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News > World

Lebanon: 'You Stink' Unrest Goes on, Gov't Reaches No Solution

  • Lebanese protesters are sprayed with water during a protest against corruption and against the government’s failure to resolve a crisis over garbage disposal, near the government palace in Beirut on August 23, 2015.

    Lebanese protesters are sprayed with water during a protest against corruption and against the government’s failure to resolve a crisis over garbage disposal, near the government palace in Beirut on August 23, 2015. | Photo: Reuters

Published 25 August 2015
Opinion

Analysts told teleSUR that while politicians had the resources to fix the garbage problem, they lacked the will to invest in the country.

Lebanon's cabinet ended a meeting Tuesday without reaching a solution for the ongoing garbage crisis in the country which triggered weeks-long protests that turned violent over the weekend, with police and military firing tear gas, rubber bullets and reportedly live ammunition at protesters.

The meeting lasted for five hours and saw six ministers storm out before it concluded. Shortly after the ministers left, including the foreign minister, the rest of the cabinet said that they had rejected bids by several contractors for garbage collecting contracts.

The meeting was called for by Prime Minister Tammam Salam following the weekend's heated protests where one protester was killed. The turmoil started after the July 17 closure of a landfill serving Lebanon's capital Beirut and its surroundings.

The garbage started piling up in the city and small protests started taking place with the slogan “You Stink,” which quickly became the name of the current anti-government campaign after they failed to address the issue for more than a month. The campaign is also calling on the government to resign.

RELATED: A Garbage Revolution in Lebanon?

The recent unrest in the small Mediterranean country highlights the public's discontent with the political elite in the country as the Parliament is made up of several factions within the country divided by sectarianism and opposing regional alliances.

“Although Beirut suffers from water shortages and electricity blackouts, and there's no public transportation or public parks, it's interesting that it takes a garbage crisis to bring people to the streets,” Julia Tierney, PhD candidate in urban planning at Uuniverty of California at Berkeley, told teleSUR Tuesday.

“It was as if most Lebanese had resigned themselves to having one of the most incompetent governments in the world, until the mounds of rancid trash clogging the streets reminded them that the source of so much of Lebanon's corruption is its poor governance,” she added.

The two main forces within the Parliament and the government are the Hezbollah-coalition and the pro-Western Saudi camp who fail to see eye-to-eye on many issues. The six ministers who walked out of the cabinet meeting where Hezbollah-allied and were objecting to the high cost asked for by the trash-collector companies.

Lebanon already pays some of the world's highest per ton waste collection rates, and media said the companies sought to raise prices even higher.

On Monday, leaders of "You Stink" said they were regrouping after the weekend violence. They called a new demonstration for Saturday night against Lebanon's "corrupt political class".

"In the beginning, this was a battle over the trash issue ... But now there is a general battle against the political class," organizer Marwan Maalouf told reporters.

Meanwhile, protests with large crowds carrying Lebanese flags and chanting also took place on Tuesday in Riad al-Solh Square near the premier's office.

Tierney said that the country had the resources to handle the garbage crisis as well as other difficulties the country was facing. However, politicians were consumed with power and self-serving policies.

“Unfortunately Lebanon has the talent and the technical know-how to solve these basic infrastructure problems (water, electricity, garbage collection and disposal), and its banks have the coffers to finance these solutions, but its politicians (and the people who elect and support them) don't have the political will to invest in the country. Politicians cannot see beyond their pocket books,” she added.

RELATED: Denmark Accused of 'Outsourcing' Torture to Lebanon

Tags

Lebanon Middle East & North Africa Human rights

Al Jazeera-Reuters-AFP
by teleSUR / mh-CM-mk
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