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I L**e My TeacherBy Sahar Moukaddem LAU Tribune staff

Once upon a time, a girl had a consuming crush on a guy. He had green eyes, a bril-liant smile and a striking voice. He taught her things related to existence, knowl-edge, values and mind. But this was fitting. He was, af-ter all, her philosophy teach-er. Nellie A., a political science student at LAU, does not see her philosophy instructor just as a university professor but as the “perfect full-pack-aged man.” “He is smart and hand-some at the same time,” she said with winking eyes. The whole story began when Nel-lie heard his name from ran-dom people on campus. Cu-riosity led her to search him on Google, and she found out that he is a music composer as well –a detail that made her like him more and more.“I listen to his songs when I wake up and before I sleep,” Nellie said while the sound of her teacher’s song played out of her laptop. “I think he can tell I have a crush on him because my face lights up when I see him,” she laughed. “But any-way, he wouldn’t care for me

Photo by: Yasmine D

abbous

culTure

Dorm Ordeals e-Clean Coffee Shop or Library Meet Ali Beirut, I love you. Not

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because 70 percent of the Lebanese population has a crush on him.” Stories of student-teacher relationships, considered by many as inappropriate, cer-tainly raise some eyebrows. But most of the time, a crush on a teacher is innocent and unrequited. Nellie believes that her like-ness to her teacher has not reached the stage of obses-sion. She just sees him as someone who attracts her intellectually and physical-ly. “I really wish I get the chance to sit and talk to him for hours about philosophy, history and other issues,” she explained. “But he is a busy person he won’t have time for me.”Students like teachers be-cause of their personalities and the authority they have, rather than their looks, Nad-im Mohsen, a cultural stud-ies instructor at LAU, said. He believes that students’ crush on teachers is normal and understandable. “It is a natural situation, we all get attached, impressed or we have a crush on some-body at some point in our lives and the crush doesn’t

go anywhere beyond this,” Mohsen explained. “It is light unrestricted and very innocent.” Mohsen sees students’ crush on teachers as something productive and positive. “It makes everybody happy and it makes you want to go to class,” he said. Mohsen add-ed that it would not bother him to know that students like him. He would feel re-warded but understand the responsibility that comes with such situation. “I have to make sure that I keep the image of instructor, father and friend combined,” he ex-plained.According to an online dic-tionary, a crush is a “pain-ful experience.” But Dr. Nor-ma Moussally, the student counselor at LAU, said that having feelings for one’s teacher may have positive effects. It helps students build their identity and dis-cover what their interests in life are. “Students will be more outspoken and interac-tive in class,” she said. “They all want to impress their teacher.”

Crowded CampusBy Diaa AljurdyLAU Tribune staff

“Look, I don’t have space to put my books,” Mona Knio, an associate professor of dra-ma and the chairperson of LAU’s communication arts department, said with a gen-tle smile. Knio’s small office is full of books. Some are on shelves and some on the floor in box-es along with papers and files. One can barely walk in. Behind her office is a window that makes the room livelier.LAU is 24,525 square me-ters with eight main build-ings. The number is impres-sive, but it is not big enough for LAU’s instructors, stu-dents, staff members and administration. Space at the LAU Beirut campus is a problem that bothers every-one, including instructors in offices and class rooms. “We need space, all teach-ers need space,” Knio said. “There is no place for people to come and participate in theater activities.”There are around 302 facul-ty and staff members, spread across a small number of of-fices. In the Fine Arts build-ing, an office next to Knio’s (no. 103) houses seven in-structors with varying office hours. Nicol and Irwin Hall faculty members also share few offices. “The problem is obvious and is reflecting on us as instruc-tors and on students,” Yas-mine Dabbous, an assistant professor of journalism and media studies, said. “Many classrooms have an exces-sive number of students and some offices have more than three instructors.” The LAU Beirut campus accommodates 5,427 stu-

dents, many of which ma-jor in Business. Accounting II is one of the most difficult courses at the department yet the number of students exceeds the limits. Already comprising 40 students, the total is raised to 44 due to by-force add-ins.“The number of students is large and it’s sometimes dif-ficult to deliver the lectures, especially during problem-solving sessions,” Rima El Hakim, an accounting in-structor, said. “Students ask a lot of questions and, since time is limited, we can’t al-ways answer them all.”Dabbous faced a similar problem. She teaches Media and Society, a discussion-based class, but the number of students is 40 and class-rooms are small. “This can transform the class into a lecture-based session,” Dab-bous said. Three sections of the class were opened to ac-commodate the student flow.Students also complain from lack of space in the cafeteria, classrooms and the gates ar-eas. “I don’t like small spaces because we as students can’t concentrate in the class and we always get distracted by any whisper or movement,” Tamara Farhat, a 19-year-old political science student, said. Farhat added that instruc-tors are sometimes unable to properly explain the materi-al. “I go to class earlier so I could find a place in the front and a chair near my instruc-tors,” Farhat said. George Sadaka, an instruc-tor of English and cultural

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CAMPUS NEWS2 Tribune april 1, 2011

Jordanian Cultural ClubBy Noor MonajjedLAU Tribune staff

Bashar Al Sheikh Ali, an LAU freshman at LAU, was voted president of the Jor-danian Cultural Club dur-ing a meeting at the facul-ty lounge in Irwin Hall last March.“Mabrouk istilam el-ho-kom,” a young man in the back yelled. The atmo-sphere was friendly and loud, with people catching up and joking around.“The club was established in 2002 and every fall we have an election where we elect the club’s committee,” Ali explained. The commit-tee consists of a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. “Anyone can join the club; not just Jordanians,” Ali continued. “We have Leb-anese, American, Spanish people and lots more.”At 6 p.m., people start-ed pouring into the lounge. Groups of close friends came in and greeted the presi-dent, talked with each oth-er and chattered away with laughter filling the room. Ola Khalifeh, the club’s new vice president, explained that club members are quite close and the atmo-sphere is generally relaxed and friendly. “I have been in the club for two years now. I started off as secretary last year and this year got pro-moted to vice president,”

she said, smiling. The meeting began at 6:30 p.m.. All chairs in the lounge were filled and the environment was calm. With a Jordanian and Leba-nese flag in the background, Ali stood up to introduce the club to its new members. “Our most important focus now is heritage day coming up in April. We must have costumes. Music. A projec-tor and, of course, mansaf,” he said, prompting an up-roar in the audience. The president discussed possible events this spring. Among the suggestions were a mini football com-petition against other clubs and an LAU vs. AUB paint-ball competition. Ali also invited the club’s members to propose other options. “You’re a part of this club too. Camping? Hiking? Any thoughts or opinions at all just let us know,” he told his audience. Ali also revealed that a trip to Jordan would be orga-nized during the Easter va-cation and invited people to sign up.“We are honored for having you all and hope you enjoy being in our club and thank you all once more for coming to the reception,” Ali con-cluded.

Cervical Cancer Preventable By Diana Bachoura LAU Tribune staff

Essentials for the New GenerationBy Lyn Abu-SerajLAU Tribune contributor

According to the Oxford Eng-lish Dictionary, the longest word in the English language is pneumonoultramicroscop-icsilicovolcanoconiosis. It re-fers to a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust.LAU and the Levant Insti-tute hosted an event at Ir-win Hall last week to in-troduce helpful books with useful theories and current research to new students and teachers. Levant is known to be the leading distribu-

contamination. Non-sexual exposure in-cludes mother to newborn in cases where birth is natural.Most people who are infect-ed with the virus are carri-ers and show no symptoms. “This is more fearful,” Ghan-dour said. “A person who shows no signs of the virus is still infectious and may de-velop symptoms sooner or later.”If exposed to HPV only once, there is a high chance that a person can heal alone. “Re-peated exposure over the years may lead to what we call cervical cancer in wom-en,” Ghandour explained.In a lifetime, over 50 percent of men and women will be ex-posed to HPV.The peak incidence of con-tracting HPV is between ages 15 to 24 while the peak incidence of contracting cer-vical cancer is between ages 35 to 55.“Imagine a young lady mar-ried with two kids developing cervical cancer and dying at such a young age,” Ghandour said.Because HPV is a sexual-ly transmitted disease, the cervical cancer vaccine is considered controversial in Lebanon. “People refuse to acknowledge the existence of premarital sex,” Ghandour said.Husbands may also infect

their wives for adultery is another factor to take into consideration, he added. Doctors recommend the vac-cine be given to females be-tween the ages of 10 and 55.“Parents ask me all the time; ‘why would I get my 12 year old daughter vaccinated so young? It’s not like she will have sex at 12,’” Ghandour said. “The answer is because at such a young age, the body has a better immune response to the vaccine.”The cervical cancer vaccine can also be given to young men to decrease the chances they have of passing on HPV to their female partners.Dr. Mirvat El Sibai, assis-tant professor of biology at LAU, supports the idea that prevention is better than a cure.We really should start thinking about prevention of certain cancers as Dr. Ghandour discussed “it’s the silver bullet, ” Sibai said. “The government is not in contact with what’s hap-pening; it’s not in tact with our needs and this is where I think univer-sities have a very im-portant role” said Sibai. “Our role is to educate, we have to educate our community and society. We start by educating our students,” Sibai concluded.

