Do you want to destroy a country? Destroy its human capital

Do you want to destroy a country? Destroy its human capital
This is what is happening currently in Lebanon, by reducing growth perspective, encouraging corruption, and destroying the pubic education system. This reading may offend some people, but it’s the truth.

The largest threat to most countries is not rich countries, but intellectually fruitful ones. Lebanon has a high concentration of intelligent people with potential, who can change the world if the world let them. The majority of these Lebanese left the country and developed their ideas abroad, due to the lack of funds, support and fairness in Lebanon. This is continuing with the support of foreign rich countries to corrupted politicians, as they turn Lebanon into a hole of poverty and extremism.

Lebanon is not as big as Israel, it does not have many riches, it is not as advanced in sciences and technologies, nor does it have an army as large and powerful. The only threat that Lebanon represents is in its people and their capabilities.

This is why politicians are supported in their attack on our pollution, since more pollution = more diseases = more sick people = less people capable of creating. They are also supported in their attack on the public education system, since poor people will have to rely on public education, so they made public schools extremely weak, and they are attacking the Lebanese university due to the success of many departments in it, to the extend of one minister demanding to close the only public university in Lebanon.

This is why also corruption is extremely welcomed and supported by the USA, Israel, GCC and other countries: putting an unqualified person in a position of power destroys the whole system. Just like before, kings were chosen stupid and reckless so their counselors were the real rulers, this is what is happening today, as we allow the corrupted politicians to be put in charge, when actually, they are mere puppets to other political forces.
If you think water is the blue gold for us, Israel has created already a desalination system that is low cost already and that will become more affordable with time.If you think it’s gas and oil, the era for oil is coming to an end and we will be producing a product that is no longer as desired as before in maximum two decades. Therefore it will cost more to extract it and its price will be low, and the extraction will cause multiple imbalances in the crust of the earth, so we will witness most probably more earthquakes with a higher severity, not to mention the increased risk of water pollution and loss of the few remaining fish populations.

If you think it’s Lebanon’s location, Israel has the same one, with more borders, and better preparations for import/export and general transportation.

The only weapon we have left is people, and we are losing our human capital by supporting unworthy politicians, who would sell our blood for 1 penny if it suits them. The next time anyone shouts “with our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you”, remember that politicians who cause wars remain in history’s memory, but the thousands and millions of soldiers who were on the battlefield and died for false pretenses, no one remembers them. You’re nothing to a politician but a dot they use in their campaigns to count the “heads” that will vote for them during elections. When you die, you will just be a lost voter.

Support the Lebanese university in its fight, support the Lebanese labor forces in their demands, support the Lebanese students in their demands. It may not be convenient for you now, but you will one day realize how selfishness caused you to be so near-sighted that you missed seeing how they will affect your future.

Engage your employees!

A common problem for almost all workplaces is the lack of employees’ engagement. We may blame it on the employee, but when the majority of employees suffer from it, workplaces know they are also part of the problem, or perhaps their management techniques.

However, employees are not hard to satisfy, and they can be happy in a workplace even if they are not paid very large sums. In fact, in a study, 90% of employees said that a more fun work environment increases their engagement and 72% of the engaged employees confirmed that their opinion was taken into consideration by their company. One may consider stress as a normal factor in work, but constant stress is bad. And although a manager has more experience that the employees he manages, but it does not mean employees do not have great ideas.

So treat your employees like you would treat your date to make them happy: talk to them about their interests, care for their opinion and point of view, and offer them activities that interest them, not just activities that interest your company. Their engagement will return with plenty of benefits to the company!

This content was originally posted on https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6538329110396174336

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#business #employees #HR #engagement #work #life #Lebanon #tips #tricks #date #interest #opinion #management #MENA

Change your online behavior to save the Earth! (2)

It seems strange that being online is causing pollution. We are using a computer, reducing the need for paper, not travelling distances to communicate, and we are using mostly energy efficient machines that have a low average electricity consumption. So why does being online cause pollution? And what can we do to reduce it?
In the previous part, we gave you tips on how to reduce your personal carbon footprint impact. In this part, we are giving you tips on how your company can act greener and reduce its Internet pollution impact!

Internet Pollution

Are you familiar with the term Internet pollution? It is a term that refers to the pollution caused by the data processing servers and data centers, since they consume a lot of energy. In fact, a data center on average consumes the same amount of energy as 30’000 European inhabitants DAILY! Energy is used to power and cool down servers, and ensures that they operate c continuously in case there’s a failure. Since the world still relies heavily on dirty energy, this energy is causing an additional release of CO2!

