So much for concrete

On January 15th, a seven story building just two blocks from my apartment collapsed, killing twenty seven of the inhabitants. While Lebanese civil society rallied around those that survived and the community mourned those that it had lost, the Lebanese government's response was nothing short of disgusting. See here, how two of the survivors were arrested while still in hospital for having incorrect work visas, and here,  how the residents of an entire nearby building have been kept out of their homes because opposing political groups are fighting over who gets the kudos of  sending in engineers and check that it's safe. This tragedy quickly became a photo op for Lebanon's political elite who shouted themselves hoarse trying to out do each other with condemnations and calls for investigations. 

For me, this was a coup; I sold picture to Reuters, one of the biggest news organisations in the world.   It's easy to feel like a vulture, gaining success from other's misfortune, but such photos and stories are essential if those responsible for such travesties are ever to be held to account.

Ghost refinery

It's hard to believe in the today's world of Gulf oil Goliaths, but back in the 80s Lebanon's Beddawi Oil Refinery was once a crown jewel in the region's petrochemical industry, well, that was according to Salim Rizk, the former shift supervisor who was kind enough to show me around the mothballed plant this week.  That's him below, entering the plant's control room for the first time in 20 years. Beautiful light, decaying machinery, great access. Good day. 

Unhappy holidays: Ashura 2011

Anyone in need of  history lesson regarding Ashura, look here.  In Lebanon most of those who mark the event stick to ritual chest-smacking and non take it to the extremes as those in the southern town of Nabatiyeh. It's a bit of a gratuitous event for me, no real news value as such but visually it's certainly arresting.  Walking backwards amid a large group of excitable men vigorously waving large, sharp swords takes a modicum of faith; fortunately the inevitable spatters I had to clean off myself and my gear were all due to mourners.

Once were wrestlers

Actually the title of this post is total crap. These guys are very much still wrestlers and the brightest and best among them are being touted by some of the more optimistic voices as a way to offer an economic alternative to cattle rustling, an problem endemic across South Sudan. Commercialising the sport would be a small but useful boost for the world's newest country, which has hardly any economy to speak of. For the most part, the people have no cash; even if they did, hardly anything is produced here and there's limited options for transporting goods so it's not much like there is much to buy in the first place.

After two weeks here it seems that the country has a long, long, journey ahead of it - a fact acknowledged by almost every one we've spoken to - but there's a generally pervasive attitude that people are proud as hell of their new country and want to do right by it.

Telegraph live blog

Pics from the fighting in Tripoli's loyalist Abu Selim neighbourhood made it onto the Telegraph's live blog yesterday. If anyone reading the text is wondering why it matters if the prisoners were black or not, it's because many of Ghadaffi's troops were/are hired mercenaries from elsewhere in Africa. As a result black Africans in Libya are currently getting a hard time from the rebels. The reason why the Telegraph asked about their ethnicity here was to show that they weren't necessarily all hired guns from abroad.

Troubles in Tripoli

The fighting in Tripoli over the last few days has been mainly focused around the neighbourhood of Abou Selim, a very poor and staunchly pro Gadaffi area. Rebels troops have been slowly going through the area, clearing out snipers from the buildings. As of tonight it looked like they'd 'won' the battle of Abou Selim but with nothing to stop fresh loyalists taking up postions tonight it looks like this situation could drag out for some time.

A Gadaffi soldier is captured by the rebels

Above and below: residents are caught up in the fighting

Corpses of rebels captured by Gaddafi's forces are left on the street.

Five years on

This month Executive took a look at how Lebanon's industrial sector has been faring after it was devastated by Israeli air-raids during the 2006 war. Factories and industrial sites of all shapes and sizes were prime targets for Israeli bombers during the 34 day conflict.