The Italian expert Paolo Ortelli visited El Mina city to be informed about the needs of the city in order to contribute in the technical support of the local team in STREAM project funded by the European Union.

Ortelli made a presentation, in the hall of the Municipal Palace, on Venice’s experience concerning the strategic planning, in the presence of the municipality president Mr. Abdulkader Alameddine, many of the council members, and heads of departments and committees, in addition to some invitees.

Moreover, Ortelli praised the efforts made by the municipality in establishing the urban planning office in order to preserve what remains from the architectural legacy in the old city.

The El-Mina municipality honor the students occupying the first places in the international exams IATA and BT3 Business marketing: Medalia Adouj and Nina Dabbagh (El-Mina) from the AUC.

The event took place in the municipal palace in El-Mina, and began with the welcoming word of Alameddine, the president of the municipality. Then Mr. Youssef Al-Haddad, the AUC director, mentioned the essential role of El-Mina in honoring the distinguished persons in all the domains.

Later on, Alameddine presented appreciation armors to both students, and to the AUC director who also gave him the same.

Beit Al-Fan:

Art Spaces

Beit Al-Fan inaugurated an exposition entitled “Art Spaces” with the participation of 24 artistes from all lebanese regions, with the presence of the municipality president Abdelkader Alameddine.

The event began with the welcoming word of the artist Abdelnasser Yassine, in the name of Beit Al-Fan, and then by the one of the artist of Nadim Fatfat the organisor of the exposition, where he thanked the official persons, the responsible of the advertising and the participating artists.

The inauguration was followed by a cocktail and then by the distribution if appreciation distribution.

Poetic Session:

Nazih Abou Afach

The Syrian poet Nazih Abou Afach animated a poetic session in Beit Al-fan, with the cooperation of  El-Mina Municipality, the Lebanese Association for Promoting Reading and Dialog Culture and the Scientific Committee for El-Mina Development.

Mr. Issam Sbat pronounced the Mr. Abdelkader Alameddine's speech, and then Edgard Merheb Harb presented the poet.

Nazih Abou Afach had a great performance through his special voice and his attitude towards the actual Arabic poetry themes. In spite of his pains, he always has a hope and finds a new horizon

The Lebanese Association for Promoting Reading and Dialog Culture, and the Scientific Committee for El-Mina Development, with the cooperation of El-Mina Municipality, called for a training workshop to the secondary students concerning the principles of writing a short story.

Mr. Alameddine talked to the students and encouraged them. Mr. Saïd Al-Wili told them that the international jury will give the results of the submitted short stories in February 2010. There are around 20 students from important schools in Tripoli and Koura participating in this contest. Ms. Aida Al-Soufi prepared a program for this workshop that was divided into two steps in Beit Al-Fan.

The league of Al-Fayhaa municipalities honored Talal Salman, the editor in chief of “Assafir” newspaper, for winning the Arab press award and for being elected as the media person of the year. The ceremony took place during a dinner in Silver Shore restaurant in El-mina, in the presence of former and current ministers and deputies of Tripoli, Sheikh Majed Darwish representing the Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Malek Al-Shaar, representatives of Christian spiritual presidencies, leagues, associations, schools and universities, security officers, social and media persons, in addition to a group of interested people.

The event began with the Lebanese National Hymn, and then Dr. Jean Touma, member in the municipal council of El-Mina, pronounced the welcoming word.

Many speeches were subsequently pronounced by the engineer Rashid Jamali, Sheikh Majed Darwish and Mr. Abdelkader Alameddine, in addition to the honored Talal Salman.

Finally, the presidents of Al-Fayhaa municipalities, Rashid Jamali, Abdelkader Alameddine and Majed Ghamrawi, offered an appreciating armor to the honored Talal Salman.

A delegation from the Arab Cities Organization visited El-Mina and it was formed of Ahmad Mohammad Al-Adassani, assistant general secretary, Ghassan Al-Samman, director of public relations and media, and many other directors. The delegation met with Mr. Abdelkader Alameddine and Dr. Jean Touma, representative of the municipality in the organization, in addition to Rabih Al-Chaer, advisor of the interior minister, and Dania Al-Rifai, director of the UN Habitat program in Lebanon.

