MIND SOUP : Everyone knows that blogging has exploded recently in Lebanon. There's even a Blogging Convention in a mere couple of weeks where our very own Moudz will be in atte…
MIND SOUP: Everyone knows that blogging has exploded recently in Lebanon. There's even a Blogging Convention in a mere couple of weeks where our very own Moudz will be in attendance! With that said, as blogging in general is becoming more and more popular in Lebanon, so are Lebanese LGBT blogs.
The blogs are very new, less than a year old and two new ones popped up just this month. The themes of the blog are as diverse as the Lebanese LGBT community itself. Posts include favorite music, coming out stories, bad dates, and complaining about Lebanon (the hallmark of a Lebanese blog). Most of the blogs are anonymous (due to privacy concerns and the rampant homophobia still present in Lebanon).
Beirut Boy: The author is a young, Lebanese businessman in his 20s. He posts about dating, music, fashion, and is an activist for gay rights in Lebanon. He (as well as many other bloggers) has joined the Save Aya campaign.
Gay in Beirut: This blog mainly has humorous and light-hearted posts about the gay life in Beirut and the parties that ensue by two Lebanese gay men in their late 20s. Recently, the blog's posts have become more serious by posting a 7-part series about the personal story of a Lebanese gay man who was arrested under Article 534 of the Lebanese penal code that criminalizes homosexuality. Here's the link to part 1.
Lebanon Rebel: Lebanon Rebel is a bisexual Lebanese woman giving a (much needed) female perspective to the Lebanese LGBT blogosphere. While she isn't as prolific in her posts as the other bloggers, her initial posts are also about LGBT activism and her own personal experiences.
The Rainbow Experience: This blog is run by a young gay teenager, Karim N., who attends a very religious all-Christian school in Beirut. This blog was only started about a month ago but has already garnered much support from the LGBT community due to his coming-out series (for part 1, click here). He also parts bits about his daily life, like good restaurants he's been to and music.
G-AZZI: A blog by Georges Azzi, of the founders of the Lebanese gay-rights NGO, Helem. The blog has some interesting personal stories, but is mainly a gay-rights activist blog. It is also one of the only blogs where the author reveals his/her identity.
Good luck to all the bloggers and here's hoping that the laws in Lebanon will change so that all the authors of these blogs can use their real names.
AP : Dread of the unknown hung in the air as Lynn France typed two words into the search box on Facebook: the name of the woman with whom she believed her husband was having an aff…
AP: Dread of the unknown hung in the air as Lynn France typed two words into the search box on Facebook: the name of the woman with whom she believed her husband was having an affair.
Click. And there it was, the stuff of nightmares for any spouse, cuckolded or not. Wedding photos. At Walt Disney World, no less, featuring her husband literally dressed as Prince Charming. His new wife, a pretty blonde, was a glowing Sleeping Beauty, surrounded by footmen.
"I was numb with shock, to tell you the truth," says France, an occupational therapist from Westlake, a Cleveland suburb. "There was like an album of 200 pictures on there. Their whole wedding."
Affairs were once shadowy matters, illicit encounters whispered about and often difficult to prove. But in the age of Facebook and Twitter and lightning-fast communication, the notion of privacy is fast becoming obsolete. From flirtatious text messages to incriminating e-mails, marital indiscretions are much easier to track — especially if potentially damaging photographic evidence is posted online.
"All of these things are just a trail of cyber breadcrumbs that are easily tracked by good divorce lawyers," says Parry Aftab, an expert on Internet safety and privacy laws.
France, 41, was not completely blindsided by her Facebook discovery, which happened in January 2009. That fall, she had grown suspicious when her husband began taking frequent business trips, even leaving the day the couple's newborn son came home from the hospital. Once, she found his passport at home when he was supposed to be in China for business.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Lebanese bloggers were able today to postpone the Lebanese E-Transactions Law. According to SMEX,org , the vote on the E-Transactions La…
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Lebanese bloggers were able today to postpone the Lebanese E-Transactions Law. According to SMEX,org, the vote on the E-Transactions Law was postponed for one month, sent back to committee for revision.
After many long awaited years and after many opportunities and money wasted the Lebanese are finally getting their e-transaction law. But instead of cheers and hallelujah, the online community is greeting this law with a big big gloom and anger. This law, if passed, will take us backward in time and will drive all foreign investments away. [...] This is simply like looking up to a light at the end of a very dark long tunnel only to find out that the source of this light is a burning fire that you can’t even avoid. (link)
There are some very troubling articles in the law that threaten to create a more restrictive or at least more monitored online environment in Lebanon, including:
Article 70. Arising under this Act a body called the Electronic Signatures & Services Authority, enjoying the moral and financial and administrative independence and exercise the powers and functions entrusted to it under this Act and placed to regulate the administrative and financial decrees adopted in the Council of Ministers upon the proposal of the competent minister (in this case OMSAR)….This body is not subject to the provisions of the general system of public institutions and is under the control of the Audit Bureau (after the fact).
