Lebanon a 'beautiful idea' in need of a reboot, say protesters
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[November 07, 2019]
By Luke Baker
BEIRUT (Reuters) - From a narrow angle,
Beirut looks a picture of elegance and success, its French boutiques,
luxury hotels and imported cars blending into Mediterranean skies.
Widen the lens, as three weeks of popular anti-government protests have
sought to do, and the view that emerges is of a nation struggling
against extreme inequality, failing basic services, high unemployment
and hardened frustration.
"Lebanon is a beautiful idea," said Yara Salem, a 25-year-old cinema
student who spends her days at the tented protest camp in Martyrs'
Square, only a few meters from the revolving doors of Le Grey, one of
Beirut's top five-star hotels.
"But it's an illusion. You think you're in Paris but you go over there
and people are dying on the streets," she said, referring to the poor
and destitute rather than the protesters, none of whom have died in the
peaceful demonstrations.
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For Salem, the protests - which she calls a revolution and which have
drawn hundreds of thousands of Lebanese onto the streets - will have
failed unless the ruling elite is entirely swept from power and replaced
by a new political leadership.
Since the country's 15-year civil war ended in 1990, the names and faces
of those who run the country have barely changed, she says. Any
confidence they can deliver a stronger economy or a brighter future has
long since withered.
"It's been the same people for 30 years," she said, adding that while
her parents' generation, which lived through the civil war, may have
lost faith in politics, the youth still believe that meaningful change
is possible.
"The main point of this revolution is to do something for the poor -
jobs, services, education," she said, while also mentioning the high
cost of mobile phone services and that marijuana should be legalized.
"MOTHER TO ALL"
On paper, there are many reasons to wonder how Lebanon has managed to
hold itself together for so long.
With 18 officially recognized sectarian groups, politics has long been a
delicate balancing act. Shifting allegiances hamstring decision-making,
while patronage and clientelism are rife. Business and politics are
shared family enterprises.
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![](../images/110719pics/news_s35.jpg)
A student wears a Lebanese flag at a demonstration near Zouk Power
Station, during ongoing anti-government protests in Zouk, north of
Beirut, Lebanon November 7, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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According to the World Inequality Database, Lebanon is one of the
most unequal countries, with the wealthiest 1% percent accounting
for almost a quarter of the national income and the bottom half just
10%. By contrast the wealthiest 1% in the United States account for
20% of national income.
Downtown Beirut is awash with Range Rovers and Hermes stores. The
landmark 1930s clock tower in the center has a Rolex face. Yet the
economy is contracting, debt stands at 150% of GDP and unemployment
among under 35s is nearing 40%.
"There's no work, there are no services, the schools are not good,"
said Jamal Raydan, 28, a Druze protester from Moukhtara, a town in
the Chouf mountains where Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon's leading Druze
politician, lives.
Despite an accountancy qualification, Raydan said he had not worked
in four years. He sought help from Jumblatt's entourage without
success, and concluded that this political class was a failure, with
politicians only looking to enrich themselves.
"It makes me angry," he said of the gap between the wealth on
display in parts of Beirut and the reality on the ground.
"Lebanon should be like a mother to all its people," he said.
"Instead they have turned her into a bad woman."
(Writing by Luke Baker)
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