Sunday, October 20, 2019
Protest in Downtown Beirut 10/19/19
The iconic Muhammad Al-Amin Mosque
surrounded by joyful protesters.
The Lebanese flag has been a ubiquitous sight -
with no sign of flags related to sect or political party
Children have been a common sight throughout
the protests
Introducing Al-Thoura
Dear Reader,
This blog is a space for media and musings from the front-lines of Lebanon's protest movement, now headed towards its fourth day.
Who am I? My name is Dustin Weinreb, I am a Beirut based freelance journalist and scholar of religion and Islam. I have been living and studying Arabic for about three months.
This recent popular outburst has its roots in longstanding grievances towards the government in Lebanon that I will elaborate on in another post, but the immediate cause is the government's response to recent economic problems. Since September there has been an ongoing crisis due to the lack of availability of the U.S. dollar. The Lebanese economy is heavily dollarized and most businesses which deal with imports are reliant on being able to exchange the Lebanese pounds they are paid with for dollars, at an exchange rate which has been fixed since the late nineties, in order to buy goods. In the past month and a half banks have been unwilling to exchange large amounts of currency and instead these businesses have had to resort to street exchanges, which have been charging a much higher rate that the official trading band.
The dollar crisis has led to the gas stations and bakeries threatening to strike, with the former actually doing so for two days in the last month. Compounding this is the anemic growth of the Lebanese economy, the relatively high cost of living, consternation about the provisions of basic services such as electricity, and anger over widespread corruption in the public sector.
Meanwhile, the government has been racing to approve a budget by the constitutional deadline that would slash the budget deficit in order to unlock 11 billion dollars of soft loans promised by European donors at a development conference earlier in the year. Increases in the VAT tax were proposed that would further burden the Lebanese masses already strapped by the ongoing economic crisis and it appeared that substantive reforms to the public electricity utility and anti-corruption initiatives would be pushed down the road, yet again. Finally, on Thursday, it was revealed that a 20 cent tax on VoIP calls would be levied. Commonly referred to as the "WhatsApp tax" this would would increase the costs of service which are already among the highest in the region, and put more strain on the average Lebanese person as a result.
This was the final straw and since Thursday people in every city and every sect have been in the streets protesting for change.
Welcome to Al-Thoura.
This blog is a space for media and musings from the front-lines of Lebanon's protest movement, now headed towards its fourth day.
Who am I? My name is Dustin Weinreb, I am a Beirut based freelance journalist and scholar of religion and Islam. I have been living and studying Arabic for about three months.
This recent popular outburst has its roots in longstanding grievances towards the government in Lebanon that I will elaborate on in another post, but the immediate cause is the government's response to recent economic problems. Since September there has been an ongoing crisis due to the lack of availability of the U.S. dollar. The Lebanese economy is heavily dollarized and most businesses which deal with imports are reliant on being able to exchange the Lebanese pounds they are paid with for dollars, at an exchange rate which has been fixed since the late nineties, in order to buy goods. In the past month and a half banks have been unwilling to exchange large amounts of currency and instead these businesses have had to resort to street exchanges, which have been charging a much higher rate that the official trading band.
The dollar crisis has led to the gas stations and bakeries threatening to strike, with the former actually doing so for two days in the last month. Compounding this is the anemic growth of the Lebanese economy, the relatively high cost of living, consternation about the provisions of basic services such as electricity, and anger over widespread corruption in the public sector.
Meanwhile, the government has been racing to approve a budget by the constitutional deadline that would slash the budget deficit in order to unlock 11 billion dollars of soft loans promised by European donors at a development conference earlier in the year. Increases in the VAT tax were proposed that would further burden the Lebanese masses already strapped by the ongoing economic crisis and it appeared that substantive reforms to the public electricity utility and anti-corruption initiatives would be pushed down the road, yet again. Finally, on Thursday, it was revealed that a 20 cent tax on VoIP calls would be levied. Commonly referred to as the "WhatsApp tax" this would would increase the costs of service which are already among the highest in the region, and put more strain on the average Lebanese person as a result.
This was the final straw and since Thursday people in every city and every sect have been in the streets protesting for change.
Welcome to Al-Thoura.
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