tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post116835532441526423..comments2023-09-17T01:45:19.982-07:00Comments on Dr. Pamela Chrabieh: ESCALADES POLITIQUES et DEGRINGOLADES ENVIRONNEMENTALES AU LIBANDr. Pamela Chrabieh http://www.blogger.com/profile/04392049818601945418noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168775744101468562007-01-14T03:55:00.000-08:002007-01-14T03:55:00.000-08:00Pamela,J'admire beaucoup ton courage et ta détermi...Pamela,<BR/><BR/>J'admire beaucoup ton courage et ta détermination. J'espère que tu te gardes un peu de temps pour t'occuper de toi et des tiens. Malgré tout ce brouhaha dans lequel tu te retrouves, il ne faudrait surtout pas que tu t'oublies, même si ça ne doit pas être si évident que ça d'y parvenir...<BR/><BR/>Bonne fin de journée et bon courage !<BR/><BR/>André.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168763821637120652007-01-14T00:37:00.000-08:002007-01-14T00:37:00.000-08:00Dimanche 14 janvier 2007: il y a eu quelques manif...Dimanche 14 janvier 2007: il y a eu quelques manifestations de l'opposition Libanaise durant la semaine et le sit-in se poursuit au centre-ville de Beyrouth. Mais plus personne - du commun des mortels - n'arrive à comprendre ce qui se passe sur le terrain. C'est le flou chaotique. Personnellement, j'ai de moins en moins l'envie de suivre les discours de nos politiciens qui radotent les mêmes choses avec une même langue de bois, mais je me concentre plus sur mon engagement à divers niveaux pour la construction-reconstruction du Liban, ainsi que l'approfondissement des rapports Libano-Canadiens et Libano-Québécois. Je rencontre beaucoup de jeunes de ma génération et recueille des témoignages pour ma recherche. Certains veulent quitter le pays. D'autres préfèrent y rester et lutter. Certains sombrent dans le désespoir, d'autres passent par des hauts et des bas, et d'autres encore puisent de nouvelles énergies dans cette situation chaotique pour la transcender. La jeunesse Libanaise n'est pas une et unicitaire. Elle est diversifiée, dynamique, et c'est ce qui constitue sa richesse. Mais les conjonctures socio-politique et économique actuelles forment des obstacles qu'il est impératif de franchir pour que cette jeunesse puisse s'épanouir et que les semences qu'elle sème aujourd'hui puissent se transformer en fruits à court et moyen termes. Je termine ma tirade ce matin par les propos ci-dessous tirés du livre d'Etel Adnan "In the heart of the heart of another country" (2005): "It is not general ideas and grandiose unfolding of great events that impress the mind during times of heightened historical upheavals, but rather the uninterrupted flow of little experiences, observations, disturbances, small ecstasies, or barely perceptible discouragements that make up day-to-day living".<BR/>Sur ce, bon dimanche!Dr. Pamela Chrabieh https://www.blogger.com/profile/04392049818601945418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168761066166327832007-01-13T23:51:00.000-08:002007-01-13T23:51:00.000-08:00“Where there is no love there is no happiness” Nah...“Where there is no love there is no happiness” <BR/><BR/>Nahwa al Muwatiniya is pleased to invite you to a special session with Moussa Trad, a painter and a poet. Mr.Trad will talk about his perception of the quality of the life we’re living today from his personal experience and his relation with friends, nature, beauty and music.<BR/><BR/>Date & Time: Monday January 15, 2007 at 8:00pm <BR/><BR/>Place: Club 43, Gemayzé, facing Doculand (Lebanon)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168599066350862382007-01-12T02:51:00.001-08:002007-01-12T02:51:00.001-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168599062484679112007-01-12T02:51:00.000-08:002007-01-12T02:51:00.000-08:00Dear friends, Just when we thought the war in Iraq...Dear friends,<BR/> <BR/>Just when we thought the war in Iraq couldn't get any worse - it has. Last<BR/>night, President Bush rejected reality, spurned the American people's<BR/>verdict, and announced his new policy: MILITARY ESCALATION IN IRAQ. <BR/> <BR/>The good news is that the newly elected United States Congress can stop<BR/>this madness. We're launching an immediate campaign to let the Congress<BR/>hear from global voices - placing an ad with the number of signatures to<BR/>our petition in "Roll Call", an influential political paper sent to every<BR/>member of the US Congress. Click below to visit our new campaign site at<BR/>Avaaz.org, see the ad, and sign the petition: <BR/><BR/>http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_campaign_jan_2007/ <BR/><BR/>The US-led coalition forces and the Iraqi government are part of the<BR/>problem, and sending tens of thousands more American troops will only fan<BR/>the flames of this war. But the US Congress can demand a real diplomatic<BR/>plan to end the war - if they feel enough pressure to do it. <BR/> <BR/>This new Congress has real power to stop Bush in his tracks. The Democrats<BR/>were elected to end the war. If enough people speak up now, they might just<BR/>have the guts to do it. <BR/><BR/>http://www.avaaz.org/en/iraq_campaign_jan_2007/<BR/><BR/>The vast majority of Americans oppose escalation, and opposition is<BR/>growing. They need our help before the week is out. <BR/><BR/>Add your name to the petition. Spread the word to your friends. The Iraq<BR/>crisis is a global problem - and it will take global pressure to change its<BR/>course. <BR/> <BR/>With hope,<BR/> <BR/>Ricken, Paul, Tom, Rachel, Galit, Lee-Sean and the rest of the Ceasefire<BR/>Campaign (now Avaaz.org!) Team. <BR/>_________________<BR/><BR/>PS - In an online poll last year, nearly a thousand of you helped choose a<BR/>compelling new name for our global campaigning effort - www.Avaaz.org.