Article 82. The Agency may, within the exercise of its functions set out in this Act, carry out inspections of financial, administrative and electronic access to any information or computer systems or tools related to operations, including those used for data processing in relation with private information.Employees are entrusted inspection functions as an specialized judicial police within the scope of the Authority’s work. Public Prosecutions and the investigating judges and courts may use the Authority in their investigations, provided that the staff of the agency concerned had sworn before the Court of Appeal in Beirut prior to their work.
Article 84. The observer or inspector is assigned formally by the inspection work either periodically or upon the complaint. An observer or inspector can , to the extent required by the mission only, and the requirement to maintain the confidentiality of information seen it, to request:
Access to any document regardless of media and obtain copies of it.
Obtaining all information or clarifications it deems necessary, from the place of investigation, or after invitation.
Access to software, data and print them.
The use of experts when necessary building permission from the President of the Commission.
Article 87. The Agency may, depending on the type and gravity of the offense [for violating the terms of licenses that ESSA will sell—see Article 92 below], the imposition of any such action or fines following:
Stop treatment if the assets were subject to the permit.
Modify the terms of the license as to ensure the elimination of the violation.
Suspension of a license for a specified period.
Cancel the license.
Impose a fine commensurate with the gravity of the offense committed and the benefits resulting therefrom.
Article 92. Each person wishing to provide signature and authentication services of any electronic or online services relevant under the supervision of the Commission, must obtain a license. (link) [See a full translation of Articles 70 to 92]
So what are the major pain points in the e-Transaction Law? [If you are viewing this post via Google Buzz, click here to see the video]
The ESSA (Electronic Signatures and Services Authority) was established under this law with discretionary, selective, subjective and very broad and unjustified powers, beyond the objectives of the law and its functions. Its prerogatives are almost repressive for all "service providers" of electronic services and economic sectors at large.
ESSA staff are given the powers of law enforcement (ضابطة العدلية), without any judicial oversight.
A number of relevant ministries such as Ministry of Economy, Telecommunications and Finance are marginalized with a clear conflict of powers with the ESSA.
ESSA is given regulatory powers, and operational powers meaning that it can regulate and operate at the same time.
There are many contradictions and ambiguities in many of the legal concepts and language
These observations and other observations in the drafting details [...] are preventing this law from performing its desired function. This will result in a negative impact on the economic activity and investment panorama, due to the unjustified restrictions and unusual constraints that the law is putting on vital economic sectors in Lebanon. (link)
While this picture from Shoebox Blog is quite funny, it's really not much of an exaggeration of what's going on in real life. Facebook's (lack of) privacy settings hav…
While this picture from Shoebox Blog is quite funny, it's really not much of an exaggeration of what's going on in real life. Facebook's (lack of) privacy settings have gotten worse over the years. Essentially, we have to treat everything we do on the internet as completely public. Times have changed and we have to change with them. If we don't, things we posted months or years ago on Facebook will come back to haunt us.
*Tip of the Day*
Google your full name in quotations every once-in-a-while, i.e., "[first name] [last name]" to see what's out there about you. Future employers and grad schools regularly Google the names of their applicants. Figure out what sort of information people can find about you and if any of it is problematic, try to remove it before applying anywhere for jobs or higher education.
It seems that placing privacy settings on your social networking profile isn't enough to keep snoops away. Nathalie Blanchard, of Quebec, Canada, learned that lesson when her …
It seems that placing privacy settings on your social networking profile isn't enough to keep snoops away. Nathalie Blanchard, of Quebec, Canada, learned that lesson when her long-term, sick-leave benefits were stripped from her because of photos on her Facebook account.
For the past year and a half, Blanchard had been on leave from her job at IBM as the result of being diagnosed with serious clinical depression. Since the diagnosis, she had been collecting a monthly check from Manulife, her insurance firm. But after Manulife investigators discovered photos on her private Facebook page that showed her out partying with friends at a bar and vacationing on sunny beaches, the company decided to cut off benefits. The insurer considered the photos evidence that Blanchard was no longer depressed, according to a report by the CBC.
Blanchard told the CBC that she was only following doctors' orders and trying to have fun through nights out and short getaways. She added that while she might have been happy in the moment, her issues with depression persisted. Manulife, for its part, told the news outlet that it "would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook," but the company did not cite any other reasons for revoking her claim.
Since Blanchard's profile is private, it seems that Manulife would have had to resort to hacking or deception in order to gain access to the photos. Regardless of what you think about Blanchard's taking leave for a year and a half for feeling sad, that would represent a clear violation of trust and privacy. [From: CBC]