Here’s a few current images from downtown Beirut. A series of protests began in late August, they were initially focused on the garbage crisis, but quickly morphed into a display of general dissatisfaction with the government as a whole. The government responded to the demonstrations with tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, and later, barricades, which wall in key government buildings and parts of downtown Beirut.
Lebanon’s government is notoriously gridlocked. They are unable to elect a President, and the post has been vacant for more than a year and a half. A consensus can’t be found on even the most mundane of issues, case in point, the garbage crisis.
The major landfill serving Beirut and much of the rest of the country closed in July, as it had reached capacity. The trouble was, no alternative plan could be agreed upon, and no community wanted to host a new landfill. Things quickly split along sectarian lines, to the point that serious proposals have been made to separate the garbage by religion, with each sect disposing of its own.
Understandably, many in Beirut are fed up with the gridlock, and government’s inability to deliver solutions, not just regarding the waste treatment, but on a myriad of other issues as well, including unreliable electricity and internet services, soldiers and security personnel being held as hostages by jihadi groups, corruption, graft, etc etc.
The demonstrations have tamed down in recent weeks. The barricades and wire are still up, as you can see, but things are fairly quiet. A few demonstrators are still camped out in Martyr’s Square and elsewhere, in similar fashion to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in the US.
There is a palpable tension in the air, as if Beirut is on the verge of something major. The government has taken baby steps to solve the problems, especially that of the garbage, and the garbage itself is being picked up again in most areas, although a permanent solution still eludes them. Some of the hostages taken by al Nusra have been freed, yet others still languish. Terrorism looms large, and the threat posed by jihadi groups is ever present, despite a large wave of recent arrests. Electric power is still unreliable, with daily blackouts in many areas (including mine).
Tomorrow parliament will meet again, and for the 33rd time, will try and elect a President. We’ll see if a consensus can be reached, but I’m not holding my breath.
This isn’t over, not by a long shot.