The economic crisis took the Lebanese middle class off a plate of meat – now the poorest are rummaging for rubbish

BEIRUT Beirut Paula Andary chopping tomatoes in his home kitchen. A vegetable knife flashes in a modern, middle-class home in the middle-class district of Achrafieh.

Underneath is the tabouleh, or twinkling plain basic Lebanese cuisine salad. The tear ducts are open. The onion has just been chopped.

And the tearing of Lebanese in cooking is not due to the onion alone.

The country is experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis – almost 80 per cent of the population has fallen below the poverty line. Impoverished Lebanese can no longer afford to buy food.

– Before three bunches of parsley cost a thousand Lebanese pounds. Now one bundle costs £ 5,000. A pound of tomatoes cost £ 5,000, now it costs £ 50,000.

Before the economic crisis that began in 2019, one US dollar received £ 1,500. There is currently no official bank rate for the pound – the dollar gets about £ 35,000 on the black market.

At the same time, the monthly income of a middle-income Lebanese has dropped from about a thousand dollars to a few hundred dollars.

Paula Andary says that in the past, tabouleh salad was made by everyone, but today not everyone can afford it anymore.

– Before the economic crisis, we ate red meat, chicken or fish every day. Now this can be done no more than once a week.

A large proportion of the poor cook meat no more than once a month.

The change in eating habits is even more severe for the poorest. Some people have to settle for the waste of others. People stuffing trash are a common sight across Beirut.

Baker Haig Kechkerian makes traditional Lebanese bread, mankouchea. Bread mixed with Zaatar spice blend is available for breakfast for both poor and middle-class Lebanese.

According to Haig Kechkerian, the food crisis has broken this issue as well.

– The price of wheat has tripled in a few years. Sales have plummeted. People cannot afford to buy bread.

First the economic crisis hit and then Russia invaded Ukraine. 80% of the wheat used by Lebanon comes from Ukraine and Russia. No wheat cargoes leave the Black Sea ports and death is now being sown in Ukrainian fields.

Baker Haig Kechkerian says the change in customer base is striking. Old customers have echoed and been replaced by a new, perhaps more prosperous customer base.

It has not been enough to compensate for the fall in sales. Before the bakery went well, now there is little profit left.

– If this continues like this, I’ll quit the whole bakery.

The economic crisis in Lebanon is so deep that Haig Kechkerian may well have to carry out its threat of closing the bakery.

Over the past few years, more than 90 percent of the value of the Lebanese pound has melted. ATMs do not work. The currency no longer has an official exchange rate. The value of the pound has continued to plummet on the black market.

The collapse of the value of money and the rise in prices are hitting a country like Lebanon particularly hard, as more than 90% of everything the people eat and consume depends on imports.

Part of the people turned their attention to the parliamentary elections two weeks ago. The gaze was glazed, as the result did not greatly change the political setup.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, along with its allies, lost a majority in parliament but continues to be a key player. Parliament is even more fragmented. Majorities have to search for a case and a bill at a time.

In 2019, reformists, fed up with widespread corruption, took to the streets to protest and make a revolution. The rush to the election was caused by the fact that some of the oaths of that movement were running in the election, but the old power elite still held up largely.

An economist who criticizes the political elite Walid Abou Sleiman considers that Lebanon’s economic policy will not be able to change direction rapidly. Lebanon needs reform.

– The ruling class has not wanted to make reforms It is focused on protecting itself, Sleiman says.

He is an economist who has appeared on Lebanese TV channels ever since. Criticism of the elite is sharp. A lavish apartment in Beirut’s sophisticated area says the man’s own businesses in Cyprus and Switzerland are lucrative.

He characterizes the political elite as corrupt, incompetent and ignorant.

Lebanese have a good memory of how Lebanese banks, linked to the political elite, prevented the people from raising their funds three years ago. At the same time, the elite transferred tens of billions of dollars worth of funds to foreign banks.

– The lack of transparency and accountability is a huge problem in the Lebanese economy, Sleiman says.

Lebanon has negotiated an official aid package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to kick-start the economic recovery. In Lebanon, it is known that it will take months to form a government, so it may take time to seal the IMF agreement.

In addition, the new government should approve this year’s budget and enact wholesale important laws. Among other things, the country’s banking secrecy must be relaxed so as to please the IMF and other international actors.

The economy is stagnating and the people are miserable. Economist Walid Abou Sleiman estimates that this could end in a devastating way.

– The protracted economic crisis is deepening the social crisis. It will cause riots, perhaps eventually a civil war.

An even more far-reaching scourge is caused by the fact that the educated people continue to flee the country.

– Brain drain is the biggest problem. People are leaving and don’t want to come back at any cost anymore, Seliman says.

Its effects are already being felt. Healthcare and the school system are at a point of collapse.

Many children drop out of school because everyone in the family has to try to get even a little to get enough money for food.

This is especially evident in the huge increase in beggars on the streets and at intersections.

Even the youngest children are accustomed to creating a gaze that drills from the side glasses of the passing Mersu and Audi to where conscience is supposed to be.