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‘The Smell of Garbage Made Us Revolt’: Calls for Revolution in Lebanon

August 30, 2015
Credit: Alex Liddington-Cox/Lebanese Streets

Reporting by Alexander Liddington-Cox Protesters have vowed to escalate and broaden their demonstrations beyond Beirut if the Lebanese government doesn’t meet their demands within 72 hours. Thousands gathered in downtown Beirut on Saturday evening, led by environmental activist group #YouStink and a handful of other organisations. What started out as a campaign for better waste disposal practices in the wake of the city’s garbage crisis has now morphed into calls for a re-examination of Lebanon’s gridlocked political system. Many protesters traveled from outside the Lebanese capital to be at the ‪#‎YouStink‬-led demonstrations, which were sparked by the government’s mishandling of Beirut’s garbage disposal that has seen trash intermittently piling up in the streets. Salem, an engineer from Tripoli, told Lebanese Streets he made the one-and-a-half hour car journey to Beirut because the garbage crisis is indicative of much deeper problems with the Lebanese political system that he can no longer tolerate. “They’ve made us live like dogs,” he said. “The smell of garbage is revolting, and it’s made us revolt. The Lebanese population feel they are not being treated with dignity.” The garbage crisis started when residents of Naameh, a…


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