Ghostly Ambiguity

Not a day goes by lately without gay matters making headlines on the global news channels.

The same can be said about the newsstreams coming out of Lebanon, except in our case it’s not about another country opening up marriage rights to same-sex couples or the world’s first official coming out of a major sport’s professional athlete.

On the contrary. As the world progresses steadily on same-sex issues, Lebanon keeps on regressing, one little step after the other.

The top gay-related headline these last few days is about the violent police raid of the Ghost Bar nightclub (the little brother of belated Acid nightclub) that took place last week.

The short-term arrests of 3 people and the humiliating treatments that followed have spurred all kinds of reactions in the media – a mixed bag nicely covered in G-Azzi’s post “With or Against Us”.

Photo taken from L'orient le Jour's website

But as gay rights defenders counter-attack, and as the issue spills over into the broader gay-friendly and human rights community, it does seem that the officials involved such as Dekwaneh Mayor Antoine Chakhtoura  and minister of interior Marwan Charbel are not getting away without virulent criticism on their homophobic attitude.

One of these media reactions I find particularly interesting: Murr TV. Why so, because (it might just be a rumor but) word has it that its presenter Joe Maalouf JUST GOT FIRED from MTV. 

The irony being that, for once, Maalouf had taken in his latest show “Enta Horr” a relatively moderated, less homophobic stance on the Ghost intervention than he had in the past - a new episode well covered here by the folks at Blog Baladi.

This time again, in what is probably a perfect reflection of the society's reaction in general, MTV has just blown away every possible record of ambiguity. 

A humoristic picture that's been circulating. But what if
it's true the guy just got fired?

Or, perhaps one could argue it's actually the exact contrary of ambiguity: 

That by firing Joe Maalouf, MTV management has decided to get rid of any left ambiguity (remember the “counter-accusations” of Joe Maalouf being gay) on where it stands on gay matters. 

I just wish we, as a people, would get even the slightest opportunity to express ourselves on the Big Gay Question through a national vote or something. 

I know the results would probably be bitter to swallow, but nevertheless sweeter than all this media and political nonsense we're  having to take in.

Arte Spotlights Beirut

French-German TV channel Arte is one of the best out there if you ask me – the perfect mix between culture and entertainment, between mainstream and alternative, between conventional and eccentric, between European and rest-of-world.

In your face, Big Brother: Try stopping it now!

And it’s about to get even better for the Lebanese public:

Next Friday January 20th at 9:35 PM Beirut time, Arte will air “Beyrouth Hotel”, Danielle Arbid’s most recent film that was banned in Lebanon for allegedly being “dangerous for Lebanon’s Security”.

Better than waiting for the movie to appear in the back drawers of pirated DVD shops, Arte gives us the chance to see it in all legality on TV. I wonder how our dear censorship bureau feels about that.

For those who miss it then there are two late night re-runs the following week: January 26th at 01:15 AM and January 30th at 03:55 AM.

Another Arte show of interest is the sequence “Prochain arrêt : Beyrouth” made by Pierre Aboujaoude. The five chapter series (~25 minutes each) airs every day this week (started yesterday January 16th) at 7:05 PM Beirut time, and again every weekday next week (Jan 23rd) at 9:00 AM.

Also worth noting is Arte’s service Arte+7, which allows to view all programs online for the whole week following their airtime.

Enjoy the show!

More From Big Brother

Since writing Go Censor This, Big Brother I became more and more aware of the severity of the state of censorship and intolerance that we live in here in Lebanon. On one afternoon that week I wanted to go see the World Press Photo 2011 exhibit taking place downtown, but as I was looking for the address I found out it had been closed ahead of schedule because it featured work from an Israeli photographer…

Then a couple days later I was reading about the last movie from Lebanon-based production house ..né.à Beyrouth, an Iranian film called Circumstance that talks about modern day Iranian youth and that was shot in Beirut. It obtained the Film Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival last February, but believe it or not we won’t be able to watch it in Lebanon. At least not in all legality.

Good thing sometimes the media are on ‘our side’ and live up to their role as agents of free speech: I could still get a sneak peak at the World Press Photo exhibit thanks to l’Orient le Jour. And I probably will get myself a copy of Circumstance one way or another.

Check out the roundup of top current issues like these compiled by BeirutBoy... All this really calls for more mobilization!

--GiB#2