“No one has been honest with us”

BEIRUT Roy Hayek runs a small record store on Mar Mikhael Street on the edge of the port of Beirut. The showcase features Pink Floyd, Doors and Deep Purple.

Hayek, in his twenties, founded a record store in 1979, and the business has been in the same position ever since.

On August 4, 2020, the entire street left its place when an ammonium nitrate cargo exploded in the port of Beirut.

Roy Hayek shows on his phone a mobile phone video filmed by a friend, where the flames of fire flare up and after a while a pressure wave grabs the movable goods as they walk down the street – the photographer himself grabs.

– Like a miracle, my friend survived.

The life work of many Mar Mikhael Street merchants disappeared at once. So it was with record dealer Roy Hayek.

– The deal was completely destroyed. The car in front of the store also broke down. Actually, nothing was spared.

In the store, an explosion swept windows, shelves, display cases, CD players, reels, records, CDs and cassettes as they went.

Many old reels, turntables or cassette players were invaluable as they can no longer be obtained anywhere. The record retailer, in particular, is bitten by the breakdown of a movie projector at the store’s place of honor.

Hayek’s record store is a small museum of one-of-a-kind sound recording equipment.

He has tried to haul spare parts and run into damaged machine elderly piles. The money has gone to almost 20,000 euros.

Street traders have tried to help each other. The past two years have been heavy.

– I have lost ten pounds during this time, says Roy Hayek.

Rudy Saab keep a small grocery store on the same street. He was in a trade with his parents when the port exploded twice. The store was completely damaged.

The blasts killed nearly 200 people and injured thousands. The Saab family survived the bruises.

The family apartment is in the same house as the shop.

– The apartment was also largely destroyed, says Rudy Saab.

The material destruction was enormous in Beirut. The value of destroyed port facilities, houses and furniture is billions of euros.

People on the streets in particular are outraged that the authorities and others have not kept their promises.

Rudy Saab says U.S. Aid for Development was the fastest to help, with numerous individuals opening their purse strings.

According to Saab, there has been far too little help – far less than traders would have needed.

– The men of the army also went to inspect the destruction, but nothing has been heard from it, says record label Roy Hayek.

Assistance has been very vague and crooked. According to Hayek, in addition to the military, representatives of various NGOs also went to inquire about the destruction of the trade and cars. Help has been promised, but no help has come.

– No one has been honest with us.

Rudy Saab says it is no longer pointless to look back and expect anything from the state.

– They would have acted already if they had wanted to. We have to start from the beginning and that is what we have done.

In fact, the entire Mar Mikhael Street has shed the dust of the explosion off its shoulders. The street is now full of bars and nightlife.

Life is even so vibrant that every second balcony has sheets that require even a night of silence.

A silent reminder of the harbor explosion is a gas station across the street whose roof has partially collapsed. It is a monument to the Mar Mikhail district.

Between the explosions and the actual residential area of ​​Mar Mikhael was a grain silo. It prevented the pressure wave from hitting the homes with full force and thus greater destruction.

The ruins of a grain silo have become a kind of monument to corruption, defiance, inaction – and also impunity.

Puddles and other birds have taken possession of the silo. Grains can be found here and there, there is plenty to eat for the birds. The smell of bird droppings is pungent in the vicinity of the silo.

The port has also been a standing table for politicians in power. The port administration has been occupied by representatives of various religions and has become a breeding ground for corruption.

Port control betrayed. The dangerousness of the ammonium nitrate cargo was known, and yet it had been in stock for years. Then it got to explode. The cause of the explosions is still unclear.

At their best, politicians have mainly blocked the investigation of the accident and the detection of possible negligence.

No raven raven eye soot.

A political commentator familiar with the game around the explosions Daoud Rammal says the problem with the investigation has been that it was politically controlled.

– The political leadership is responsible for what has happened in the investigation, Rammal says.

At the time of the port explosions, the Lebanese economy had collapsed for the second year in a row. The Lebanese were already very tired of the country’s corruption.

The explosions caused a strong popular movement demanding the resignation of the government on the streets and bringing the perpetrators to justice. The demand of the people has resonated in deaf ears.

Rammal recalls that the investigation into the port explosion was suspended and hampered.

– Maybe it is the case that the political leadership is corrupt. If the elite had not been corrupted, we would have known what happened in the port and who is to blame, Daoud Rammal puts it.

Parliamentary elections were held in Lebanon just over a month ago. Attempts are being made to assemble a new government at the best of times. Getting an investigation into the port explosion is on the agenda of the future government.

– Nobody got into that account. The matter has been horrified terribly. Hopefully some judgment will come, but it’s starting to be too late, trader Rudy Saab says.

Daoud Rammal, like the people, fears that no one will be held accountable. He estimates that no charges will be brought because all the political parties are somehow entangled in the tangle.

– The whole thing may be printed with a fleece, a scapegoat is found somewhere and political leaders wash their hands, says political commentator Daoud Rammal.