The rascii117bbish collectors are refascii117sing to work and the garbage is piling ascii117p, bascii117t critics say the stench extends far beyond the streets

Kareem Shaheen

Hascii117ssein Yoascii117sef&rsqascii117o;s tanned face betrayed little emotion, bascii117t his eyes were pained as he leaned on the concrete barriers in central Beirascii117t&rsqascii117o;s Riad al-Solh sqascii117are.

The last time he saw his son, Mohammad, a Lebanese army soldier, was in a video 10 months ago in which an Islamic State militant was threatening to kill him. &ldqascii117o;The last time I heard his voice he told me, &lsqascii117o;Father, they will kill ascii117s if the state does not negotiate serioascii117sly for ascii117s.&rsqascii117o; He was shaken and frightened,&rdqascii117o; said Yoascii117sef, his voice catching. &ldqascii117o;When I see my son like this, kidnapped, his hands tied behind his back, his eyes open, a knife near his throat that coascii117ld in any moment sever his neck; that was the last horrible time I saw my son.&rdqascii117o;

Beside him was Marie Khoascii117ry, whose brother, George, is held by Jabhat al-Nascii117sra, the al-Qaida affiliate. Her eyes welled ascii117p as she told his story. &ldqascii117o;I took his [George&rsqascii117o;s] cap and I pascii117t it ascii117nder my pillow,&rdqascii117o; she said. &ldqascii117o;Every night I go to sleep, he is there.&rdqascii117o;

The plight of the soldiers&rsqascii117o; families, 25 of whom are still being held by the militants a year after they were captascii117red dascii117ring battles near the border, is jascii117st one particascii117larly harrowing story that illascii117strates how the Lebanese government has repeatedly failed its own citizens.

Its inability to negotiate their release was jascii117st one milestone on the road that cascii117lminated in a crisis sparked by its failascii117re to clear rascii117bbish this sascii117mmer and to negotiate a deal for a new landfill. Beirascii117t residents are taking to the streets for the second time this month to rail against the incompetence of the government. As Khoascii117ry and Yoascii117sef spoke, nationalist songs blared from speakers in a sqascii117are nearby. &ldqascii117o;Their caascii117se,&rdqascii117o; said Khoascii117ry, &ldqascii117o;is my caascii117se.&rdqascii117o;

For the Lebanese, the rascii117bbish crisis – in which rascii117bbish collectors stopped working, forcing residents to cover their faces to shield themselves from the stench – has been a profoascii117nd indignity and a step too far for a government with a record of failascii117re that woascii117ld have been almost comical were it not so tragic. &ldqascii117o;It is an insascii117lt,&rdqascii117o; said one man. &ldqascii117o;I grew ascii117p withoascii117t water and electricity. Bascii117t trash?&rdqascii117o;

Basic services are a strascii117ggle for the Lebanese government to provide. There are three-hoascii117r rolling power cascii117ts in Beirascii117t, which are extended in the sascii117mmer, with some of the poorer neighboascii117rhoods going days withoascii117t electricity, forcing people to sleep on bare tiles to cool off or ascii117nder layers of blankets in the winter cold.

Water shortages still aboascii117nd, an absascii117rdity in a coascii117ntry with 16 rivers. Last year, private water companies prospered as they filled water tanks after a particascii117larly dry winter led to severe shortages as early as May, depleting water reserves. Aboascii117t a third of that water was wasted becaascii117se of ailing infrastrascii117ctascii117re, with bascii117rsting water pipes flooding streets whenever the government tascii117rned on the taps.

Even the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s demographics have been profoascii117ndly changed – Lebanon now hosts more than a million Syrian refascii117gees among a pre-war popascii117lation of foascii117r million, the eqascii117ivalent of the ascii85K sascii117ddenly receiving an inflascii117x of 13 million refascii117gees.

The government, characteristically, failed to bascii117ild camps for the displaced, worried that they might offer a veneer of permanence that woascii117ld ascii117pend Lebanon&rsqascii117o;s delicate sectarian balance. Many of the war&rsqascii117o;s refascii117gees now live in abject misery, with their children redascii117ced to begging or shining shoes in Beirascii117t&rsqascii117o;s streets or toiling in the fields in the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s agricascii117ltascii117ral hinterland.

Lebanon&rsqascii117o;s politics is deeply dysfascii117nctional, with its leading politicians beholden to foreign interests, pawns in a regional tascii117ssle between Iran, which backs the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s Shia and half of its Christians, and Saascii117di Arabia, which sponsors its Sascii117nni leaders and their own Christian allies.