tor of books for universities, schools, bookstores, librar-ies, and other educational in-stitutions.“This is just a small exhibi-tion that we do every year,” Siham Abboud, a represen-tative at Levant explained. Students and faculty mem-bers at LAU’s Beirut campus participated in this event.Publishers and professors from around the world at-tended the event to speak about the importance of learning and the role of such

new books in educating new generations. On the shelves of the exhibi-tion, one could find the vast

Photo by: Lyn Abu-Seraj

variety of books in different categories such as dictionar-ies, mathematics, English, science, stories, literature, playbooks, and language. “Our school could really ben-efit from the new studies and researches, it’s an experience I would like to be part of,” Ha-nadi, a graduate from Mary Immaculate College (MIC) and currently a professor in English and science, said. Another representative at Levant, Said Fawaz, ex-plained how the institute

has flourished over the last 22 years. Just recently, Le-vant gave buyers the liber-ty to purchase books online. “We advertise these books to schools, universities, and students themselves,” Fawaz said. “Just last week, we did the same exhibition at Riv-iera hotel and we had more than 200 visitors.” Levant built its reputation based on trust, quality and respect. It was created to im-port press to Lebanon from abroad.

Cervical cancer, the second most common type of cancer among women, is prevent-able by vaccination, Dr. Wis-sam Ghandour, gynecology and basic health instructor at LAU, said during a lec-ture last March.Organized by the depart-ment of natural science as part of the “Healthy Mind, Healthy Body” campaign, the lecture aimed to raise awareness about factors that lead to cervical cancer and to inform people about the benefits of taking the vaccine.Human Papilloma Virus or HPV, also known as geni-tal warts, is the sole cause of cervical cancer. There are over 100 subtypes of HPV virus. “It’s not one simple virus, it’s a family of viruses that have similar-ities and differences in be-tween each other and that are referred to as the HPV group,” Ghandour said. Out of the various HPV sub-types, 15 to 20 are oncogen-ic –meaning they lead to cer-vical cancer. HPV 16 and 18 are also associated with cer-vical cancer. While other HPV subtypes are not cancerous, they lead to genital warts.The virus is spread through all forms of sexual contact. Using a condom may be not be sufficient to prevent viral

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CAMPUS NEWSTribune april 1, 2011

Religious Co-existence Is BeneficialBy Zahi SahliLAU Tribune contributor

Journalist Nada Raphaël’s documentary, “Hyphen Is-lam Christianity,” and an in-spiring performance by Al Fayha choir generated a joint call for co-existence on March 17 at LAU’s Beirut campus.Raphael, introduced to the stage by Vice-President Elise Salem, bemoaned the pri-oritization of politics and religion in Lebanon, em-phasizing the role of the of-ten-forgotten citizen in the country. “I am not scared of tackling an issue that involves politics and religion because there is something more impor-tant, and that’s humanity,” Raphaël said.Raphaël then pointed out co-existence is almost an exclu-sive phenomenon of Lebanon at a time where prejudice is growing around the world. “Abroad, people are amazed with the co-existence in Leb-

MCF: The May Chidiac Foundation for Media StudiesBy Diaa AljurdyLAU Tribune staff

6000 Nurses for Four MillionPeopleTala OsseiranLAU Tribune staff

“It’s predicted the nursing profession may disappear by 2020,” Rita Doumit, a nurs-ing faculty member, said during Nursing Day at LAU.Celebrating the event, the Al-ice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing invited high school students from around the country to learn about the school’s undergraduate program.“Our purpose is to teach about the role and re-sponsibilities of nursing in today’s society,” Dr. Nan-cy Hoffart, founding dean of LAU’s Nursing School, said. “We want to make a differ-

Famous Lebanese journal-ist May Chidiac introduced the May Chidiac Foundation (MCF) to enthusiastic jour-nalism and radio/TV/film majors during a lecture at LAU on Tuesday March 22 at Beirut campus.“The media became a tool for many, but it is a science after all,” Chidiac said. She add-ed that there is a difference between writing and editing for literature and doing so for news. News writing requires the writer to stick to the facts whereas, in literature, a writer does not have to be faithful to reality in any way whatsoever. Chidiac’s lecture was main-ly about her MCF institute which helps aspiring stu-dents become active in the media field in a mere 20 hours. “MCF is a nonprofit organization, and it bridges the gap between academia and industry,” Chidiac said.Chidiac added that MCF helps new graduates en-hance their market and helps professionals improve their skills through capacity building. Chidiac additionally shed

some light on the training program and the well-re-nowned instructors who will teach the courses. Among the classes offered is a TV ap-pearance course that focus-es on how to present news. It revolves around the im-provement of looks, pronun-ciation and breathing. “Some people are just born talented in dealing with the camera, however they along with ev-ery other journalist should learn verbal performances, gestures and other principals of TV journalism regardless,” Chidiac said. Another course is about mas-tering the techniques of news delivery. It includes many different aspects but concen-trates on reporting live news. “The well-known report-

ence for nursing by improv-ing its status in Lebanon.”The school of nursing at LAU includes a curriculum which is the first of its kind in the Middle East. It gives stu-dents the opportunity to study with medical and phar-macy students. The school offers incomers a special fi-nancial aid package, with re-duced tuition fees, a high fi-nancial aid rate and the chance to practice nursing at the Rizk Hospital after grad-uation.“Our goal is to recruit,” Hof-fart said.

During the session, Doumit explained that the objective is to market nursing as a ca-reer. “We’re trying to change the concept of nursing,” she said. She also noted that, in Lebanon, we only have 6,000 nurses when this should be quadrupled to fit the coun-try’s needs.“The unemployment rate in Lebanon is 40 percent and 25 percent are young peo-ple under the age of twenty five,” Doumit added. “Why don’t these unemployed peo-ple head for the nursing pro-fession?”

er Abbas Nasser from Al-Jazeera will teach this course and this would be a good op-portunity both for us and also for the trainees,” Chidi-ac said. Another course teaches film-making students to shoot the right footage and how to do so accurately with minimal room for error, if any. Other courses for film editing, pro-duction and investigative journalism are also available in the training program. Chidiac then also mentioned courses related to the radio, journalism and broadcast technology and industries. New media has its space in MCF and courses related to this field will be taught by Ayman Itani, a digital media instructor at LAU. Chidiac concluded the lec-ture with the fact that me-dia in Lebanon has become a tool in the politicians’ hands and thus, journalistically, is disappointing. She hoped that her institute would help counter this trend. “Every politician has his own TV channel to spread the news as he wants,” she said. “I honestly hope this will change some day.”

anon,” she affirmed. “I under-stood that it is a great deal to have a church and a mosque side-by-side.”Meanwhile, Al-Fayha gave the audience an idea of songs they will present at the next Arabs Got Talent.Raphaël thinks that the inte-gration of the eighteen sects sets the ground for future ac-complishments. She urged Christians and Muslims to search for shared features.“When we talk about Islam and Christianity, we some-times think about the differ-ences and the (civil) war. We should rather think of the similarities,” Raphaël said. Raphaël explained the signif-icance of propagating a uni-fied proper image of Leba-non, with the Lebanese Al Fayha chorus, led by conduc-tor Barkev Taslakian, at the core of her documentary’s success.Raphael explained that she was warned of aggression from interviewees but was pleasantly surprised. “Out of all the people of the 1,270 villages we talked to, no one said ‘no’ and there was no ag-gression,” the Lebanese jour-nalist said.

By Lama Al-HaqhaqLAU Tribune staff

Auditions for LAU’s Got Tal-ent took place on the Wednes-day the16th, Thursday the 17th and Friday the 18th of March in Nicol 221, LAU’s pi-ano room. The auditions in-cluded a wide range of tal-ents, and also included the traditional talents such as singing and dancing.“There was a priority on the singing,” Zeina Shehayeb, a journalism student with the communication arts depart-ment at LAU and one of the event organizers, said.Some of the judges at the LAU’s Got Talent event in-

clude both students as well as faculty members, two of whom are going to be LAU theatre coordinator Hala Masri and music instructor Rima Kcheich.The event is set to take place on Beirut campus on Friday April 29. The prize to be pre-sented to the winner is yet to be decided.LAU’s Got Talent is the first event of its kind at the uni-versity and is organized by a group of students from the Introduction to Public Re-lations course taught by Dr. Ramez Maaluf.

