October 5, 2017
Our roads are unsafe. A large number of the cars on our roads are inefficient, polluting, and even dangerous to drive. Many go uninspected, as people thumb their noses at the law, and many more are cheap cars that were damaged and repaired badly, bought secondhand on the gray market. On top of everything else, our commercial-vehicle fleet is in desperate need of renewal.
The crisis we face is dire. It was instigated by a shortsighted government tax policy that financially incentivizes people to keep driving their old cars, and effectively discourages them from buying newer, safer, more fuel-efficient models through the imposition of a high tax on even the most compact and affordable vehicles.
Wellness and health in Lebanon: current status and potential for growth
August 7, 2018
Health and wellness have long been an integral part of Middle Eastern culture. The most common Arabic phrase used for greeting someone
keef el-sohat? asks after a person’s health. Another common phrase used in Lebanon specifically is yatik el-afyeh (may God grant you wellness), used as a greeting but also for when someone is engaged in physical labor or has had a busy day.
While our language may emphasize the value we Lebanese place on health and wellness, our habits and activities have gradually shifted away over the years as a result of exposure to unhealthy trends in food and lifestyle. “The Lebanese basically have a very healthy diet, but it has been unfortunately transformed by imported American trends,” says Alice Edde, co-owner of Eddésands Hotel & Wellness Resort. “But the Lebanese are very beauty conscious, so anything that had to do with weight loss was always a big succes
Innovation economy needs investment
November 10, 2017
Lebanon being Lebanon, there are no statistics. But by the accounts of stakeholders throughout the country’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, one big gap is not being filled: strong financial support from the state for research and development (R&D).
Many governments make R&D investments, and the Lebanese government does fund the National Center for Scientific Research which has four centers for study around the country and gives out research grants on a bi-annual basis. Additionally, a small amount ($3.2 million) of the $650-or-so million in funds aimed at growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem and guaranteed at 75 percent by Banque du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, is now being directed toward R&D investments. Word of slightly more of this money possibly being diverted toward R&D in the future is currently echoing in the jungle.
Caught between home and the office
March 11, 2019
A typical week-day in the life of a woman with a career and children looks something like this: She gets out of bed at 6 a.m. to get her children ready for their day, then goes to work for at least nine hours (often working through her lunch break) before picking up her children from daycare or their grandparents and being fully engaged with them and their needs until they sleep at 8 p.m. She then spends the remaining few hours before going to bed either catching up on small household chores or work, spending some quality time with her husband, or doing things that interest her and the next day she gets up to repeat it all again.
On the job
June 7, 2017
Banking is such a constant in Lebanese existence that you can pretty much set your watch by its heartbeat. Of course this only looks effortless. In reality, there are a series of arduous and vital balancing acts in progress, primarily at the central bank and then one tier lower at the commercial banks. After all, the sector’s steady performance in the safe annual growth of assets and deposits is entwined with global realities of the most fragile political, monetary and economic sorts. This inconvenient and undeniable reality was underscored by the months-long hullabaloo over Banque du Liban (BDL) Governor Riad Salameh’s term extension, announced at the end of May.