The fireball that engulfed the Port of Beirut on August 4th, 2020, was perhaps the most spectacular event ever caught on camera. It was the horrifyingly literal bursting of a bubble that had been accumulating in size and sludge for the last 30 years. As we walked through Beirut’s deserted streets one year later, my friend Ghazar Keoshgerian recalled his first moments after the blast to me: lying in the rubble, he thought the city had been hit by a nuclear weapon. The blast killed over 200 people and injured around 7000. The destruction of the country’s only port, combined with the supply chain shocks of the pandemic, was devastating for a country that imports nearly everything. The wholesale collapse of the country’s financial system one year prior to the explosion had already put it in a fragile position. This perfect storm of calamity would have paralyzed even the best of regimes. Lebanon didn’t stand a chance.
Read Full Article »
