Killing education in Lebanon.

It has been years since the teachers in Lebanon are asking for their raise and for their permanent job status instead of the contractual basis still they receive no answer and the Chamber of Ministers in Lebanon does not approve and does not even go through their file. 

Thank to our Ministers and all our smart political figures that decided that since the professors are protesting and they wont correct the exams we will consider that all the students passed their official exams. This will get Lebanon into serious problems that will have real bad consequences in the future.

How do you create a stupid society? 

Simple, you don’t offer them education.

How do you create a sectarian society?

You fill them up with politically involved religious beliefs.

How does our politicians keep their places in Lebanon or years and years?

By creating a stupid society based on sectarianism and stupid politically involved beliefs.

How to amuse this society?

By making them believe on a daily basis that each sect is the best and the other sect want to destroy them.

What comes up from this society?

Civil conflict and in the worst case scenarios Civil War.

What is the result of the Civil War?

Less educated people, more militia people, more money for the politicians (arm dealing; drug dealing) 

How to repair after a Civil War?

Education. Oh yeah damn nah it wont work you guys are so dumb that you will vote for them again.

Ok, there are much reason that make the Lebanese situation look alike with the situation in 1975 since if we look at it this way.

– More than 50% of our politicians are descendant from Warlord families or the Warlord themselves

– In 1975 the Palestinian refugees were at their peak when the conflicts started and the government due to its corruption and lack of responsibility couldn’t control the numbers coming into Lebanon. 

– In 2011 the Syrian refugees number started to grow on a daily basis and due to the lack of care… We are the same black hole

– In 1975 Palestinians turned their guns into Lebanon and Israel which started the Civil War.

– In 2014 Pro FSA and ISIS tried many times to open battles in Lebanon and thank God or the Army that made them fail.

– In 1975 Christian parties started to call for arming.

– In 2014 some Christian, Sunni, Shiia and more politicians stupidly called for arming. 

Ok there might be some information that are not accurate, but excuse me, since you all know what I am talking about. 

I hope that each person that got his or her diploma this year will go and apply to a university and continue his studies. When you are given such an opportunity it is considered as a second chance and this chance you wont find it while fighting for those imbeciles that prefer giving you money in order for you to buy a gun instead of paying your tuition. 

Remember, each and every Lebanese is born with the possibility to speak three languages fluently as a native and communicate with the whole world fluently and this is only a small advantage we have from many other advantages we got. 

Learn from your past because if you don’t you will fall into the same hole again.

I will be short with this one, start looking at your country from another perspective and ask yourself do you really want to live this way?

If you don’t your answer will be really simple during the next parliamentary elections.

Cheers.

 

Bernard El-Kahi

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO): FIFA and the World Cup

In case you do not know John Oliver you can just go through some old Jon Stewart shows and see that he used to be his reporter and apprentice. After many successful years of being in the team of Jon Stewart and learning from him, he now has his own show called Last Week Tonight.

In his latest episode, he discussed the dark side of the World Cup and FIFA… In the beginning, I was like, mmm normal, normal, normal and then… You get to the turning point with the taxes case that shocks you and gets you into the real world.

Every single person should watch this youtube video carefully and understand the importance of such spending and the hard times that these countries face after such enormous events and expenses. I always thought that these events get at least a considerable ROI but after watching this small comic brief I just think that it is better to host the World Cup in rich countries that can afford such expenses.

In example, Poland and Ukraine hosted the Euro Championship in 2012. The stadiums that have been built were amazing and the cities were capable to host all the events but the expenses were huge. Still, many say that they had some kind of a ROI but it wasn’t enough to help them continue with their future projects. Now that the Euro was played and the competition was over, some of the stadiums are struggling to survive and not able to keep their personnel and pay their maintenance, employees and taxes. The worse side of it all is that the government isn’t able to support them as well. The national stadium of Warsaw for example is doing fine since it hosts huge events and since Warsaw is the capital but the Gdansk stadium, the Poznan stadium and Wroclaw stadium are always being reported by the public opinion as somehow economically struggling stadiums…

Anyway, watch it, the video explains it all and especially explains the useless spendings in Brazil and the useless South Africa expenses.

