NOWHERISTAN

Introduction

Education and Background

Writings and Public Speaking

Politics and Resistance

The journey of Michel Elefteriades in political activism started at the age of 15. Back then, he was an extreme left-wing militant in the very hostile environment of East-Beirut, which was under the control of right-wing Christian militias during the Lebanese civil war. He later committed himself, as of 1989, to the movement of then Prime Minister General Michel Aoun.

When the Syrian forces launched a massive attack on the Lebanese army in October 1990, and occupied what still remained of Lebanon’s free territory, Michel Elefteriades left the country for a few months to France, then came back and founded, in 1991, the M.U.R. (Unified Movements of the Resistance). He led this movement until 1994 as a clandestine liberation armed group fighting Lebanon's occupation by foreign armies and organizing general strikes paralyzing the country’s activities.
The M.U.R. was an illegal organization and all its activities were implemented secretively. Its main principles and objectives in that context were:

Freeing the Lebanese territory from all foreign military presence
Rejecting feudalism and political sectarianism in order to establish a secular democracy
Struggling to achieve social justice
Edifying a modern, independent and sovereign state within Lebanon’s internationally recognized boundaries
Respecting and implementing the Human Rights Charter
Fighting collaboration, treason and corruption

During this period, Elefteriades was victim of two unsuccessful assassination attempts: the first one when his car was destroyed by a booby-trap, while the second one targeted him through an armed ambush. This led him to political exile in France and Cuba from 1994 until 1997.

In 2005, Elefteriades was very active in Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution and co-organized, in April, the National Unity Festival’s mega-concert that took place downtown Beirut with hundreds of thousands celebrating “Independence 05”.
In May of the same year, he co-organized the celebration of Lebanese leader Michel Aoun’s acclaimed return to Lebanon, after 15 years of exile.
On October 8, 2007 and during a press conference held in one of his Beirut restaurants shut down due to a severe sociopolitical conjuncture, and on a date commemorating Che Guevara's capture 40 years earlier, Elefteriades launched a public campaign called "We Won’t Pay Lebanon’s Odious Debts" (Lan Nadfaa). The campaign is meant to exercise pressure on the State to take action on Lebanon’s unprecedented public debt of about 40 billion US Dollars, which made its ratio over GDP, at the time of the press conference, the highest in the world, as published in the CIA’s world fact book. The main objective of the campaign was to raise awareness inside and outside the country about the unfair nature of Lebanon's loans with the end goal of abolishing its debt, qualified by campaigners as an odious debt incurred mainly between 1993 and 2005, while Lebanon was under foreign occupation and illegitimate governance. As an immediate consequence, the Association of Banks in Lebanon and many other voices have called for the prosecution of Elefteriades, viewing him as a threat to Lebanon's financial stability.
And it was actually his long journey into political activism in both states of peace and war that allowed Michel Elefteriades to acquire the necessary political, social and economic maturity to launch the Global project of the Great Empire of Nowheristan.

Nowheristan Emperor Michel I of Nowheristan

Social Commitments

Music and Showbiz

Gipsy Passion