{"id":2833,"date":"2020-08-13T14:26:38","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T11:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=2833"},"modified":"2020-08-13T14:26:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T11:26:41","slug":"how-the-lebanon-can-escape-from-the-total-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=2833","title":{"rendered":"How The Lebanon Can Escape From The Total Destruction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As another prophet in the “Country of Cedars”, Lebanon’s former “Switzerland of the Middle East”, the recently resigned Lebanese Foreign Minister Nassif Youssef Nassif Hitti, branded in the worst way the inability of Lebanon’s political leaders to implement reforms and find solutions to the nightmarish economic and social crisis Lebanon has been experiencing in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evidence of Lebanon\u2019s political system incompetence did not take long to surface in the worst possible way. The devastation of the dead and wounded, along with the enormous destruction caused by the approximately 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut, brought hell to earth in Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by T.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9The law of intellectual property is prohibited in any way unlawful use\/appropriation of this article, with heavy civil and criminal penalties for the infringer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Former Foreign Minister of Lebanon Nassif Yussef Hitti<\/strong> Photo by www.commons.wikimedia.org<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Despite the efforts of the rulers to systematically misinform the Lebanese people in the early days, that the destruction was the result of either the sabotage of Hezbollah or Israel’s attack, none of this has been proven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explosion on 4th<\/sup> August 2020 in Beirut Harbour was simply the moment of truth for Lebanon’s existing political system, now acting as a harbinger of its impending collapse.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 300,000 people were left homeless. Grain stocks only exist for a month, erasing the fear of hunger on the faces of the Lebanese people. Of the 80% of goods imported by the country for consumption, 60% enter from the port of Beirut, which by the end of the year will be out of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covid-19 is constantly dissipating due to overcrowding at funerals and hospitals; all this has made the country’s citizens, who had revolted in the autumn of 2019 angry about the venting of their deposits, ever-increasing inflation and the “rotten” corruption of the public administration and the political system, become fury in order to inflict the final blow on Lebanon’s political world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to fix this desperate situation<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the short term, the pressing spectre of hunger and lack of basic goods should be addressed. Only the international community can get Lebanon out of this situation by finding solutions to the immediate problem of feeding the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loans should be issued for the purchase, transfer and distribution of basic goods and sanitary equipment, which will be registered with the Government of Lebanon without it receiving and managing these funds. That is what the UN will do (the purchase, transfer, and distribution of basic goods).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beirut Port before the explosion (2019)<\/strong>
Photo by Author: Yoniw, Source: Own work Licensed Public Domain<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the long term, “deep cuts and reforms” are needed both in the Lebanese Constitution and in the Lebanese economy in order to guarantee the system that each time a credible Government will emerge that keeps its election promises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current political system should be brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague for criminal acts against the Lebanese country and people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The introduction should be decided and done by the International Community and not by any Lebanese government agencies in order not to create a civil war again. It is only in this way that the anger of the citizens will be partially settled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order not to revert to another person and name the current\/same political system must fundamentally change the political regime left behind by the French after the independence of Lebanon in 1943, which divided the political regime into “protectorates”, giving them to the respective religious groups. It is this regime that determined that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Christian Maronitis the President of Lebanon,<\/li>
  • Sunni the Prime Minister of Lebanon<\/li>
  • Shiite the Speaker of the House, etc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    This regime has led Lebanon’s political system steadily towards corruption by creating client relations to throughout the rule of law, where the different factions functioned as Mafia groups that controlled their own spheres of power, e.g. the Government, the army, the port of Beirut, banks, public enterprises, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After the civil war (1989), these factions were transformed into political parties, continuing the same roles. But the system came to its limits when the looted banks went bankrupt, the national currency depreciated 80% of its value, 50% of the population is below the poverty line, power outages are becoming more frequent, garbage is constantly on the streets and in March 2020 the country went bankrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    Beirut Port after the explosion (2020) <\/strong>
    Photo by the website www.atlanticcouncil,org <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Reforms and Necessary Changes<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At the political level, the Executive Power should be taken over by a temporary transitional government composed of personalities from the Lebanese country, which should be chosen and supported by the International Community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This government will sign the first loans for the purchase, transfer, and distribution of basic goods which the UN blue-cyans will carry out these tasks. Neither the army nor other Lebanese government agencies will be involved in the transport and distribution of the goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A bill should then be passed that would make the Lebanese state non-religious in all its actions and functions. Lebanese citizens will be prohibited from carrying on them and during their working and social lives clothing or symbols that define their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Every Lebanese citizen will be able to operate his faith in places of worship of their religion, e.g. mosques, churches, synagogues, etc. and in their personal space which is the home of every citizen. In this way, any passions that trigger everyone’s personal religious beliefs are withdrawn from social life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The temporary and transitional Government of Lebanon will then conclude the necessary loans in the form of financial support program, accompanied by the implementation of concrete reforms in the Lebanese economy and society. More specifically, these reforms will include<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1.<\/strong> Restriction of government expenditure which, as a whole and annually, will not exceed 15% of GDP. In this case, there will have to be mass redundancies of civil servants and privatizations of public agencies and enterprises and a corresponding adjustment of taxation at a low level to be able to finance all new government expenditure seamlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2.<\/strong> Announcements and awarding of projects to rebuild the country’s infrastructure to foreign companies that will have to hire Lebanese citizens to carry out these projects by drastically reducing unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3.<\/strong> Grace period for non-repayment of Lebanon’s external debt for five consecutive years. Restructuring Lebanon’s total external debt with a view to repaying it in fifty years with a view to drastically reducing the annual repayment costs of loans and their corresponding interest rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In this way, combined with annual government spending at 15% of GDP, high budget surpluses will be created each year in the state budget and Lebanon will be able to repay its loans seamlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4.<\/strong> The transitional Government of Lebanon should receive the bulk of its loans from the Arab countries and the EU. The IMF should act as a technical adviser to this government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5.<\/strong> Disarmament and ostracization from the Lebanese political life of Hezbollah and Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6.<\/strong> Until the situation is normalised, the international community should continue to support Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The road is difficult full of obstacles but now consensus on all Lebanese sides is needed as never before. Only in this way will the Lebanese people be able to see again the sun that has so far been darkened by the incompetence and corruption of their country’s rulers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As another prophet in the “Country of Cedars”, Lebanon’s former “Switzerland of the Middle East”, the recently resigned Lebanese Foreign Minister Nassif Youssef Nassif…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[823,390],"tags":[1842,1844,378,1843,1111],"class_list":["post-2833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-politics","tag-beirut-port","tag-corrupted-political-system","tag-corruption","tag-explosion","tag-lebanon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2839,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions\/2839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}