Still, as he said, football is a religion and sure thing I will be watching the 2014 World Cup while cheering to my favorite team that has a 5% possibility of winning 😛 GO ENGLAND!!!

Bernard El-Kahi

Is technology really helping us?

I have been wondering lately and I am sure many of you wondered… Is developing a new technology THAT good? Who doesn’t love gadgets and who wasn’t amazed by the wonders that have been developed in the past decade? There is no way to say that this rise isn’t amazing and that humans aren’t in their fastest development phase nowadays.

I am going to go through 3 good and bad points of technology and I will try to come up with a conclusion that will help me explain my point of view:

1- Good Technology:

With all the gadgets provided we can manage our time consumption and therefore we are being able to make multiple task that usually would have taken us a whole hour within a minute. A simple example would be: Being able to cook your breakfast; boil water; check at what time your bus is scheduled and even modify your flight and re-book your hotel during five minutes. Which I consider one of the best things since we are all nowadays challenged by the lack of time.

1- Bad Technology:

Due to the fact that you got so used to it you forgot how to do the simplest things and you wouldn’t be able to survive one day without electricity, internet and all other facilities. As well as, you are not being active since instead of going to a travelling agency you are being your own agent, therefore the small agencies (that don’t have a million dollar deal with many companies) close and more people go home and can’t find a new job. As well, instead of being spontaneous or memorizing your bus schedule or going down and wait for it and perhaps meet a neighbor and have a nice conversation before heading to your silly workplace you are being just a zombie of your own smartphone (don’t worry I am one myself).

2- Good Technology:

Tablets and smartphones are so useful, you can do anything from this device, reserve seats for movies, watch movies, buy e-books, download music, find out what music is playing (seriously when shazam came out I was one of the biggest fans), if you have a big enough tablet you can make a disco in your place :P, automate your whole house (I consider that the top of the hill laziness system :/), play games and much more that we all know. Yes, it is useful, all the applications are useful somehow…

2- Bad Technology:

In this con I will be attacking applications, especially the games, since parents nowadays are so busy to cope with the whole technological way of living, they is a tendency to forget that they got kids to raise, instead of raising them TV and Tabs are raising them. 10 years ago TV used to raise the kids today it kind of changed. Still, I wish kids nowadays still have the one hour TV rule, which was simply: you can watch TV one hour and then do your homework and go out play with your friends and come back with a scar. I hate the fact then when you go out nowadays all you see are empty playgrounds that you remember as full of kids playing together and fighting who will play next… Well, today it seems like it is more interesting for them to sit and play on their tab instead of knowing how it is to come back dirty and dead tired after a long day on the playground. This con is simple, in some years we can say goodbye to sports to activities to social games, every social thing will become virtual we will even play tennis with some guy in China in front of our TV using our silly pads. Goodbye social life and lets welcome the virtual loneliness.

3- Good Technology:

I studied Advertising and Marketing in university and I have always appreciated the fact that in advertising you are able to be so creative that you would make anything happen to satisfy your client needs. As for marketing, you would do anything to satisfy your client’s needs especially in its accounting part. For example, the virtual assistant in the airport that guides you would cost any airport in 2012 $60000 (see link).  This machine as a first is an extreme entertainment source since it is an unseen attraction, the passenger will be happy to do his check-in by himself and learn a new experience and the airport is making a higher profit simply by replacing the cost of a full-time employee by a machine. Wooops! The Pro turned into a Con.

3- Bad Technology:

Some would say but the machine can make mistakes. Nope… The machine is programmed and revised it wont make any mistake since it has no mind and no intelligence to invert its rules and make mistakes. The only mistake that can be done is in case it is reset to another lap of time and this is where mistakes can occur. The machine has maintenance charges… Yup, but nope, human beings maintenance is much more expensive: Health insurance, retirement plan(machine goes to junk or recycling), feudal taxes and laws, paid vacations and sick days… Damn us human beings are a source of loss and this is why we are getting replaced by the technology that we are buying and by buying it we are helping it to make us lazier and more and more useless.

