Byblos is a city about the size of Rauma, north of Beirut. At first glance, it looks healthy. Tourists usually come here to enjoy the city’s beach and historical attractions.
26 years old in the center Thea Abu Jawda peeps from the pharmacy door. He has studied pharmacy in Lebanon and the United States.
However, an expensive education at a private university did not bring a top job, but only an occasional hourly job at a friend’s pharmacy. The salary comes from a few hundred euros per month.
Lebanon plunged into an economic crisis in 2019 and is still suffering from it.
The huge foreign debt and the central bank’s attempt to maintain a stable exchange rate led to a currency and banking crisis.
Unemployment rate rose last year to about 30 percent. Youth unemployment was just under 48 percent, but there are no very recent figures. The rise in prices, i.e. inflation, rose to more than 200 percent during the crisis, but has now dropped to around 50 percent.
People save on medicine and buy food
Financial discipline can also be seen in the pharmacy, Abu Jawda says. Some can get their medicine with the support of aid organizations, but there are also people who intervene and have to think about whether they can afford medicine.
– Some people don’t buy medicines in order to have money left over for food, says Thea Abu Jawda.
People leave even really important medicines unpurchased.
– It could be blood pressure or diabetes medication. If you don’t take them, you may get even more seriously ill or even die, Abu Jawda explains.
Thea Abu Jawda is not going to stay to watch her home country’s plunge spiral. He is planning to leave Lebanon. Many of his educated friends have already left.
– The departure of young people is of course a big problem for Lebanon. Healthcare and many other sectors would need us. But at the same time, we also have to think about ourselves and our opportunities to develop.
Thea Abu Jawda says that people want certainty about the future. In addition to the economy, politics is in disarray, and Lebanon doesn’t even have a president right now. The state doesn’t really exist, Abu Jawda thinks.
The job was behind bars
The economic crisis can be seen on the streets of Byblos. Many restaurants are empty, and bank branches in the city are closed.
Behind the padlocked blue bar is Thea’s father, the bank manager Jihad Abu Jawdan former workplace.
We had agreed to meet in front of the office, but in the end Abu Jawda doesn’t want to see his old workplace. So we head to the cafe.
Jihad Abu Jawda is still on the bank’s payroll.
However, the monthly salary of just under 4,000 euros has been exchanged for a severance pay of less than 200 euros and a frugal life.
Abu Jawda moved to other positions within the bank when the financial crisis started five years ago. Now he sits at home on layoff.
So it’s time to remember happier times.
In good times we traveled
– If we talk about luxury, we went abroad every year. We have also visited Finland and Estonia with the family. Now we haven’t been anywhere for four years, says Abu Jawda.
Thrift is a trump card, even though Abu Jawda’s family, which belonged to the prosperous middle class, is not from the poorest end.
Poverty, especially in rural areas, has increased drastically, although it is difficult to find figures covering the entire country.
According to the World Bank’s estimate, one third of Lebanese people used less than three dollars a day to live in the second year. The situation of Syrian refugees in the country is even worse.
Prices have gotten out of control compared to wages. The price of gasoline is around 1.65 euros per liter. A modest meal in a restaurant costs 10–15 euros.
In the local Spinneys supermarket, a kilo of high-quality meat costs just under 16 euros, and a package of 15 eggs costs just under two euros. The chain is not the cheapest, so there are cheaper alternatives.
Deposits were locked into the account
In Lebanon, the dollar has long been a parallel currency even for everyday purchases. Prices quoted in dollars have remained relatively stable and it pushes official inflation down. But to benefit from it requires that there is income or savings in foreign currency. In addition, the savings must be accessible.
The banking crisis has led to people’s money being locked up in accounts.
– Even if there is money in the account, it cannot be withdrawn. Basically, you can withdraw $150 a month. Some customers have up to 15 million dollars in their accounts, says Jihad Abu Jawda.
59-year-old Jihad Abu Jawda is waiting to see if he can still return to banking. An alternative is to apply for a job in the financial sector in, for example, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.
He understands his daughter’s desire to leave.
– I believe that every young Lebanese dreams of moving abroad.
The background of Lebanon’s problems is also widespread corruption.
For example, the country’s electricity production is badly messed up, and the Lebanese in many places rely on generators maintained by the so-called electricity mafia.
The state has pumped money into the state electricity company, but there is still a constant electricity shortage in the country.
One example of corruption is the fuel crisis, which was revealed in 2020. A few years earlier, the electricity company organized a tender to buy good quality fuel for power plants.
The company that received the procurement contract is now being blamed from cheating, which also included laboratories that checked the quality of the fuel. Company brought, according to the charges polluting and power plant damaging low quality oil at a good profit.
“Both the people and the politicians are responsible for corruption”
Young Thea Abu Jawda’s employer, a pharmacist Roland Stefan don’t just blame the politicians for the problems.
– Both politicians and the people are responsible for corruption, because people behave in the same way as corrupt politicians, Stefan thinks.
At the moment, Lebanon is living under the shadow of the threat of war.
The Hezbollah movement, defined as a terrorist organization by the United States, has accelerated its attacks from southern Lebanon to northern Israel.
Israel, on the other hand, has fired at targets in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has a lot of power in Lebanon. It is both a party in parliament and a heavily armed army that is part of an Iranian-organized anti-Israel front.
Israel and Hezbollah have clashed many times. This time, Hezbollah started the attacks in October 2023 to support the Hamas movement operating in Gaza.
Israel invaded Gaza after the October 7 terrorist attacks. Hezbollah says it will stop attacks on Israel if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
In Israel, there have been demands for tougher measures against Hezbollah as well, and that could mean a full-scale war.
“I’ve been feeling unsafe”
Jihad Abu Jawda says he has been feeling unsafe for the past few months.
– There is no danger in this area, but South Lebanon is also part of our homeland. The security situation is frightening.
Thea, a daughter from Lebanon, says that war would be devastating.
– The threat of war worries me a lot. Lebanon would not last if there was another war on top of the economic crisis.