<BR/>Avaaz means "voice" or "song" in many Asian languages. The new site is up,<BR/>so check it out! www.Avaaz.org.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168594294289649092007-01-12T01:31:00.000-08:002007-01-12T01:31:00.000-08:00Read also this:'Mental music' processes emotion of...Read also this:<BR/>'Mental music' processes emotion of a 34-day war. Jawad Nawfal, aka Munma, creates an usual summer soundtrack full of ambient, ethereal and heavily digitized compositions.<BR/>By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie <BR/>Daily Star staff<BR/>Thursday, January 11, 2007<BR/><BR/><BR/>Interview<BR/><BR/><BR/>BEIRUT: "Aequo was structured like drum 'n' bass with weird time signatures. AEX was the dance music incarnation of Aequo. It was closer to the public, to techno and to house. It was 4/4," says Jawad Nawfal, 29, in reference to the standardized time signature for dance music that keeps people moving in night clubs due to its regular, driving beats. <BR/><BR/>"Munma is closer to Aequo, but it's the only project that has oriental influences and sounds." Nawfal pauses to play back his latest adventure in electronic music in his head. "The rhythmic construction is more oriental. You know, tum tak taka taka tak," he explains, sounding out that rhythmic construction as he taps it out softly on the cafe table in front of him.<BR/><BR/>A musician and composer who would also answer to the profession of sound designer, Nawfal was born in Beirut in 1978. He did film studies at St. Joseph University, and when he found himself the only student in his chosen specialization of sound for cinema, his department sent him to Paris so he could complete his degree. <BR/><BR/>In 2001, Nawfal created Altered Ear, a research laboratory of sorts that would serve as a platform for numerous collaborations to come - such as music for a film by Caroline Tabet (to whom Nawfal is married) or the sound component of a site-specific multimedia installation using photographs and videos. <BR/><BR/>With fellow musician Victor Bresse, Nawfal soon began producing music under the moniker Aequo. "Latin for 'on the same level,'" he says. Aequo served as a testing ground for highly cerebral, disjointed electronic music, "like early Autechre or Squarepusher," explains Ziad Nawfal, 35, himself a DJ, Jawad's brother and the producer of his latest effort. <BR/><BR/>Aequo's sound falls within the bounds of what is often referred to, in the absence of a more meaningful term, as intelligent dance music (IDM). The genre dates back to the late 1980s and early 1990s and now includes an endless litany of subgenres. Generally speaking, IDM indicates a more mental approach to music that is made from samples and processed on computer (using ever more sophisticate sequencing and synthesizing software). It is listened to, more often than not and despite the name, on headphones rather than on the dance floor. The musicians associated with IDM - Autechre, Aphex Twin and Polygon Window (both aliases of Richard D. James), Boards of Canada, Telefon Tel Aviv, Plaid and any assortment of artists whose work is released on the record label Warp, and many of whom, it should be said, hate the term itself - are buttressed by music theory (David Toop) and reams of articles in the specialized press (see any issue of the London-based magazine The Wire). All of this writing endeavors to describe the music in creative, often over-the-top verbiage - glitch, squelch, squeak, smudge, fizz, fuzz, click, crackle, clack, swish, swash, swoosh and so on ad nauseam. Suffice it to say, it's a particular niche, one that is largely inaccessible to mainstream music listeners and made more so by the accompanying discourse, which has developed over the past 10 years.<BR/><BR/>As such, AEX emerged as a more palatable and people-friendly version of Aequo - less abrasive, easier to dance to. With computers and technicians at the ready, Nawfal and Bresse performed live as AEX about five or six times in Beirut. <BR/><BR/>But in the summer of 2006, Bresse, like so many others, left Lebanon and has yet to return. Nawfal, in terms of making new music, found himself on his own and also, as it happened, in the middle of a war. From this time and experience came Munma's "34 Days," a six-track EP released in late December. "I use different pseudonyms and each one corresponds to the style of music," Nawfal explains. "Munma is my resistance moniker." <BR/> <BR/><BR/>If you slot the name into a Google search, you are likely to get a list of references to the Munma Holy Republic, an imaginary Islamic state carved out of the southern quarter of Iran and Pakistan, as devised by a Japanese manga series. But as Nawfal notes, "there are many meanings for the term." The one he opts for is dystopian in the vein of George Orwell's "1984" or Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" - "A republic of resistance for the future," he says.