In the midst of all the unrest that is dominating the Middle East, the international community’s eyes seem to give extra attention to Lebanon.
Once known as the Switzerland of the Middle East, the country, with the direction it’s been headed, may soon resonate more with Venezuela than any European country.
If this has not been made clear by the national currency that has lost 85% of its value, the protests that have become a part of everyday life, or the soaring poverty, hunger, and crime rates, then the increasing immigration cases should do the job.
The sectarian political system – the only system that Lebanon has known for many decades – is collapsing on itself, getting the Lebanese people, who have been trying diligently to change it, caught under the rubble.
But what comes after the collapse?
Nobody – least of all the Lebanese themselves – knows what comes next, argues Foreign Policy, which makes the assertion that “Lebanon as we know it is dying.”
Experts have repeatedly warned in recent times that the collapse will only worsen in the future. Famine will strike next, and children will die of hunger.
People will continue to lose their life savings’ value while they idly recall the sense of security that they barely enjoyed before they lost their jobs to the crisis.
The world will also keep its vital helping hand retracted so long as the Lebanese officials continue to move in the direction that gives them more power at the expense of the very lives of their own people – of starving children.
The result of this will likely be an unbreakable spiral of chaos and death followed by death and chaos while the smiles of the same-old political leaders continue to shine wealth and arrogance in the frail faces of the Lebanese.
Unless this rotten political class changes by some miracle, nothing will come after the collapse but more collapse.
