“In February, get your nose done with a special discount,” ran the ad placed by plastic surgeon Dr. Elie Gharios on his website. With a price of only $700 instead of the regular $900, Gharios had expected a 50% business increase. “Unfortunately,” he said, “business was very slow following the death of [Rafik] Hariri.”
Educated in France, Canada and the United States, Gharios runs three plastic and aesthetic surgery clinics in and around Beirut. He does on average 20 nose jobs, or rhinoplasties as it is officially called, a month. “Some 80% of the Lebanese have a small bump on their noses,” he said. “That is just genetically determined as such, but most people wish a straighter, more European nose.”
These days, having your nose done is no big deal in Lebanon, where women wear their after-surgery plaster with pride. Yet, plastic surgery is not just for women. An estimated 30% of clients are in fact men. The nose job and other corrective surgeries are big business. Ever since the end of the Lebanese civil war, the number of plastic surgeons increased from but a handful to some 70 today.
The sector matured, as it introduced the marketing and financing methods you find in any sector of the economy. Gharios has offered special group packages for bank employees, for example, and is currently negotiating with a travel agency to create a travel package that, apart from surgery, includes a plane ticket and hotel stay. While it is often virtually impossible to get a mortgage loan in Lebanon, many banks today offer a personal loan for plastic surgery, which allows you to pay for your beautification in installments.
Though surgery may be just business, Gharios does not operate on anyone. “Sometimes people come in with a picture from a magazine, saying ‘that’s what I want,’” he explained. “But I don’t work like that. Beauty is about harmony and aesthetic surgery is about re-shaping and re-fining, not about creating something completely new. ”
World Bank initiative
The World Bank and the United Nations Development Program announced February 8, the 18 finalists in the first round of Lebanon’s Development Marketplace competition, in which social entrepreneurs compete for grants to fund their projects. Entitled “Harvesting Youth and Community Ideas for a Better Environment,” the competition – a first in Lebanon – aims to support local creative initiatives to clean up the environment.
“We chose the theme of the environment because it is one of the main areas of concern in Lebanon where you can really do some good,” said Zeina al-Khalil, a World Bank spokeswoman. “Furthermore, it’s one of the three pillars of the World Bank’s 2004-2008 Country Assistance Strategy. Currently, the Bank has no environmental projects in Lebanon – we have projects in community development, infrastructure, education, but no loans targeting the environment.”
Open to youth groups, local communities, NGOs and academic institutions, the competition offers start-up funding of up to $20,000 per project. The organizers expect between five to right of the finalists to walk away with funds for their projects. “There is a pool of $130,000 in total, from which each winner can receive up to $20,000,” said Khalil. “The final amount granted will be based on the amount requested, and also on whether the candidate can leverage additional funds elsewhere.”
The 18 finalists were selected out of a pool of 87 participants by a panel of independent assessors, on the basis of their innovation, impact, sustainability, replicability and the institutional capacity of the bidders. They included: the Regional Cooperative Union in South Lebanon, the Lebanese House for Environment, the Association of Chouf Cedars, the Lebanese Association for the Protection of Natural and Archaeological Sites in the Chouf, the Association of the Friends of Tannourine Cedars, the Association of Rural Development in Aarsal, the Lebanese Scouts Association, the Cultural Charity Association-Al-Doha Secondary School, the Catholic School of Christ the Savior, the Torch of Passion and Unity, the Lebanese Geological Society, the Animal Encounter, the Baldati Association, A Rocha, Friends of Nature, the Association for Volunteer Services, the Public School of Haqleet and the Scouts of Lebanon-St. Joseph Group.
The winners will be announced later in the spring, at the Innovation Day, where the finalists will display their projects at a public location before an independent panel of jurors.
More good new for Gemaizeh
Want to know where to drink and dine in Gemaizeh or what artist is exhibiting where? Check out www.gemayze.com. To promote one of Beirut’s most popular areas, the website offers a short history of Gemaizeh, articles written about the area, as well as an event list and the contacts information of café’s, restaurants, galleries, shops and even pharmacies.
“The aim of the website is twofold: on the one hand, to promote my Convivium Projects and on the other to promote Gemaizeh, the area I love,” said Kareem Bassil, the man behind the virtual initiative and sole owner of project development company Bassil Real Estate Investments.
