I think Syria would have done much better to refrain from sinking down to the level of Lebanese politics and to let the Lebanese to duke it out domestically. After all, internal divisions are a sovereign Lebanese issue and should not be meddled in by outside parties. With this I make no exception for any outside party. I have the same advice for the US, France, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Some countries such as Qatar have actually done a better job in this respect.

My advice in this post though concerns Syria because, despite my opposition to many of its policies, Syria remains the single most important Lebanese ally. We need to repair our relationship with Syria, not severe it, something Gibran Tueni used to always say clearly and frequently.

On the first day we attended the 2nd Gebran Tueni Award ceremony, a big event witnessed by hundreds of dignitaries and guests. We enjoyed touching speeches by Nayla Tueni, Majida Al Roumi and others, and I was especially moved by Majida speech which demonstrated the anger and frustration of Lebanese people with the current political deadlock. The award was given this year to Michel Hajji Georgiou, a senior political analyst at the French-language daily L’Orient-Le Jour in Lebanon. He told us during the dinner party that night the he had to sell his car because he has been afraid of being assassinated by the pro-Syrian elements.

Except for one Saudi guy working for the LBC and has been living in Beirut since 1994, I was the only participant from Saudi Arabia and the GCC. Interestingly, many people came to me after the panel and said they could not believe that I was Saudi. I can tell that many in the Arab World have a certain stereotype for the citizens of this country. Anyways, I'm really glad that the session turned out to be fine and that many people liked it.

As I said earlier, I did not have enough time to go out and enjoy the different parts of the city, but I got to hang out with friends in Al Hamra, have breakfast by the Rawsha rock, and had a walk in Ashrafia and Solider. Beirut is a beautiful city, but because it has gone through a lot, it looks bruised and tired. I suspect that tourists would enjoy seeing the army everywhere searching their bags and asking them to stop taking pictures of the city's landmarks. Let's hope things would get better before the summer season.

Finally, I want to thank the organizers for inviting me to be part of this event and I hope to see them again in Beirut next year. I also want to thank fellow bloggers Wael Abbas and Mohammed Azraq, as well as Mahmoud Abdelfattah, the best moderator ever :-) Last but not least, I want to thank Alexandra, Hala, Maha, Mustapha, Sherif, Yumna, Rana, Zina, Adel, Virginie, Fadwa, and all those who made my first visit to Lebanon fun but I forgot their names.

P.S. The first picture is inspired by Roba.

"Jag tänkte titta närmare på Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå, TT, och diskutera deras enormt starka ställning i Sverige gällande förmedlandet av nyheter och händelser.

TT bildades redan 1921 och har idag 120 journalister anställda. Utlandsnyheterna grundas dels på deras egna korrespondenter men även på internationella nyhetsbyråer (AFP, Reuters). Nyhetsbyrån har en starkt dominerande ställning i Sverige då nästan samtliga av landets tidningar, TV och radio prenumererar på telegram/artiklar från TT. Denna storlek gör att konkurrerande nyhetsbyråer har svårt att få fotfäste och tidningar väljer ofta hellre att köpa material från TT än att anställa egna korrespondenter. Enligt Anders H Pers, fd ordförande för TT, är TT den viktigaste nyhetskällan för många av de mindre tidningarna."

Och vidare....

"Vi kan börja med Stefan Hjerténs uttalande i “Gomorron Sverige” (2005-12-13) där han ifrågasätter Libanons rätt som en suverän stat. Det var i samband med att den Syrien-kritiske journalisten Gebran Tueni hade blivit mördad som han säger att:

Det fanns en regel att kristna ska tillsätta president i Libanon… Det måste ändras långsamt. Det här tycks ske genom kriser, genom politiska mord, genom annat otäckt. Men på något sätt är det ändå ett bättre Libanon där folk själva bestämmer som banar sin väg genom det här. Nu är Libanon egentligen ett litet hamnområdet åt Syrien. Det var ändå ett vansinne när Frankrike bestämde att skära loss Libanon ifrån Syrien. Beirut är Syriens hamnstad, Libanon och Syrien är hopbundna fullkomligt, så de måste komma överens…"

Läs hela - det mycket intressanta inlägget - här.