Lebanese economic crisis pushing residents to the brink
In Lebanon, inflation during the month of May had increased by 119% since the previous year, pushing the price of food and fuel beyond the means of most Lebanese families.
The Lebanese Lira has now lost 90% of it’s value. In practise this means that many imports that Lebanon usually relies on such as food and soft drinks, have skyrocketed.
‘Life in Lebanon is almost unliveable.’ Says Karma Hamady, a young mother who has lived in Beirut for most of her life.
‘Basic things we never thought twice of buying are now luxury items. The prices are just unbelievable and changing constantly. Medication is sparse. We only use the car for essential trips because it means we have to wait in line for hours just to get a few gallons in.
On top of that, the electricity is non-existent which makes everything worse. What little food you manage to buy spoils quickly.’
Lebanon’s current economic depression can be traced back to decades of political corruption, as well as the sectarian nature of the state which created the political rut that enabled such cronyism to fester.
For over twenty years, the local Lebanese currency was tied to the US Dollar (the other officially recognised currency in the country) at 1500 LBP to 1$. This was partly put in place due to the large amount of foreign money coming in to the country by way of tourism, and remittances from its large international diaspora.
But this system would come to facilitate, what essentially amounted to, in President Macron’s words, a ‘Ponzi scheme’, put in place by the central Lebanese bank to deal with historical war-related debts and uncurbed Government spending.
Indeed, the country was essentially being kept afloat by foreign money consistently coming in. Although as sectarian disparities grew, foreign funding dried up. In particular, the rise of the Iran-backed Shi’ite group, Hezbollah, turned away a lot of the usual Sunni Gulf investors.
As time went on, power cuts became commonplace and sanitation services became non-existent, leading to the 2015 Garbage Crisis. Whilst the Mediterranean coastline shines along Beirut’s horizon, for years the actual sea has remained too toxic to swim in.
In 2019, the Lebanese public reached tipping point after the government attempted to tax users of popular messaging app, Whatsapp. This frustration erupted into large protests, that forced the former Prime Minister to resign and sparked the collapse of the currency. The currency rate of the Lebanese pound slipped from 1,500LBP to the dollar, all the way down to 15,000LBP , according to Reuters.
The effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic on both the economy and the health system, equally, had a highly detrimental effect. The power cuts that have become part of everyday life, have no place in a hospital that relies on electricity to keep it’s ventilators and oxygen machines running.
‘If the electricity goes out in hospitals, what will happen to patients in intensive care and on ventilators [….] imagine the scenario, it is the end of the world’. said Sleiman Haroun, head of the Syndicate of Private hospitals in an interview on Lebanese television on the 12th of July.
The devastating port explosion on August the 4th 2020, itself caused by political incompetence and negligence that allowed 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate to remain in centrally located hangar, was the nail in the coffin, pushing the country into the abyss. The explosion ravaged the capital Beirut, previously known as the Paris of the East, and the country has been unable to recover from it.
It is the poor of the country who are suffering the most. The high food and fuel costs caused by the economic crisis are impossible to afford in a country where youth unemployment is at 37% and general unemployment at 25%. According to charity, HeartB, over 30% of Lebanese children now go to sleep on an empty stomach, and 49% of people are unable to pay basic food c.
‘Lebanon is a few days away from the social explosion. The Lebanese are facing this dark fate alone’, said caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab in a speech at a meeting with ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic missions in Beirut.
Many Lebanese, particularly youngsters, speak of a desire for unity and change, however the truth is that Lebanon’s political system may well be too fragile for such a radical shift away from current values.
For Karma, it has become impossible for her to stay in her beloved country with her family, and she has made the heart-breaking decision to leave.
‘Every day that goes by, the situation gets worse and worse. There is no end in sight. It is a fight to survive, and the only way to survive is to leave’