The Internet pollution, also known as Digital Pollution, originates mainly from activities that require a lot of resources, such as streaming videos, mining for bitcoins, and sending/storing emails.

What your company can do

Companies can adopt greener online behavior as well, and their contribution can reduce immensely their online activities’ carbon footprint by using really simple tips:

– Use the FAQ section to answer your customers’ most common questions on your website. Be clear and straight to the point. Customers will need less time to research and read, you’ll receive less clarification requests through emails and phone calls and you’ll gain a reputation for being a transparent and honest business.
– Optimize your intranet: reduce unnecessary files create and a systematic filing system. Prefer putting your news on the intranet instead of sending emails if you can.
– Encourage live communication, or even phone calls within the company instead of sending tons of emails. Make the emails a un-urgent issue so employees can work uninterrupted, without keeping their eye the whole time on the inbox.
– Use white boards within a department (with nontoxic whiteboard pens of course) for small news, it’ll do the same job as a forward to all email.
– Encourage employees to remove useless emails from their inboxes and to only keep what’s essential. Your company’s party invitation from 5 years ago is a nice memory, but it’s not necessary to keep it in the inbox.

– Remind your employees to send clear emails and include any necessary details to avoid follow-up emails.
– Prefer simple pages and designs to using extremely heavy online content on your website. Most companies do not need to load their websites, it will slow down the website launching and use up too much internet. I have tried to use the same tips on my startup’s website, and it did not affect the traffic nor the amount of information I wanted to share.

Companies, when working together, can achieve goals much faster than individuals. Consider these tips as a head start in your green behavior, they will not cost you money, but they will definitely save a lot for planet Earth

Easter eggs decoration with natural ingredients

I hate complicated methods to color eggs, I always used the coloring kits available in stores. But I realized that I may be harming myself by choosing the easy packed way, especially that in Lebanon, I did not find a natural ingredients dye kit yet. This is why I decided to find the best natural methods to color them.

Although it takes more time than just popping a colors pill or using food coloring, the results are great, the ingredients are majorly cheap, and you have room to get creative and experiment

The coloring ingredients

There are hundreds of ideas out there, my favorite are onions and beetroots for the amazing colors they give. Both ingredients are also very widely used in Lebanon, and were used by families for decades. I retrieved a list of many easy to find color ingredients via Practicallyfunctional.com, shown below. They also included their recommended quantities, but you can add more or less depending on the color intensity you desire. Don’t forget that the original color of your eggs will affect the final result.

You can use many more ingredients, like:
– well brewed camomille tea for light yellow
– strongly brewed hibiscus tea for dark green
– blueberries for a marbled blue
– Hibiscus flowers for reddish blue to lavender
– sunflower petals for pale yellow
– curry powder for pale orange
– paprika for darker orange
– chili powder for red to brown
– cranberry juice for pink to red
– undiluted pomegranate juice for pink
– frozen cherries or raspberries for pink
– simmered orange peels for light yellow
– chopped carrots for red-orange
– Frozen blueberries for grey-blue
– Spinach or parsley for green

You can also mix between different colors and experiment to have more shades and colors.

The coloring methods

You also have either the cold dye method, which is suitable for the lighter colors and to have eggs that last longer, and you can use the hot dye method for richer deeper colors, but with over boiled eggs that last only until Easter is over.

Hot dye method:

Add water, your dye ingredient and white vinegar to a pot and let them boil. The quantity of vinegar recommended is 2 tbsp of vinegar per liter (or quarter in US) of water. In addition add some salt to the mixture to help retain the color. You can also have different color shades if you use baking soda in small quantities, as it affects the acidity of certain ingredients, like cabbage, which affects the resulting color.

Then add eggs, allow them to boil for a few minutes, then reduce the heat to allow the pot’s content to simmer for around 15 minutes. Avoid overcooking the eggs, don’t keep them on heat for more than 30 minutes as they will be overcooked, making them edible for a shorter period.
Remove the pot away from the stove, cover it and and let it rest for an additional 15 minutes or more, depending on the depth of the color you desire.
Remove the eggs, rinse them carefully in lukewarm water, and let them air dry.

