The horror of wars

Seeing the pictures from Libya and the massacre of civilians from many Arab countries, we can only recall the abhorrent effects of war, of violence on man by man, and by doing so, strengthen the urgency of an appeal for an end to the use of weapons and to create a space for dialogue in the conflicts that are currently raging in Libya, Ivory Coast and the Middle East .

Following the atrocities witnessed on TVs on a daily basis, one can only fear for the safety of the civilian population and have concerns for the unfolding situation in Libya which is constantly growing. At moments such as these, of greatest tension, international bodies and people in positions of responsibilities must use all diplomatic means at their disposal to give space to even the weakest signs of openness to dialogue. Both sides of the Libyan conflict need to be appealed for an end to the use of weapons and an immediate start of dialogue.

What is happening these days is a most grave offense against humanity, because it is the deliberate violence of man by man. It is the most abhorrent effect of war, any war, while we should be seeking life and peace. The abyss opened by men who, when driven by blind violence, deny their dignity and brotherhood with each other. Yes, wherever he is, on every continent, in every nation, man is the son and brother to all humanity. But this being the son and brother is not a given. Unfortunately, this is revealed by the death tolls themselves.

We must want it, we must say yes to good and no to evil. We must believe in love and life, and reject any false image of Glory, that betrays man. Therefore, in times like these, the real answer is to join hands as brothers, and say: with the strength of love we desire to walk together in Peace, in Libya, North Africa, The Middle East and throughout the world.

Japan: from the earthquake to the nuclear plant

Recently, at the troubled Japanese nuclear power plants, a group of heroes are generously risking their lives to save the lives of many others. Like the firefighters of New York city on September 11. As then, the generous love for others, even at the cost of one’s life, is the true light in the darkness of this tragedy. It shines a light on the path to follow. It is a direction for a brave journey for all mankind to follow.


For days, images of the tragedy in Japan continue to upset every human being and provoke questions. From the very outset they have evoked memories of the tragic Indian Ocean tsunami six years ago, which also caused a frightening number of victims, and even more: a sea of suffering and pain that calls for our compassion, our sympathy and our prayers.

But with the space of a few days the world's attention has shifted to the disaster at the nuclear power plant. The Japanese have shown that they can cope with earthquakes in an admirable way, constructing buildings capable of withstanding the strongest shocks. In other countries the same shock would have caused countless deaths.

Yet even Japan’s technical progress has revealed, in one sense, and unexpectedly a weak point. It only took the serious damage of one of the approximately fifty Japanese nuclear power plants to cause a new fear of death that is spreading around the world, in addition to the tsunami’s destruction. Nuclear power is a great natural resource which man tries to use for his benefit, but if he loses control of it, it can turn against him. And nobody knows better than the Japanese people the effects of energy released from a nuclear source turned against man.

The safety of nuclear power plants and radioactive waste storage will never be absolute. It is right and necessary to reflect again on the proper use of technological power, its risks and its human price. This crucial topic should never be overlooked from now on. 

The law of silence will end

The time of terrorism is off.

Today is the time of liberation from repression, starting from today people will have the right to think, to speak, to say no, to believe in their country and in their new future full of hope, love and mercy.

Yesterday, people were obliged to accept that “The Man” is always right, he can do everything because he has full authorities, he is the leader, the chief, no one can stop him and no one should ask him why!

Tomorrow, this “Man” will be obliged to recognize that he is wrong, he made a lot of mistakes, his acts were dishonest and corrupt and people have the right to stop him at any time and to ask him to go!!!

History will never forget despotism and cruelty.

Yesterday, was the time of manipulation.

Tomorrow, will be the time of truth.

Yesterday, was the witness of fear and discrimination.

Tomorrow, will be the witness of trust and fairness because dictatorship is false and tyranny is immoral.

Yesterday, nothing was possible, the dream was illusion and the silence was an obligation.

Tomorrow, nothing will be impossible, the dream will come true and the law of silence will end…

Innocents always pay the price

In revolutions, conflicts, wars, uprisings, always innocents end up paying the price of any outcome. For we have learnt historically that all great and major changes in the world only came after hundreds of thousands were killed and as many injured. Those “unknown” people who are only recognized and counted by numbers, and nobody knows them for they are ordinary people, sometimes less than ordinary. But nevertheless humanity and especially the “free world” owes them a lot.

