Source : Deutsche Welle

Changing sexual behavior puts young Lebanese at greater risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS — especially gay men. Yet social taboos hinder measures aimed at helping those in new risk groups cope with the disease.

Unlike much of the Middle East, HIV infection patterns in Lebanon are increasingly mirroring those of the West.

Although HIV/AIDS is seen in most Middle Eastern countries as a broad-based, low-risk epidemic among heterosexuals that affects less than 1 percent of the population, the infection profile in Lebanon is realigning to include homosexuals, intravenous drug users, prison inmate and sex workers – the same at-risk populations as in the West.

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Four years ago, at 16, Rana’s husband forced her into prostitution. Despite the risks of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), Rana, like many local sex workers – estimated to number at least 6,000 – often did not use condoms.

“It’s up to the client,” said Rana (not her real name). “I want to use condoms, but most of the clients don’t.” Asked why she ignores the risks of contracting HIV or STDs she simply says: “I don’t want to lose the client.”

Elie Aaraj, head of Lebanon’s SIDC association, warns that the lack of condom use among local sex workers could soon become a public health issue.

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Source : CNN | By Schams Elwazer

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Lebanon has one of the highest smoking rates in the world, according to WHO

* No minimum age to buy cigarettes; 65 percent of 13-15 year old boys smoke

* Anti-smoking guru Dr G Saade says patients with smoking-related diseases getting younger

* Lebanese unlikely to give up the weed easily as they associate smoking with freedom . . .

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by Layal Al Khatib | Article

“Ain’t No Smoking 2nite” was an event organized by Rotaract which took place in Gemmayzeh pubs in Beirut on the 28th of October. This was in an attempt to spread awareness about the dangers of smoking and to encourage decision makers to promote non-smoking policies in Lebanon. Lebanese bloggers covered the event saying it was a failure.

At first, the participation seemed impressive even before the start of the event. Thirty-five pubs in Gemmayzeh street announced their participation and the campaign sounded promising.

Maya Zankoul, a Lebanese blogger at “Maya’s Amalgam“, a graphic designer and one of the campaign sponsors designed the poster and saw how it was all over the streets:

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A lack of state funding in Lebanon has stifled diversity in moviemaking, but plucky independent initiatives have borne some fruit. Part II.

Nathalie Bontems

Click here to read Part I.

Potential private investors are not interested in financing movie ventures, or even in acting as patrons on a smaller scale. They deem the domestic market to be too small to be profitable. Their question, therefore, is whether Lebanese films can export themselves with success.

Lebanese feature films, costing $500,000 on average, often end up being funded by European cultural institutions and programs such as Euromed, a series of agreements between the European Union and Mediterranean countries. That two-year program granted Lebanese cinema nearly $22 million between 2006 and 2008, and provided writing workshops, meetings with foreign professionals, and projections in European theaters.

But only a certain number of films can be produced each year and many directors and writers are left out of the action. Between 2005 and 2006, five full-length features made it to the screens, but for the past few years production has lagged at a weak rate of one film a year. With 90 percent of the Lebanese production financed through channels like this, some sort of dependence is unavoidable.

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It looks like in the news lately Beirut is the capital of everything except a real country.

“So many questions today about what ‘gay Beirut’ is like,” he told me. “I’m just like, ‘Wait and see, you’ll like it, you’ll like it!’”

Read the article at this link:

Beirut: The Provincetown of the Middle East