In Lebanon, disasters often occur all at once. The collapse has spared no sector while the Lebanese have been left with two options: Either perish from starvation, lack of fuel, electricity and water, or escape the country and head somewhere else on god’s green earth.
The newest development of the collapse of institutions is reported by the Wall Street Journal who predicted that the Lebanese economy might never return to how it once was following the August 4th 2020 port explosion. The Journal noted that more than half of the Lebanese population is now under the line of poverty after the Lira lost over 90% of its value against the US dollar, and basic commodity prices have risen over 700%.
It also stated that “power outages have become so frequent, that restaurants are changing their operating hours to coincide with the private generator schedules. In super markets, quarrels are regularly breaking out. Shoppers are rushing to buy bread, sugar, and oil before they run out or become more expensive.” The Journal also highlighted that “medical staff in Lebanon are rapidly exiting the country, just as a new wave of COVID infections is emerging. Moreover, crimes such as theft and murder are rising as well.”
Medical and Surgical Equipment are Running Out!
The report also highlighted the state of Hospitals in Lebanon; saying that “Hospitals are running out of anesthetics and heart surgery medications while they busy looking for fuel and water to stay open according to the head of the Private Hospital Owners Syndicate Slaiman Haroun.
Haroun told the newspaper that “instead of focusing on important matters relating to medicine, we are preoccupied with trivial problems such as finding fuel for electricity generators and water that we also have to sterilize.”
The report added by saying: “Lebanon, which had enjoyed relative stability in a turbulent region in recent decades, is now living under the full weight of an economic crisis that happens once in a century.” This aligns with what the World Bank announced back in May when it said that the Lebanese economic collapse ranks among the top 3 economic crises in the world over the past 150 years!
A Shocking World Bank Report!
The World Bank ranks Lebanon’s crisis as worse than the Greek crisis of 2008 which ushered years of unrest as it displaced tens of thousands of people. It also ranks it as more severe than the 2001 Argentinian economic crisis which also led to disastrous outcomes. The World Bank confirms that the Lebanese economic crisis “may eclipse that of Chile, which took 16 years to recover from its collapse in 1926”, but less sever than “Spain’s economic crisis that took place during its civil war in the 1930s whose recovery took 26 years.” The World Bank estimated that “Lebanon may take between 12 and 19 years to recover.”
