04/08/2020: "THE EXPLOSION OF/IN BEIRUT"

The Beirut explosion and N.O.B.’s inner explosion

The EXPLOSION of BEIRUT. It was like delivering a baby.

The explosion in Beirut occurred yesterday 04^th august 2020 caused a real inner explosion to N.O.B., this finally shook us and catapulted us in front of a pc writing again.

Please note: all the pictures and the video you will see show only partly the real state of Beirut. Please note 2: we are no journalist, so be kind to us.

We landed in Lebanon in the summer of 2018, without knowing anything about it, for a month of voluntary work. We stayed almost 3 months. We came back to Italy and then we decided to go back at CHRISTMAS 2018, destination BEIRUT, to give impulse to the LASA ANDE’ (let it go) project creating, in so doing, work opportunities for LEBANESE, SYRIAN PALESTINIAN WOMEN (Integration) and made with the ONLY ramaining fabric made in LEBANON (Local Economy). We were literally enchanted by this culture that develops between the West and the Middle East. We were literally enchanted by this small piece of land, as big as ABRUZZO (Italian region) located exactly where since always there were and continue to occur, how can we put it… some little problems.

Palestine, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and the great international powers that gravitate around them since always. The history of Lebanon is really dense and summarize it in a post is really “difficult” however, for the non-experts we’ll try a recap. A civil war. 1975/1990, when it ended, a lot of what had been built by the colonizer (FRANCE) disappears and the Lebanese political system that begins to form little by little leaves space to a GREAT corRUPTIon.

“The explosion of/in Beirut”

“The effects of the explosion occurred in Beirut along what once was the motorway around the port”

Lebanese people, they descend from the PHOENICIAN, like Italians from the Romans. Lebanon is a country rich in history, archaeological ruins lots of which are abandoned to themselves. The roads are poorly, the railway was not rebuilt and so it is a real quest to move for just a few kilometres. There is no drinking water in Beirut. There is no garbage disposal system and therefore, garbage is often burned where it is dumped or worse. The state-owned electric company guarantees energy for 21 hours a day only in Beirut (even less in certain areas) . If you want electricity 24 hours a day you need a private generator. The Lebanese state has a participation in this private company. Therefore, you pay the State a “double bill”. Speculative building has left a mark, the old colonial houses (an incredible mixture of Western and Eastern architecture) have been destroyed to leave space for horrid buildings. There is also a great influx of Syrian people, who because of the war, moved to Lebanon waiting to go back one day or to take off for other countries.

“The explosion of/in Beirut”

“A road near the port after the Beirut explosion’

After the end of the civil war, lasted almost 20 years, little by little Lebanon took the road to become the Swiss of the Middle East. In fact, the first thing you notice walking through the roads of Beirut is the INCREDIBLE number of BANKS. Until the recent, foreign bank account could be anonymous and maybe some still remember that towards the end of the Berlusconi age in Italy, Mr. Berlusconi was found to have a bank account in LEBANON which was confiscated. However, despite the large amount of financial resources present in the country, very few local factories were created in Lebanon so the country has to import almost everything from abroad. Local economy is basically non-existent.

Eventually, in October 2019, it was high time that “eventually” came, the Lebanese people flooded the streets. They cannot take any more. That is the starting point of the LEBANESE REVOLUTION, the OCTOBER REVOLUTION. A PACIFIC revolution, the first I remember among those studied in the books. All people go to manifestations united, no religion or political affiliation applied. A UNITED and PACIFIC people that moved me and taught me a lot. The Revolution keeps going for a few months. The head of governement resigns. Some members of government change, however, nothing changes in the country. The Lebanese government promise some reforms, in fact it is actually FROZEN. NOTHING is really done. The Lebanese government is made up by representatives belonging to a series of religious and political groups in order to represent all the differences present in the Lebanese territory, among these there is also HEZBOLLAH. The people start to suffer hard.

The “notorious” American president with the blond or white hairpiece, you choose, starts saying around that he doesn’t want to trade with countries that have anything to do with Hezbollah. The same procedure used by the president with the horrible hairpiece when he decided to fine all countries trading with Iran. The rich/lucky close their accounts and transfer they money from Lebanon abroad. The BANKS go pear shaped. A game of devaluing the Lebanese currency starts and the dollar (the other currency used in Lebanon) becomes like gold. The dollar to the LL (Lebanese lira) change rate is totally ABSURD at the black market. Citizens can only withdraw their money in LL, that is waste paper by now. The amount of money people can withdraw per person is ridiculous. The default is declared after a few months and the help of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) is requested, the IMF took a step back just a few weeks ago, as the minimum level of reforms requested was not met by the frozen Lebanese government (they did NOTHING).

“The explosion of/in Beirut”

“The video was taken from the office of a dear friend today. It is 3/4 kilometres from the explosion site in Beirut. Everybody had already left the office”

So, the Covid virus arrives and with it the Lockdown. Counter to what happens in Europe, in Lebanon there are only a few cases in March and April. Beirut airport is closed at the end of February and would be reopened in July. The price of all commodities sky rockets. The whole country remains with almost no electricity for a few days both during the day and during the night. This creates even more problems for the Lebanese hospitals already under great stress. Then the country is almost without bread, because it is too expensive to produce.

The Corona virus comes back stronger until the end of July. The recorded cases are INCREASING. Before the explosion of the 4^th August a new partial lockdown had been launched. This is why there was a lot less people around than normal. Lebanon is FAR TOO FULL OF PEOPLE for its territory. Default, Corona Virus, Zero Reforms and Israel. Israel had “knocked at Lebanon’s doors” already in September 2019. We won’t go too much into details on this, however, they (Israel & Lebanon) “exchanged” a number of armed drones and missiles. We were living in Lebanon then and it is when we were really-fucking-shaken by fear that something could really happen: War, an emotion that a European person over 40 had not felt before. A feeling that in a second makes you understand how fucking lucky we are in certain parts of the world, and we do not appreciate it, we get up every morning thoughtless and pacific, with no fucking worry or feeling of alert glued on us, something like, you have to check everything and be ready to jump without knowing in which direction exactly. But checking is impossible because nothing depends on you, so the fucking fear multiplies.