Oprah Winfrey: Lebanon is a deeply conservative country

[mr_j]

What makes people what they are?

it doesn't matter much if she is educated or not, has a job or not these are small small irrelevant stuff, what matters is: is she a virgin?

what is seen as small stuff
being funny, being nice, being intelligent a good friend, a faithful partner...

[Adam]

Originally Posted by mr_j

what is seen as small stuff
being funny, being nice, being intelligent a good friend, a faithful partner...

Let's say that a person is funny, intelligent, a good friend and a faithful partner, but not nice (not nice as in "grumpy", not mean). How would that person look in other peoples eyes? Would they see him as funny, intelligent, a good friend and a faithful partner or would they see him as "not nice"?

They would of course see him as "not nice", doesn't matter if it's in our country or any other country. That is just the way people are, they focus on the negative.

As for the whole "virgin thing", that is just how some societies are. Lebanon has a prudish society. Sex isn't wrong but it's "hush hush", and that's the case wherever you go in the world, it's just the level of "hush hush" that differs.
I live in Sweden where sex is as accepted as drinking water or sleeping. And yet, some girls do manage to be labelled as ****s and some guys manage to be labelled as horny dogs. Why? Because they've overstepped the boundaries which society has set.
You don't like the boundaries in Lebanon, get on a plane and move somewhere else, because there is no way in hell you are going to be able to change those rules. And if someone doesn't like the rules in his country, he's welcome to come to Lebanon, that's why it's better that different places have different rules.
You don't like one place, move somewhere else.

[mr_j]

Lebanon is my country, I love it and I will fight for it and I won't leave it for idiotic stuff like this. however I would like to see it improve. it's not a personnal aim for me to have sex I'm preaching against being shallow I certainly am not one, but the way society judges people on their personnal things is just wrong

if a friend is not nice, that affects you, cause they may not be nice to you, but if a friend of yours is having sex, that does not give you the right to judge, talk about it with other people etc... enno chou da5alak?(not you, in general )

plus you made this discussion about sex, what about racism and religion? what about couples breaking up simply because her or his parents did not agree with this person marrying someone with different religious views? some women don't even date people with different religious views

in politics, everytime I hear someone speaking about "72ou2 el masi7iyeh" I feel like ripping his head off
as if christians and muslims and jews are biologicly different and each has certain needs and wants that are different from the rest. a minister or a deputee must represent all the lebanese citizens. if they are going to pass a law let it be for all the citizens, chou hal habal hayda?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by mr_j

Lebanon is my country, I love it and I will fight for it and I won't leave it for idiotic stuff like this. however I would like to see it improve. it's not a personnal aim for me to have sex I'm preaching against being shallow I certainly am not one, but the way society judges people on their personnal things is just wrong

This is the case in every culture and country, it's the way it's always been, the way it is and the way it'll be for a long time.

Originally Posted by mr_j

if a friend is not nice, that affects you, cause they may not be nice to you, but if a friend of yours is having sex, that does not give you the right to judge, talk about it with other people etc... enno chou da5alak?(not you, in general )

1) And yet sleeping around is seen as something negative in most societies. That isn't something that you can change, I gave the country that I live in as an example, no matter how accepted sex is, it'll always be a sensitive topic.

2) Let's say your friend is having sex with he's sister/daughter/mother, how does that affect you? Directly, in no way at all. But since your culture does not accept such things most people will be against it.

Originally Posted by mr_j

plus you made this discussion about sex, what about racism and religion?

The racism that the have here is a consequence of all the fighting we've had. It has nothing to do with being conservative. Every country has racists for many different reasons. I'm sure that many of those countries have conservatism to thank for the racism, but in our case it's all the wars.

Originally Posted by mr_j

what about couples breaking up simply because her or his parents did not agree with this person marrying someone with different religious views? some women don't even date people with different religious views

Religion or no religion, people will always have things to bicker about. People who have different values will have more problems when raising their children. Have someone from a vegan family marry someone who is not and see how fun it is when you get invited to a barbecue

Originally Posted by mr_j

in politics, everytime I hear someone speaking about "72ou2 el masi7iyeh" I feel like ripping his head off
as if christians and muslims and jews are biologicly different and each has certain needs and wants that are different from the rest. a minister or a deputee must represent all the lebanese citizens. if they are going to pass a law let it be for all the citizens, chou hal habal hayda?

You'll get no argument from me on this point, I agree with you and I don't think that there are many here who would disagree. But again, this isn't religion or conservatism, it's racism.
Most of those who want those laws were military commanders in the civil war, and do you think their mentality has changed much since then?

[mr_j]

1) And yet sleeping around is seen as something negative in most societies. That isn't something that you can change, I gave the country that I live in as an example, no matter how accepted sex is, it'll always be a sensitive topic.