Although technically launched in 2004, the focus then was mainly on promoting Bassil’s real estate developments. In recent months however, the site has grown into a portal that is actually worth its name. “I want to make the site more and more appealing,” Bassil said. “As people like to read about people, soon we will introduce the day-to-day adventures of an English lady living in the area.”
Of course, the young entrepreneur is well aware that by promoting the area and its events, the site promotes living in the area and thus, Convivium, which, derived from Latin, loosely means “living with.” There are currently five Convivium projects, which combine contemporary architecture with the traditional building style in the area. The buildings are characterized by the use of tiles and arches, and they are not higher than surrounding buildings to preserve Gemaizeh’s traditional character, which according to Bassil, is one of the last areas representing “old Beirut.”
While Convivium I and II have been built and sold, number III will be finished by the end of the year. Convivium IV is an old townhouse waiting for a buyer, and V is currently being built. It consists of two boutique hotels and three apartment blocks.
“Even considering what happened to [Rafik] Hariri, I remain positive for the future, so Convivium VI has already been planned,” reasoned Bassil. “It appears on the edge of Gemaizeh and downtown, and will consist of 70m2 to 90m2 studios.
Horeca 2005 still on course
From April 5 to April 8, the 12th annual Horeca 2005 trade fair will take place at Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center (BIEL). Some 300 exhibitors have agreed to participate in what is the Arab world’s largest trade fair for hospitality industries. “So far,” claimed Joumanna Damous of the fair’s organizers Hospitality Services, “we only had a handful of cancellations, which has surprised us in a positive way.”
The Jdeidet based Hospitality Services have been organizing the annual event since 1994. With offices in Jordan and Kuwait it organizes among other fairs the International Hospitality Forum in Jordan and the Horeca fair in Kuwait. It also publishes the bi-monthly trade magazine Hospitality News and the bi-annual Lebanon Hospitality and Foodservice Directory. Why an annual fair in Beirut?
“Because Lebanon is market leader in the Middle East,” said Damous. “Taking into account the 9/11 effect, the amount of foreign investments in Lebanon has reached some $850 million in 2004, 80% of which went to the hospitality industry. Total demand on travel and tourism on services reached some $4.1 billion in 2004, some 25% of which was generated by foreign tourists.”
Exhibitors at the fair vary from hotels, supermarkets, schools and universities to pubs, clubs, caterers, and restaurants. Some 85% is Lebanese and 15% foreign, which is double the number last year. Products and services include equipment – everything from fridges and coffee machines to pots and pans – decorations, tabletops and cutlery, uniforms, linens, bedding and technology. Last year, more than 18,000 visitors attended the fair, which was held in late April. “If we would record a 10% increase in visitors this year,” Damous said, “that would be perfect.”
Tapping into Adma
The SABIS International School is still on course to open a third school in Lebanon after signing a contract with Intered (the managing arm of the SABIS School network) and the Beirut-based Abniah general contractor company at the end of last year. The construction of the school is expected to total $8 million. The move comes as part of a greater international strategy, which will see the opening of five new schools in Syria, the UAE and the United States.
The new school in Lebanon, to be called ‘SIS Adma’, will be located on the hills of Adma and is scheduled to open its doors for the 2005-2006 academic year. “We chose Adma because we believe that there is a need for a trilingual international school in that part of Lebanon,” said Victor Saad, VP of operations and development. “The idea of a school became a reality once we were able to find what we believe is an outstanding location for it.”
The purpose-built campus will span 75,000m2 and will be composed of 10 buildings, including educational facilities, a performance hall and sports facilities, such as an Olympic-size swimming pool and a soccer field. It will offer kindergarten, primary and secondary classes, with the capacity to accommodate up to 1,800 students.
An educational system which started in Choueifat, Lebanon in 1886 as an all-girls school, SABIS now counts 27 schools across four continents – Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States – totaling approximately 25,000 students. It is all part of the school’s strategy of catering to “mobile” families. “We have 29 different nationalities at Choueifat, including children of United Nations employees and foreign companies – families that move around,” said Saad.
The tuition fees for the SABIS schools vary, even within countries. The Choueifat fees, for example, are higher than those of Khoura. “The fees are based on different criteria, most important of which is providing a top quality education to a wider sector of students,” Saad commented. The tuition fees for Adma have tentatively been set to range from $3,600 for the nursery to $4,000 for the upper secondary classes.