<BR/><BR/>As much as "34 Days" is about Nawfal making music on his own, it is also about making music "during the war, about the war, for the war," he explains. The title, of course, references the 34 days of Israeli bombardment during July and August of last year. Still, while several locally produced music and video projects have made ample use of the sounds of bombshells, Munma's project is infinitely more abstract. As Nawfal explains: "With digital music the main process is not recording but processing the sounds. I gathered millions and millions of sounds."<BR/><BR/>Listening to "34 Days," you can never be sure exactly what you are hearing. You can't source the sounds, as in "this is a piano, a guitar" or "here is where the drums come in, the strings, the horns." You may strain for comparison: "This sounds like a door closing, the noise of a factory or an industrial plant, a cheap alarm clock that is going off and slowly breaking." The only tangible sounds are snippets from Arabic-language radio - a simple but nonetheless significant innovation, given the genre's otherwise insular footing elsewhere. <BR/><BR/>Recognizing sounds, however, is not a game Nawfal is eager for his listeners to play. He has his bank of sounds, and he's not about to crack it open for all to see and hear. <BR/><BR/>"From my cinema experience and my studies, I am attracted to abstract sounds, and to treating sounds as objects. The difference between concrete and abstract sounds is that concrete sounds are actual sounds, while with abstract sounds, you can't fathom what the instrument or the sound is. Munma is not music to hit the body, to make the body react, but to hit the mind first. The rhythms are not sustained. It's more reflective. The beat isn't going to draw you in. It's more eerie and it's got this melancholy feel. <BR/><BR/>"It's really work that comes from a need to express myself. I make money elsewhere," explains Nawfal, who makes advertising music for a living. "This isn't going to make me rich. It's something really personal. But there's a certain point at which you want to share it, and there's a certain point at which you have to come face to face with the public - if you want to get better and if you want to evolve. This is why I came to Ziad," he says, nodding toward his brother. "I wanted Munma to talk to the public."<BR/><BR/>"34 Days" marks the first time the Nawfal brothers have worked together. From an initial roster of 12-15 songs, they selected six for the CD, which was printed in a limited edition of 1,000, alongside another CD, the post-punk band Scrambled Eggs' "Happy Together Filthy Forever," which Ziad also co-produced and which was completed in the same, difficult time period (the final track of the Scrambled Eggs release is a Munma remix of "Bleeding Nun"). <BR/><BR/>"For me I needed to express what I was enduring," says Nawfal. "As an artist, you have to give shape to what you are feeling. It is for me an important statement."<BR/><BR/>"On many levels," his brother adds, with telling gravity. <BR/><BR/><BR/>Munma's "34 Days" is available now and distributed by Incognito. For more information, please see www.incognitome.netAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168435795747786362007-01-10T05:29:00.000-08:002007-01-10T05:29:00.000-08:00Read this:Wednesday, January 10, 2007The Daily Sta...Read this:<BR/><BR/>Wednesday, January 10, 2007<BR/>The Daily Star<BR/>Editorial<BR/><BR/>After nearly two weeks, Iraq is still reeling from the fallout over the execution of Saddam Hussein. The ill-timed event has predictably triggered new waves of violence and threatened efforts to reconcile divided communities. No one can deny that the former dictator brutally killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, although he was suspiciously only sentenced and hanged for his role in the killing of some 150 villagers from Dujail. What the Iraqi people needed most from the trial was not added proof of Saddam's crimes, but to see the triumph of justice and the rule of law over tyranny and lawlessness. But Iraqis never got that satisfaction. In fact, Saddam's botched death sentence gave the opposite impression, making him a hero in the eyes of many. Widely circulated videos showed the grisly execution being carried out, not by impartial security officials, but rather by revenge-seeking militiamen who hurled sectarian taunts at the former dictator until his final breath. The show trial and subsequent execution turned Saddam into a martyr, because he too became a victim of tyranny. <BR/><BR/>The irony is that as Iraqis continue to struggle to escape the stranglehold of tyranny, their American mentors are doing little to help them build a country on a foundation of the rule of law. Today, US President George W. Bush will reveal his plans for a "way forward" in Iraq - a strategy that promises to bring only more brutality and civilian bloodshed.