I'm not talking about sleeping around
bas enno chi w menno. our neighbor's son msa7ab we7dé sarlon chi 3 years
yesterday I walked in on my mom and our neighbor (his mom) having a mindless discussion tha went along the lines of:
neighbor:-I found a condom in georges's room yesterday
my mom: - really, chou hal gil hayda
-chefté ya 3ammé...

wtf, chou elkon ma3... lal sabé, the whole neighborhood now knows, they dated 3 years at some point kissing on the cheek gets old
and this is a guy we are talking about, in the girl's neighbrohood, probably they hung her picture on the doors of public places and wrote "sl.ut" under it

The racism that the have here is a consequence of all the fighting we've had. It has nothing to do with being conservative. Every country has racists for many different reasons. I'm sure that many of those countries have conservatism to thank for the racism, but in our case it's all the wars.

every religion sees every other religion as a threat to its existence, every religion thinks that a leader from any other religion will try to ban it or annoy it or whatever. and it is not even called racism here, it's called normal
it is normal for a muslim to be forbidden to run as president because he is a muslim
black people in the US are 10% of the population, they had a black president, ma 7adan faz al "weyn 72ou2 el white people" or he's gonna make the nation black only we have these idiotic ways of thinking
they actualy think a muslim president is a threat to jesus in lebanon and that a christian prime minister is a threat to islam

Religion or no religion, people will always have things to bicker about. People who have different values will have more problems when raising their children. Have someone from a vegan family marry someone who is not and see how fun it is when you get invited to a barbecue

yeah ok, and I wouldn't date black people(no offense I just don't feel sexualy attracted to black people :P ) bas enno by placing a whole religion into the square of "I don't want to date or be friends with them" that's half or more than half of your population and it is going too far. religion is not just a minor reason, like I left him because he cheated on me and plus he is a muslim it would not have worked out well raising kids
no, religion is being the main thing looked at in these cases, it's just sad

edit: the censoring is too much we're not babies

[Adam]

Originally Posted by mr_j

I'm not talking about sleeping around
bas enno chi w menno. our neighbor's son msa7ab we7dé sarlon chi 3 years
yesterday I walked in on my mom and our neighbor (his mom) having a mindless discussion tha went along the lines of:
neighbor:-I found a condom in georges's room yesterday
my mom: - really, chou hal gil hayda
-chefté ya 3ammé...

wtf, chou elkon ma3... lal sabé, the whole neighborhood now knows, they dated 3 years at some point kissing on the cheek gets old
and this is a guy we are talking about, in the girl's neighbrohood, probably they hung her picture on the doors of public places and wrote "sl.ut" under it

But that's the way our society is, prudish. Sex is fine, just don't let anyone know. Any mother would rather have her son playing football rather than having sex, that is just human.

Originally Posted by mr_j

every religion sees every other religion as a threat to its existence, every religion thinks that a leader from any other religion will try to ban it or annoy it or whatever. and it is not even called racism here, it's called normal
it is normal for a muslim to be forbidden to run as president because he is a muslim
black people in the US are 10% of the population, they had a black president, ma 7adan faz al "weyn 72ou2 el white people" or he's gonna make the nation black

Yes they did.

Originally Posted by mr_j

only we have these idiotic ways of thinking
they actualy think a muslim president is a threat to jesus in lebanon and that a christian prime minister is a threat to islam

Only us? You need to watch the news.

Originally Posted by mr_j

yeah ok, and I wouldn't date black people(no offense I just don't feel sexualy attracted to black people :P ) bas enno by placing a whole religion into the square of "I don't want to date or be friends with them" that's half or more than half of your population and it is going too far. religion is not just a minor reason, like I left him because he cheated on me and plus he is a muslim it would not have worked out well raising kids
no, religion is being the main thing looked at in these cases, it's just sad

If half the population was vegan and saw that killing animals = murder, would it be wrong to be vegan? Because there isn't a chance that a vegan would allow their kids to eat meat.

[Sheriff Ice]

In lebanon you cannot kiss your girlfriend in the street

Lesson of the Story

Lebanon is still a conservative country

= Oprah is right lol

[SysTaMatIcS]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Ice

In lebanon you cannot kiss your girlfriend in the street

Lesson of the Story

Lebanon is still a conservative country

= Oprah is right lol

You can

[RUSSIAN]

conservatism is better then that they can give to you.

[Sheriff Ice]

Originally Posted by SysTaMatIcS

You can

Actually i dont care,

But why i dont understand why ppl are taking this as an insult,
personally i do prefer that lebanon is considered as a conservative country better than it be considered a "Cabare" for the middle east.

Being Conservative is very good, at least we have family values, friends, social relations, less divorce,.... etc.