Banker and former minister Adnan Kassar was confronted at a restaurant in Beirut this week by angry citizens whose hard-earned deposits are locked up.
“Our money is stolen and he’s here smoking a cigar,” one of the men filming can be heard saying in the video of the confrontation.
Another man also yells at the former banker saying: “Students are struggling abroad, being kicked out of their universities, and Adnan Kassar is here smoking a cigar.”
No lies are detected in the protester’s statement since students abroad are not being spared.
Parents of the thousands of Lebanese students abroad have been protesting outside Lebanon’s central bank, as their children may not be able to continue their education.
Not just that, hundreds of businesses have shut down, the unemployment rate has increased as well as the poverty rate, and Lebanon has been warned of looming hunger.
The men proceed to talk to Kassar directly telling him, “You and your families live in luxury while our money is stolen.”
Eventually, Kassar gathered whatever dignity was left and exited the restaurant next to the people accompanying him, as citizens continued to yell at him, “You’re one of the banking thieves.”
Kassar is the chairman of Fransabank Group, one of the main Lebanese banks that have locked up people’s savings for a year now.
The nation across the country is suffering and the officials have been oblivious to it.
Lebanon’s financial collapse is a dramatic story of how a nation that was once known as the Paris of the Middle East got consumed by corruption and mismanagement.
Currently, banks are completely paralyzed. Citizens have been locked out of their lifelong dollar accounts or given less than half their funds’ worth, and the Lebanese pound has crashed, propelling the population into poverty.
Sorrows and sufferings continue, as is the Lebanese revolution they consequently conceived on October 17th, 2019, along with anger and fearlessness to confront the political elite.
It has been long said that the people created the revolution, some even accused the embassies. Fact is, those who have drained this country and caused its collapse did it themselves, underestimating the strength and will of the people to stand up for justice and fight for their rights.
After all, the people have nothing left to lose.