So, I might got over excited in the third “Bad Technology” part but I seriously have to say that I am really willing to see what point we are going to reach and I know that we are still in the very beginning of it. But don’t you think that it is somehow and somewhat replacing us instead of helping us? And what surprises are put on hold for the next generations?

Bernard El-Kahi

Your behavior reflects your culture.

While watching the Lebanese news today and surfing the net and seeing the pics of a crowded Beirut where some people are struggling to get to their work on time while other Syrian so called “refugees” are going to their embassy for their so called “presidential election” and to fulfill his so called “right to vote”…

As if the stupid results ain’t already clear as it has always been where Bashar El-Assad will again and again win the election with a 99.99% rate for himself.

I was happy to see today Gino’s blog amazingly written post where he described the situation today as following: “Today was a dangerous, disgraceful, distasteful, rude, disruptive and ungrateful display by the tens of thousands of alleged “refugees” on one of Lebanon’s main thoroughfares and areas.” I would like to add to this one that they have erased the whole image of their so called “revolution”. Even though Gino was and still is really into helping the Syrian refugees in Lebanon by pointing out on sanitary hygienic educational issues that those refugees are dealing with instead of some stupid premeditated Presidential elections.

Another article for yesterday’s happening had an awesome title: “Desperate to cast a ballot, Syrians jam up embassy district in Beirut” where the author Chelsea Sheasley has described perfectly and from an outsider point of view the bad sides of yesterday’s events. (see article)

ref: (1) Picture by: Bilal Hussein

As for the refugees, I wasn’t expecting anything less, what can I say, you are Arabs, you reflected your culture simply, cheap followers that never learn from their mistakes and can be bought for the cheapest price in the cheapest human market of the world… The Middle East.

After the results of the “Arab Spring” that I prefer to call the “Arab Disaster” in Tunis I had the feeling that everything is going to go wrong. If Tunis didn’t work how in hell would Egypt Lybia or Syria work out!!!??? Just look at the illiteracy rate in Syria Egypt and Lybia comparing to Tunis or just as well look at the simple fact that for example it is said that there are regions that contain millions of people that doesn’t even have ID or are unregistered in the governmental archives!!! How the hell will these people be able not to act this way when they didn’t even have the capability to get an education that will let them use their brain instead of their instinct?

What kills me the most is the fact that today they went parading instead of going to search for an occasion to get a job, a way to make money, a way to feed their family or search for an NGO that would help them educate their dozens and dozens of child that they have even been as well reproducing while in Lebanon (I guess Durex would make an amazing BTL campaign in case they pass thru the refugee camps and distribute free condoms), they have decided to go and support a dictator and close the roads of a country that has been handling their shit for 3 years already and be disrespectful and disgraceful and irresponsible towards people that have welcomed them the best way they could even though it is well known that Lebanese can’t deal themselves with their own shit.

Finally, after today I prove my point again. A point I have stated in one of my articles in January 6 2014 where I said: “Dear Lebanese, blame the government not the Syrian refugees, when Lebanese were seeking refuge in other countries these countries were ORGANIZED and knew perfectly well due to their studies how many refugees they can handle. Blame the corrupted customs that sit on the border and that for 50000LL would let a family go in and even for a $100 he wouldn’t mind if someone goes in armed.”

Lets that someday those cheap followers will realize what they are doing and start giving their dozens of kids a smart helpful education that will at least give them the opportunity to make something out of this revolution.

Bernard El-Kahi

 

 

 

#AdelKaramForPresident… Good one… Good call

 

 

Well today at 9:30pm on #‏هيدا_حكي‬ Adel Karam will be declaring his electoral program (If you click on the link you will be getting a promo). Anyway that’s not the point… As every Christian Maronite in our beloved Lebanon he has the right to get into the elections with the other weirdos that try to spread their name for some weird causes or prehistorical ways of thinking like Rachid Louis Labaky and Adel Karam talked about him in #‏هيدا_حكي… 

Ok, you have the right to go to the elections, but I have a feeling that it is a big teaser just to make us watch you instead of the Champions League today :/. Nice trick mate! Well, what can I say who announces his electoral plan on the 1/8finals of Champions League! Obama wouldn’t do that man! 

