Corruption and the Death of Lebanon
There was a powerful and depressing story over on the New York Times’ website recently, “How Corruption Ruined Lebanon,” by Rania Abouzeid. In it, the writer looks at how Lebanon, once a shining beacon of light and progress in the Arab World, has sunk into ruin…and all because of a small group of corrupt officials at the top who value their bank accounts and personal power more than the nation.
Ms. Abouzeid explains how this group of men, formerly warlords in the country’s most recent civil war, emerged after the 1989 Taif Agreement that ended the conflict but turned the nation into a de facto oligarchic kleptocracy. Millions of dollars have been funneled away from the country’s coffers into their bank accounts and/or the pockets of their supporters. Meanwhile, the Lebanese state itself has been rendered utterly powerless by these same individuals.
It says much about the situation that over a year after the August 2020 blast at the Beirut Port, which killed hundreds of people and wounded countless others, none of the high government officials responsible has been arrested or even dismissed from office. And, worse, nothing has been done to assure the safety of the port since then.
What will happen to Lebanon now is anyone’s guess, but it probably won’t be pretty.
However, there is an excellent reason for us to watch Lebanon very closely. Its fate may be our own. Consider, you have ultra-wealthy elites who are indifferent to the sufferings of the people, who are concerned only with their own privilege and power, who are supported by violent militias and religious fundamentalists, and who have deliberately enfeebled the state and its government (“big enough to drown in a bathtub”) so civil authorities cannot regulate them in any way. And all the while they have used vaguely Libertarian, Populist, Nationalist, and Legalistic rhetoric to justify their actions.
Doesn’t that sound all dreadfully familiar?
~mjt
Source “How Corruption Ruined Lebanon,” by Rania Abouzeid, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 28, 2021, Behind soft paywall. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/magazine/corruption-lebanon.html
Copyright©2021 Michael Jay Tucker
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