"We’re in the midst of a political, environmental and social crisis in Lebanon. Allow me to begin with the most obvious and explicit issue; the subject of garbage/waste management.
The issue is actually quite simple; Sukleen, the "privatized" company that manages the waste of Beirut and the Mount Lebanon province (Jabal Lebnen) has been dumping rubbish in a landfill in the Naameh countryside, south of Beirut. The landfill was due to close many years ago, in 2004 actually. But the government kept postponing the deadline allowing Sukleen to continue to fill the landfill well over its initial capacity. Weeks ago, the Naameh residents, decided that it was enough and that the landfill should be closed for good, rather than wait for the government to allow its deadline to be postponed again. In fact, they stopped Sukleen trucks the day of the legally contracted deadline, so technically, nothing illegal was done. On the contrary, they were merely enforcing the law.
The government knew about this deadline, they were the ones who made the contract with the private (no so private) Sukleen company. However, they’ve done absolutely nothing to prevent the current crisis. So, logically, Sukleen stopped collecting the garbage because it had nowhere to dump it. As a result, the narrow streets of Beirut were quickly drowning in rubbish, suffocating the already nonexistent side walks (Lebanon is not very pedestrian friendly).
Thursday, while Beirut's citizens were breathing hazardous waste, smoke and fumes (due to the burning of rubbish by angry civilians), the government was arguing over another political and sectarian crisis. They basically discussed their version of a crisis for ten minutes, and at the end of their meeting they decided they'd had enough for for the day, leading to the decision to postpone discussing the rubbish issue and its solution to Tuesday. The people living of Beirut had to wait another 5 days in the growing sea of rubbish, that now drowned the capital. The government acted as though it was the least of their worries. Some citizens decided they'd had enough and were tired of this, so they accordingly organised a protest centered around the slogan "طلعت ريحتكم", basically translating to "Your Stench is Revealed" or "You Stink" the upcoming Saturday.
The movement had no political backing, was non-partisan and was based solely on the needs of the people. It had one simple demand: that the government do its job. But we didn’t want any new landfills that were dangerous for the people, we wanted a real solution; a green and environmental solution, one that we could be proud of. It was an anti-government protest, combined with a pro-green and environment twist. We don’t want our waste to simply be dumped in the poorer areas of Lebanon.
The protest wasn’t huge, but its existence was highly important, it was truly representative of those living in Lebanon; Lebanese and foreigner alike. It showed that we were tired of the sectarian government, and its passivity over the simplest of issues. The garbage on the streets was quite frankly representative of the government. Their uselessness was represented in our streets.
That day we expressed our anger and frustration, which we had every right to do. The organizers of the protest also invited green advocate and NGO president of T.E.R.R.E Liban, Paul Abi Rached, to explain how the government overlooked the issue and the solution him and dozens of other activists brought upon the last government. He also stressed about how easy the solution was and how reparation of garbage at the source was important. We immediately threw our plastic bottles in one bag and tissues in another bag; we began separating our rubbish. A change was happening in regards to our bad environmental habits.
Shortly after, news came that the mayor of Beirut had “found” a "solution" to the garbage crisis in Beirut, which meant that the rubbish would be moved as soon as Sunday. We knew at the protest that it was a trap, we simply didn’t want any new landfills. Sukleen did remove the garbage the Sunday from some neighborhoods, but when they got near the designated locations of the new landfills, guess what? Nobody wanted Beirut's garbage, and rightly so. The new landfills located near Jiyeh (between Saida and Beirut), were accepted by the mayor but not the people; an apparent trend in the realm of Lebanese politics. The highway towards the Lebanese south was blocked for several hours on Sunday and Monday to protest the matter. On Tuesday, well before dawn, Activists of "طلعت ريحتكم" followed Sukleen trucks and caught them dumping the garbage in the Beirut river! Government sanctioned landfills were suddenly appearing all over the country and people turned towards social media tocondemn the practice. Pictures were sent, videos were posted, blogposts were written. People were angry.
The government had unsurprisingly postponed the Tuesday meeting (mostly because they didn’t agree on their sectarian problems) but protesters were there, showing our non-partisanship, demanding again that the government do its job. We didn’t identify with the 8 March or the 14 March coalitions, in fact, we wanted them to leave. A lot of chants were present, chants that condemned Solidere, the company that killed Beirut's heritage, tied to Hariri and therefore to Sukleen. Why were the upscale neighborhoods of Solidere clean when the other neighborhoods (with much more people) still dirty?
We spontaneously blocked several roads toward the Martyrs Sqare and created a lot of congestion. Some people may criticize this and they have every right to do so, but the protests were peaceful, and it was to show the authorities that a few hundred people in Beirut was enough to disturb the status quo. We don’t need a political “leader” to back us blocking roads.
We decided to march towards Hamra after a lively debate among ourselves, yes, some shouted at others, but the majority decided that marching to Hamra, and other parts of Beruit, was better than staying in the Downtown area. This was especially due to the fact that not many people lived in that area, besides basically the 1%. We truly demonstrated that we were a democratic movement. More democratic, at least, than the parliament that decided to extend their mandate twice, without asking the Lebanese people if they liked the decision or not!
And then, with that, another episode was unfolding; one that revealed the true coercive status of the Lebanese politicians. While we were marching towards the interior ministry and the ministry of the environment, some protesters dared to attack what looked like a politician's car. It was the car of Minister Derbas, the social affairs minister. The media is reducing the affair to 4 people; Bilal, Ihab, Tarek and Firas, however many more were involved by blocking the car and throwing rubbish on it. We were harmless, just angry. Tarek was arrested as a result. I don’t remember if Tarek were arrested on the spot, but his name was already circulating in the media just after the protest and the long march that led us towards Riad el Soloh. I left before Firas, Ihab and Bilal were arrested, much later in the night.
Quickly news emerged about how Tarek Mallah already had a judicial history with Minister Derbas, and the stories of Ihab and Bilal demonstrated this. They were arrested not only because they dared to touch a minister car, but were interrogated on Tarek. The story of Tarek is simple, he is an orphan who spent more than 13 years of his life in Dar el Fatwa orphanage, a Muslim organization. There he was raped and reported this. Minister Derbas overlooked the case. So as a result Tarek Mallah sponsored a case against Derbas legally, with no outcome.
What followed were two days of pressure. Bilal and Ihab were released Wednesday, Firas, and Tarek Friday. Bilal and Ihab described how they were psychologically harassed by the anti-terrorism forces. They were forced to strip down in front of each other and were put in black masks as if they were some IS members. They were also put under pressure to denounce Tarek Mallah, clearly from orders of Derbas. This just proves how easy it is for any minister to use coercive force. Derbas is officially “independent” in the government. But that doesn’t make him any better than other coalitions minister.
We decided to reorganize ourselves and to plan something bigger. Our goal is to stop the plan that says Sukleen must be divided between different industrialists in the basis of sects. We want the government to at least care about the environment. Our group is representative of a large spectrum of ideologies; Marxists, leftists, liberals etc. We don’t have a single ideology that represents us but we have the same goal, that the government does its job regarding the environment and that it should be held responsible and transparent over the current crisis. We’re not unambitious, we’re just focusing our energy in the first step, and I hope, towards bigger goals." - Hassan, 22
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