Abu-Rish: Lebanon's Uprising in a Time of Crisis

Tags: talks, lebanon

Talk given by Ziad Abu-Rish on May 27th, 2020.

3 parts to talk:

• Multiple crises
• Taking stock
• covid-19 issues

Multiple Crises

Many crises at play here:

1. Financial Crisis
   • Literal shortage of dollars
2. Fiscal Crisis
   • Chronic deficit
     • Large chunk of spending (1/3rd) is used for just servicing debt
3. Employment Crisis
4. Infrastructure Crisis
   • Most people pay 2 electricity bills & water bills
5. Political Crisis
   • Electoral politics has failed to provide a solution

Taking Stock of the Protest Movement

• Greviances go beyond the whatsapp tax
  • whatsapp tax is very minor overall
• Protests were largely big tent
• State deployed a variety of violent tactics
  • Army to contain movement
  • Military tribunals for protestors
  • Thugs
• Politicians ended up disappearing from the public view
  • Now trying to rewrite the history of the protests
• Attempt in early march to coalse the movement

Covid-19

• Government was so willing to shut down the country because it would also disperse the protests

Additional sources

• Lebanese Center for Policy Studies
• Lebanese Politics Podcast
• Habib Mastah
• “The Public Source” - lebanon
• “Megaphone” - lebanon

Questions

• Comparison of Lebanon and HK?
• “political entrepenur” - neoglism coined by makdisi
• the lira peg was largely to make investing in lebanon a safe habor for disapora
• health care in Lebanon is largely privatized
  • although health care in iraq is also privatized