Alameddine welcomed the Arab delegation and insisted on the strong cooperation between the organization and the municipality. Then Al-Adassani thanked Alameddine for his kind meeting, and insisted on the importance of exchanging expertise and on the most essential municipal services for the citizens’ daily benefit and comfort.

This visit was an occasion to launch many projects by El-Mina municipality, in order to stay in continuous cooperation. The delegation’s members liked the new palace in which they expressed their wish to organize a conference or an event.

Alameddine showed his pleasure to welcome the organization’s events, in order to reinforce the relations between El-Mina and the Arab cities-members

Invited by the president of Marmara municipalities’ league, who is also the president of Bursa municipality, Mr. Abdelkader Alameddine visited Turkey to participate in the Turkish Independence Day’s festivities. He pronounced a discourse mentioning the common projects, the transfer and the negotiations between El-Mina city and Turkish cities, in addition to the historical relations between both Turkish and Lebanese people.

The « 5 Continents’ Award » in the North, Beit El-Fan, El-Mina

The theater in Beit El-Fan was full of amateurs in addition to university and school student who came to assist to this special cultural event, as a part of “Beirut: international capital of the book”.

The event was a dialogue with some great writers: Jean-Marie Le Clézio (Nobel Award for literature 2008), Lise Bissonnette (Québec), Pascal Cramer (Switzerland), Leonel Troyot (Haiti). These writers are members in the jury of the “5 Continents’ Award” presented to the writer Cosi Yvoy (Togo) who was surely present in this meeting.

After the welcoming word pronounced by Najla Hawly who insisted on the francophonie’s importance, Mr. Issam Sbat pronounced the speech of Mr. Abdelkader Alameddine who expressed his pleasure of receiving this event in El-Mina.

Dr. Zahida Darwish Jabbour started the dialogue with a unified question for all the members, concerning the characteristics of the book winner, in addition to many other questions about literature and creativity.

Cosi Ivoy clarified that writing, according to him, goes beyond the limits of literary genres, and is defined as a tentative to understand the contradictions that human beings are witnessing in this violence-reigned world. As an answer to the question concerning the constant presence of characters escaping the city life, the winner of Nobel Award, Jean-Marie Le Clézio, said that the free human being lives the exile and is always seeing the place, because of the dominating materialism.

As for Lise Bissonnette, she talked about her experience as being the head of the national library in Montréal. She considers that library is not only an institution or just rooms for books, but it’s a space of dialogue between people.

Leonel Troyot talked about linguistic dualism in Haïti, mentioning that he usually writes in two languages, the native and the French that carries the Creole identity to the francophone world.

At the end of this meeting, El-Mina municipality presented honorable armors to the participants, the French poet Hiyam Yard read some of her poems, and the “5 Continents Award” winner read some pages of his book.

Venus Khoury Ghata:

Poetic session in El-Mina

After being invited by the municipality of El-Mina and by the Lebanese Association for Promoting Reading and Culture Dialog, the Lebanese poet, Venus Khoury Ghata who got the French academic award, came to Beit El-Fan, El-Mina Tripoli to read some of her poems. A large audience was present, especially the president of the municipality Mr. Abdelkader Alameddine, the council’s members and many poetry fans.

The session began with the welcoming word of Dr. Zahida Darwish Jabbour who mentioned the importance of the poet in France and the francophone countries. Alameddine insisted on the importance of maintaining the dialogue between the mediterranean countries, and promised to organize a cultural francophone program during this year in order to promote the cultural and intellectual relations.

Later on, the poet read many poems and she was accompanied with Dr. Darwish who was reading the poems that she had translated into Arabic.

At the end, the president of the municipality presented two honourable armours to the poet and to Dr. Darwish.

The president of El-Mina municipality, Mr. Abdelkader Alameddine had welcomed, in the municipal palace, Mrs. Serena Forni, president of the Mediterranean Cities Network, and vice-president of Rome municipality for the international relations.

In this occasion, Alameddine insisted on having good relations between both cities, hoping to work on improving them. Later on, he presented to Mrs. Forni an armor of El-Mina, as she gave him also an appreciating armor on the behalf of the Rome municipality's president.

Moreover, she visited the new palace compartments in addition to the old souks, Khan Al-Tamasili and Beit Al-Fan, and she promised to do all possible efforts to execute common projects.

