Niamz

Filmmaker, Foodie, Wartist, Entrepreneur-in-progress

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Very Broken Sentences, October 2024

I see my sister’s radiology images when she tweets to her medical community, and I get lost in other people’s bodies. A liver. A heart. A uterus. An eye. No one can understand how shattered we are. My organs seem to have been distributed to so many different bodies. Each in a separate galaxy. Three obituary papers hang at the entrance of our building in Beirut: They all have my father’s name on…

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جمل متقطعة في أيلول من عام 2023

مر زمن طويل منذ أن كتبت في بيروت. عادة تنتهي زيارتي إليها بسرعة. أسبوع واحد أو أقل، ما بضاين فيها. ثم أكتب أو أبكي وأنا في طائرة تحملني بعيداً عنها إلى مكان آخر لأفضفض، وبعدين بكمل حياتي عادي. هذه المرة انقضى أسبوع كامل ثم مر يوم كامل واليوم يمر يوم آخر في بيروت وأكاد أسمع رئتاي تتساءلان: أين الطائرة التي ينتظم تنفسنا بعدها؟ * من النافذة أرى على حائط البناية المقابلة مكنسة، عن جد – مكنسة…

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A Short Lebanese Prayer

Another visit to Beirut, and another personal journey comes with it. Earlier this week, I joined my Mom on a visit to pay condolences. I had known the person who passed away as the wife of my father’s friend, and the mother of our childhood/school friends. I didn’t know that my Mom had also considered her special, mostly because of my inability to discuss war times with my parents. The visit…

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More Broken Sentences

Tuesday November 15, 2022 / Flight from BEY to IST As much as I enjoyed space geometry back when I was a teenager in high school, my spatial abilities in real life now are so lousy. I am always lost in Beirut. And, yes, it is not only physically being lost in Beirut, but there is that, too. As we drove past a Beirut suburb on Sunday evening, I asked Bayan where we were. She said, this is where…

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The Bearable Heaviness of Watching Documentaries

The Bearable Heaviness of Watching Documentaries

Some of you, my dear readers, may know that I spend a significant portion of work hours watching documentary films for my day job. Thanks to my solid team at TRT World who filters them, I mostly only get to watch the good stuff. But the good stuff is not always easy to digest when you are hunting for films about human, social and environmental issues. For example; since 2020, I can’t recount the…

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My Parents...

My Parents…

I am blessed not to have human children. I would have said I am blessed to have them, if I had them, too. I believe anyone who can read or see or hear this post has many things to be grateful for. I am one to advocate for being content. But I believe in moderation. Being content, in moderation and aiming for more, in moderation. Back to the beginning then. I am blessed to have four cats in lieu…

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Four Years, and Four Cats, Later...

Four Years, and Four Cats, Later…

It has been almost four years since my last blog entry here. I feel like it was a different lifetime entirely.  I now write (and visit Beirut) from the magnificent city of Istanbul. Beirut is but one short flight away, and yet our love hate relationship keeps it as distant as it has always been. For that, the frequency of my visits hasn’t really increased. Beirut hasn’t been helping, either. The…

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Weapons of Mass Creativity

Weapons of Mass Creativity

Iraqi and Cambodian Artists turn war metal leftovers to works of art By: Niam Itani, Co-Founder at Snazzy Bazaar

Growing up during the Lebanese Civil War, which officially ended more than 25 years ago, I am constantly amazed at how that war continues to define me as a human being.  The war has left an everlasting mark on me. I tried to get rid of its traces for many years, but eventually I…

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Snazzy Bazaar’s First Puerto Rico Artist A couple of months ago, we were at Kamoli, a snazzy little coffee place on Calle Loiza in Santurce for our weekly offsite meeting.

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Snazzy Bazaar

My newest venture & adventure in life is Snazzy Bazaar.

It is a very exciting and crazy step for me but these crazy steps have been the highlights of life so far – Thanks to my family and friends around me who always seem to accept my craziness, for good or bad.

The first major crazy thing I did in my life was stand on the balcony of the fifth floor in Beirut in 1999 and scream out loud to…

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Sunset from my Window with #NoFilter #PuertoRico #IslaVerde #Sunset #Instanature #instasky #instasunset #Red #Black #Clouds #Sea #Sky #Window #Carolina #puertorico_greatshots

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Good Morning from Muscat صباح الخير من مسقط #Sun #Clouds #Mountain #Reflection #Muscat #Oman #WadiKabir #Sky #Morning #instasky #skyphotography #instasky #instaoman

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Dear Beirut...

Dear Beirut…

Revolution suits you!

بيروت…

الثورة بتلبقلك

انتهى

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South Bound #Caltrain passes through #SantaClara #Station at 6:50 am today قطار الصباح الجنوبي يمر عبر محطة سانتاكلارا اليوم عند السادسة وخمسين دقيقة صباحاً #Train #PassingTrain #Sky #Sunrise #Clouds #Blue #Yellow #SiliconValley #Railroad #Tracks #InstaSky #InstaTrain #iphone #iphonography

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I Left Beirut

And so, I left Beirut (again), one day…

My experiment as a returnee failed miserably.  You need A LOT of self motivation and positivity to survive in a place like Post War Lebanon – unfortunately.

I have much better feelings towards Lebanon when I am away.

I love it more, I am more proud of it, I defend it when someone speaks ill of it,  I am able to read more about it and tolerate it, all these…

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Almond Milk Macchiato at #LaStazione while waiting for #Caltrain at #22ndst #SF @lastazione_sf #sanfrancisco #sfbay #sfbayarea #nofilter #noeffect #iphone #iphonography #photography #motorcycle #intersection

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Sunset Today