Beirut has taken the lead in regional living costs among Arab cities, advancing to the 12th position globally, approaching the reference cost of New York, which is used as a benchmark. Concurrently, Lebanon is only 6 ranks away from being at the forefront of the global index for the "worst" quality of life, according to a study covered in a report by the international organization "Numbeo." The fundamental components for a decent living are almost completely absent, and irrefutable evidence continues to pile up, while officials do not bother to seriously seek a plan to rescue the country, impoverish the people, and bankrupt the state, which has been paralyzed for three years without addressing any of the crises. This has led to the continuing collapse of the national currency's exchange rate. It's as if they are provoking citizens who have become accustomed to standing in long lines for bread.
The peak of provocation is when a minister in the caretaker government uses the term "evangelize" to announce the rise in the price of a loaf of bread to 30,000 LBP as soon as Parliament agrees to lift subsidies on flour. However, in Lebanon, where the council can take months to consider urgent matters and come up with sterile laws that the governments occupied with sectarianism do not implement, corrupt officials and thieves can boast publicly about their achievements. They market themselves as leading and reform-oriented figures worthy of holding the reins of power, while complaining about crises that they help to create, as if they are from another planet unrelated to the very core of corruption, favoritism, and investment in a "system of immunity" and "impunity." Meanwhile, whispers abound regarding deals that they have benefited from at the expense of every citizen complicit in their life, health, and safety when re-electing them and returning their power over their destiny.
The provocation that strikes a chord with those who reject this system in both form and substance turns into a trick for those who find justifications and mitigating circumstances for some, merely accusing those whom they perceive as enemies of all the scourges we witness. What's dreadful is that Lebanese people do not hesitate to steal from one another, as if the theft by their leaders is not enough. And to avoid generalization, there is a group among them concerned only with finding ways to steal in accordance with the conditions and crises.
Clearly, they consider this normal, or else how can we explain this partnership between those who steal public and private funds, whether they are from the ruling class or large traders and monopolists, or small shop owners who attend the market to buy and sell, contributing according to their size to the theft from the Lebanese people? It is no wonder that thievery has its esteemed place in all vital sectors, and the Lebanese people are submissive, paying with the best they can muster, and do not boycott the greedy merchants and their goods subject to the monopoly bazaar in the sequence, even while they hold the first global rank in anger, as classified by the latest studies.
Thus, this anger remains unproductive and insufficient to break the solid cycle of corrupt individuals controlling the process of systematic looting. It does not help as long as a significant proportion of these angry individuals have re-elected those who perpetuate "the destructive practices of political and financial leaders in Lebanon responsible for pushing most of the population into poverty, in violation of international human rights law," as defined by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, a little over a month ago.
Here, perhaps it is worth holding accountable those who are content with mere "complaining" instead of fulfilling their duties as citizens, whether in choosing their representatives or in their inability to respond to the level of responsibility and suffering, or in their complicity with the existing authority against the weakest among them, contributing to "integrating impunity, corruption, and structural inequality into a corrupt political and economic system designed to fail those at the bottom, which should not be the case."
But it is exactly that way. Perhaps we will find someone refusing to comment on Lebanon reaching the top rank in the global index for the "worst" quality of life, considering that merely mentioning this index is a conspiracy to tarnish the reputation of his cherished homeland. However, he does not hesitate to boast that the standard of living in Beirut is the highest and that it competes with New York. And... come visit us, and you will find what pleases you!?