LAU’s Got Talent

Photo via Creative C

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Photo By: Zahi Sahli

CAMPUS LIFE4 Tribune april 1, 2011

Culture Shock

When Dana Joulani, a Jor-danian who lived in Alberta, got her LAU acceptance let-ter, she was a bit hesitant. “I then realized that it’s not as dangerous as the news makes things seem,” she said. She has been in Beirut, happi-ly studying at LAU, for a few years now.Culture shock is a common feeling among immigrants, including international stu-dents. With Lebanon’s increasing instability during the last few years, the problem acquires an additional dimension.A Lebanese-American jour-nalism student who asked to remain anonymous said that she highly disliked the coun-try. “I don’t like the corrup-tion. I don’t like the insta-bility. I don’t know why my parents sent me here,” she complained. The young wom-an said she tries to travel to Dubai as often as she could because it feels more like her

American hometown.Most students, however, find it easy to adapt to Beirut’s wild life –and more impor-tantly its infamous nightlife. Razan Zananiri, a Palestin-ian finishing her freshman year, describes Lebanon as “unbelievable.” “There’s always something to do and somewhere to go, if there isn’t a plan, the easiest thing to do in Beirut is make one!” she said.Students from the gulf, usu-ally raised with more restric-tions imposed by their native culture, find alcohol, clubs, pubs and similar distrac-tions readily available. “All I did my freshman year was club,” Lara Jomaa, an interi-or design junior, said. “It was the only thing I did when I came and all my friends were doing it too. So it just made it all the more fun.”Khaled Nasser, PhD in in-terpersonal communication, discusses cultural shock.

“The shock comes from uncer-tainty,” Nasser said. “Step-ping into a new culture that is different, the structure of formulas changes and ev-erything becomes unpredict-able.”“Everything new creates this idea of the unknown, which you fear. Your way of think-ing, your references change,” Nasser added. But this change is not en-tirely negative and the anxi-ety soon fades away, allowing people to experiment and try

new habits. “As long as you are willing to try, you adapt better,” Nasser explained.Nasser advised students on how to deal with culture shock. “The best way is to have two side-by-side pro-cesses; enculturation and ac-culturation,” he said. “Encul-turation is the enjoyment of your original culture and ac-culturation is the enjoyment of your new culture. They should occur at the same time to reduce culture shock.”Iman Soufan, an American

Jordanian living in Qatar, expresses her opinion on cul-ture shock. “Moving to Leba-non after living in Qatar my entire life, I could really see the differences between their culture and ours,” Soufan said. Fortunately Soufan did not suffer from culture shock for a long time. Instead, she be-came more faithful to her cul-ture. “We must learn to over-come culture shock in order to be more accepting toward others,” Soufan said.

The Truth about Muscles

A month ago, the young LAU student looked like Tintin, the famous skinny detective, but today, he’s Johnny Bra-vo’s twin brother. Sitting on the bench in front of him, a young woman ad-mired his biceps and the enormous, confident laugh on his face. “What’s the rea-son for this change?” she wondered. Behind the young man’s phenomenal shape-up were harmful yet popular fat-sol-uble organic compounds; ste-roids. Protein and steroid shakes are quite popular among LAU’s male students. They help them develop a mus-cular, body-built shape in less than a month and often increase their virility. Al-though legally sold at vari-ous pharmacies and vitamin

shops such as GNC, proteins and steroids may lead to se-rious illnesses, especially when taken in abusive quan-tities.Protein shakes replace one’s regular intake of pro-tein in foods but in excessive amounts. Among the most popular supplements is Hy-per Mass 5000. Equivalent to one burger meal, it comes in various flavors. Caramel Cappuccino is widely used on campus. Coming in 5000-gram con-tainers, Hyper Mass 5000 is found in gyms and pharma-cies. Most LAU students buy it from the supplement store because it is cheaper. Hyper Mass 5000 costs around 100 dollars. Ziad H., an MIS major at LAU, admitted to surviving on proteins shake –which

was obvious from the huge shape of his biceps. “I’ve been taking proteins over two years now; I had a lot of health problems. It hurt my liver and had a lot of acne,” he said. “But all this was solved later. If it weren’t for these shakes I wouldn’t look like this.” He smiled proudly.Coach Omar Alaiwan ex-plained there was no harm in taking small amounts of pro-tein but cautioned against the abuse of such supple-ments.“The healthy way out is to follow a diet that maintains your weight,” Alaiwan said. “Eat healthy food that keeps you in good shape and always work out at the gym so that all residues get out of your system.” Research suggests that ex-cess of proteins can lead to

kidney and digestive prob-lems. “Too much protein can make you gain weight,” Alai-wan said. The average adult requires between 46 and 56 grams of proteins per day. Dr. Walid Alayli, a general health doctor, agreed with Alaiwan. “As long the guy is aware of the amount of pro-teins he is taking, there’s no problem,” he said. “But never use steroids. They are fatal and can lead to a lot of body damage.” Two types of steroids exist. Corticosteroids, such as cor-tisone, are often prescribed by doctors to help control in-flammation. Anabolic ste-roids, on the other hand, are synthetic versions of testos-terone, used to treat the loss of lean muscle mass. When used for non-medical reasons, anabolic steroids

are illegal in most sports or-ganizations. In January 2005, the Controlled Sub-stance Act made the posses-sion of anabolic steroids a federal crime in the United States. Still, some athletes continue to use them and so do several LAU students on the Beirut campus.The appeal of steroids comes from the fact that they beef up muscles, increase virility, delay fatigue and often cre-ate a feeling of euphoria.Basketball player Al-Hassan Dandash, a business man-agement student at LAU, said he would never consid-er steroids or proteins as an option. “I believe I help my body get stronger by practic-ing on a daily basis and eat-ing healthy,” he said. “I’m a

Photo by: Ranim

Hadid

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By Ranim HadidLAU Tribune contrtibutor

By Tala El Riz LAU Tribune staff

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CAMPUS LIFETribune april 1, 2011

By Caroline HodrojLAU Tribune staff

Flushed Out: The Life of a Dorm Girl

A 20 year-old-female stu-dent dressed in a pink pa-jama hides a tissue roll un-der her armpit as she tiptoes through the Orme-Gray resi-dence hallway to answer na-ture’s call. As she opens the bathroom door she stands in utter shock and disgust at the foul smell that creeps into her nostrils. While it might be convenient to live in the middle of the LAU campus surrounded by lush green gardens and con-stant friends, hygienical-ly, the living conditions of an LAU dorm girl aren’t easy. The Orme-Gray building is located just across the Busi-ness Building and the Riyad Nasser Library has 34 dorm rooms for women. According to the LAU housing depart-ment, the accommodations are comfortable and meet the student’s academic and social needs. Lyn Abu-Seraj, a 20-year-old journalism major, made it a point to make her dorm room as homey as possible. She has her own tiny refrig-erator and decorates the room with stuffed toys and pictures of her loved ones. She tries to make herself comfortable so that she can disregard the oc-

casional difficulty of sharing bathrooms and dealing with the clutter that comes with too many people living to-gether. “It’s not easy but I try to make it better,” Abu-Seraj said. “Cleanliness and lack of privacy is what we suffer from. The tables are left un-clean and the sink is always filled with dirty dishes and some girls in the bathrooms don’t clean after them-selves.”Sticky yellow stains or un-flushed smelly toilet bowls are still a common sight. They come accompanied by a cluster of stained tissue pa-

per decorating the bathroom floors. “I was shocked when I en-tered the bathroom. I won’t say more but I’ll leave it to your imagination,” Leen Haddad, an interior archi-tecture major, said. A Jordanian student who refused to be named sheds some light on what she be-lieves is the main problem in dorm life. “Some girls are unhygienic, it’s crazy,” she said with frus-tration. “We all share bath-rooms, one kitchen and one laundry room. The kitchen once had twenty unwashed dishes that were left for a

week and the food in the re-frigerator was left to rot.” A member of the cleaning crew who also refused to be named confirmed the sto-ry. She assured us, however, that everything in the refrig-erator is thrown out once a week to avoid all forms of de-cay. She also said all rooms are properly and sufficiently cleaned. The Jordanian student dis-agreed. “The floor gets cleaned but sometimes the same mop is used,” she said. “You feel like it’s never ful-ly clean and you feel disgust-ed.”Hiam Mucharrafieh, the manager of the dorms in LAU Beirut and Byblos, was unavailable for comment.In addition to the com-plaints over the lack of hy-giene, some students criti-cized the shortage of laundry machines which do not suf-fice the 18 to 25 girls sharing each floor. “We’re many girls and there’s only one iron, one washing machine and one dryer on ev-ery floor,” the Jordanian girl said. The laundry room is less than half a bedroom in size and the washing machine

and dryer are quite old and they occasionally break down accordingly to many dorm residents.Some students have experi-enced more drastic issues in-volving medical problems. Dima Zeituni, a 21 year-old chemistry major, shared her experience. “When I was studying, the dorm chair wasn’t comfortable and I got severe back pains,” she said. Zeituni was told she need-ed a medical report faxed from Syria to be allowed to bring her own furniture. “If my mom wasn’t here I don’t know what I would have done,” she remembered. Haddad, at one point, had to depend on herself for med-ical assistance. She needed hospitalization but no emer-gency driving was available. “I went by myself to AUH” she related. But, regardless of the un-happiness some feel about living conditions, the girls unanimously agreed that the friendships they made at the dorms help them cope with all difficulties. “I love living here because the girls make it easier,” the Jordanian stu-dent said. “If they weren’t here I would leave.”

