Often on brink, Lebanon headed towards collapse

A road is partially blocked with garbage and bins in protest of uncollected trash, in Beirut, Lebanon. Pic/AP

Power cuts that last up to 20 hours a day. Mountains of trash spilling into streets. Long lines at gas stations. It may seem like a standard summer in Lebanon, a country used to wrestling with crumbling infrastructure as it vaults from one disaster to another.

Only this time, it's different. Every day brings darker signs Lebanon has rarely seen in past crises: Mass layoffs, hospitals threatened with closure, shuttered shops and restaurants, crimes driven by desperation, a military that can no longer afford to feed its soldiers meat and warehouses that sell expired poultry.

Threat to cultural diversity
Lebanon is hurtling toward a tipping point at an alarming speed, driven by financial ruin, collapsing institutions, hyperinflation and rapidly rising poverty - with a pandemic on top of that. The collapse threatens to break a nation seen as a model of diversity and resilience in the Arab world. Lebanese worry about a decline so steep it would forever alter the small Mediterranean country's cultural diversity and entrepreneurial spirit, unparalleled in the Middle East.

The current crisis is largely a culmination of decades of corruption and greed by a political class that pillaged nearly every sector of the economy. The troubles came to a head in late 2019, when nationwide protests erupted over the government's intention to levy a tax on the WhatsApp messaging app, seen as the final straw for people fed up with their politicians. The protests touched off a two-week bank closure. Savings have evaporated, plunging many into sudden poverty. Lebanon's fall "represents an epic collapse with a generational impact," wrote Maha Yehia, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center.

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