Which makes the teaser probability kind of high… This is from a viewer point of view… I seriously couldn’t care less for what a comedian / wannabe politician wants to announce today as much as I care for the Champions League… Remember in one of your episodes you promoted Heineken’s UEFA final competition. Anyway if you really are going to do that tonight, remember your media planning team has problems, you need to fire some of them :D.

As for the small chances of #AdelKaramForPresident being a serious matter… I think that we got to the point of no-return when a retard like Labaki wants to be the president, a pervert like this Mjabber guy and at last the Comedian of the court Adel Karam well this is how a King’s castle used to look in all medieval movies I watched, there is the king, the Joker, the one that is willing to do anything to be at his place (I can imagine the Moujabber guy there) and the retard… Anyway did somebody watch the movie “Man of the year”? I think Adel is living in its illusion in case he is really serious (the movie’s ending teaches us a great story).

I have nothing against Adel Karam as a comedian, in fact, I always watched his programs, he is a great actor that has a lot of characters like Frankie and Bob, Maitre Adel, Alphonse, Rafi2 Doumit and other characters that have been invented once Fadi Raidy left their team and made a huge gap by taking with him the amazing characters of Fadia Cherre2a, Pipo, Youssef 2lay2el (AKA Abou Raymond) and his other hilarious characters. The greatest thing in Adel is that during his whole career he was close to people, friendly, and even though I remember him since the age of 12 he didn’t change at all (he has a youth fountain maybe) and made his career path by himself. His new program #‏هيدا_حكي‬ I didn’t like it that much and I still think that ChiNN is a much better program. He simply is a great comedian and actor (Caramel proved it) but he is not the greatest stand up comedian that Lebanese public have seen so far.

Therefore, I would rather Adel Karam keeping a smile on our face by reminding us everyday of the non-return state of Lebanon instead of going in a no-return trip into the dirtiest business in Lebanon: Politics.

as for our MPs this is a tip you shall take into consideration: If you might for once care for the Lebanese people that stupidly voted for you again and again earlier I would suggest the former Minister of Internal Affairs Ziad Baroud for example because there is no other person that is qualified and smart enough for being our President and I am sure in the end we are going to end up with the Army’s General as usual.

International Women’s Day

It’s A Man’s World

Yup it’s a Man’s world but it wouldn’t mean nothing without a woman or a girl.

In the end we did all that we did to protect you, give you prosperity, make the hard work…

Here is a list of the hard work woman do for man:

– Give birth

– Offers kindness

– Protects the man and make him reasonable

– Cook extremely good food  even though we know best that sometimes she is back from work and doesn’t feel like doing it

– Support mentally

– Makes him think reasonably

– Makes sacrifices for him

– Gives him love and makes him feel good

– Other

Well, this linked song says it all in the beginning… What would we be without you in the end we complete each others 😛

Thank you for being elegant, smart, kind, lovely, beautiful and especially mothers what you did through out history will never be forgotten for man and humanity (the only mistake u did was giving us the apple (damn you Eve) :D)

I would like to wish the best for my Mother, my Sister, my God Mother and all the Women I know that made a difference in my life in this occasion.

And on this occasion I would like to say that I wish that women get their rights in Lebanon and that violence stops in Lebanon and the world against women and stand with all the bloggers and militants for this cause. Lets hope the parliament votes on the women’s right to give the passport in Lebanon and lets hope the courts start working on the cases where women were killed by their husbands from domestic violence. I would like to mention that I support every person that went down to the street today supporting this cause and lets say No to Domestic Violence in Lebanon and put these men in jail instead of letting them walk the streets.

Happy International Women’s Day

Bernard El-Kahi

Cold War?

After hearing today’s morning news and after seeing a deja-vu scene that happened so much times during the history of American and Russian conflicts I couldn’t help myself thinking about anything but the Cold War that ended in 1989.

