Since the price of the Lebanese pound collapsed, conditions for the Lebanese have changed rapidly. Their habits and diaries are heading towards rapid poverty. All this in silence and without a word of protest, while the political forces themselves once again contemplate their humiliation. The poor are the most affected by the crisis. But the middle class, who are paid in lire, did not survive. There are habits that have faded or are in the process of fading and others that have been forcibly changed. Lebanon, “without ceasing”, dates back to the time of the civil war, the time of the “Rodaj”.
In a small land, a large hole with “gallons” of iron, eaten by rust, full of gasoline. Protected from dirt, so as not to start a fire, but does not leave its place until a replacement is safe. On the Beirut-Damascus highway, a family taxi headed to the Australian embassy in Damascus, where the Lebanese go through all the hardships and have to queue from night to obtain a visa. A similar scene for those queuing at dawn in front of the ovens. The Mazot crisis threatens factories and hospitals. Classifieds “for travel reasons” of cars, apartments and land for sale, wedding postponements, invitations to donate food aid, Western companies close their offices in Beirut and start offers of apartments in Paris before Cyprus becomes the destination . It’s Beirut in 1975 and its aftermath in the civil war.
Gallons of plastic gasoline, immigration applicants stand in front of embassies as well as gas stations, sale announcements are online, Lebanon increases aid. It is Beirut in 2020, the tragedy has been the same for 45 years, although life was better than today in many ways, after adding the collapse of the Lebanese pound, power cuts, contaminated water, waste, stolen money, years of waste and corruption.
After the first and second world wars, research centers and universities studied social variables and behaviors that had arisen or were absent. Much has been written about the collapse of social classes, the growth of the wealthy class in war and the black market, changing food and lifestyle habits, sexual and family relationships, the shaky job market, coffee shops and quality of cigarette paper, songs that reflected with their dark words which countries emerged from the war. In Lebanon, the current year parallels what these countries have experienced, in the intensity of the changes that have collapsed the way of life and money of the Lebanese people, and it is necessary to study all its details.
What has changed in the conditions of the Lebanese since the rise in the price of the dollar until today? Simply everything. Lebanese eating habits are changing: putting high prices on a scientific table does not reflect the tragedy of those who cannot get meat, poultry, fish, milk, cheese and fruit. The Lebanese are distancing themselves from the importer, forcing to contradict the theories of some politicians who theorize about local products and are known for luxury import stores. An engineer whose salary was relatively high, she says she felt powerless when she was denied the right to choose European cheese, imported chilled meat or chocolate. Our folk tales about the delights of winter nights must change, and with it the pride of Lebanese in their food, because tomorrow’s hummus with tahini will turn to caviar before the price of sesame rises or stops. Fayrouz’s song about his grandmother “raisins and gaseous nuts” is no longer in line with what the governor of the Banque du Liban decided, and the prices of pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, walnuts and aromas exceeded the requirements of the barbarian , birthdays, mushrooms, sacrifices and other parties. In the past, the “gorma” industry was a fraud against poverty to store cooked meat for all seasons of the year. Today a woman is storing it, because the purchase of good and reliable meat may not be available in the next few months for a family of four in which the father works alone. We did not witness this in the war except during the devaluation phase of the pound in the 1980s and the tough battles. Now you will find an employee who has turned his hobby of fishing and birdsong into a week-long business for himself and his family, along with his salary.
Food safety is not limited to vegetables. “We pay dollars for seeds, pesticides, medicines, fertilizers and tents, so we stop growing half of our produce,” says an agricultural project owner. Flower nurseries are successively collapsing, and love costs £ 70,000 with a bouquet of flowers. Gyms are no longer a routine that has grown in recent years. Walking is the cheapest alternative, the lighthouse beach and the promenade, for example. Sport is not a luxury, says a girl who plays sports regularly. “Replacing the club with walking in summer and swimming is not enough and does not replace a winter, especially after the high prices of home sports machines, and the cost of repairing vacations in them exceeds a hundred dollars.” The issue is not only related to sports and its clothes (has anyone bought sports shoes in recent months?), But also to “the vitamins and proteins that have doubled their prices, and the diet that you skipped, and the athlete is forced to settle for homemade food without conditions ”. According to a doctor, the prices of the necessary vitamins are no longer suitable for patients.The price of one of them has reached one hundred thousand pounds, noting that Corona, for example, is supposed to strengthen the immune system, especially with vitamin C. A dentist says that health problems will appear in succession, starting with teeth (barring the crazy increase in prices for toothpaste and brushes) and those requiring laboratory treatments at a cost of at least two millions of pounds have postponed their appointments as well as for the periodic exam.
