Elie Khoury, Grade 11
UWC Mostar
Lebanon is a Middle Eastern, Asian, Arab country, located on the Eastern side of the Mediterranean. As if being in that area isn’t pressure enough, the Lebanese land borders are shared with both Syria and Palestine.
Since the wars against terrorism started in Syria, a lot of the Lebanese international exchanges have decreased, because land shipping through a Lebanon-Syria itinerary isn’t available anymore. Moreover, a lot of the Syrian productions started appearing in the Lebanese commerce, with prices being a lot more affordable than local products since Lebanese productions don’t receive aid from the government. That resulted in the local economy becoming weaker and weaker, with a huge dependence on imported products.
The second part of the borders being Palestine, it is obvious why Lebanon can’t beneficiate from it. As selfish as it sounds, when the international conflicts were restricted to Palestine, having a lot of countries taking position against the occupying population helped Lebanon improve its economy because it was the only route to the Asian Arab countries. Then, the Suez Canal gained more and more popularity and Lebanon started taking the hit.
No country comes without its internal problems: Lebanon has a handful. Firstly, one of their most known political parties is considered terrorist by outside forces. That caused a lot of sanctions on the country itself, and on the ones that decided to help it, causing a lot of countries to refrain on doing so. Second, the people in charge have been the same for the last 30 years, getting richer and richer, more and more corrupt. They made their fortunes out of stealing the public wealth, putting the Lebanese population in a “gross public debt standing at $71.65 billion (April 2016) with Lebanon’s debt to GDP ratio reaching an alarming 139% level, positioning it as the 4th highly indebted country in the world according to the CIA World Factbook” (Credit Libanais).
After a lot of tries, the last deal they made, the one that was too much for the people, was to impose a bill on each WhatsApp user (AnNahar News). Looking at it from the outside, it seems so petty and inconsiderable, but for the Lebanese people it meant a lot more. Every person in Lebanon uses WhatsApp as their free means of communication. Moreover, all of the small businesses that don’t have actual places (e.g. Taxis, Online stores, Delivery Systems…) use WhatsApp to keep contact with their clients. That means imposing a bill on it, other than being not the government’s right, since they don’t own it or contribute to it in any way (making WhatsApp a paying application violates its guidelines, so if anyone was to do so, the application would ban the user; in this case, the whole country), would be the key to a lot of failures in the Lebanese sources of income. That caused a protest on the 17th of October 2019.
Little did anyone know that this small movement would coincide with the first currency inflation in decades. The American Dollar was valued at 1500LBP, and by December had risen to 2000LBP (133% inflation rate) in the black markets. The banks stopped giving USD account holders their money in dollars, causing the protests to transform into the Lebanese Revolution.
The Revolution’s activities were mainly closing up the highways, blocking anything or anyone from using them. That obviously made a normal life complicated if not impossible, because people couldn’t get to work, students to schools… The country remained paralyzed for 12 days before the prime minister Saad Al Hariri officially declared his resignation on the 29th of October 2019 (The DW), and the period after that until the new prime minister Hassan Diab was nominated on December 19th (The BBC) and formed a new government on the 21st of January (The BBC).
Lebanon got its taste of peace after that, giving the new government a chance to restore the damages previously done, until COVID-19 happened. The first case of coronavirus inside the Lebanese borders was confirmed on the 21st of February (Reuters) causing general panic and new measures, taken by a rookie one-month old government.
All of these events never ended the fact that the Dollar’s price was on a constant rise, and so were all the prices in the markets, making it harder and harder to survive. In addition, the lockdown caused all the businesses to close except the markets and bakeries, meaning that all the freelance sources of income came to zero at the end of the month. The employees received half of their salary to pay for an inflated list of expenses. In consequence, a lot of families went below the poverty line with no country officials looking out for them.
Fast forward to August 4th when a mysterious earthquake shook the capital Beirut and its surroundings. Following this, an explosion was heard within a 20km radius, and in its wake revealed a huge cloud of smoke and a destroyed capital. According to local authorities, the explosion was caused by a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of the capital, resulting in 190 deaths, 6500 injuries, $15+ billion of material damages and 300,000 people left homeless (Wikipedia). Many countries tried to help by sending money and resources to Lebanon, but nothing was ever given to the people. This aid mysteriously disappeared.
Twice after the first explosion, the port caught fire out of nowhere and caused the people who went back to Beirut to flee for their lives in panic.
Even now, there are still 3 people reported missing. The whole country was affected and still has not recovered. People lost their loved ones, their jobs, their homes, and are still fighting to stand up again. The dollar is now at 8000LBP (433% inflation rate) making it impossible to renovate. The government was pressured by the comeback of the revolution to resign. The third prime minister in a one-year span Moustafa Adib is making the Lebanese population wait for their new government. However, many Lebanese people continue to follow and praise the criminals responsible for this disaster, and keep them in high regard. Those who support these criminals place blame on everyone save for their leaders, who are evidently involved in the horrific occurrences that have happened to the country. They hold signs saying that “All of them means all of them” but then create exceptions. Will Lebanon ever rise from its wounds if its people are still working on covering on behalf of the criminals?
