Tele Liban has ads on the streets (please read this without fainting)

Tele Liban has ads on the streets.

Tele Liban has ads on the streets (repeating for emphasis). Honestly I am so pleasantly surprised - before you draw any conclusions - I have stopped watching television since 2013 when I got diagnosed with diabetes and high blood pressure was not recommended. But the news in itself is thrilling. After years, make that decades, of neglect, Tele Liban is advertising its new political program "The dialogues of the serail" with Nada Saliba. It is on Tuesday at 8:30 PM.

I read elsewhere that Tele Liban was also going to produce, again, a new scripted program - those same programs that made its glory for decades upon decades when until LBC showed up (August 23, 1985) it was the two channels of Tele Liban had the hegemony of the airwaves (or what was known as "Tallet el Khayyat" and "Hazmieh"). 

In retrospect some of the programmes with incredible pop culture cachet don't hold water by today's standards, but some others do survive intact. But all of this is a little like putting the cart before the horse - on the upside? This time around there seems to be a cart for the horse to push.

On the MTV Telethon for Rahibat Deir El Salib.... And the original Telethon on TeleLiban

The telethon by MTV in support of Rahibat Deir El Salib (psychiatric hospital de la Croix) totally gets my vote and good for them, which reminded me of the original telethon in Lebanon live on television in May 1988 by Jean-Claude and Josyane Boulos on Ahad 3al Hawa in a special for the red cross.

It started on 10 A.M. and finished at 18 P.M. during which 15 Million Lebanese pounds were raised. Statistics indicate that the Lebanese Pound parity to the Dollar was 409,23 Liras. This means that 36,654 USD were raised, which adjusted to inflation today is 99,760 USD. That day an elderly woman called and offered them her lottery ticket, "her dreams" in her own words and I vividly remember Jean-Claude Boulos completely lost it crying when a small child came and offered his piggy bank. Do remember, all this in a country which was experiencing a ravaging war and a major financial crisis.

I am indebted to Josyane Boulos for the info taken from "La Tele Quelle Histoire" by the late (great) Jean-Claude Boulos. Once more, I am all for acts of social cohesion, but we must also remember our past.

Media in Lebanon: "There's no truth in Beirut, only versions" Bill Farrell

Published originally on October 22, 2008 - this post still stands on its feet. Names have changed, some of these TV stations no longer exist, but the idea stands. One event, different interpretations, different versions, no truth.... What happened yesterday was interpreted in already several antagonistic ways.

In an recent email I have received, I got different interpretations of the Lebanese media about the same event. The original news is "A Lebanese citizen was killed by the flow of cars on the Beirut - Damascus road"... Now here's the different versions: For Al Manar (Either backed or totally owned by the Hezbollah depending on the different sources) "The martyrdom of a Lebanese in a Mossad attack on the Beirut - Damascus road," Future Television owned by the Hariri Family and holding a major grudge on Syria headlines "The remnants of the security apparatus kills a citizen known for his opposition to the Syrian occupation" (Syrians remained for 15 years in Lebanon after the end of the war, practically having a political "carte blanche" from major superpowers), for the LBC - itself anti-Syrian - it becomes "The death of a citizen supporting the majority under the wheels of a bus with a Syrian license plate" (The majority in this case refers to the current anti-Syrian parliamentary block) for NBN - totally pro-Syrian - the news is best avoided and the news is "The fall of the Berlin wall" then New TV which is heavily flavored with communist ideas "The colonial capitalist American powers kills a Lebanese citizen" and finally for Tele Liban, known to do nothing all day but rerun (its otherwise brilliant) archive... there are no headlines, only the archive.

George Kordahi and Credit FInancier Invest: a repeat of the Wahid Jalal experience?

Long, long time ago Tele Liban had a major hit on its hands, the program "Hakamat Al Makmaka" (the tribunal had judged). The program ran for 5 years straight making Wahid Jalal a major smash hit in Lebanon since he was the lead "lawyer" of the program. Jalal once had a major job opportunity, a leading law firm in Lebanon wanted to recruit him. His reply was "I am an actor, I know nothing about law!" to which the owner of the firm said "who said anything about law, all you have to do is just sit there!". Which brings us to Credit Financier Invest and George Kordahi.

CFI (Credit Financier Invest) is a registered Forex (Foreign Exchange) company. They recruited major pan-Arab media personality George Kordahi to represent them. Mind you Kordahi is charistmatic, easy of the eye, mature, trusted which makes him a very good fit. But his only "financial" credits is that he presented the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" program in the Arab world, which is akin to saying "all you have to do is just sit there!". Truth be told Kordahi does more than sitting, he strolls on yachts in Dubai in their ads, does the whole the she bang of looking at his computer in a Cadillac Escalade, and acts convincingly.

Still, I cannot but think that his only link to money is the "Millionaire" program.... 

Bell's - the Christmas ad that got away.

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

And that's one of the ads that got away. I never managed to find it. It is the Bell's whisky Christmas ad.... The ad was incredibly simple. At night, a is pouring a glass of Bell's in front of a snowy window (we only see his hands though). In the distance we hear the church bells chiming, and the voice over goes: "what would Christmas be without Bell's". The ad would only run on Christmas week in the mid 80s on TeleLiban, but that was enough for me to remember it. Pity I could not find it anywhere.