Daily Star writes about the blogosphere

I would like to thank Lysandra Ohrstrom of the Daily Star for writing a feature article on the Lebanese blogosphere. My only wish is that the article had been more inclusive and incorporated more input from bloggers other than Tony, myself and Angry Arab.

I would also like to make another comment; she appears to have attributed the following quote to me:

"There is no Lebanese cause to speak of. What cause? Unless you are talking about fraud, sectarianism, clerical interventions, daily political oscillations and fakeries. That is why the cause for me has always been ... Palestine and socio-economic justice ... everywhere."

I've just checked my archives and made sure that I never wrote such a statement. I believe Angry Arab is the source of those comments.

Lysandra also committed the typical American error of treating "Abu" as a middle name and completely discarding it while writing her article. Therefore, she refered to me as "Hassan" rather than "Abu Hassan," and Asaad Abu Khalil as "Khalil" rather than "Abu Khalil." Of course, the fault does not lie with her, but rather with the Daily Star's editors who should have picked up on that common American error, and fixed it.


ANYWAYS... For those of you visiting the Lebanese Blogosphere for the first time, please visit Open Lebanon. It is a clearing house of Lebanese blogs, where you get links to the latest entries from some of the best blogs, including Beirut Spring, Lebanon Political Journal , From Beirut to the Beltway, Letters Apart, Lebanonesque, French Eagle, Jamal’s Propagandas Site, Cedars Awakening and Ms. Levantine .

Addendum: It turns out that I can't read properly, and that Lysandra did not attribute the quote to me, but I just didn't get it! Thanks to some of the commenters who pointed that out.

Addendum 2: Rampurple has published a very interesting entry on what some may term an "Orange lie" at the Lebanese Blogger Forum. It's great! Go check it out!