MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-11-02 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Lebanon - a powder keg
|
‘We’ve Lost Our Country’: Lebanese Flee an Imploding Economy
Isabel Coles and Nazih Osseiran
8-10 minutes
BEIRUT—Lebanon’s multiple crises, compounded by the massive explosion at
the Beirut port in August, have plunged the middle class into poverty
and the poor into destitution, driving some to leave the country and
those who remain to struggle for a way to survive.
Lebanese have long moved abroad in times of crisis, sending home
billions in remittances that helped keep this tiny Mediterranean country
afloat. Now, a new exodus is under way.
Peter Ingea said his company, Intermove, had been packing up homes of
Lebanese moving abroad at a rate of one to two a day since the Aug. 4
explosion, compared with just one to two a week over the same period
last year. “We haven’t stopped,” he said. Nearly all his clients have
dual nationality or money abroad. For others, bailing out is harder,
especially when the coronavirus pandemic has hardened borders.
The agency responsible for securing Lebanon’s borders recently uncovered
a network at Beirut’s airport that was smuggling people to Spain.
The most desperate are piling into boats bound for Cyprus—a perilous
voyage that until this year was a last resort for refugees fleeing war
in neighboring Syria. According to the United Nations, 30 migrant boats
departed Lebanon for Cyprus between July and October. While the majority
of the passengers were Syrians, Lebanese were the second-largest group.
Many feel stuck in Lebanon. Rami Zahr, a 32-year-old DJ who’s been
jobless since the coronavirus and the economic implosion killed Beirut’s
nightlife, would like to leave Lebanon. But a banking crisis prevents
him withdrawing enough money to leave the country. “We are stuck here
because our money is trapped,” he said.
Few see Lebanon’s outlook brightening anytime soon.
The economy is set to contract by 25% this year, according to the
International Monetary Fund. Imports have halved because Lebanese
spending power has been wiped out by the collapse of the local currency,
which has lost more than 80% of its value against the dollar since last
year. Accounting for inflation, the IMF estimated annual gross domestic
product per capita would shrink from the equivalent of $14,500 a year in
2019 to $10,900 in 2020.
“It is not simply a financial crisis,” said former Labour Minister
Charbel Nahas, who now heads a political group seeking a complete
overhaul of the political system. “The whole institutional framework of
society and the economy has fallen down.”
White-collar workers who lost jobs or income are now among those
requesting boxes from food banks.
“There’s no longer a middle class,” said Soha Zaiter, the head of the
Lebanese Food Bank.
Meat has become a rare luxury. Bar owners say customers are shunning
cocktails made with pricey imported alcohol, opting for cheaper local
beer or aniseed liquor called arak.
With reserves running low, Lebanon’s central bank has warned it won’t be
able to continue subsidizing the cost of imported fuel, medicine and
some food, spurring both panic-buying and profit-seeking.
Gas stations are willing to only partially fill up vehicles’ tanks
because suppliers are hoarding to profit when prices go up, a senior
Lebanese official told reporters last month.
The wealthy are fortifying their homes against a rising tide of crime.
With trust in banks gone, people are stashing their money at home.
Beirut resident Rita Faraj Oghlo passes a damaged building on the street
where she lived before it was damaged the port explosion in August.
Photo: hannah mckay/Reuters
Sales of alarm systems, security cameras and safes are booming,
according to local security companies. “In light of the state’s
absence,” said Rostam Yamoq, CEO of Smart Security, “nobody feels secure.”
Last month, Lebanese politicians nominated former Prime Minister Saad
Hariri to return to power for a fourth term, almost exactly a year after
he resigned under pressure from nationwide protests against a political
establishment many blame for the country’s demise.
Mr. Hariri has pledged to unlock foreign aid to help revive the economy.
The Lebanese government failed to agree to conditions with the IMF to
secure a multibillion-dollar bailout earlier this year.
The international community and Gulf nations, Lebanon’s historical
patrons, also appear to have grown weary of investing in Lebanon with
little to show for it. Lebanon’s political class has yet to implement a
forensic audit of its spending, seen as the first step toward reforms.
The priority of the political class isn’t fixing the country’s finances
but self-preservation, said Alain Bifani, a former director general at
the Ministry of Finance who resigned earlier this year in protest at
politicians’ handling of the financial crisis.
“What they want is to create the new normal, which is a country that
doesn’t look like Lebanon at all, with a middle class that was crushed
or forced into exile,” Mr. Bifani said.
Inside Beirut’s Blast Site Days After the Explosion
0:00 / 2:22
1:50
Inside Beirut’s Blast Site Days After the Explosion
Inside Beirut’s Blast Site Days After the Explosion
Days after a massive explosion rocked the city of Beirut, WSJ’s Dion
Nissenbaum visits the blast site. Photo: Dion Nissenbaum for the Wall
Street Journal (Originally published Aug. 9, 2020)
Dr. Youssef Haddad, a specialist in chest and critical care, can no
longer afford to take his family out to restaurants twice a week or
employ a domestic worker. His wife—also a medical doctor—had to go
part-time to look after their two young children, further reducing the
household income.
“Our way of life has changed,” Dr. Haddad said. “We have to think about
each dollar we spend.”
Many of Dr. Haddad’s colleagues have already moved to France, but he has
been reluctant to uproot his family and restart his career, particularly
when 80% of his savings is stuck in the bank.
Certain drugs have vanished from pharmacy shelves as Lebanese rush to
stock up in case subsidies are removed and prices rise. Majd Daaboul
visited 39 pharmacies over the course of three days, driving the length
of Lebanon’s coast and inland to the mountains to find the asthma
medication he needs.
The 32-year-old social-media manager previously declined offers of work
in the Gulf, hoping to find a job in Europe, North America or Australia.
Now, he would jump at any chance to leave.
Some are taking big risks to flee Lebanon’s gloom.
Even before the economic crisis, Mohammed al-Ghandour struggled to find
work and put food on the table for his wife and seven children. In
August, he invested his remaining hopes and savings in a boat,
undertaking the 155-mile crossing to Cyprus with the aid of a GPS.
Unlike others who have perished en route, the family made it safely
across the Mediterranean, only to be summarily deported back to Lebanon
by Cypriot authorities a week later, plunging Mr. al-Ghandour into even
greater despair.
“We are below zero,” he said at his home in Tripoli, Lebanon’s poorest
city. “If the middle class has nothing, what’s going to happen to us?”
Write to Isabel Coles at isabel.coles-at-wsj.com
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
_______________________________________________
Hangout mailing list
Hangout-at-nylxs.com
http://lists.mrbrklyn.com/mailman/listinfo/hangout
|
|