“The Cold War was about the rivalry of two ideologies trying to conquer one another. John Mueller, a professor of political science, famously argued that the Cold War ended as soon as the Soviet Union acknowledged the end of its efforts to spread its ideology.” (1) Well who said the Soviet Union totally acknowledged it, by breaking the wall of Berlin and by making Poland an totally independent country?… Well, we have to realize that Ukraine, Georgia and many other countries stayed under the soviet rules of Russia and were given the so-called right to vote. And this is why this is happening nowadays in Ukraine.

Back in September, USA threatened to attack the Syrian regime and back then the situation was very similar but the Russian actually sent back-up while the USA NAVY were getting ready and taking their posts for the attack and China didn’t agree to attend any of the decision making processes… (2) In the end, President Obama ordered his troops too come back and stop the operation/trainings.

And this is where we can notice the deja-vu that happened yesterday. Russia was so determined and showed so much power on the field that the World was getting ready to wake up somehow on a WWIII. Well, I assume with these ways of acting both wont get us into any WWIII and they will keep fighting strategically, economically (Russia declared that they might boycott the Dollar and that the sanction don’t even worry their country (3))

In 1962 the October Crisis was a similar situation but that threatened USA with the use of nuclear weapons by the Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro and with the back-up of Russia. What happened? Nothing not a missile flew from Cuba. Mmmmm, another deja-vu, but back then it was still called the Cold War.

Lets face it Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia… Nothing changed for these people since USSR, they still get the same small amounts of money from their jobs, still get the same conditions of life and to seek a rich prosperous life they have to move out of the country and pour money into it even though they know that the government will end up stealing it in the end. Therefore, we can now identify the rights they have now and that they didn’t use to have during the USSR period: The right to buy what they want (not only from the USSR market and under their sanctions); The right to different levels concerning the ways of living even though it isn’t happening (Since they were all equal before); The right to own their own things (you can’t imagine how much it would cost you to buy a house in Ukraine or a car with the conditions they are living in).

In the end and in my opinion, the Cold War never ended and never will as long as both USA and Russia are the biggest powers in this world with the strongest allies. It’s correct that Russia may have acknowledged stopping their USSR project but it has surely replaced it into another project which is identical ideologically but its ideology is simply not revealed and the difference can surely be seen.

Bernard El-Kahi

Russia VS USA and the EU on the Ukrainian Territory?

On the 19th of January 2014, the Ukrainian revolution started, the people went down to defend their protests rights due to the anti-protest law that has been set in Ukraine and announced on the 16th February 2014. The protest began as a stand off between the protesters and the police…

Russia didn’t do any important interference during this period of time (too busy with Sochi Olympic Games), until this week-end when the Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that he would not discuss the matter of Ukraine and in case the protests don’t stop, Russia will invade Ukraine at 3am GMT time.

Nevertheless, Russia started its movements and trainings, and here comes the most dangerous parts, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the USA President are questioning Putin’s sense of reality and USA and Germany agreed that: “Russia’s military intervention in Crimea was in violation of international law.” But I have 2 questions here: Didn’t USA violate international laws by invading Iraq and in other situations or are they the ones who put the laws? And by you interfering, isn’t it becoming now a American-European war against Russia as usual in a land where the people have always to pay?

As for Poland, they just couldn’t keep their mouth shut and not interfere in such a situation… They had to go make statements and give opinions that go against the Russian government. Still, the worst thing they did is pushing towards a NATO reaction and a UN reaction for the situation in Ukraine. Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a declaration: “History shows – although I don’t want to use too many historical comparisons – that those who appease all the time in order to preserve peace usually only buy a little bit of time.” “Poland shares a border with Ukraine and large parts of the western part of the country were Polish before World War Two. Warsaw’s foreign policy is driven by a fear of its former overlord Russia pushing west into Ukraine and threatening Poland’s own borders.” (1) Seems like they forgot that Putin’s army is over 1000000 man and the Polish one is made of 100000 man!

Anyway, history shows as well that when Poland was attacked by every single army of Europe during WWII they were able to take back everything and their resistance has been known as one of the toughest in the world against the Nazi troops and the Russian Army.