Photo by:Lyn Abu-Seraj

Expensive Apartment Rents in HamraIman SoufanLAU Tribune contributor

When Ruba Abu-Shanab-first moved to Lebanon to study at LAU in 2006, she paid 1,200 dollars for a stu-dio in Siran Towers. Today, she lives in the same apart-ment but spends a monthly 1,800 dollars on rent.With the sky-high prices of housing in Hamra, interna-tional students who study at LAU or AUB cannot live nearby without spending a fortune.“If you’re looking for a decent apartment to live in around Hamra, you will not find one below 1,500 dollars,” Mo-

hammed Bijjani, a real es-tate agent, said. “Five years ago, the most expensive apartment would have been less than 1,500 dollars.”The cost of living in Leba-non increased immensely; expenses multiplied and it is now difficult for a middle class family to afford buying a house without a bank loan. Bijjani has been a real es-tate agent for over 15 years. He witnessed the dramat-ic inflation during the last few years. “The prices of the lands have risen drastically, that’s why apartments are

we pay the same rent? Ham-ra is overpriced,” she said.Surrounded by AUB and LAU, Hamra is a central res-idential and commercial dis-trict in Beirut. It has always experienced a very high de-mand for apartments.Most international students prefer to live within walking distance of their universities and find themselves forced to pay high rents for accom-modation. “I would live in cheaper ar-eas like Mar Elias, but it’s way more convenient to live by the university,” Loulwa

so expensive,” Zayed Arafeh, owner of two residential buildings in Hamra, said.Arafeh explained that the expenses of maintaining the buildings has also risen. Ameera Al-Felaij is a Bah-raini LAU student. Her old-er sister, who studies in Par-is, lives in a one-bed room apartment that is quite sim-ilar to hers. “But my sister pays 100 dollars less than I do,” Al-Felaij complained. Al-Felaij said that the dis-trict her sister lives in is more luxurious and more modern than hers. “Why do

Salatt, a Qatari LAU stu-dent, said. “Plus it’s as if Hamra is designed for inter-national students.”“All the apartments in both of our buildings are taken up by international students,” Adnan Jabado, owner of two residence buildings, said. La Bella One and Two are mostly cost around 2,000 to 2,700 dollars month-ly. “I have received sever-al complaints regarding the high prices, but nothing will change as long as everything is this expensive,” Jabado explained.

SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH6 Tribune april 1, 2011

Ayman Itani: the Man Behind the Tweets By Tala OsseiranLAU Tribune staff

“My passion has always been for how the Internet and technology can be used to enhance our day-to-day lives and how we are doing things differently and to our advantage,” Ayman Itani, digital strategy consultant and LAU new media instruc-tor, said. He remains up-to-date with the social media environ-ment by reading, learning and engaging with users dai-ly. Itani is also the reason be-hind the fact that many com-munication arts students at LAU are well-equipped to face the new media world to-day. Itani occasionally lectures at various universities but re-mains a part-time instructor at LAU. Among his achieve-ments is the LAUSocial, a virtual platform where stu-dents discuss the univer-sity’s activities, cover live events on and off campus

and remain connected to the Lebanese online community.“It was really interesting,” Lama Al-Haqhaq, an LAU journalism senior said about Itani’s class. “I thought I al-ready knew a lot about social media but he taught us a lot more.”Al-Haqhaq already had Twitter, Facebook, a You-Tube account and wrote on her own blog before she joined the digital media class. Today, she added a FourSquare account to her collection.Unlike Al-Haqhaq, jour-nalism senior Ivana Hin-di was not very active on-line. Her daily regime only included Facebook. Today, however, she blogs and has FourSquare and Twitter ac-counts. “We attended many events and got to know many social media geeks,” Hindi said. “We became part of Leba-

non’s active social media community.”Itani’s brainchild and his personal business is Think-Media, a company that helps existing mass media con-glomerates and other Mid-dle Eastern businesses build their emerging digital media eco system to attend to the growing online user needs and expectations. Itani received his BA in com-puter and communication engineering from the Ameri-can University of Beirut and his masters in business ad-ministration from the Leba-nese American University. He has been working in the Internet Services industry for more than a decade now, across different job respon-sibilities throughout his ca-reer. “Growing into Digital Media was a gradual extension as it has the user at its core in terms of interests, needs, de-

sires, expression, consump-tion, generation,” he said.Itani does not have a favor-ite social medium but, when pressed, he said he’d choose Twitter if he had to “because of the great community that is active on it.”Itani plays an important role in the Lebanese social com-munity and says he in turn has been affected by their warmth. “Being part of such a lovely online community that gives without asking for anything in return continues to have such a profound ef-fect on me,” he explained.Recently, the social entre-preneur became a proud fa-ther to six-month-old Lea who already has a twitter ac-count and is a shining celeb-rity in Itani’s expanded so-cial network. “I consider this to be my most important job and hardest so far,” Itani said. “You can find her on twitter as @leaitani.”

Caught between his numer-ous jobs and his family life, Itani tries to balance both re-sponsibilities reliably. “It is very challenging to attend to the growing family needs as well as the growing work needs,” he explained. “I do what I can to make sure that a balance is maintained, which inevitably leads to working harder and smarter on both fronts.”Like everything else in his life, Itani looks at the chal-lenge with a positive light.“The internet has become such a pervasive medium that is all around us and in everything we do,” he said, with a convinced tone. “For example, when you use your BlackBerry device for email, messaging, and Facebook, you are using the Internet for that.” “In a way, we are all online all the time,” Itani conclud-ed.

Scan. Clean. Secure. These are the three words I read when I first signed into So-cioclean. What exactly did this mean though? Well, ex-actly as it suggests. This pro-gram alerts you to anything offensive on your social net-work pages and sends you links to the words in ques-tion so they can be easily de-leted.Why is such a program need-ed? Think back with me now. We’ve all heard stories about companies not hiring people because of their social net-work profiles. Whether it’s embarrassing drunk pic-tures of crazy nights with friends, inappropriate wall posts by exes or whatever. People’s careers and futures are seriously being affected. In 2009, a Harris Interac-tive study for CareerBuild-er.com found that 45 per-

Are You e-Clean?By Nour MonajjedLAU Tribune staff

cent of employers used social networks to screen job can-didates. Thirty-five percent of them decided not to hire a candidate based on what they found. Imagine not getting a job be-cause of one stupid post from freshman year and poof. Just like that. There goes your ca-reer and, most importantly, there goes your reputation. After all, employers want squeaky-clean fresh new fac-es on board. Socioclean can help.Priyanshu Harshavat, who founded Socioclean, concep-tualized a way to help job candidates get their social profiles in shape before they were inspected by potential employers. He invented this program which scans social profiles, searching for 5,000 words and phrases that are racial, profane, drug-related

or alcohol-related.Now what if your career isn’t on the line? What if your em-ployer is cool and believes that what happens in col-lege is not a big deal? Is So-cioclean worthless? Nope. Quite the opposite. If em-ployers are understanding, what can one do about future or even current spouses? So-cial networks are known to be a source for growing num-bers of break-ups related to cheating.For instance, say you’re a guy who likes this girl. Even back at sixteen, you thought she was the one but she left you and now you’ve moved on. If your new partner finds out that you guys are still Face-book friends and are “casu-al,” this could result in mixed feelings. The girl would feel you haven’t really moved on

or whatever. She may leave too.It’s the same for the girls. If a guy you’re with sees a picture of you on the beach with this other guy last year and gets all jealous, then what?

Now of course I’m generaliz-ing. You can say no, I won’t do that or no, I’ll understand. But do you really want to risk your spouse or fiancé or love or whatever? Is it really worth the risk?

