How the Beirut explosion was a government failure
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Published 2020-09-18
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On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion rocked Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon. The blast occurred when sparks in a warehouse hit a stockpile of ammonium nitrate — a highly explosive material — that was stored in the city's port. It was one of the largest accidental explosions in history and it couldn't have occurred at a worse time for Lebanon.
For the past several years, the country has been sliding into an economic depression and a political crisis. The root causes began during the country's 20-year civil war and extend to the organization of the government, in which control is divided among the country's many religious sects.
After years of corruption and negligence, Lebanon's people are now stuck picking up the pieces.
Sources and additional reading:
New York Times Visual Investigations: www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/world/middleeast/beirut…
Carnegie Endowment:
carnegieendowment.org/2016/05/16/unraveling-of-leb…
Ahmad Barclay:
twitter.com/bothness/status/1186967940178071552
The Economist:
www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/10/2…
Ziad Abu-Rish / Jadaliyya:
www.jadaliyya.com/Details/33377
Triangle:
www.thinktriangle.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/E…
Financial Times:
ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/12/18/1576679115000/Under…
Mohamad Bazzi / Foreign Affairs:
www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/lebanon/2020-08-14…
Dion Nissenbaum, Nazih Osseiran, Georgi Kantchev and Benoit Faucon / The Wall Street Journal:
www.wsj.com/articles/behind-the-beirut-explosion-s…
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All Comments (21)
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Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution
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Moral of the story. "Keep religion out of politics"
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I was so interested about their government that I forgot we were talking about the Beirut explosion
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My best friends dad died bc a mosque was 1 minute away from the place thay exploded and the mosques came down and nobody survived😢
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Poor countries don't have a poverty problem. They have a government problem.
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You know your country is done when the government is divided by religion, race or anything else .
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"Hey, let's put THESE explosives next to flammable Stuff. What can go Wrong?"
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as a lebanese person, watching this almost 3 years later still hurts a lot till this day, i really hope lebanon can become a better place sometime soon
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Greed and religion mixed together into the government? Yikes.
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Props to the people of Lebanon. Their government has failed them, yet they stand united and the reject corruption while being civil.
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Leb government: out here living our best life Leb people: were literally dying or dead. Leb gov: this ain't about you
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I'm half Lebanese, and my grandparents lived close enough to the explosion for their windows to break. I am really young, and although I can help, I'm all the way in Dubai, and all I can do is spread awareness, so I hope that those of you can do more than I watch this video and help out.
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This is why separation of church and state is important in a democracy.
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Looking at history, anytime you divide people or a country up based on religious groups, it always always ends badly.
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You cant let a few people be in charge of so much money. Theyre just gonna keep it for themselves. Imagine thinking people will be honest when you hand them a billion dollars for electricity.
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This is where South Africa is headed if corruption in government system is not stopped
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Meanwhile in America people are complaining about swearing masks...
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It's almost like a handful of people controlling the money of a whole country never turns out fair. Who knew!?
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Now I understand why my great-great-grandparents on my mother's side migrated from Lebanon ...
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I live in Lebanon and update : Still the country didn't recover from it and we have like 1000% inflation, $ used to be = 1500 LBP now its $= 18 000 LBP pain
