Lebanon in dire need
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 20 September 2021
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The new Lebanese government has been in place for a week, but with the economy still spiraling, Lebanese people lack confidence anything will be done in the short term to relieve the extreme economic crisis. Mohamed El Aassar, Middle East journalist with Fortune Magazine, tells the BBC's Rebecca Kesby how the country’s economy got to be in such a dire state. Reporter Houshig Kaymakamian outlines exactly who makes up the new Lebanese government, and why Lebanese people don’t trust them to enact any meaningful reforms. Beirut restaurateur Aline Kamakian describes daily life trying to run a business in the country, and economist Diana Menhem explains just how dangerous the present moment is, and what needs to change.
Producer: Frey Lindsay.
(Picture: The first batch of Iranian fuel oil arrives in the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on September 16, 2021. Picture credit: Sleiman Amhaz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi there, welcome to Business Daily. I'm Rebecca Kesbby. |
| 0:05.1 | Lebanon finally has a new government, but it comes in as the economy continues to freefall. |
| 0:11.1 | We're living in a jail and we don't know how to get out of it. |
| 0:15.2 | I have a six-year-old daughter and I don't know what I'm going to do for her. |
| 0:19.0 | I really don't know what I can do. I'm scared of dying. |
| 0:22.8 | Where does the new government start? What can they do to stabilize the finances of a country that's |
| 0:29.1 | lost 90% of the value of its currency and where three quarters of the population is now in poverty? |
| 0:36.0 | Nothing else can remedy the economic situation in Lebanon |
| 0:39.3 | except structural and real reforms. |
| 0:42.2 | This government, we doubt highly that we'll be able to conduct these reforms |
| 0:46.4 | because this would mean shooting the political class in its foot. |
| 0:50.1 | Lebanon, the next chapter. |
| 0:51.9 | That's all coming up in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:06.0 | A government knows it's in trouble when a militant group organizes a fuel convoy that's greeted |
| 1:12.1 | in the streets by jubilant crowds throwing rice and rose petals. |
| 1:24.3 | Hezbollah, the Shia Islamist organization, whose political wing has seats in government, imported the fuel from Iran, driving it through Syria. |
| 1:33.5 | Hezbollah says it's not looking to run a business venture, but plans to distribute the fuel free of charge to hospitals and at cut price to other essential services. |
| 1:43.4 | For the cheering locals, it's the first bit of good news they've heard in ages. |
| 1:50.8 | It's a victory for the people of Lebanon who've been humiliated |
| 1:54.2 | for asking for a little oil and fuel. |
| 1:57.2 | It's a victory for all the Lebanese people from all sects. |
| 2:01.3 | May each person who says their Lebanese keep their head up. |
... |
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