<BR/><BR/>What the Bush administration has failed to recognize is that America will never achieve its goals in Iraq or in the region, including places like Somalia and Iran, solely with the use of troops, tanks and blunt force - brutal methods that were employed by Saddam himself. Each military victory that the US achieves through the use of raw power and unrestrained violence represents a defeat in the battle for hearts and minds. That battle, which is the only one that really matters, can only be won when the people of the region see that tyranny and brutality have given way to justice and the rule of law.<BR/><BR/>Wassim (Beirut)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168435628339993232007-01-10T05:27:00.000-08:002007-01-10T05:27:00.000-08:00Pamela,Je te tiendrai au courant avec plaisir.Pame...Pamela,<BR/><BR/>Je te tiendrai au courant avec plaisir.<BR/><BR/>Pamela, grâce à toi, grâce à d'autres que tu as amenés à s'exprimer au moyen du blogue, il est de moins en moins vrai que d'essayer de comprendre ce qui se passe ne sert à rien. Peu importe, pour l'instant, le pourcentage de compréhension des magouilles des dirigeants, le peu que nous savons , contrairement à il y a quelques années seulement, nous pouvons le transmettre par le biais du blogue. Pour ma part, je crois que de connaître 1% de leurs « brassées de merde » représente infiniment plus que le 0 dont on avait l'habitude de nous gratifier auparavant.<BR/><BR/>Bon courage, Pamela !<BR/><BR/>André.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168418211415128432007-01-10T00:36:00.000-08:002007-01-10T00:36:00.000-08:00Je suis tout à fait d'accord sur tout ce qui est m...Je suis tout à fait d'accord sur tout ce qui est mentionné ci-dessus:<BR/>- 'à demain' est une expression que l'on n'ose plus utiliser, ou alors on l'accompagne de 'Si Dieu le veut' ("enchallah"). Le vécu dans l'incertitude constante...<BR/>- j'ai bien aimé 'en escalade et dégringolade continues'; d'ailleurs, c'est de cela qu'il est question dans mon blog cette semaine; et franchement, à un moment donné, on ne peut plus distinguer ce qui est une escalade d'une dégringolade et si l'une ou l'autre versent dans le positif ou le négatif (apport ou obstacle au niveau national). Le flou l'emporte sur le clair-net...<BR/>- Marchello, j'appuie tes dires. 'Ces gens' et bien d'autres encore malheureusement n'ont aucun respect pour la nature en général: la nature humaine, l'environnement, etc. Et d'ailleurs, tout ce qui touche à l'environnement touche directement l'humain (le mouvement inverse est également vrai). <BR/>- André, tu m'en diras des nouvelles stp? Je suis tellement affairée à suivre les discours de nos politiciens au niveau local - pour tenter de comprendre ne serait-ce qu'1% de ce qui se passe au Liban, bien que je sais que cela ne sert absolument à rien et que tout se fait en coulisses - que je n'ai ni la patience ni l'envie de le faire encore pour la plupart des 'leaders' de ce monde, surtout s'il s'agit de la même 'diarrhée verbale'.Dr. Pamela Chrabieh https://www.blogger.com/profile/04392049818601945418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168402669540735112007-01-09T20:17:00.000-08:002007-01-09T20:17:00.000-08:00Demain, mercredi, G. W. Bush démontrera, hors de t...Demain, mercredi, G. W. Bush démontrera, hors de tout doute, qu'il est réellement le roi des cons.<BR/><BR/>André T.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168398641312312132007-01-09T19:10:00.000-08:002007-01-09T19:10:00.000-08:00Pamela, si ces gens qui font les guerres avaient l...Pamela, si ces gens qui font les guerres avaient le moindre respect pour Dieu et son oeuvre, ils ne détruiraient pas ainsi l'environnement. Jamais dans l'histoire un peuple n'a si mal paru face à la communauté internationale. Le droit de se défendre ne va pas jusque là. That's all.Marchellohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11540253189491423018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168355735447645622007-01-09T07:15:00.000-08:002007-01-09T07:15:00.000-08:00Le Liban est en escalade et dégringolade continues...Le Liban est en escalade et dégringolade continues! Comment, dans ce cas, espérer qu'il y ait un 'demain'? Je suis tout à fait d'accord avec toi 'N.'<BR/>Zeina S.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24298469.post-1168355557012559872007-01-09T07:12:00.000-08:002007-01-09T07:12:00.000-08:00Quel est le comble de l'optimisme pour un Libanais...Quel est le comble de l'optimisme pour un Libanais? De dire à son voisin: 'à demain!'<BR/>N.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com