Upon the invitation of the Italian Municipality Reggio Emilia and the Municipality of Valencia, Spain, the mayor of El Mina Abdul Akder Alameddine attended two workshops on "Strategic Planning", which were held in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia and the Spanish city of Valencia in the presence of delegations from the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean. The mayor presented the development projects in El Mina and the draft strategic plan, which the Union of Municipalities of Fayhaa is conducting through the support of the World Bank and the medcities.

He emphasized in his meetings with heads of delegations on the importance of applying the municipal administrative decentralization in Lebanon for the implementation of vital projects and the development of Lebanese cities in a sustainable manner. He finally thanked the Italian embassy in Lebanon for its continuous support for joint projects between El Mina and Italian cities.

El-Mina Municipal Council:

First meeting in the new Palace

The Municipal Council had its first meeting in the new Municipal Palace on Tuesday September 1^st, to discuss its usual agenda.

The president of the municipality Abdelkader Alameddine began the meeting with a thank you speech for Taha brothers’ and the President Mikati, which have financed the Palace’s construction through the Association of Determination and Happiness. Moreover, he thanked El-Mina citizens for their participation in the opening ceremony, mentioning Tripoli and the North’s habitants, in addition to official people which celebrated, on august 20, with El-Mina’s citizens this great achievement.

Alameddine hoped, through his speech, that Municipal activities would be conforming to the Palace’s aesthetic and modern construction, mentioning the Vice-President and the council’s cooperation with each other in order to achieve numerous projects and local, Arab and global conventions.

In addition, Hajj Nabil Al-Sayegh pronounced a speech in the name of the Council mentioning Alameddine’s efforts deployed in order to realize the council’s dream: to have such an exceptional palace. Moreover, he assured that the palace’s construction will stay in the memory of all citizens, on the level of the president’s follow up to the project, and on the level of its fast execution to have it in the service of the citizens and to ameliorate the level of many municipal services.

The preparations have begun for the inauguration of the El-Mina’s “Municipal Castle” which will be held around mid-august, before Ramadan; and it is previewed that it will be followed by a singing festival and many other activities.

The Collège National Orthodoxe and the Institut Technique celebrated their graduation ceremony of 200 graduates from academic and technical classes. The ceremony was held under the patronage of Bishop Elias Qorban, and in the presence of the Municipality’s President, Mr. Abdelkader Alameddine.

The restoration works are being still intensively executed in Al-Hamidi Mosk Quarter, in the ancient area of El-Mina. The Ambassador Patrick Laurent have been in a visit to the field, to see closely the project’s implementation, especially that the European Union have financed this restoration project.

The Lebanese Association of Red Cross distributed the appreciation awards for the youth painters, which contributed in animating the festivals of its 150 years. The ceremony was held in the Red Cross Center in Tripoli, in the presence of many representatives of deputes and municipalities’ presidents, where Dr. Jean Touma was representing El-Mina’s president.

The ambassador Patrick Laurent in a visit to El-Mina city

The Red Cross celebration in the occasion of its 150 years.

The participation of El-Mina president Abdelkader Alameddine

in a workshop on the “Best trials of the municipal actions”

Invited by the Turkish municipalities’ league and the Italian municipality Sosolo, the president of El-Mina Abdelkader Alameddine participated in a workshop about the “Best trials of the municipal actions”, held in Istanbul city and assisted by many delegations from seven Euro-Mediterranean countries.

Alameddine presented an intervention concerning the relationships between Europe and Lebanon and the importance of the corporation Lebanese and Italian municipalities, exposing El-Mina’s experience in the twinning project recently executed between El-Mina and Genoa, in addition to the importance of the common projects aiming to promote the cultural heritage and to support Tourism and cultural exchange.

A meeting between the president of El-Mina municipality and the Italian ambassador

The El-Mina president Abdelkader Alameddine visited the Italian Embassy in Baabdah and met the ambassador Gabriel Kikya and some of the embassy staff. Alameddine presented a detailed explanation about the developmental projects funded by the European Commission in El-Mina and about the common programs between El-Mina city and some Italian cities (Genoa, Venice, and Catania). In addition, Alameddine thanked the Italian Embassy for its continuous logistic support, inviting the ambassador Kikya to visit El-Mina, who promised to do so very soon.