Cold dye method:

Add water, your dye ingredient and white vinegar to a pot and let them boil. The quantity of vinegar recommended is 2 tbsp of vinegar per liter (or quarter in US) of water. In addition add some salt to the mixture to help retain the color. You can also have different color shades if you use baking soda in small quantities, as it affects the acidity of certain ingredients, like cabbage, which affects the resulting color.
Simmer the mixture, covered, until the water is well colored. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours.

Strain the colored water from the remains of your ingredient, let it cool.
Add you hard-boiled eggs to the colored mixture, and let it soak for as long as you see it necessary to reach your desired color. You can even keep them in the fridge overnight.

Decoration ideas

An Easter egg needs some decoration, and by using natural coloring, it is a little tricky. But if you decorate BEFORE coloring, you can end up with really cool eggs.

For patterns, use stickers all over the egg to create patterns, let the egg color, then peel off the stickers, You can also use ropes and tape.

For natural decoration, ciaoflorentina.com recommends that you add a plant on the egg by using some water.

Then firmly enclose the egg in stockings and proceed with the coloring method of your choice.

  
Once you are done, you will have beautifully decorated eggs.

These are few ideas, there are so many more. If you have tried other methods and they worked, please share them with me as well. I hope you have a great Easter and you enjoy decorating your eggs without worrying about toxic components.

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#fruit #dye #idea #tip #linventif #lebanon #green #notoxins #clean #red #colour #colours #yellow #blue #brown #pink #orange

Crafts tips (1)

Crafts are really fun, but a lot of resources is wasted. But sometimes, a little care can help you save your tools and keep them in a good state for longer. In this post, I will add some useful tips that helped me out:

1. Bad scissors: if your scissors are no longer cutting well, they need to be resharpened. Rather than a scissors sharpener that may not be available, use sand paper: cut with the scissors the sand paper and the abrasion of the paper will sharpen them. You can use a small test paper, and keep on cutting in the sand paper until you’re satisfied. The sand paper can be cut into pieces that you can use for other projects.
2. Spraying: you want to spray but you don’t want to ruin the covers you’re using? Opt for a cardboard box. Put the item to spray inside it, and spray it to your heart’s content!
3. Sticky cuts: you want to cut duct tape but you don’t want to ruin your scissors? Run some baby wipes on the scissors prior to cutting, and they will not stick as much to the tape.
4. Tape residues on scissors: if your scissors have tape or glue on them, they’re not ruined. You soak your scissors in lukewarm water for 30 seconds then open and close the scissors to get rid of the glue. Repeat as much as needed. An alcohol wiping can help you get rid of the stubborn residues.
5. Old tape roll: if you are finding it hard to use an old tape roll, put it in the microwave for 10 seconds (make sure it doesn’t have foil in it) so that its glue will loosen up rather than stick altogether.
6. Stained paintbrushes: paintbrushes are not that cheap if you work with high quality. To keep them in a good state, wash the bristles and the ferrule (metal tip that holds the bristles) with shampoo or soap, gently rub to keep the bristles unharmed, then rince well with lukewarm water. They need to be stored either horizontally or vertically with the bristles up.

These are few ideas and I will be adding some more soon!

Don’t forget to follow my own early stage startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website. Kindly consider helping me grow by liking my Facebook page, so I can reach more people!

#tips #tricks #tools #crafts #ideas #lebanon #linventif #save #maintain #simple #paint #scissors #glue #art #artist #DIY #handmade #hobby 

Eat your food… and its plate

What if you could use a plate and cutlery and then eat them? You can reduce your waste and have less cleaning to do.

This is what Charbella Hosry decided to bring to Lebanon. Her company Eataplatelb offers you platters and cutlery made of wheat bran. You can use them just like any normal tableware, even heat food in the plates up to 180 degrees celsius, all without having to worry about cleaning or adding to your trash. One you are done, you can either eat the plate or just add it to your compost. It only needs 30 days to compost.

Not only is it a green alternative to plastic plates for restaurants and individuals, and a solution for super busy individuals, it is also a better option for your overall health. Wheat bran is natural, while plastic is an industrial product, and if you heat up plastic you will contaminate your food, while wheat will not. Just make sure that you do not have an allergy to wheat before using it.

If you are interested in purchasing these awesome green product, you can contact Eat a Plate Lb on
03 551 025, and follow their news on their facebook page Eataplatelb.

If you are an international reader, you can find similar products, some made of wheat and some made of corn, or bioplastic. If you really want to make a difference, so many green solution creators need your support for their products!

Don’t forget to follow my own early stage startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website

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