Clik here to view.
When restaurants and tech meet
Digital transactions — via websites or mobile applications — have become commonplace in everyday life. From shopping to booking a vacation, most tasks can be accomplished with just a few steps through...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Banking on training and education
Besides having to dispatch their staff to rigorous regular training programs required under central bank stipulations, banks provide employees with a variety of opportunities to participate in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Look to the numbers
In June 2017, there will be unprecedented room for emotion in banking. Lebanese financial markets could express a wide array of feelings — a mix of relief (at the stability of personnel), exasperation...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A balancing act
“Part II of this legislation is coming”, US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said in his opening statement at a committee hearing entitled “Attacking Hezbollah’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Changes from abroad
“Part II of this legislation is coming”, US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said in his opening statement at a committee hearing entitled “Attacking Hezbollah’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Better direction for Lebanese banks
Finding yourself immersed among a gaggle of high-profile Lebanese bankers at a conference or social get-together can be a mildly frightening experience. When almost everyone in your vision is a banker...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Banking on reason
Pushing loans onto consumers has become the fashion among financial service providers — a fashion hardly more concerned with reason and logic than proposing the existence of prefabricated tears and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Undogmatic thinking
It is not every day that a world-renowned economist touches down on Lebanese soil, but it should not surprise that such a formidable economist could deliver a presentation less than 24 hours after...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A law is born
Since appointing the National Commission on Parliamentary Electoral Law (the Fouad Boutros Commission) in 2005, Lebanese politicians have been “working” on an electoral law that employs proportional...
View ArticleClik here to view.
At long last…
While some of the terminology is the same, in 2018 Lebanon will have an electoral system unlike anything it has ever seen. The new electoral law, approved by Parliament in June, features changes to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Visualizing the voting process
(Click on image to view full content) (Click on image to view full content) (Click on image to view full content) (Click on image to view full content) (Click on image to view full content)
View ArticleClik here to view.
A cautious revival
For the first time since the onset of the war in Syria, there is finally positive news coming from Lebanon’s hospitality sector. The election of a president and the formation of a government in late...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lebanon is getting its tourism groove back
The holy month of Ramadan is traditionally a slow one for tourism in the Arab region, and the hot streets of Beirut have been somewhat subdued this June. But among those in the hospitality sector, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Thanks, but no thanks
The long-awaited electoral law is out. And it’s rigged. The law that was supposed to be our hope for a better future was designed to keep our political class in power. Our democracy is in jeopardy, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lebanon: A new destination for religious tourism?
Mosques, maqams, cathedrals, monasteries, zawiyas, madrassas, a synagogue … the list of 83 historical religious sites selected for an imposing new coffee table book, published as part of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sustaining Lebanon’s rural tourism
There is a growing local clientele in Lebanon hungry for a more “authentic” experience of the country. Through word of mouth and social media, rural activities, such as fruit picking and hiking, are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
C’est la vie
The decision in early June by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Accord, the latest global effort to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, sent shockwaves of uncertainty around the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Explaining Middle East Insecurity
The Middle East faces an increasingly complex and fragile security situation. The region (defined by authors Swain and Jägerskog to include all Arab countries in Asia, plus Egypt and Occupied Palestine...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fit for Growth
Breaking out of stasis is neither easy nor instantaneous. Examples of temporarily suspended existence and reemergence in popular fiction range from space travel to medical miracles. Nobody has ever...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The big Lebanese thirst
Not many consumer product segments have steady year-on-year growth regardless of the economic environment. Nor are there many products that are the same price as they were a decade ago. But as the...
View Article