Mariam Shaheen, 72, has lived through four crises in the history of Lebanon, but had never experienced humiliation, oppression, fear and scarcity that she is experiencing now.
“Everything was available,” Mariam says. “We only suffered once from the lack of bread during the war,” during which she and her neighbors bad to buy wheat, grind it and prepare bread by themselves.
Shaheen spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat about the current crisis in Lebanon, which she said was the worst in 60 years.
The Lebanese had never experienced a similar crisis, where ambiguity and uncertainty prevail, amid a political deadlock, a very low purchasing power, lack of essentials including food and medicine, a crazy inflation rate and security tensions.
While the country knew similar problems sporadically in the past, they were never fully synchronized as is the case today.
“Everything we needed was available. Power supply was not interrupted for long hours and we could buy gas to light the lamps,” she says.
“The situation was better...there was a state,” says Salim Saad, 68, who stresses that the current crisis was not been experienced by the Lebanese even during the war.
He explained that the two-year war obliged them to stay away from work, but upon their return after the end of this difficult period, “the state forced the employer to pay half of our salaries for 22 months.”
He continues: “During the Covid-19 pandemic, the employer deprived us of our salaries and we cannot sue him because no state protects us now.”
In addition to the weakened state authority, Saad believes that the people have also changed. He explains: “When the war broke out, we lived in the Corniche Nahr area in Beirut. Neighbors did not differentiate between one person and another, and if bread lacked from the bakeries, we would share it among us, and if one of us faced a problem, all the neighbors would confront the militias.”
“Today, people are taking advantage of the crisis. For example, a person selling gasoline on the black market obliged us to buy a 10-liter gallon today at a value of LBP 270,000, noting that the official price is LBP 75,000 for 20 liters… People today are fighting over aid and goods, a situation that we have never seen before,” Saad told Asharq Al-Awsat.