But, nowadays, with technology the situation differs and I am questioning myself about the consequences that Poland will have to face since its own territory has been threatened already and due to this fact they have the right to complain to the NATO and the UN since they are part of it.

It is clear that Putin won’t go easy on this one. In the end, its the Crimea base and it matters a lot historically, geographically, politically and especially it is the side of Ukraine where “nearly 60 percent of its population of 2 million identify themselves as Russians.”

Did Putin go mad? Who knows! he looked happy during the Sochi Winter Olympic Games… And he made it clear that he wants Sochi to end before discussing Ukraine’s situation! This was, when there were already hundreds of people that passed while defending their right of protest against the corruption that has been in charge politically and economically in Ukraine! And because they know that their country is one of the richest with natural resources such as: iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber, and arable land. (2)

In my opinion, this whole situation requires the world to stand for the people in Ukraine and help them to rule for once their country with no external interventions neither Russian nor European and American. We can clearly see that this is an American-European conflict with Russia on the Ukrainian land and once again this country will pay for others benefits.  It is a population that is sick and tired of always doing the dirty job when their country has so much capabilities and believe me its not USA or Europe or Russia that will let them do better and its not Capitalism nor Communism nor Liberalism nor any other kind of proposed solution because they have all been proven to be nothing but useless control techniques that fail much more than they succeed. Let us hope for them a better tomorrow and let us hope Russia won’t do something insane tonight.

What are the next steps? Will Russia invade Ukraine at 3am GMT? Will Putin go mad and once again the NATO will be useless and leave him be as usual? Is it the beginning of a Russian VS the EU USA alliance war? Well, let us hope they get into some kind of an agreement, in the end, this whole situation smells really bad.

Bernard El-Kahi

An AMAZING Ad for the New Ford Transit Connect

Ford Polska have released on the 30th of January 2014 and ad for the new Ford Transit Connect.

Since I have graduated in Advertising and Marketing, I think that it is very important for me to highlight great ads such as this one.

As a first, the actors are great, the angles taken, I am not a pro, but you will never guess what the ad is about until you get to the 10th second where KABOUM the Ford appears and the guy leaves the Gas Station. The music chosen… Awesome I can’t say anything more about it as for the message in the end (in Polish): “Zegnajcie Stacje Benzynowe” Say Goodbye to the Gas Station… “Nowy Ford Transt Connect” The New Ford Transit Connect “Technologia Ecoboost” with the Ecoboost technology… Well I cant say more than this is an excellent Ad and I feel obliged to share it and in case the project was done by Ford Poland (as an in-house advertising agency) then hats-off and in case the project was done by an advertising agency then hats-off as well but it would be awesome to reveal its name.

The New Ford Transit Connect is a very useful “nonminivan minivan” as described by Ford and its advantages are that it is large (7 seats) and because it is eco friendly due to its very small fuel consumption ie: a 1.8Tddi Ford Transit Connect fuel consumption is approximately 43.4 MPG (Miles per Galon) which is 18.37km/l or 367km per 20liter (as counted in the Lebanese market). Which is an excellent record for a 7 seats minivan that has a 1.8Tddi engine.

Please note that this is the European version of the car that comes with the 7seats passengers or another combi version that doesn’t and is used for products transportation. Therefore, it is built and made for European roads and its specs and capabilities are different than the one that will be released in the Middle-East (In case it will be released).

That’s it for today, I am gonna hunt some more good Ads like this one so I can share them with you and show the effectiveness of simple ads such as this one.

Cheers,

PS: Feel free to subscribe to their channel because there are other very good ads.

Bernard El-Kahi

Are we becoming robots? #sit4roula

It is not difficult to any person that lived or even passed a journey in Lebanon to notice that it is rare to find a place that the physically challenged person can access easily. For example, many of the entrances for the buildings, in the so called million dollar projects, aren’t built in a way that can make it easy for the person on a wheelchair to access.

I can imagine how hard is the life of a Lebanese Physically Challenged Citizen not to be able to pass on the bridge on the highway because there are only stairs and there is no elevator and to even get to his/her own apartment on the 5th floor after coming back from work, grocery shopping, sport or whatever it is and find out there is no electricity and the elevator ain’t working.