Since the wars against terrorism started in Syria, a lot of the Lebanese international exchanges have decreased, because land shipping through a Lebanon-Syria itinerary isn’t available anymore. Moreover, a lot of the Syrian productions started appearing in the Lebanese commerce, with prices being a lot more affordable than local products since Lebanese productions don’t receive aid from the government. That resulted in the local economy becoming weaker and weaker, with a huge dependence on imported products.
The second part of the borders being Palestine, it is obvious why Lebanon can’t beneficiate from it. As selfish as it sounds, when the international conflicts were restricted to Palestine, having a lot of countries taking position against the occupying population helped Lebanon improve its economy because it was the only route to the Asian Arab countries. Then, the Suez Canal gained more and more popularity and Lebanon started taking the hit.
No country comes without its internal problems: Lebanon has a handful. Firstly, one of their most known political parties is considered terrorist by outside forces. That caused a lot of sanctions on the country itself, and on the ones that decided to help it, causing a lot of countries to refrain on doing so. Second, the people in charge have been the same for the last 30 years, getting richer and richer, more and more corrupt. They made their fortunes out of stealing the public wealth, putting the Lebanese population in a “gross public debt standing at $71.65 billion (April 2016) with Lebanon’s debt to GDP ratio reaching an alarming 139% level, positioning it as the 4th highly indebted country in the world according to the CIA World Factbook” (Credit Libanais).
After a lot of tries, the last deal they made, the one that was too much for the people, was to impose a bill on each WhatsApp user (AnNahar News). Looking at it from the outside, it seems so petty and inconsiderable, but for the Lebanese people it meant a lot more. Every person in Lebanon uses WhatsApp as their free means of communication. Moreover, all of the small businesses that don’t have actual places (e.g. Taxis, Online stores, Delivery Systems…) use WhatsApp to keep contact with their clients. That means imposing a bill on it, other than being not the government’s right, since they don’t own it or contribute to it in any way (making WhatsApp a paying application violates its guidelines, so if anyone was to do so, the application would ban the user; in this case, the whole country), would be the key to a lot of failures in the Lebanese sources of income. That caused a protest on the 17th of October 2019.
Little did anyone know that this small movement would coincide with the first currency inflation in decades. The American Dollar was valued at 1500LBP, and by December had risen to 2000LBP (133% inflation rate) in the black markets. The banks stopped giving USD account holders their money in dollars, causing the protests to transform into the Lebanese Revolution.
The Revolution’s activities were mainly closing up the highways, blocking anything or anyone from using them. That obviously made a normal life complicated if not impossible, because people couldn’t get to work, students to schools… The country remained paralyzed for 12 days before the prime minister Saad Al Hariri officially declared his resignation on the 29th of October 2019 (The DW), and the period after that until the new prime minister Hassan Diab was nominated on December 19th (The BBC) and formed a new government on the 21st of January (The BBC).
Lebanon got its taste of peace after that, giving the new government a chance to restore the damages previously done, until COVID-19 happened. The first case of coronavirus inside the Lebanese borders was confirmed on the 21st of February (Reuters) causing general panic and new measures, taken by a rookie one-month old government.
All of these events never ended the fact that the Dollar’s price was on a constant rise, and so were all the prices in the markets, making it harder and harder to survive. In addition, the lockdown caused all the businesses to close except the markets and bakeries, meaning that all the freelance sources of income came to zero at the end of the month. The employees received half of their salary to pay for an inflated list of expenses. In consequence, a lot of families went below the poverty line with no country officials looking out for them.
Fast forward to August 4th when a mysterious earthquake shook the capital Beirut and its surroundings. Following this, an explosion was heard within a 20km radius, and in its wake revealed a huge cloud of smoke and a destroyed capital. According to local authorities, the explosion was caused by a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of the capital, resulting in 190 deaths, 6500 injuries, $15+ billion of material damages and 300,000 people left homeless (Wikipedia). Many countries tried to help by sending money and resources to Lebanon, but nothing was ever given to the people. This aid mysteriously disappeared.
Twice after the first explosion, the port caught fire out of nowhere and caused the people who went back to Beirut to flee for their lives in panic.
Even now, there are still 3 people reported missing. The whole country was affected and still has not recovered. People lost their loved ones, their jobs, their homes, and are still fighting to stand up again. The dollar is now at 8000LBP (433% inflation rate) making it impossible to renovate. The government was pressured by the comeback of the revolution to resign. The third prime minister in a one-year span Moustafa Adib is making the Lebanese population wait for their new government. However, many Lebanese people continue to follow and praise the criminals responsible for this disaster, and keep them in high regard. Those who support these criminals place blame on everyone save for their leaders, who are evidently involved in the horrific occurrences that have happened to the country. They hold signs saying that “All of them means all of them” but then create exceptions. Will Lebanon ever rise from its wounds if its people are still working on covering on behalf of the criminals?
www.unitedworldwide.co