“Thanks to Corona, we save funeral expenses.” The phrase is not a black comedy, because funeral costs rose automatically, and some feared they would not be able to withdraw their money from the banks to pay for it. The rationing was also followed by the lighting of candles and flowers, the price of which increased, at the graves of the dead in his memory.
Women seem more influenced by their diaries. Women who do not undergo medical examinations due to a high medical bill. When abortion, or the use of female and male contraceptives (knowing that the cost of a packet of condoms has imaginatively increased, contributing to the spread of disease), despite its high, it becomes less expensive than pregnancy and childbirth, and cancer tests exceed the capacity of those who have become unemployed, means that we are facing a new situation. Of suffering. In “The Spanish Daughter” about the collapse in Venezuela, the narrator says that she is dispensing with the purchase of coffee, sugar and oil, but how can she abandon the sanitary pads that have been sold on the black market? An employee in Lebanon says she allocates a budget from her salary (for herself, her sister and her mother, who are not working) for local sanitary napkins, after their prices rose three to four times, while the price of those imported increased five times. The same happens with perfumes, makeup tools (unless the alternative is rose water and egg), deodorant (one of them is medicinal, its price is 60,000 lire), shampoo and hair dyes. Cosmetics are no longer available, according to a businesswoman whose business has declined. It is no longer possible to resort to botox if it is found, nor to fillers after prices are not less than 700 thousand pounds, if the dollar is calculated at only two thousand pounds. The right of women to take care of their hygiene, appearance and their own money, however much they criticize for exaggerating, is not a crime. Organized crime consists of smuggling money abroad and banks clamp down on deposits. European women, when they were austere and worked after the war, because they were on an equal footing with a state that rose from the rubble and enjoyed a certain modesty.
In the economic crisis that Greece went through a few years ago, a study showed that the percentage of young people between the ages of 20 and 29 who were forced to live with their parents rose to 70 percent. In Lebanon, this category has left the family home, thanks to the housing policy, to their own houses or to resort to renting small apartments. What houses can soldiers and employees buy and furnish whose wages do not exceed one and a half million Lebanese pounds, or three million, when a store offers the price of a towel at 350,000 pounds and a chair at 900,000 pounds after deducting the 50 percent?
In France, a law was finally passed to force the French in mountainous regions to use special snow tires or metal chains for their safety. Here we gradually recover the scene of the days of war: second and third class imported used cars, cars without lights, signs or color, since the importing companies of new cars did not really rise until after the nineties with the policy of dues. Today, the word “Rodage” will return to the front, which was written on a sheet of paper taped to the rear windshield of the car, for drivers to warn that the car in front of them had the engine “overloaded” for maintenance in the garage from the mechanic, and the car had to go very slowly for a period of time to “train” it. Before returning to its previous state. Blacksmiths, paint and used tires will return to their glory, when the Lebanese cannot pay the price of the tires in one hundred dollars, without taking into account the needs of oil change, brakes, etc. This applies to electrical machines, because the slightest malfunction of a washing machine or refrigerator, changing the tap or buying reliable cleaning materials amounts to a financial crisis that drowns a salary.
Before Corona closed this week, French people were crowding outside bookstores to buy books, comics and magazines. The director of an engineering school says that “it is no longer possible to buy scientific or literary books. The collapse exceeds the ability of universities to strengthen their libraries and students cannot meet the requirements for research in scientific specializations, as well as buying special drawing, engineering, canvases and pencils. During the war, a Franco-Lebanese group invented the idea of printing French books in Lebanon at affordable prices. Today, such an experiment does not work because of the price of paper and the cost of printing presses. Western magazines and newspapers have become a dream, and imported books cost no less than 150,000 Syrian pounds.
A year ago traveling became a dream, just like the weekend and nightlife, buying clothes even in stores is expensive, travelers’ suitcases arrive loaded with medicines, food and essential items … Children’s gifts and old toys are sold online after they are saved for memory.
The year of collapse and humiliation, it needs a man of the year to crown it, many political, banking and security names who are crowned with distinction, for their remarkable success not only in achieving what the war did not achieve, but also for their ability. to subdue the Lebanese and silence them despite hunger and poverty, while we are still in the early stages of collapse before raising support. . The country is currently in a state of “Rodage”, but not to return to its previous state, but on the way to completely eliminate support. At that point, we will be in true “cry and bruise” hell.