Sadly, these people aren’t respected in this country and don’t have the same rights as they do in other countries due to the Lebanese infrastructure and the lack of professionalism our ARCHITECTS in Lebanon have because most of them, focus on the luxurious needs much more then the individual need which they consider a secondary need. Even though, we all know that in a well-organized country the Real-Estate Business is by-law obliged to follow the individual need as a first and then they can play with the design as much as they want. On the other side, the infrastructure of cultural countries are designed in a way to be friendly for the Physically Challenged Individual and all the transportation from buses to tramways to metros and trains are easily accessible and have special places reserved for these specific individuals.

As per the news, shockingly, Roula El-Helou was deprived to go on a plane of the Lebanese Middle East Airline heading to Egypt due to the fact that she is on a WHEELCHAIR and by herself… I am not talking about something I am clueless of, because luckily, I have followed a training lately in an Airline company where we went through the point of Physically Challenged Passengers and many options are offered by airlines to let these passengers feel better during his flight and these options are FREE OF CHARGE:

– Meet and Assist: A representative of the airline should in this case take the passenger to his/her seat on the plane and help him/her sit and fold their wheelchair afterwards.

-Priority Boarding: The passenger gets to board first due to his/her incapability of moving easily in tight places like the seat rows of the plane

As for more information and precision MEA has similar options that you can freely go through in the MEA Physically Challenged Person part of this link http://goo.gl/BsGpu1. Which certifies that MEA do offer services to Handicapped persons

Still, MEA did send a memo where she declared that the passenger HAVE NOT declared herself as a Physically Challenged Person that needs help to go into the plane. In this case, we can consider it as a point for MEA and as a logic explanation since this kind of procedure needs extra staff…

Still, aren’t we all human and what differs us from being animals is our ability to THINK? In this case, the employee of MEA should be sanctioned not for not doing his job because as per the rules the ticket didn’t show that Roula is a Physically Unchallenged Person and he can act like a robot right now, but, for his lack of humanity because he bullied the woman by telling her “if you can do it by yourself well then show me how you will” and as per the media he said unacceptable hurtful things and in the end by telling her at the customs that HE WILL SUE HER!!! Well, Mr. I don’t know what is your name but in case someone can sue the other, well, I guess, you will be sued for defamation of character, public disrespect to a person and you can find yourself a lot of other available options…

Where the hell is Humanity for God sake, for Buddha sake, for Whoever you believe in sake!!! You could have helped her to board-in and make this exception!!! In fact, this would have generated an excellent Word Of Mouth for MEA and Lebanon! A thing we need because lately the planes leaving Lebanon are much more full than the ones coming.

It is regretful to hear such a story about MEA (even though it’s expensive as F…) that is the pride of Lebanon due to her professionalism and excellent on-board services and due to its amazing record with no crashes since 1987 until today. I believe you crashed yourself two days ago with your lack of professionalism and disrespect for a Physically Challenged Person.

Last but not least, lets make it a wake-up call, I understand us fighting for being open-minded and free, well freedom comes by respecting others freedom and by being cultural enough to understand what freedom means. Lets point out the problem, lets make a stand by sitting for Roula and MEA lets just make it a call for humanity a thing that is beginning to disappear in Lebanon. Maybe, in this case, MEA should punish the irresponsibility and ignorance of their nonprofessional employee that made this woman feel useless and made her look pitiful in front of the other passengers. And believe me it wont happen in one day and if as usual the story will be a dead story the next day and if this guy isn’t sanctioned by MEA publicly since he discriminated this woman publicly, in this case, I am ready to take a stand and BOYCOTT MEA as some people already did (below).

Bernard El-Kahi

PS: I reserve the #sit4roula idea to a man called Rawad El-Hajj that inspired Karim Sokhn to take a stand and post a pic of himself on Facebook where he said: “I sit 4 Roula, and won’t travel by MEA Airlines anymore !”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXzfZh3zhhQ (I hope this gets translated)