Historically, the United States of America succeeded to put an end to slavery and became the great nation that we know today, only after a long and painful war that lasted four years (1861-1865) and cost the life of more than 500,000 Americans. The French revolution which started in 1789 met its target and toppled the royal reign after bloody street fights in Paris and after ten years of long Napoleon’s battles which resulted in over 1,000,000 innocent deaths.

In modern history and according to some sources as many as eighty million people have died between 1939 and 1945 (most of them civilians) to put an end to the biggest conflict in history which resulted in putting an end to Nazi and fascist regimes.

More recently in Egypt, the change to democracy and the end of the 30 years old regime has cost so far the Egyptian people a death toll of 500 people, while in Libya the ongoing fights have resulted so far in the loss of thousands of Libyan civilians (exact figures still unknown) and this number is rising on a daily basis.

Innocent blood seems to be the ultimate price that humanity is deemed to pay in order to straighten the course of governments, topple monarchies and to make historical changes. The question remains when or if humanity will reach a stage where such changes will ever occur peacefully and decently, preserving the dignity and the life of human beings.

What is democracy!

According to the books the democracy is the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives; or
A political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them .

According to what is happening in the Middle East, democracy is proclaiming war against civilians, killing people in the name of God and even burning its own country.

After all, who can define exactly what is the meaning of democracy ?

The democracy seems to be the appropriate way to defend the rights of selfish individuals, to obtain interests in some rich countries or to give a reason for violence and aggression.

However, without trying to give the right meaning of the word, I can understand that democracy cannot be divided into parts; it seems to be difficult to split democracy between many political objectives and goals.

Democracy cannot co-exist with bloodshed, revenge or atrocity.

Democracy is the given right of each citizen to live decently and honorably in his country with the fundamental rights that every person should have, notably the right to give his opinion, to speak, to think, to oppose and particularly to be represented by a legislative body, which believes that people’s dignity and rights are more crucial than wealth, authority and power.

Good reasons to invest in Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has proven throughout the years to be one of the favourite and most profitable places in the world to invest in. In fact the KSA has been gaining ranks at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) especially when it comes to the relative ease of establishing and starting up a new business or investment.

Many reasons have contributed to such developments:

Legal forces:

The KSA has gained stability in the region, along with a well structured legal system, political stability and international support, which provide to businessmen and entrepreneurs a very safe environment to invest in.


Demographic-economic forces:

- Saudi Arabia is the richest country in the Middle East and the Muslim world. This is because Saudi Arabia holds one of the world's largest proven oil reserves.
Residents from diverse cultures and background constitute Saudi complex society. Highly ranked executives, middle management employees, global investors, powerful entrepreneurs, these are the added value to such strong economy.

- The principal growth sectors are energy production and manufacturing, yet high-class tourism and international finance are the new sectors that are booming.

- The SAGIA (Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority) which is in the process of building an additional four mega economic cities around the kingdom, these cities represent the best environment for foreign businessmen and entrepreneurs to start up their own business with a 100% ownership.

- The CMA (Capital Markets Authority) that offers 100% foreign ownership, and a tailor-made financial regulatory system with laws taken from best practices in other leading financial centers like New York, London, and Singapore.

- The GDP (Growth Domestic Product) per capita is in a constant development.


Technological:

Saudi Arabia has a current strong emphasis on technological advancement; it creates a good opportunity for all entrepreneurs and global investors to start up their business in such environment.
On a financial view, technology plays an important role especially in the field of telecommunications, computing and advanced software improving the quality of services and returns to clients.


Social-Cultural:

Immigrants make up a large percentage of the Saudi workforce, which creates healthy social interrelations.
Hence, traditional forms of art and culture are preserved, diversification is however evident.

Potential Customers & investors:

Saudi Arabia's society offers the opportunity to target potential clients that would be interested in investments such as entrepreneurs, investors, high classed executives and wealthy individuals, which can prove the high growth of such commodities in the Saudi markets.

