BEIRUT: A Beirut blogger posted Monday a list of 13 Lebanese who made it big in 2014, naming; a child genius, a celebrity barrister, a scandal on skis, internationally renowned innovators, up-and-coming musical breakthroughs, a graffiti maestro, an assaulted civil servant and a minister doing his job.
Elie Fares, The Lebanese blogger behind the renowned “A Separate State of Mind” website told The Daily Star that he had not arranged the list in any particular order, noting that the most influential figure of 2014 is subjective.
“If we were to see it according to a ubiquitous perspective, then Amal Alamuddin would top the list because she is extremely famous,” Fares said. “But unfortunately she is known for her nuptials.”
If the list was ordered by who would have the greatest impact on future generations, he said, three young Lebanese who made their way onto the “35 innovators under 35” list issued by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year would surely be at the top.
Fadel Adib, a 25-year-old from Tripoli, made MIT’s list for designing technology that could detect the movements of people through walls using WIFI signals.
Lebanese-Canadian Ayah Bdeir, who grew up in Beirut and also made MIT’s list for her company called “LittleBits” which promotes educational toys that have been compared to magnetic Legos. The product is already being sold in 70 countries.
Rand Hindi joins the other two Lebanese as one of the top 35 innovators for his work in a company he founded called Snips, which analyzes data in hopes of making city living more efficient.
Fares noted that his top 13 Lebanese list includes a delicate balance of Lebanese actors who were influential on both a local and international scale.
“Originally, I had a different set of names. It was going to be cliché list of influential Lebanese expats but I didn't want that. I didn't want it to say you need to immigrate to get somewhere,” Fares said.
According to the blogger, the most influential Lebanese on an international scale would be the three Lebanese named by MIT.
Locally, controversial skier Jackie Chamoun would make it to the top of the list because she “was a symbol for sexual liberation.”
Earlier this year, Chamoun sparked a scandal for a nude calendar photo-shoot that surfaced online. As the professional skier came under fire by several officials for her racy photos, Lebanese citizens rose to her defense with liberal social media campaigns like “I’m Not Naked,” or “#StripForJackie.”
“She single handedly sparked essential debates about women, feminism, body image and sex,” Fares said.
Fares’s list did not side-line Lebanon’s brilliant women, as he included Beirut-based engineer and entrepreneur Hind Hobeika, London-based composer Bushra El-Turk and art historian Bahia Sheha who were featured as part of the BBC’s 100 Women of 2014, a list of inspiring figures from around the world.
Lebanon’s very own boy genius, Mohammad El Mir, 11, made Fares’s list for winning a competition in Germany earlier this year, beating participants from 40 other countries for the title of Junior Genius.
Of course, Fares did not neglect Lebanon’s latest A-list celebrity Amal Alamuddin who was named the most fascinating person of 2014 by prominent American TV host Barbara Walters.
Though mostly known for her high profile marriage to Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney, the barrister was a member of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's prosecution and legal adviser to the head of the U.N. commission investigating former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination. She was also appointed as an adviser for Kofi Annan while he was the Joint Special Envoy of the U.N. and the Arab League on Syria.
Singer-songwriter Yasmine Hamdan also made it in to the ranks of the year’s most prominent Lebanese, with her love song “Hal,” named as one of 79 tracks competing for Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards.
Not all of Fares’s selections were featured on internationally renowned lists. His choices also included names that may not be well-known abroad, but have made quiet the impact back home.
Though Fares said that he was not personally a fan of the reform-minded Health Minister Wael Abu Faour, whose sweeping food safety campaign “shook” some of the country’s establishments, the health minister was also placed on the list because “unlike his predecessors he was doing his job,” Fares said.
Fares also gave credit to the team behind Sakker El Dekkene, a Lebanese NGO whose aim is to fight corruption, primarily by collecting reports of acts of bribery across public institutions in Lebanon. “They were the country’s first NGO to truly break into the mainstream with the issue of corruption,” the blogger said.
Manal Daou, an administrative officer who was assaulted by Zahle MP Nicolas Fattoush, may be one of the most unexpected additions to the list.
“She didn’t do much, she almost got hit, but she didn't remain idle. She stood up for herself and put Fattoush in the spotlight,” the blogger said, noting that the civil servant was one of the most influential actors who contributed to the MP’s “political demise.”
No comments:
Post a Comment