better working conditions for migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. I leave you the pleasure of reading the details in the call to action itself.

You can already see that I added the 24/7 badge to my blog, so I am a 24/7er, Yalla join us! ;)

Twenty-four-7.org

Google, Gmail, security and China

So other than the tragic earthquake last night in Haiti, I started work today with the war that Google launched against China. In fact, I first read about it in the Guardian's "Google sends a shockwave through the Chinese internet" by Charles Arthur. I was not satisfied with Arthur's analysis, so I went to one of the links provided to Google's official blog, in which they provided their position in a blogpost titled "A new approach to China." And I thought that would be it for the rest of the day, since we would have to wait for a while to see what would happen. But then, oddly enough I stumble upon another blogpost by Google, this time the Gmail blog, "Default https access to Gmail" where the giant declares that gmail correspondence will be encrypted by default from now on. Though personally I am not sure if this is whole thing is an actual war or just a Media stunt used by Google.

Dear my first name my last name,
There's no getting away from the recession but you can beat it! Simply make the most of your resources, change some to make them more cost effective and continue to trade through the tough times. And it couldn't be simpler or more rewarding .....

Of course you can get away from recession, if you are Lebanese or investing in lebanon

Ah! I just can't get enough of this ironic twist of fate, being Lebanese has finally paid off.

The good news

I have been watching closely the global breakdown of the banks all around the world. I admit, the first time I heard about it I was a bit scared. I was thinking to myself:
Ok, GREAT! This is exactly what we need, we had been struggling for three years with political problems, when the big investors around the word were enjoying the outrages prices of fuel and everything and we were doing what? um, killing each other, frightening each other. And now that we having finally got our act together and elected a president, difficultly found a way to form a government... NOW we are having this financial crisis, now that we are finally lifting ourselves above our shit we have a financial break down
Oddly enough the financial did not affect the Lebanese economy! Nothing! I thought it takes some time to hit the region but then again Dubai and other Emirates broke down and licensed their employees (I know this because a good percentage of my friends work in various gulf countries and a big percentage of them got licensed for no reason) and Lebanon did even feel the international crisis.
Only then did I realize that we actually have a powerful banking system. Everyone used to praise our banking system but I refused to believe it was THAT great, no one is THAT great after all. But I stand corrected.
You see, and according to what I have read here and there, that what this guy actually did was:
1- predict this would happen, I guess it doesn't exactly take a genius to predict that a system of "loans on loans and loans to cover the loans that were taken on loans and loans taken to create credit in order to provide loans to make profit and therefore create something out of nothing" is not really difficult to predict, really any airhead could have predicted this would happen.
2- Do something about it! I wonder why no one ever did anything about it. I guess it is difficult to impose a less profitable system on banks. Lebanon has a very strong financial system but it had its horrible moments, like in 1982 when our currency went bankrupt and people lost all their money and savings (my dad was one of them). Ever since the central bank has unimaginable authority. And apparently it pays off.

But then again, there is only one thing I will regret about not having a Recession.