Photo by: Yasmim

e Dabbous

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CULTURE & FASHIONTribune april 1, 2011

Coffee Shops vs. LibraryBy Lama Al-HaqhaqLAU Tribune staff

A mess of books, pens and laptops tops the tables at Starbucks Koreitem. Some students silently read while others work in groups, ask questions and share notes noisely. When midterms loom and the time comes for serious studying, LAU students tend to leave the campus. The Ri-yad Nassar Library, located at LAU’s Business Building, is one of the biggest libraries in the Middle East. Although many students do frequent it, most prefer to work on pa-pers and exams at the coffee shops around LAU.Eight coffee shops within the university’s vicinity seem to attract most students: Star-bucks (Koreitem and Ham-ra), Caribou Coffee, Gloria Jeans, Lina’s, Cafe Younes, Buttermint and Costa. “Ev-eryone I know comes to Star-bucks Koreitem, so I usually study here,” Mohamad Al-Zaben, a business-finance student, said.Students spend long hours at these coffee shops during exam periods. Yousef Al-Wa-

“Any piece that lacks rhythm and rhyme is not poetry, to-day we heard prose,” poet Henry Zogheib explained, as he accused the participants in a poetry competition –in-cluding the winners– of ig-noring the beautiful imag-es poetry is meant to have. Zogheib, along with fellow poets Bassima Botlouly and Josef Abi Daher, formed a rather intimidating panel of judges.The UNESCO club held a student poetry competition yesterday night under the themes of “peace, justice and freedom.” Vivianne Allam won first place for her pas-sionate revolutionary poem,

and Mohammad Hdaib won second place for his similarly revolutionary piece.After the winners were an-nounced, the night took an unexpected turn when Zogheib declared his flagrant disappointment in the prose style that participants used. Hdaib, however, did not let Zogheib’s objection go unat-tended. “We were asked to write about certain themes that lead us to this style,” he clarified and then boldly re-cited another poem.The evening started when Vahid Behmardi, the chair-person of Humanities De-partment in LAU, spoke about old poetry. Behmardi

explained that the debate be-tween old and new poetry has been around since old ages.

In response to Behmardi, As-saad Kheirallah, professor at the American University of Beirut and editor of “Al-Ab-hath,” spoke of new poetry. He distinguished between what the reader perceives and what the poet intends. “We cannot understand what the poet is referring to with-out trying to understand the world he creates for himself,” Kheirallah said. He read out passages and in-vited the audience to think about whether or not they can identify what he is talk-ing about. Participants in the compe-tition were Diaa Al Jurdy, Vivianne Allam, Mustafa

Harkous, Ali Atrash, Moha-mad Hdeib, Kamal Takied-dine, Ali Shreif and Hassan Shamas.Alissar Bakri, UNESCO club member, said that “partici-pants seemed to be highly in-fluenced by the Arab world revolutions, although the winners were outstanding.”Abdo Salam Hamade, the club’s vice-president, summed up the night elo-quently. “UNESCO stands for United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cul-tural Organization,” he said. “Today we implement and so-lidify one the pillars of the culture of the Arab world, and that is Arabic poetry.”

Old, New and Revolutionary PoetryBy Eleena KorbanLAU Tribune staff

zir, a radio/tv student, said he spends three to five hours in one stretch at Starbucks.“I usually have one coffee,but since I stay there for so long. I feel like I need to or-der more,” Saad Kanaan, a business-marketing stu-dent, said. “I end up having more coffee.”Coffee shops around LAU have accommodated stu-dent needs, encouraging the constant flow. Lina’s, Star-bucks, Caribou Coffee and Gloria Jeans all have des-ignated areas with desks, creating an academic atmo-sphere. Some coffee shops, such as Starbucks Koreitem, even extend closing hours from 10 p.m. to midnight during exam periods to give students more time.“I prefer studying at Cari-bou because I’m a smoker, and you can’t smoke in the li-brary,” Kanaan said. “They have big tables that are made for studying, so it’s not hard to organize myself.”Coffee shops seem popular among students because of their proximity to the uni-

versity. Starbucks Koreitem is about a minute away from LAU’s upper gate, and the rest are scattered around Ham-ra Street. “I prefer to study in Starbucks because it’s close to the university and where I live,” Al-Wazir said.According to a barista at Glo-ria Jeans, over 90 percent of customers are students and

more than half are there to study. Students aren’t the only ones who use coffee shops as their study-spot. A number of tu-tors frequently visit these places. “I have a session with a tutor here in Starbucks to-morrow,” Al-Wazir said.Like any other library, LAU’s requires students to be as qui-

et as possible to preserve a studying environment. Yet this seems to be a factor push-ing students away. “The library gets boring be-cause it’s too quiet,” Kanaan and Al-Wazir agreed. “When I study in coffee shops, there are things going on around me which don’t make me feel the time pass by.” Kanaan said.Still, LAU’s library sometimes appeals to students because of its strong Internet connec-tion. While most coffee shops offer Wi-Fi services to cus-tomers, the library’s Internet proves to be more efficient. “I only study at the library when I have a big research project to work on, because the library’s Internet is much better than the internet in coffee shops,” Kanaan said.But for students who do not need to be constantly online, and for those who are look-ing for company, coffee shops around LAU still attract stu-dents with a wide variety of snacks and drinks, study desks and a familiar, friendly atmosphere.

Photo by: Lama Al-H

aqhaq

Photo by: Sahar Moukaddem

PEOPLE8 Tribune april 1, 2011

A Generation of CoffeeBy Layan DoueikLAU Tribune contributor

It is 6:30 a.m.. LAU’s upper gate expects no visitors yet. However, something gently yawns and ruminates right behind the campus’ entry. It is nothing but the ritual of Ali Hamade’s famous “white van” as it opens its trunk.Hamade begins a typical day with his “buddy,” the auto-mobile that cannot cross the borderline of LAU’s entrance but that can certainly pene-trate students’ hearts. He cleans his vehicle, places countless cigarette cartons in its rear, and unleashes an old coffee machine out of it. By 7:30 a.m., Hamade be-comes invisible as he drowns in student laughter, chit-chats, and hasty orders. “Al-loush, three Nescafe with Nestle! …Two packs of cig-arettes, one hot chocolate!” several hurried students shout at once, as Ali’s char-acteristic cheery face promis-es to fulfill the orders with no mistakes.

Behind Lea’s Gentle SmileBy Ivana HindiLAU Tribune staff

Mohammad Abouchala, a 21-year-old business stu-dent, holds the signature brown cup of coffee from Hamade’s van. “No one can ever take Ali away from us. He has become part of our daily lives and part of the university,” Abouchala says. “His van has become the uni-versity’s second cafeteria. My usual morning talk with Ali is the kick start of my day.”Hamade shares students’ communal feelings. “Do not ask me about how I feel to-ward students,” he tells me. “Ask them about it and let them tell you. If I didn’t love students and love this job, I wouldn’t be here.”Technology turned every-thing upside down, but did not seem to affect Hama-de or the modest and tradi-tional aspect of his van, even with the emergence of many competitors around his little world.Despite the controversy that

hung over the presence of an old unappealing “truck” in front of a prominent cam-pus’ entrance, Hamade’s nu-merous loyal clients believe that it is what’s inside of it that counts: the good coffee, the great prices that nev-er change, and the excellent service.Hamade says –and witnesses confirm– that he remembers what most students order

daily. “You want the usual, right?” he asks one of them.The van has been firm and stable in front of the LAU campus for more than three decades, giving Hamade a decent income to open a shop if he wanted to. But never will he get rid of his all time “companion.”Hala Masri, drama coordi-nator in the department of communication arts at LAU,

has been a student here since 1982. “It was Abou Bra-him back then who owned the van. His free spirit used to gather so many students around him, especially the ladies,” she remembers. Masri takes a thoughtful glance towards the fence be-hind which the van rested. “You cannot refer to LAU without referring to this van,” she says. “It has be-come part of LAU’s tradition, and Ali in fact inherited not only the van but also his fa-ther’s secret recipe of dealing with customers.” Abouchala points out that he has already spent more than 10,000 Lebanese pounds buy-ing morning supplies from Hamade within one hour of his arrival on campus. “For the past three years, I pass by him every morning for 20 minutes. We chat, smoke, drink coffee, laugh and even sing sometimes,” he says, with a pensive side smile.

She met up with me on a sun-ny afternoon, in a busy café at the heart of Beirut. With her wide smile, bubbly atti-tude and petite, slim figure, it is hard to believe that Lea Giusti is a taekwondo third-degree black belt. She or-dered a fresh drink and com-fortably began the story of her journey in the world of martial arts. Giusti went back to her ear-ly childhood to describe her first encounters with the sport. “I used to live in Egypt, where I played ten-nis,” she said. “Upon moving to Lebanon my mother still wanted me to pursue sports, even if it meant trying some-thing new.” Now 21, Giusti became famil-iar with taekwondo when she first joined her school’s team as a child. It wasn’t serious

until she was introduced to her mother’s good friend; a taekwondo trainer who en-rolled her in his club. Giusti recalled the thrills she felt during her very first championship. “I was part of the first Lebanese delega-tion to a taekwondo world championship. That was in 2004, in Italy, after I earned my first black belt,” she said. “I started training very hard for two to three months, and when I went to Italy we were only two people from Leb-anon; the daughter’s coach and I.” They lost due to little experience in world competi-tions.But things soon became more positive. Giusti partic-ipated in a championship in Florida, USA, later in 2004. “This time we were more de-termined and familiar with

the competition’s format. We therefore trained even hard-er than the first time,” she said. Giusti came out of this competition with two med-als: First place in the fight-ing category and third place in the pattern category.Not only does Giusti practice taekwondo, she teaches it as well. Giusti gave courses at the Avalon in 2007 for almost a year. Right now, she teach-es at the Cercle Sportif Fran-cais. “I like to teach because I like to share my talent with other people,” Giusti ex-plained. “Moreover, I believe I’m a nice teacher, young stu-dents like me.” She laughed light-heartedly.The petite, lady-like Leba-no-Italian taekwondo star rememembered a 2008 com-petition in Italy where the jury was very strict. “The

judges looked at the slight-est mistake. I won the first round, but lost the second one because of a tiny inaccu-racy, which got me disquali-fied,” Giusti complained. “I still managed to achieve fifth place despite the difficulties.”One of Giusti’s recent suc-cesses came in October of 2010 in Slovakia. “In this competition, I did three rounds of the ‘pattern catego-ry’ and won third place,” she recalled. Giusti does not like the way her compatriots are treat-ed in international champi-onships. “People often look down at the Lebanese,” she said, obviously revolted. “Eu-ropeans are usually so much more involved in what they do. We Lebanese competitors do not have enough support or even enough will at times.”