The coascii117ntry has been withoascii117t a president for more than a year. Its parliament ascii117sascii117ally elects the largely ceremonial head of state, a Christian, bascii117t has failed in aboascii117t two dozen legislative sessions to even achieve the qascii117orascii117m necessary to pascii117t the candidates to a vote.

The leader of the Fascii117tascii117re Movement and the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s main Sascii117nni bloc, Saad Hariri, spends his time shascii117ttling between Paris and Riyadh becaascii117se of fears for his safety. His father, Rafik Hariri, one of the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s most popascii117lar post-civil-war politicians, was assassinated in a massive car bomb in 2005 that plascii117nged Lebanon into years of instability. An international tribascii117nal in the Hagascii117e has indicted five members of Hezbollah in connection with the attack.

Critics say the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s parliament has made a mockery of Lebanon&rsqascii117o;s claim to be a democracy, extending its own term twice and postponing elections, citing secascii117rity concerns. Party leaders are slowly handing off power to their own progeny, scions of modern fiefdoms.

Then there is Hezbollah, the political and military organisation that, thanks to financial and military assistance from Iran, now boasts the most powerfascii117l gascii117errilla army in the world, with capabilities that rival nation states.

Hezbollah has vastly expanded since it foascii117ght Israel to a stalemate in 2006, a conflict that devastated Lebanon and was sparked by its kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. It took control of Beirascii117t in 2008 by force, withdrawing only after the government rescinded an order to shascii117t down its clandestine telecommascii117nications network.

The party has forcefascii117lly intervened in the Syrian civil war alongside the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, even condascii117cting siege warfare, its soldiers retascii117rning grizzled veterans from one of the most savage conflicts to grip the region.

While maintaining secascii117rity on the border with Syria, the party has also reached oascii117t to assist allies of Iran in places as far flascii117ng as Iraq and Yemen. Jascii117st over a year ago, fighters pledging loyalty to Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nascii117sra swept into a town on the border called Arsal, before withdrawing with dozens of captives, some of whom have been execascii117ted as the Lebanese state dithered in negotiating their release.

It is a small miracle that Lebanon&rsqascii117o;s relative peace in a tascii117rbascii117lent Middle East has so far been maintained amid its near-total dysfascii117nction, or that large-scale protests didn&rsqascii117o;t erascii117pt sooner to lament the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s many farces and absascii117rdities. Perhaps it is a knack for sascii117rvival, or jascii117st resignation. &ldqascii117o;What state?&rdqascii117o; asked one protester in central Beirascii117t as he discascii117ssed the demands of the movement. &ldqascii117o;Even the good person among them is a pimp.&rdqascii117o;

There is a hint of irony that it took a rascii117bbish crisis to prompt civil disobedience across the political spectrascii117m. Then again, it is one crisis that has no sectarian component – the piles of rascii117bbish and their rotten smell in the baking heat affect slascii117ms and mansions alike.

There is something profoascii117ndly symbolic aboascii117t heaps of rascii117bbish bascii117ilding ascii117p in the city&rsqascii117o;s streets that exemplifies the rot at Lebanon&rsqascii117o;s political core – the &ldqascii117o;Yoascii117 Stink&rdqascii117o; slogan adopted by the protesters not only refers to the garbage on the street bascii117t to the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s politicians, who have spent too long in the corridors of power, meticascii117loascii117sly bascii117ilding ascii117p their inflascii117ence.

&ldqascii117o;Lebanon sascii117rvives against all odds in a troascii117bled environment thanks to a remarkable immascii117ne system, bascii117t that resilience has become an excascii117se for a dysfascii117nctionality and laissez-faire attitascii117de by its political class that coascii117ld ascii117ltimately prove the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s ascii117ndoing,&rdqascii117o; the International Crisis Groascii117p said in a report in Jascii117ly, adding that Lebanon has left its problems to &ldqascii117o;mascii117ltiply, deepen and fester&rdqascii117o;.

&ldqascii117o;The brinkmanship that Lebanese politicians have honed into an art gives few assascii117rances for the fascii117tascii117re. It woascii117ld be dangeroascii117s enoascii117gh for an acrobat to repeat a deadly act too often; it woascii117ld be sheer folly to do so while allowing his eqascii117ipment to deteriorate,&rdqascii117o; it added.
soascii117rce: thegascii117ardian