Barack Obama humble because smart

Every day we watch on TVs famous celebrities like actors, singers and politicians using their physical beauty,  their wealth and power or even their body to appear and to create their own world of authority, desire and even lies.

Simplicity and spontaneity are not the trend anymore, values and principles are becoming old fashioned.

But how did Barack Obama manage to become the US President, what did he use to make his dream come true:  his physical beauty, his wealth or his influence?

How is he doing to sustain his good leadership! Using the accurate and respectable wordings in all of his speeches, speaking with people with modesty and kindness and especially inviting people to open their hearts to accept the others and to build a new future.

Isn’t he the President of the United States? Shouldn’t he be raising his head, walking with great pride, addressing Nations in sophisticated kinds of speeches, talking with relative arrogance to people who wait for hours on the streets to cheer him or catch a smile from him?

Rather, he plays football with children, eats ice cream in the street and invites his friend for a hamburger lunch, and greets the white house staff as friends.

If I were Barack Obama, I would remind myself everyday that I’m the strongest man in the world, I would act accordingly and use my full authority to influence people and try to impose my opinions and thoughts.

But it seems that physical beauty, wealth and power are not the keys to be “the MAN”, The US President must have something else!

If we happen to be as intelligent as Barack Obama we would remember everyday that humbleness is stronger than power, more generous than wealth and more attractive than physical beauty.

People of Japan: magnificent strength!

I always asked myself how did Japanese people manage to become one of the biggest economies in the world, I know very well that Japanese people are very nice and smart but my question was always the same, how did this Country become so strong?

After the earthquake disaster, I was watching on TV the Japanese people and I was surprised: They were crying and they were praying for their missing beloved persons but they were, in the same time, incredibly calm and serene believing that Japan will be rebuilt again and very soon.

And I saw that most of them were leaving involuntarily their homes to avoid nuclear radiations and death, and in spite of such distress they still wanted to stay in their Country even  without home or food.

Today I’m asking myself if everyone of us is able to remain quiet and peaceful in such circumstances?

Is everyone of us able to pray and to hope even when he loses his family?

Is everyone of us able to keep believing even when, he feels that he lost everything?

Dear People of Japan, sorry because I still didn’t understand how can we build countries! With money? with weapons? with violence? with dictatorships?

Japan is the greatest example that nations are built with love, hope and a strong determination to restart when everything has been lost.

Saving the Libyan people or the Libyan oil?

Libya is an oil rich country and one of the world's top exporters of the black gold. The recent massive military intervention from the US, France and the UK in Libya is not a totally candid intervention with strictly humanitarian goals, in fact many analysts are beginning to argue whether such a global military action would have occured if the country in question were to be an oil-poor country with no resources. 

The recent events in the world have shown the impact of high oil prices on western economies, especially on industrialized countries. We have seen lately Central Bankers notably from Europe and the US struggling to find a balance between the increasing inflation due to constantly rising oil prices and the recession due to the financial crisis. Add to the fact that France and the UK depend on the Gulf countries for their oil imports and on Russia for their natural gaz. The recent uprising events in Libya have created the perfect environment for the super powers to put their foot and have a physical presence on the rich soil of Benghazi, where most of Libya's proven reserves are contained. It is also a moral response and a noble move to save civilian lives from Kaddafi's massacres.

This military move will certainly reduce the oil dependance of the industialized nations from battered oil producing countries.

While many African countires have suffered on many occasions several massacres and blood sheds, never such a military intervention has ever been observed. It would be certainly naive to deny the fact about oil and consider that the super powers are only doing this for mankind's sake! The next scenario would probably be the one like foreign military bases on the Libyan soil to "protect" the Libyan treasures as it has been the case with US military bases in Iraq for more than 20 years.   

Very sad, but true...

JAPAN: more than 10,000 people die in a strong earthquake, the world is horrified and fully mobilized.


AFRICA: more than 15,000 children die everyday from starvation, nobody cares, nobody even mentions it.

Think about it, it's very sad but true!

Alcohol in Islam

Any alcohol consumption including alcoholic drinks is formally prohibited by Islam. However any act made by the drunk during his drunkenness is valid and should not be considered as void.