Giusti described taekwondo as a great substitute to gym for a fit body. “I am used to what I do, and I don’t think I can ever stop practicing tae-kwondo,” she added with a thoughtful smile.The martial arts devotee, however, plans to travel in the near future, to pursue her career goals in journal-ism or marketing. Giusti feels guilty about leaving a coach who has taught since childhood. “He is the one who made me go this far,” she said. “I am worried about what kind of new coach I will be training with while I’d be away from my homeland.”The now confident and proud 21-year-old champion was once a shy person who did not know what it was like to fight for her rights in front of mil-lions.

Photo by:Yasmine D

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9

CONTINUEDTribune april 1, 2011

I L**e My TeacherFew instructors at LAU seem to particularly grab students’ at-tention. Their names have repeatedly been mentioned to us. All share the same combination of traits; charisma, compe-tence and sense of humor. Psychologists suggest that people don’t get crushes on the peo-ple they want, but rather on the people they want to be like. Most of the times, students’ crush on teachers is not about ac-tual romantic or sexual desire, but is rather related to a quali-ty the young men and women want to bring out in themselves.Aya, an economics student who refused to give her full name, gets butterflies in her stomach whenever she sees her politi-cal science teacher outside class. She describes him as “charis-matic, smart and good lecturer.” “I get too shy when I talk to him and, most of the time, I go to his office and ask him dumb questions I already know the answers to,” she laughed. While Aya only thinks about her political science teacher as someone she admires, Leah, who also refused to give her full name, see things otherwise. “If my teacher asked me to go on a date with him I would definite-ly agree,” she said. Leah does not know the right term for de-scribing her feelings toward her communication arts teacher, but what she knows well is that she loves discussing various issues. Although the class Leah took with this instructor ended in Jan-uary, her visits to his office didn’t come to an end yet. “I even know where he goes on his lunch break,” she said. “I would al-ways be there waiting for him.” Students’ crush on teachers is not only restricted to girls. Young men also expressed their likeness to some female teachers on campus. Raed B., a bank-ing and finance student, described his business instructor as a “mesmerizing lady.” “I really admire her, she is the kind of women I want to marry in the future,” Raed laughed. “But I just admire her, nothing more.” Several films and songs address students’ love for their teach-ers, attesting for the universality of such a phenomenon. Rena Del Cid’s “To the Teacher Crush,” for example, speaks of the huge crush a student has on his math teacher, describing how much he wants to be “the numbers in her mathematical world.” The movie “Notes of Scandal,” tackles a similar story.Nadine Ayoubi, a political science instructor at LAU, be-lieves there is a fine line between admiring a teacher and hav-ing emotions for him or her. “The student has to know where this line is and define it,” she explained. “When you go beyond this line in a very obvious way, you can say that there is some-thing wrong.” Ayoubi herself is familiar with the issue. Many years after she graduated, she married a teacher she once had a crush on; now Dean of Students Raed Mohsen. When asked whether it would bother her to know students may like her husband, Ayoubi said she sympathize because years ago, she passed through this phase and was a fan of him too. Although some instructors believe that, most of the time, a crush is in-nocent, others think that talking about this topic is taboo and unethical. Bassam Doughan, a business instructor at LAU, believes that, in university setting, a student’s crush on a teacher is not inno-cent anymore. He said instructors shouldn’t allow it to happen and should draw clear limits when interacting with students.But that does not deter Nellie A.. Ten years later, when her philosophy instructor’s hair will start to thin and wrinkles will form around his eyes, her appreciation for him will always stay the same. “I really wish all LAU guys were like him,” she smiled.

Continued from page 1

studies, said that, in two of his classes, students drag chairs from other classes to be able to sit down.At , the red and blue tables in the cafeteria disappear under the hoards of students that flock in during lunch breaks. “We don’t have enough space to shoot our films, and we only have one small cafeteria and it is always crowded,” Hassan Mohajer, a 22-year-old radio/TV/film student, said. When LAU was built in 1835, the land was affordable and the space sufficient to fit the universi-ty’s first generations of students. But the number of Lebanese and foreign students has dramat-ically increased since.“The main problem is that the university is adopting new majors and the number of students is getting bigger,” Samar Moujaes, an assistant professor of Arabic, said. Now the lands surrounding LAU in Koreitem are quite expensive and highly populated, which prevents LAU’s expansion. “From now till we have more space, there should be a precise study for the number of applicants every semester to control the huge number of students,” Moujaes said. According to a study done by Sally Farra, an interior architecture student, Nicol Hall is old and unstable but the university can’t restore or rebuild it for security reasons related to the presence of the Hariri family next door. “The cafeteria has high ceilings so they can build an addition-al floor inside it to add more space for students,” Farra said. She noted that even janitors don’t have enough room to rest during break hours. “They all sit in small rooms,” Farra explained. Several instructors said that they heard about plans to build a new building for the arts and sci-ence school within the coming six years. Members of the administration, including Dean of Stu-dent Affairs Raed Mohsen, Dean of Arts and Sciences Samira Aghacy and Assistant Provost Sami Baroudi, were unavailable for comment.Meanwhile, as the university tries to solve the space problem, the number of students increas-es with time. “We are lucky that we got a TV studio, so we should give credits for the universi-ty for that,” Knio said. She added, however, that classes are growing in numbers not in meters.

Continued from page 1Crowded Campus

professional basket ball player and if I take any of these shakes it will put my career down the drain.”Steroids cause a variety of serious problems including infertility, severe acne and cysts, tendon rupture, increased LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks, cancer, delusions and mania, and HIV/AIDS –among others.J. D., a business management student at LAU, confessed to using steroids. “I loved the humon-gous shape that I was getting, the major change that my body went through was amazing and so I started increasing the dosage,” he said. J. D. paid dearly. “I suffered from kidney failure,” he said. “Every two weeks, I have to undergo dialysis and have my kidneys checked up.”Dr. Alayli said that steroids may also increase erectile dysfunction and gynecomastia (growth of the breasts), a condition that is irreversible without plastic surgery. Atrophy, or shrinkage of the testicles, may also occur in cases of high steroid intakes. A survey of LAU female students revealed that 60 percent objected to the use of protein shakes and steroids and disliked “the fake image it gives to guys.”“I don’t believe in extremes and that is why a guy has to have a normal shape that best fits him,” Maya Ibrahim, a pharmacy major, said. “I love the muscled shape but not to the extreme of hav-ing a very small waist and extremely huge muscles. Proportional body is bliss.”to leave our coach,” she said. “I am worried about what kind of new coach I will be training with while I’d be away from my homeland.”

The Truth about MusclesContinued from page 4

The Team: Editors-in-Chief:Mohamad Yahia HamadeCaroline Hodroj

Staff:Lama Al-Haqhaq. Diaa Al Jurdy, Diana Bachoura, Tala El Riz, Maria Fellas, Lea Giusti, Ivana Hindi, Eleena Korban, Sahar Moukaddem, Nour Monajjed, Tala Osseiran, Reem Swaidan

Adviser:Yasmine Dabbous

Photo via Creative C

omm

ons

OPINION10 Tribune april 1, 2011

The colors in the children cancer center of Beirut (CCCL) create an imaginary world for kids far from real-ity.I entered the volunteer team for the CCCL with the pur-pose of giving cancer chil-dren hope, listen to their talks and support them throughout their fight with the disease. But do they real-ly need me? Do I really know the meaning of hope? Am I able to feel their pain?Did God choose them be-cause they are strong? Or had the disease made them stronger? Questions I couldn’t find any answers for. They know that life is not easy. They were not fed with silver spoons. Actually they were the ones to feed them-selves with strength and hope in time of pain and de-spair. In their presence, I’m in a continuous chal-lenge with myself because their strength makes me feel weak. I feel the pain behind the beauty of their smiles and I wish if I could ever promise them that one day everything will be fine and okay. They talk about cancer and surgeries as if they are talk-ing about their own little game. Their coloring pens held by their little fingers chart a story of hope and faith. Their dreams are not like those of children their

Treasuring Health

age. Before going to sleep, their small brains are busy wondering about the un-known or about what might be next. It didn’t take them much time to understand that the big wealth in life is health. A child with cancer does not need a flying plane on Christmas, nor will a fai-rytale princess draw a smile on his face. All he needs is one more moment to enjoy life with friends and fami-lies. There is no textbook path in life to tell us what we should do and what we shouldn’t. And we are very good at finding things to complain about. I hope that we all can learn from the experience of children with cancer and treasure what is most impor-tant in life. We should know how lucky we are to enjoy our food without a feeding tube. How lucky we are to go whenever we want and stay with whomever we want without the fear of catching a virus that might keep us in bed for weeks. We can fol-low our dreams and have the faith to turn them into real-ity. We can stand up after each fall. Do you know the real meaning of Faith? Hap-piness? Miracles and Guard-ian Angels? Maybe learning from children with cancer is the greatest tribute we could all pay to these brave little kids.