El-Mina’s Municipality inaugurated Hassib Al-Sabbagh’s Garden

El-Mina Municipality inaugurated “Hassib Al-Sabbagh’s Garden”, on El-Mina’s Cornish, under the patronage of the Prime Minister Fouad Siniora represented by the president of the council of development and construction Nabil Al-Jisr, and by the initiative of Toufic Sultan. The ceremony was assisted by the President Najib Mikati, the Palestinian ambassador Abbas Zaki, the mufti of Tripoli and the North sheikh Dr. Malek Al-Shaar, the depute Samir Al-Jisr, the representative of the interior security forces’ general director colonel Bassam Al-Ayoubi, the municipality’s president Abdelkader Alameddine, doctors syndicate’s chief Dr. Nassim Khoriati, engineering syndicate’s chief Joseph Ishac, the dentists syndicate chief Mohammad Ali Saadeh and many others.

After the performance of the general security’s orchestra, the president Siniora’s representative with many attendees unveiled the souvenir board. Then they assisted to an honoring lunch in “Silver Shore” restaurant, organized by El-Mina municipality and through which the president Alameddine welcomed the attendees, mentioning Al-Sabbagh’s initiative as an ideal plan to follow for the environment’s sake and the cities embellishment. In addition to this, many words were pronounced by each of the following persons: the mufti of Tripoli and the North Malek Al-Chaar, the engineer Nabil Al-Jisr, Mr. Souheil Al-Sabbagh, the ambassador Abbas Zaki and Mr. Toufic Sultan.

Beirut: International Capital of the Book

Poetry and awards distribution

The Lebanese Association for Promoting Reading and the Dialog Culture is pursuing its activities in the North, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, in the occasion of declaring Beirut an International Capital of the Book. It invited, in Beit Al-Fan, the Poet Ilham Abdelnour reading many French poetic verses, accompanied with the Oud melodies performed by the Musician Khaled Najjar. Dr. Claudia Abi Nader presented the poet Abdelnour mentionning the poetic inspiration dominating her poems.

The session was attended by Dr. Jean Touma, representative of the Municipality’s president Abdelkader Alameddine, school principals and local associations’ presidents. After Dr. Zahida Darwich Jabbour, the Association’s President, had pronounced the program of Beirut, International Capital of the Book, the winners’ names were declared concerning the writing contest on the image culture and the paper culture, where 70 students participated from many schools of El-Mina, Tripoli and El-Koura. The first award winners are : for the Arabic language Farah Zahra from Rawdat Al-Fayhaa School, for the English language Wissal Alwan from Public High School for Girls Andrée Nahas and for the French language both May Fiani and Zeina Hanna from Collège National Orthodoxe. All winners were offered cash prizes and many reading books.

Issa Makhlouf: the East coming from the West

Invited by El-Mina Municipality, the French Cultural Center and the Lebanese Association for Promoting Reading and Dialog Culture, the Lebanese poet Issa Makhlouf, living in France, animated a Poem evening in Beit El Fan. It is important to mention that the Makhlouf won the Max Jacob Award for his story “A Letter for Two Sisters” which was translated by Abdellatif Al-Laabi into the French. Dr. Zahida Darwich Jabbour participated also in reading the poems accompanied with the musician Alexander Katrib on the Oud. The poem evening was attended by the Municipality’s President Abdelkader Alameddine and a group of interested people from which High school and University students.

At the beginning, Dr. Jean Touma, a member of the Municipal Council, pronounced a welcoming speech, and the poet read many of his poems in Arabic, with Zahida Darwish reading them in French.

The Literary Annual Award of Emily Nasrallah – 2009 and Cultural Nationalism Award – 2009, at the Cultural Artistic Committee

Beirut, International Capital of the Book... in the North

Poetry Evening

Signature and distribution of books, for Dannaoui, Al Wali and Touma

Agreement of cooperation and amity between El-Mina and Genes

The charm of Morocco in Beit El-Fan

Cooperation Protocol

The famous French writer André Velter

Labiba Touma sings Fayrouz

Teacher's Day

Commemorating the establishment of Arab Cities Organization

Works are still pursued at the Municipal Castle