Due to this general prohibition regarding the alcohol or any of its derivative, the big majority of the « Fuquha’a »  estimate that the validity of the drunk acts shall be maintained as a punishment of his behavior, hence, deciding that the acts made by the drunk during his drunkenness do not engage him, will let him using from his mistake and fault as an apology for his acts .

There is obviously a sad confusion between the law and the moral. According strictly to the legal principles, the drunk is unconscious during the period of his inebriation which shall mean logically that any act made during this drunkenness is void accordingly.

Or the drunkeness depends on the drunk himself, because any person drinking alcohol knows that any excess in alcohol will make him drunk.

Consequently, deciding to annul any act made by the drunk during his inebriation  seems sometimes complicated, because the drunkeness is in principle temporary, therefore the proof of the drunkeness will seem difficult to provide once the rate of alcohol in the person’s blood becomes within acceptable/natural limits.

The strong ties between the USA and the KSA: is it love or reason?

The strategical relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia goes back to late 1940's, just after the end of world war II, upon the discovery of the oil in the KSA. Oil which is synonymous of energy and which (according to some analysts) was the main startegic reason behind the war of the pacific from 1941 to 1945. Establishing excellent relations with the new royal regime at that time in the KSA was of prime importance for the US.

In fact these bilateral relations grew relatively fast when US companies were commissioned to discover and extract the commodity from the Saudi soil. And for decades, companies like Halliburton, Schlumberger, Aramco and others had the absolute exclusivity to discover new oil fields in the Kingdom and to extract the black gold and to ship it.

With time, those ties evolved between the two nations and became deep enough to "re-invent" the Saudi economy, in fact the Saudi currency (riyal) became strictly tied to the US dollar in a fixed exchange rate; Most of the Saudi's government oil revenues (as well as the royal family's) were being invested in the US markets, experts believe that Saudi money invested in the US represents around 7% of the US market. Until recently, the Saudi armament program was exclusively provided by US firms like: Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Mcdonall Douglas; At last but not least Saudi Arabian Airlines flies Boeing aircrafts almost exclusively.

Politically and diplomatically both States were constantly in perfect harmony and the KSA was one of the major allies of the US. The State visit of a newly elected US president to the KSA became a ritual, while Saudi citizens are usually granted multiple visas to the US for undefinite periods. (unlike all other Arab countries)

The KSA became practically operating according to the american way, as everything was built, designed, commissioned according to US standards. The list is long: the building codes in Saudi are US codes, the design and technical specifications for infrastructure projects are conducted according to the US standards, the heavy and sophisticated equipments (power production, water treatment, new technologies) are designed, built and operated according to the US industry codes.

We also note that the US Universities became the preferential destinations for Saudi students. Most of the new Saudi generation that are highly educated have graduated from US Universities, in a need to discover the technology and know-how of what is being developped in their mother land.

According to such evidences, many analysts and observers argue that the "Americanization" of the Saudi society did not happen naturally as a result of the interaction between two populations sharing the same history or culture or background! Instead, it is the fruit of a strategical pact that ensures safe and continuous flows of oil into the biggest oil consumer in the world at preferential prices (much below markets), in return the biggest oil producer of the OPEC countries enjoys an unconditional support and backup from the US policies makers.

Alcohol in Muslim law (article in French)

L’usage de l’alcool et de toute boisson alcoolique est formellement interdit  par l’islam, pourtant tout acte accompli par un ivrogne durant son ivresse est valable et ne doit pas être considéré comme nul.

En raison de cette réprobation générale visant l’alcool et tout ce qui touche à l’alcool, la grande majorité des « Fuquha’a » estiment que ce serait faire bénéficier l’ivrogne d’une certaine excuse qu’il tirerait précisément de sa propre turpitude ou faute si l’on décidait que les actes accomplis par lui durant son ivresse ne le liaient pas ; d’après eux, la validité de tels actes doit être maintenue ne serait-ce que comme punition des actes de l’ivrogne.

Il y a là évidemment une confusion fâcheuse du droit et de la morale. A s’en tenir strictement aux principes juridiques, l’ivrogne pendant tout le temps que dure son ivresse, est privé de raison ce qui devrait mener logiquement à en déduire la nullité de tout acte fait en état d’ébriété.