I was born in the wrong era. I long for the pearl of the Med-iterranean that was Beirut. I miss her blinding lights, the warm summer nights, the immaculate architecture and walking in the rain along ce-rulean shores. All were once upon a time the makings of a fairytale city.These days I dread going to Beirut. I hate having to face the heartbreakingly unorga-nized city overrun by hooli-gans posing as police officers and never finding a proper parking spot. Alas, the blinding lights are no longer the shiny lure of Beirut; no, they are the faux-xenon headlights of corrup-tion and the sleazy old guys’ BMWs zooming down the streets, trying to impress (or more appropriately seduce) girls. The weather now is bi-polar. The rain is a product of toxic fumes enveloping the atmosphere over Beirut.

Beirut, I Lo(ve)athe You

Long gone are the days of the old-fashioned buildings and traditional quarters. All I can see now are pubs, clubs and brothels.This makes me wonder, what the fudgemuffin happened to the city everyone admired? This city used to be “Imm el-faqeer,” as my grandmoth-er so eloquently put it. What happened to the city that was rebuilt seven times, ris-ing from the ashes of the war and oppression, soaring like a phoenix into the blar-ing sun of victory and all that mumbo-jumbo? The city is now mostly filled with un-cultured, ignorant, morally bankrupt, sorry excuses for citizens.These people are complete-ly defunct in terms of culture and intellect, but firmly be-lieve that expensive mate-rial possessions make them the greatest people on earth. Regrettably, Beirut has be-

come the next Los Angeles in the making, filled with fake noses, fake brands, and most importantly, fake people. I wonder how the city that survived thousands of wars could have, so easily, turned into this miserable, lifeless wannabe. What happened to her cul-tural heritage, to her intel-lectual and artistic genius, to her simple yet beautiful visage? Who is the wrong-doer here? What caused this awful transformation, turn-ing the mother of Europa of Tyr into an insecure, soul-less harlot?It’s entirely our fault. We stood by and did nothing when our city was infest-ed with all this corruption, turning into an impassive concrete jungle. Now it’s up to us to fix what we broke. Let’s bring back the good old Beirut to life again. Let’s give her years of dignity.

Citizen Journalism

them from showing only the side that works in their fa-vour?This means that we have to look at a number of different sources when it comes to cit-izen journalism in order to find a mid-point where the truth may lie. This, however, can also be done with professional news outlets. The only difference, in my opinion, is that citizen journalists will happily pro-vide graphic footage and pic-tures that news outlets can-not air.A big problem that comes with citizen journalism is that their absolute freedom on the Internet has opened a door for incorrect informa-tion to be reported as real news. The wide reach that the In-ternet helps rumors spread like wildfire. We, as viewers, cannot tell whether a vid-eo online actually came from the event it claimed to come

from, or whether it is old foot-age. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not calling all citizen journalists liars and fakes. I’m just say-ing that the same flaws apply in both cases.I think the most effective fea-ture of citizen journalism is hearing the news before it is presented by traditional me-dia. Do I personally think citizen journalism should contin-ue? Sure. Some of the footage it has presented is valid and could not have been brought to attention if this sort of journalism didn’t exist. Do I think citizen journalism has been overrated? Yes, to an ex-tent, it has.Before we can claim that this is real news brought by real people, we should take a closer look at these people, their backgrounds and al-ways leave room to question whether the information is reliable or not.

Recently, citizen journalism has been highly encouraged and performed across the world. This new phenome-non brought life to the phrase that I hear repeatedly; “it is real news brought to us by real people.”While I am not complete-ly against the idea of citi-zen journalism, I would like to bring forward a specif-ic point: Most of us, as “real people,” are biased by nature. One-sided stories from news outlets are among the rea-sons why many have turned to citizen journalists, yet the same one-sided account can be found in the content these citizens provide.True, citizen journalism travels faster than tradition-al news. However, it is usual-ly fuelled by emotion rather than objectivity. If citizen journalists report news in order to inform the world of what is happen-ing around them, what stops

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OFF CAMPUS11Tribune april 1, 2011

“The People Want to Overthrow the Regime”By Eleena KorbanLAU Tribune staff

“For sectarianism, exploita-tion, favoritism and corrup-tion… a revolution!” protest-ers chanted.For four consecutive Sun-days, the secular citizens of Lebanon marched through the streets of Lebanon, de-manding the overthrow of Lebanon’s confessional re-gime. Assad Thebian, a social me-dia consultant, nicely sums up the movement’s demands. “We want to get rid of the mentality that judges peo-ple based on their sectarian identity,” he said. “Instead of voting for a leader because of his sect, we should judge him on his leadership skills and state-centric thinking.”The first march took place from Mar Mikhael to Adlieh and comprised around 3,000 participants walking under the rain. The second march gained some momentum with 10,000 participants march-ing from Dora to Lebanon’s Electric Company. The third march gathered a whopping 30,000 participants, who walked from Sassine Square to the Ministry of Interior Af-fairs (MIA). The most recent march began in Amchit and ended in JbeiI with less than 2,000 participants.“These marches act as a form of recruitment at this point,”

The sun is rising. The Medi-terranean Sea begins to glit-ter, giving the skies and the sun just the right colors of na-ture to complement one an-other. Men and women from all ages enjoy their morn-ing sports. Some walk, some jog, some skate and some just watch the few minutes of bliss while they sip on their hot cof-fee. “It’s my second home, I’ve been walking here every morning for 20 years, every-

one that comes at this time know each other. We’re like a family,” Ibrahim Hijazi, a 58-year-old business man said while walking. Hijazi discussed the dras-tic changes he experienced on this one street in the past 20 years. “Other than the ap-pearance, it used to attract the older generation but now you see all kinds of ages,” Hi-jazi explained. The “Manara” or “Corniche” in the morning hours is a

whole different world. Away from all the conflicts that Lebanon faces, around 500 people fleet the street.Manara Street has become a mixture of elitist luxury and down-to-earth democracy. On one side are the extrava-gant apartments only the for-tunate can afford. On the oth-er is the sidewalk filled with people from all classes freely enjoying the outdoors. The Manara is the western-most district of Beirut. Ras

Beirut literally translates to “the head of Beirut” due to its location on the tip of pen-insula. The Corniche stretch-es approximately five kilo-meters around the entire Central Beirut perimeter. Each corner of this street has a history. Some trees are pockmarked with bullet holes from the Lebanese civil war. “I come here to play and watch the sea,” Jawad Ab-boud, a 9-year-old child, said. “I love it, we come every Sun-

day.” Abboud’s parents explained that the Corniche presented an affordable outlet for their children. Around 1,000 people fleet Manara Street on a Sunday afternoon. “I run here ev-ery day,” Zeina Dakroub, a 24-year-old professional run-ner, said. “The atmosphere is beautiful, especially in the morning.It clears the mind and creates a healthy life-style.”

Reem SwaidanLAU Tribune staff

Bassem El Chit, a passionate participant, said. Mohammad Kazak, a partic-ipant from LAU, thinks that the reason numbers deplet-ed in the last march is be-cause there is too much time between the marches. “When there is a week between each demonstration, arguments happen, things interfere, that’s what the sit ins are for, to make it more of a daily thing,” Kazak explained.Last month, sit-in tents were set up in Sidon, Tyre, Aley and in front of the MIA on Sanayeh. Shortly after the tents, a sit-in was set up in Riyad Solh square in Down-town, Beirut. “My mother used to say; if you throw a handful of dough on the wall, it may not stick, but it will definitely leave a mark and that is what we are try-

ing to do,” Kamal Behlok, an illustrator taking a shift at the Sanayeh tent, explained. “We might not overthrow the regime, but we might get a civil law for example.”Scholar Ussama Makdisi ex-plains that sectarianism in Lebanon was literally manu-factured during the mid 19th century, when the Ottoman Empire and colonial Europe-an forces deliberately fueled religious strife in an attempt to impose their imperial and colonial visions of modernity. Sectarianism was institu-tionalized in 1943 when inde-pendence leaders introduced the National Pact, an un-written treaty that distribut-ed the country’s positions of power among major sects. A major reason driving the secular youth is the lack of options youth have.

