Money in Lebanon

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

All banks in Lebanon have been shut indefinitely. They say it is for safety reasons following a string of raids by customers demanding access to their own money. In one incident, a woman armed with a toy gun staged a bank hold-up to pay family medical bills. Although the authorities have condemned the raids, they have drawn widespread public support. Since the 2019 collapse of Lebanon's financial system, 80% of the population is struggling for money. There are water shortages and frequent power cuts. We speak to Ghida who backs the bank raids because, she says, people are desperate. We hear from Elize, a cancer patient who shares her experiences of trying to get the drugs she needs to stay alive. Her doctor, professor Fadi Nasr, reminds us how hospitals in Lebanon used to be the best in the Middle East but they have now run out of basic supplies.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the sound of crowd science.
0:02.4	We shoot a laser beam at this atom.
0:05.0	Is that a big canister of oxygen in the background?
0:07.8	Oh, there's a wasp in there.
0:09.3	Yeah, perhaps possibly the most disgusting thing I heard this morning.
0:13.5	But it's one of the nicest fun facts you're going to hear today.
0:16.4	So here, Matthew, holding a doughnut.
0:18.4	What are you going to do with that?
0:19.4	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:22.4	Hello, I'm James Reynolds on the BBC World Service.
0:25.3	And this is BBC OS Conversations
0:28.2	on Money in Lebanon.
0:32.5	Eight out of ten people in Lebanon are struggling for money.
0:37.1	Among our conversations, we hear from a cancer patient
0:40.4	and her doctor on the difficulty of getting vital medicines
0:44.1	and two women about their daily struggle just to get by.
0:48.3	Prices are up in the market.
0:50.4	Gas prices going up.
0:52.2	We're having a hard time coping with no electricity.
0:56.0	We're surviving. That's the major part.
0:59.0	How we're surviving.
1:00.6	No one will be able to tell you.
	...

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