Or l’état d’ébriété dépend de l’ivrogne lui-même, parce que toute personne en buvant sait que l’excès dans l’alcool peut la rendre ivre.

En conséquence, vouloir annuler tout acte de l’ivre pendant son état d’ébriété parait parfois chose difficile parce l’état d’ivresse est en principe temporaire et par suite la preuve de cet état d’ivresse serait difficile à rapporter une fois l’alcool ne circule plus dans le sang de la personne.

Would you invest in a fund based only on Twitter?

Twitter has become a social networking phenomenon, with more than 200 million users around the world, and more than 10 million daily users. A European hedge fund is planning to harness the power of Twitter by making investment decisions based on real-time messages, known as tweets. The founder of the fund along with a University professor, claim they can predict market directions based on Twitter trends and the various moods of tweets, which are 140 characters or less.

Using proprietary technology, the fund will monitor tweets and sort them into several categories, such as calm, alert or happy. According to analysts, the idea rather makes sense since markets generally reflect the mood of the investors, and with such large number of daily users on Twitter, the mood inspired from the tweets (which is a considerable representative sample) will provide a good assumption about the actual general mood of the investors and the markets around the world.

The idea is still being debated and the question is whether the fund owners will succeed in convincing investors about their project, and therefore be able to raise sufficient funds to meet the launching threshold of this avant-guardist new hedge fund.

One thing is sure: if only by using Twitter to predict the market movements this hedge fund can perform well, and consequently generate profits for on-board investors, many others will follow this business model and will start using the same tool for their new investments. It will be a new era for Twitter as well which might see its popularity growing further and its company valuation flying high.

Pollution on the internet

Pollution is a major plague confronting the world today. It is mostly witnessed in the atmosphere, or in the streets, but in fact pollution has reached other places in our lives, and one of the most important places is the internet. Sometimes unnoticed, especially to those who don't use the web or use it very little, internet pollution is becoming a daily topic in our lives.

May be the most common form of web pollution is viruses. Tens of thousands of viruses attack on a daily basis sensitive sites and workstations worldwide. In many cases the viruses are hidden in emails, messages or applications, which commonly offer internet users fictious and false services, such as instant rewards or pornographics etc...

Major IT institutions worldwide conduct and finance researches, in continuous attempts to win the race against a generation of viruses, that are becoming more harmful, destructive and more sophisticated day after day.

Another form of pollution on the internet is the huge number of meaningless articles, webpages, applications that are listed on the web, and the large number of such material that is uploaded on a daily basis as well. Some of it is benign and does not present any harm or disturbance to users, and the reason for its release on the net remains not understood, since it does not generate any kind of benefit for its authors or for the public. This certainty has recently pushed Google (the world's largest search engine on the internet) to adopt new measures with regards to web searching, resulting in a massive "cleansing" operation for the worldwide web, which has caused many editors to lose up to 50% of their publications from search engines results.

A serious kind of pollution on the internet is the kind where web surfers attempt to use the web for prohibited or even criminal practises, such as paedophilia, abduction, organ trafficking, drug dealing and terrorism. In Such cases the intervention of public prosecutions from the countries concerned is inevitable, and people who are involved in such crimes are nowadays easily tracked down and caught, thanks to new technologies available to governmental institutions, notably the latest generation of GPS. Needless to mention that very serious punishments await those who are involved in such crimes, as we have seen lately in Belgium and in Germany. 

If the pollution of the atmosphere has prompted the UN to mobilise many major Heads of States to sign the Kyoto Protocol, the pollution on the internet would only require people to have more ethics, in business and in personal life. If ethics were to be observed, many other problems of our modern times would also be resolved.

Is Egypt the new China of the Middle East?

Egypt, country of the Nile and one of the oldest civilizations in the world, has always been the epicentre of history, culture, and changes. On the verge of one of the most important changes in its recent history, the home of the pharaohs looks at a bright and promising future. In fact, Should the new Egyptian regime succeed in realizing a "real change" in the country, a lot of potential awaits to be unleashed out of the egyptian economy which has several strong foundations.

The availability of cheap labor, the cheapest in the region and probably one of the cheapest in the world, backed by a population of more than 80 million egyptian, with an average GDP per capita among the lowest in the world (around 5,000 USD per year), the active population will have no problem at all competing with any country in the region, if not in the world since the labor cost in countries like India or China is comparable to the one in Egypt.