“There is no place for us ec-onomically, socially, pro-fessionally, we have had enough,” El Chit exclaimed. Kazak also confirmed the widespread frustration. “With this system, I need a ‘wasta’ to do anything, I am graduating soon and I can’t find work unless it is offered by someone from the same sect as me.”Lebanon is notorious for the corruption inflicting govern-mental offices and the private sector. “Corruption in Leba-non exists in all its forms in-cluding bribery, nepotism, favoritism, patronage, em-bezzlement, kick-backs, and vote-buying,” the Lebanese Transparency Association’s website says..Facing the call for secural-ism, a common concern among Christian electorates is the fear of being wiped out by the Muslim majority. Thebian replies. “The Chris-tian leaders they elect to pre-serve their voice are not rep-resenting them, it’s a fake representation,” he said. “If you think about it they have no ground influence, with a secular system, leaders will be chosen for their qualities and the fulfillment of their promises, so no one will get left out.” Religious Muslim leaders

also oppose the movement because they assume that secularization will margin-alize shariaa law and encour-age civil marriage.Mahmoud Kaaki, a student at the Beirut Arab Univer-sity, offered another objec-tion. “These movements need more awareness,” he said. “Most people don’t even real-ize they are going on.” The movement’s partici-pants admit there is a long road ahead. Each has his or her own suggestions. Ka-zak believes demonstra-tions should take place on weekdays whereas Thebian thinks the movement’s de-mands should be organized and priorities set. El Chit, on the other hand, finds that what the protesters need to develop a political point and analysis.Nadim Haidar, a student at the American University of Beirut, explains why Leb-anon’s revolution is differ-ent from the rest of the Arab world. “There is no dictator enemy,” he said. We are trying to get rid of, sectarianism, which is a mentality, an ideology that cannot easily be changed. It requires slow cultural ed-ucation and should not get caught up with the Arab world revolutions.”

Street of the Week: Manara, the Street that Never Dies

Photo by: Eleena K

orban

12

OFF CAMPUSTribune april 1, 2011

Lea Guisti LAU Tribune staff

Piracy Destroys April Fools

April marks April Fools’ Day, a universal holiday that tol-erates foolish pranks, hoax-es and practical jokes. Also referred to as All Fools’ Day, the public holiday is celebrat-ed among friends and in the media. April Fools’ Day theory of origin remains unclear but the most popular hypothesis dates back to the French cal-endar reform of the sixteenth century. In 1564, France altered its calendar, moving the end of the year from the end of March to January 1. It is said that those who failed to keep up with the change and stubbornly clung to the old system were ridiculed and “fooled.” Pranksters would stick pa-per fish to the backs of the “fools” and the victims of these pranks were referred to as “Poissons d’Avril,” the French term for April Fools. That is how the tradition was born in accordance to the most well-known theory. And this is not another prank!Today, April Fools is an in-ternational holiday and in Lebanon, people have for-ever enjoyed the tradition of making pranks and practical jokes on April 1. For students like Sarya Sar-kis, who is in her final aca-demic year at Saints-Coeurs Sioufi, April Fools’ Day is an occasion to enjoy having space for unusual fun. “Foolishness, childishness and pranks are tolerated. It’s not like April Fools is just any other day,” Sarkis exclaimed. But the trend of pranks is not welcome by everyone, as many people predict possible dire outcomes for the targets of their practical jokes. Mohammad El Khatib, 18, believes that certain jokes can be too much to handle on April 1, and therefore he pre-fers not to shock the victims of his pranks. “Some people can really get shocked,” El Khatib said. “I wouldn’t want to traumatize them.”

Photo by: Lea Giusti

Zahi SahliLAU Tribune contributor

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, Lyn Jisr, a hospitality man-agement student at LAU, watched her favorite episode of Gossip Girl on a pirated DVD. When done, Jisr picked up the phone and called her favorite DVD shop, located next to her apartment. She wanted to know what hap-pens in the following episode. An employee took her order and delivered the DVD to her house. He is fast, efficient and sells good copies. “I always buy pirated DVDs because they come out real-ly early and they are cheap-er,” Jisr said. Quality wise, an original DVD would be better. But DVD shops found a way to the top of the scale. “Sometimes the pirat-ed DVD’s are of good quality and you can’t see the differ-ence,” Jisr said. Sales of pirated DVDs have changed people’s film view-ing habits. Why pay double for a movie when you can find it for much cheaper with the same options and quality?Prices of pirated DVDs vary between 1,500 and 5,000 Lebanese pounds. Buying a DVD at Virgin Megastore, one is likely to pay between 25 and 40 dollars per DVD. But the major factor isn’t the price for Anwar Jarmakani, 21 years old. “The real prob-lem is that the good movies take three to four months to come out on DVD,” he said. People have become impa-tient. The first movies they ask about at a pirated DVD shop are the ones still show-ing in theatres. “The prob-lem with original movies is that they take at least two months to come out,” Jisr said. “While copies are more up to date and faster.”Good copies are sometimes hard to find. “I wouldn’t buy the copy if the quality is hor-rible,” Jisr said. “I’d rather watch it in a better quality.” And yet, the difference be-tween a pirated and an orig-inal DVD is sometimes bare-ly noticeable. When asked if he still buys original mov-

ies, Jarmakani replied “rare-ly.” When he buys an original DVD, he explained, it is like-ly to be a classic or a block-buster. Ghada Alieh, 49 years old, agrees with Jarmakani. “It’s much cheaper and most of the copies are of good quali-ty,” Alieh said. And what does the legal de-partment think of all this? “You are in Lebanon, my dear,” Alieh said, laughing. In March 1999, the Lebanese Parliament passed a new copyright law prohibiting

the reproduction of software “without permission from the owner of the copyright-ed computer program.” Shop owners who are caught sell-ing illegal CDs or DVDs pay a penalty up to 50 million Leb-anese pounds. Their compa-nies are shut down for a lim-ited time and they may go to prison for up to three years. Nonetheless, pirated DVDs are openly displayed at the shops that sell them. Mega-base, a DVD shop on Kore-item, rents and sells a va-riety of movies. The rental price amounts to 2,500 Leba-nese pounds while the cost of a pirated DVDs does not ex-ceed 4,000 pounds. To rent an original DVD, one must pay 50,000 Lebanese pounds to open an account. No such thing is required for sales. Mohamad Zehri, the own-er of the shop, is clearly not worried to be caught. “I want

the police to come to my shop and see the copies,” he said. “They can’t and won’t do any-thing. This is Lebanon.”At Megabase, the sale of pi-rated copies exceeds that of originals. Zehri gets a hold of his pirat-ed DVDs through a third par-ty who in turn gets the cop-ies by downloading them from the Internet or record-ing them directly from tele-vision. Wael Makarem, a loyal cus-tomer at Megabase, only rents original DVDs. “Orig-

inal movies get little finan-cial support,” Makarem said. “I certainly don’t want to en-courage the pirated DVDs.” For Makarem, quality and sound are of prime impor-tance. “The people who work in the DVD business should not encourage pirated DVDs,” he said. According to Now Lebanon, a global survey on piracy, per-formed in 2009,Lebanon is-ranked as the fifth most im-portant trader of pirated DVDs in the Middle East. Outside, the issue is tak-en more seriously. Anne Ba-hous, a student at Parsons University in New York, is against piracy. “I prefer orig-inal movies by far,” Bahous said. “It’s also more respect-ful to the people who worked hard on making the movie.” No regular DVD shops sell pirated copies in the US and those who do hide them well.

“They are very strict on the matter,” Bahous said. “The only way to buy copies in New York City is to go to Chi-na Town or online.”When in the US, Bahous nev-er buys pirated movies. And yet, she seems to change in Lebanon. “Here I’m not wor-ried because I know that’s how everyone does it there,” she said. “It’s not my fault the stores offer pirated DVDs.”The massive business of pi-rated DVDs in Lebanon rais-es a serious threat to the shops that supply original

DVDs. Chadi Saad, the own-er of Video Master, speaks up, revealing that his sales considerably dwindled. According to the 1999 copy-right law, the Lebanese government has a duty to protect the rights of copy-right owners. Saad, howev-er, charged that behind ev-ery shop stands a prominent supporter. “The police might shut a shop that sells copies, but won’t be able to do so un-til they know who owns the business,” he said. When asked if the prices of original DVDs would de-crease facing the competi-tion, Saad explained that it would be impossible because of the costs involved in ac-quiring them. “If you buy di-rectly from the supplier, the DVD isn’t expensive,” he said. “If all suppliers would open their own shops, things would go differently.”