Khalil Gibran

Who said "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country"? Are you seriously asking that question? It was JFK, during his inauguration speech as US president. WRONG! The answer is Lebanese poet-artist-writer Khalil Gibran. Gibran was born in Lebanon on January 6th, 1883 and has since become the 3rd best selling poet of all time, behind Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu* To honor Gibran and his work, Google has dedicated their January 6th 2011 Doodle to him, not on google.com.lb, but on google.com, a real honor for every Lebanese. You can find the picture of the Doodle below and more information on Gibran via the wikipedia link.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran

Cedrus Libani

Heading to Lebanon for this post. The Lebanese Cedar Tree is the symbol of the country and has been used by countless civilizations to build ships, temples and even railways. King Salomon's temple is said to be built form Lebanese Cedar, the King himself sent thousands of his people to Lebanon to bring the wood. The Phoenicians, creators of the Alphabet and the color purple, used it to build their ships. As a result, the tree faced severe deforestation and almost extinction. Today, the Lebanese are preserving their national heritage. In Lebanon, trees between the age of 1 year to 3,000 years can be found. I leave you with a picture I took of a Cedar Tree in Bcharre (approximately 2,500 years old!).

Desigual

I was in Madrid last week and I saw this really cool piece of Guerilla Marketing by Desigual, the clothes store. Again, it was a very affordable and successful way to get people's attention. Basically, they placed LED screens behind windows in a building in Plaza de Callao. The screens were all synchronized to play a larger image. It was very cool and caught people's attention for over 3 minutes, an amazing accomplishment for an outdoor activity! It would be interesting to see if Desigual's sales actually went up. Below is a snapshot of this.

VIPS Madrid

You all know by now that I love eating :)

Well I have a new, AFFORDABLE, and filling option for you. VIPS.

VIPS has several locations in Madrid. Their food isn't always that good, their quality has been dropping over the past few years, BUT they have 1 item on their menu that never fails to satisfy my appetite. The Bikini.

The bikini is a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Sounds simple and not that amazing right? Wrong! Add an egg to it and you'll have yourself a delicious sandwich. To make things even better, ask for a piece of lettuce and some mustard. Amazing!

The deal also comes with a coffee and an orange juice, all for the price of 4 Euros without the egg and 5 with the egg!

If you're in Madrid, run to your closest VIPS and eat a bikini!

Congraulations Qatar?

Today Qatar became the first Arab country to host the world cup, a tremendous achievement that deserves recognition. The cup will be hosted in 2022, that's 12 years from now but Qatar has a lot to do, and even more questions to answer. It's a country that has a population of 1.7 million people and is 11,437 Km2 large, most of which is desert.

There is a huge construction boom going on at the moment, but how much can they really build in 12 years? Who will build it all, and will this small nation be able to fund it? If so, is it really worth the return on investment? A lot of questions to be answered in a relatively short period of time. However, the biggest question lingers in my mind, one that doesn't involve construction or money, but politics. Qatar is an Arab state technically doesn't recognize the existence of the state of Israel. Assuming that Israel qualifies for the World Cup of 2022, will Qatar be forced to allow the Israeli team to attend the event? What will this mean for Qatar's relationship with neighboring Arab states? Will Israeli tourists be allowed to attend the World Cup even if their nation doesn't qualify?

Only time will tell...

Weather

Life in Dublin isn't as bad as one would think. It's a fun little city, with the warmest people I have ever met. Most people think Dublin is a city in England... it isn't. Dublin is the capital of Ireland, for those of you who didn't know! This year, much like the rest of the world, it's been experiencing some pretty odd weather. The temperature actually hit -8 Celsius, with a lot of snow covering the city. Even though it's great to have a white December and eventually a white Christmas, but what does this mean for weather worldwide? In Lebanon, there hasn't been any rain in months, a country known for having an abundance of water; is now running short of it! I leave you with this picture of Dublin taken from my office window.

Carbon City Lights

If Eddie Vedder and Tori Amos produced a musical offspring it would be Carbon City Lights. This up and coming musician started his career banging pots and pans in his parents' kitchen. Today Michael Ibrahim has matured into a well rounded musician - a lyrical genius. His latest project has received praise from Canada to Pakistan, professionals complementing him on his style, rhythm and all round fun music.

His latest album, With or Without will be launched on Spetember 07, 2010. Mark you calendars and buy the album. If you are quick enough, you can get a free download of "Isn't That Life" available for a limited time only on the website.

You can follow Carbon City Lights on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Also check out the website where free tracks are available as well as more information.
www.carboncitylights.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carbon-City-Lights/108470405863164

http://www.twitter.com/carboncitylight

http://www.youtube.com/carboncitylights

Looking forward to the album's release, get it while you can, it's gonna sell out quick!

O