The egyptian population has another important component: the middle class, which is highly educated and qualified in most cases, fluent in French and English, helping to make commercial and trading activity relatively easy with western counterparts, unlike many countries in the Far East where only the national language is spoken. Besides all, egyptian people are so funny and very humble. 

Geographically, Egypt is at the center of the Middle East at the proximity of one of the biggest oil producers in the world, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and is also very close to Europe, which makes import & export activities to the euro-zone and de facto to the industrialized nations very convenient and time-saving.

Strategically, the Suez canal insures the sea traffic between the Far East, India and Saudi Arabia to Europe and the United States. Therefore, the strategic dependance of Egypt on other States is much less than other countries when it comes to exercise normally its commercial activities.

The country possesses substantial proven reserves of natural gas and is one of the exporters of this commodity to several countries in the region. This would bring down dramatically the production costs for eventual manufacturing or industrial activities. 

The considerable amount of funds that are expected to be retrieved from the old regime will undoubtedly bring a considerable boost to the economy, in fact around 70 billion US dollars are estimated to be heading back for the Egyptian treasury in the near future, and that would represent a surplus of funds equivalent to the government's budget for two years. Such amounts could be used to upgrade the country's infrastructure which is necessary for the economy to flourish. 

Egypt has all the necessary elements to become a big economy, the biggest in the region. All the ingredients of the chinese model are available in abundance to the egyptian people who has done a lot so far, and still have a lot more to do in the near future.

Airbus: the enemy

By Nidal Raad.

Before 1970, more than 90% of the world's commercial airplanes were exclusively produced by Boeing, a company who made aviation history, notably during world war II, when it was still producing military aircraft solely, it contributed to the end of the war thanks to legendary bombers such as the B-25 fortress and B-29 superfortress and others. Then after the war Boeing started to build commercial aircraft and in the 1950's the company introduced the best seller Boeing 707 and in 1969 the Boeing 747: the famous jumbo jet, both models having flewn the world for decades. Boeing was comfortably the biggest aircraft maker in the world.

Then in 1970 everything began to change. A group of brilliant French engineers came up with a new design for a "twin engine medium size carrier" which they called A300. The idea of twin engines for a medium size long courier aircraft was perceived by many as bound to failure, since in the 70's quadruple engines for a long courier inspired more security. After a successful first flight, the A300 began accumulating successes not only on the technical level since it was very advanced technologically, but also on the operational level; In fact it was more fuel efficient than the B707 by 20%. Airbus was born thanks to the large number of orders for the new A300 which exceeded 800 planes. The French company became quickly a confirmed aircraft maker.  

Airbus A320 neo 

In the 1980's Airbus turned it's attention to the small aircraft sector (100 to 150 seats) and introduced the ultra sophisticated A320 in 1987. It was the first ever aircraft to utilize the "fly by wire" technology, which allowed engineers to remove definitely the third function on aircraft cockpits: the flight engineer. Airbus stated at the time that the aircraft was so automated and ahead of it's time to the point that theoretically only one pilot would be needed to fly it safely. It was also the first ever commercial jet able to perform "auto landings". Boeing was then beginning to lose the race as it was producing a rival B737, a very popular aircraft but relatively old.

The 1990's were the expansion years for Airbus as it was entering and acquiring new markets every year. Unfortunately the success of the French maker was all at the expenses of the US giant who was consistently losing market shares and large orders from airlines. In 1995 Airbus introduced the mid size - long range A330 family aircraft while Boeing introduced the larger size - long range B777. Both models were very successful, Airbus won around 1,200 orders for the A330 family and Boeing won around 1,000 orders for the B777.

Boeing 787 "Dreamliner"

In the early years of the new millennium the two aviation giants had different views about the future of aviation. While Boeing was working hard on a new mid size - long range aircraft, Airbus was drafting the project of the world's biggest ever commercial aircraft. Boeing's study was based on the facts that airlines will be in need of medium size, super advanced, ultra efficient and economical aircraft . Airbus thinking was much simpler: with airports becoming busier everyday and the number of passengers growing relatively fast, the need will be to provide a "gross transportation" way to cope with the growing traffic.

