My country is not ambitious

A boy soldier billboard campaign on our ciTy streets in anticipation of our nation's Independence Day. The big message that came across from my point of view: my country is not ambitious. Anything can be branded. If we agree on that premise, and on the basic definition of branding being the process of creating a defined image at mind level, then our national Independence Day campaign is the illustration of a country running out of intangible attributes. Try giving into the exercise of making the sum of the parts that define what my country stands for and you will face the question: is it about time our institutions started hiring brand managers. I ask.

Who's the King?

As we become digital citizen, the King has been dethroned. Content is the new King. A breeze of content will blow on our ciTy streets next week, carrying us from Social Media Week to TEDxBeirut. Six days of pure brain candy. Our ciTy awaits in anticipation, and so do I. The power of knowledge sharing and ideas that stretch the mind: I believe both to be change drivers that can start a movement. Thumbs up to the people behind those events. Hopes up for our ciTy.

To Brand or Not to Brand?

That is the question.  W.Drentell rightly states "the symbol for a country should not be created by branding experts" (full article 'My country is not a brand': http://tinyurl.com/3dctvp2); but a nation needs a perceived image if it is to rise to the global radar. Some countries in the region have started getting in the game by investing behind acquiring foreign brands, or simply by initiating the brand building process in-house. Top of mind: Qatar Fifa 2022 World Cup is a giant leap forward on the national image brand building front. At the other end of the scale is the prevailing short sighted quick-buck mentality on our ciTy streets. We are simply at odds with the long term process of building intangible assets - let alone their potential economic contribution. Some brave companies have understood the positive ripple effect that strong brands can have on a nation’s wealth creation, but common practice in our strange and terrible ciTy remains at that other end of the scale: short sighted quick-buck mentality. Out of habit? Out of practice? Out of the game, is where we stand, and highly unlikely of becoming a hub of anything in the foreseeable future. What is our nation's perceived image? And is that how we want to be perceived? I ask.

Gregarious Gluttony

Some kind of never ending gregarious gluttony. All that which makes Beirut ciTy so vibrant and kicking can also render it very imposing, it's people very invasive, judgmental, and always in your face. And our ciTy is alive by the spirit of a people whose ultimate liberation is Carpe Diem, seizing the day and plucking off the eyes of tomorrow. Is there absolutely nothing wrong with that? When I come to think of the potential beneath all that raw energy, I am bewildered. One look at the outdoor media scene and you realize the kind of chaotic state of life we are living in and buying into. Is there absolutely nothing wrong with that mayhem? A perfect case study of branding anarchy. I need some headspace.

Can't live with it, can't live without it!

Have you ever come across such mixed emotions about our strange ciTy?  When we're around, we can hate it; when we're away, we crave for it. We take root wherever we lay our hats, and from there we long for homecoming. Not really knowing what it is that we miss. So we say it's the weather, the nightlife, the social fabric, the people, the culture, and when we run out of valid explanations, we say it's "the vibe" that we miss the most. We yearn to return, to visit, and sooner than later we can’t wait to leave. On our way out, we are happy to go but sad to depart. We love it and we hate it. We can’t live with it, and can’t live without it. Our ability to relocate, fit, mesh, and outshine, has always been a mystery to me. Are we compelled to adapt faster out of necessity, wit, and geopolitical circumstances? Or could it be that we learned to grow our roots above surface and our anchors are simply turned inward? Hence, we simply take our roots elsewhere. This is where we come from. This is where we belong.

Spring is here

The season that conceals our ciTy’s greatest flaws is here. Spring. A time of revolutions; some whole, some forsaken, and some attempting to burgeon. Springing into a revolution is the hardest part of life in our ciTy. After many past and failed attempts at claiming our freedom, we shyly demanded secularism. How can a people fight servitude without ever having lived FREE? I ask. A people not  afraid to stand out, however terrified to stand up. Let’s not do it by the facebook. Revolution 2.0 springing from the grassroots, from the youth, from the future – is way out of our league. Could this be one of our ciTy’s greatest flaws? Spring is here.

Homo Digitalis

I couldn’t help but catch a lasting glimpse of those beautiful pine trees, so representative of our local landscape, as a wave of Russian cold caught up with our land last weekend. And then, another wave is catching up with our ciTy, on a more digital front. This is the year of “social media” and we shall be ON. We modern humans, look back to our ancestors the Homo sapiens, as we become the new ‘Digital Natives”, all the more technology dependent and connected, paving the way to a new species. Are we the next Homo Digitalis?