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A8 WORLD NEWS
Friday 23 November 2018
Lebanon’s economy faces stark choice: Reform or collapse
By BASSEM MROUE helicopters hovered over-
Associated Press head. The city center was
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon closed off for the duration
marked 75 years of inde- of the spectacle.
pendence with a military As soon as the parade
parade Thursday in Beirut, ended, dozens of protest-
but many anxious Leba- ers took to the streets to
nese feel they have little voice their impatience with
to celebrate: the country’s the political stalemate.
corruption-plagued econ- Some denounced corrup-
omy is dangerously close to tion, while others ranted
collapse and political bick- about electricity shortages,
ering over shares in a new fraying infrastructure or in-
Cabinet is threatening to creasing pollution levels.
scuttle pledges worth $11 Many wore T-shirts with the
billion by international do- inscription: “Our indepen-
nors. dence from you exploita-
The World Bank issued a tion.”
stark warning last week, Despite a population of
with one official saying over 4.5 million that is
that unless a government among the most educated
is formed soon to carry out in the region, Lebanon still
badly needed reforms, has a primitive infrastruc-
“the Lebanon we know will ture, widespread electricity
fizzle away.” Lebanese protesters chant slogans during a protest against corruption and criticizing long-serving and water cuts and a long-
It’s been more than six politicians for failing to form a government, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018. standing waste crisis that
Associated Press over the past few years saw
months since Lebanon held trash piling in the streets for
its first national elections in weeks at a time.
nine years but the prime “There is no independence
minister-designate, Saad (to celebrate) because
Hariri, still hasn’t formed a corruption is eating us
government to undertake up,” said Mohammed al-
the reforms necessary to Rayyes, a shop owner in
unlock the donors’ funds. Beirut’s Hamra district. “The
The vote, in which the Shi- coming days are going to
ite militant Hezbollah group be very difficult.”
and its allies made signifi- The tiny Arab country has
cant gains, did little to pull coped with multiple politi-
Lebanon out of a political cal and security crises over
impasse. Anger against the past decades and also
politicians’ apparent indif- suffered from the seven-
ference, worsening public year civil war in neighbor-
services and distress over ing Syria, a conflict that has
down-spiraling finances occasionally spilled over
and gloomy predictions the border and brought
are building up. more than 1 million refu-
Last Friday, heavy rains gees into Lebanon, putting
caused Beirut’s sewage even more pressure on its
system to burst, turning dysfunctional infrastruc-
the city’s famous Mediter- ture. A soaring debt of $84
ranean coastal avenue billion and unemployment
into a river of filthy, foul- believed to be around 36
smelling black water that percent are compounding
engulfed motorists along concerns that the country
the otherwise scenic route. will finally cave in.
On the same day, the mili- “It is a shame because so
tary had closed a main ar- much time is being wast-
tery for drills ahead of the ed,” Ferid Belhaj, the World
Independence Day pa- Bank’s vice president for
rade, paralyzing traffic for the Middle East and North
hours. Flights from Beirut’s Africa, said during a meet-
international airport were ing with a group of journal-
missed and a woman re- ists last week.
portedly went into labor For years, he said, Lebanese
on the road. The army later officials have been promis-
apologized. On Thursday, ing to work on solving the
Lebanese President Michel electricity crisis, which costs
Aoun and the country’s the country about $2 billion
top officials watched an a year and has been the
hour-long military parade main factor in accumulat-
along Beirut’s waterfront as ing Lebanon’s debt.q