Boeing started to build the new generation B787 which is still under testing and is almost 3 years behind schedule, Airbus started to build the A380 the biggest ever passenger aircraft having a double deck which entered into service in 2007. That year was very significant for Airbus since it was the first time ever when the number of orders for Airbus planes surpassed the number of orders for Boeing planes. Airbus became officially the largest commercial aircraft maker in the world. 

 Airbus A380

It should be noted that Boeing tried to catch up with the success of the A380 by developing a new larger version of the B747 : the B747-8 Intercontinental, but the plane hasn't been so popular and was only able to attract 30 orders, 20 of them from Lufthansa which is thought to have placed such an order to gain more traffic rights in the US skies since the German carrier is well established in the US.

On the other hand Airbus is developing the new A350, a direct competitor to the Boeing 787 dreamliner, the A350 is scheduled to enter into service by the end of 2013.

With time, the huge loss of market share prompted Boeing in 2005 to file a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization against Airbus, accusing the European Company of benefiting from illegal government loans. Airbus responded by filing a similar lawsuit against Boeing with the same charges. The latest statement from the WTO showed that both parties have indeed benefited from government loans, which brings back the battle to breakeven. it is clear that such matter will take many years to be concluded.

Enemy or competitor, Airbus has seduced the world of air-travel and has gained respect of the world's airlines who fly Airbus aircraft on hourly basis, daily, worldwide. it's lifetime rival Boeing does not enjoy less respect from airlines nor is it less popular, but the difference is that Boeing has been losing ground to Airbus for the last 40 years, while Airbus has been moving forward. 

Lebanon After The War..(article in French)

Le Liban après la guerre..

Le Liban est sorti d’une longue guerre qui a duré de 1975 jusqu’ à la fin de 1990 et a laissé de profondes marques sur la société, comme sur l’Etat, l’économie et le peuple.

Suffisamment d’années se sont écoulées depuis la fin des opérations militaires pour que les Libanais s’engagent pleinement dans la reconstruction de leur pays et de leur société, cherchant, animés par l’espoir, à régler leurs problèmes et à améliorer leur niveau de vie aussi rapidement que possible.

Certes les années de guerre ne sauraient être tenues responsables des problèmes de déséquilibre structurels que rencontrent aujourd’hui les libanais, ces problèmes ayant contribué à l’explosion et à la poursuite du conflit.

L’on ne pourrait estimer le coût de la guerre du Liban en pertes humaines et sociales pour la société Libanaise.

Les effets de cette guerre sur les jeunes générations et les enfants sont plus graves et se manifestent à long terme; il faut signaler que les écoles, les ressources en personnel, le matériel et les programmes du secteur de l’enseignement et l’éducation, en particulier dans le secteur public, ont subi de très lourdes pertes, qui ont entraîné une détérioration significative dans le système de l’instruction qui s’avère ancien et parfois inadapté aux besoins du pays..

Les jeunes vont se voir refuser l’un de leurs droits fondamentaux, à savoir le droit à une bonne éducation et une solide formation à même de les préparer à remplir efficacement et convenablement leur rôle social et productif.

Il en va de même pour la détérioration des services de santé assurés par le service public, la dégradation de l’environnement, la perte des débouchés, la désintégration de la famille due au déplacement et aux problèmes d’intégration sociale, pour ne pas parler du décès d’un ou de plusieurs membres de la famille au cours de la guerre que ce soit un enfant, un membre de la famille de l’enfant ou un parent plus au moins proche, ou encore des préjudices corporels subis par l’un d’eux  .

Aujourd’hui, la protection juridique des personnes préjudiciées par la guerre pourrait ne pas présenter un problème dans les milieux où ces personnes bénéficient heureusement d’une protection adéquate, quand leurs intérêts sont pris en charge par elles-mêmes, les parents, le conjoint ou les enfants.

Pourtant, il subsiste malheureusement des personnes, que la guerre a préjudiciées, qui vivent dans un contexte où l’isolement est de plus en plus fréquent et où la possibilité de vivre sous la protection de la famille ou de l’Etat se réduit en permanence.