The garbage has piled up and the stench of incompetence is spreading over the land. In evidence for all to see and smell is the failure of the State to perform its functions repeatedly.

The trash rots like an open wound as the Lebanese people confront shock after shock with stress levels becoming intolerable and leading to unthinkable crimes of rage. The other day a man was knifed to death on the streets of Achrafieh. Dragged out of his car he was brutally killed in front of his helpless wife because he did not let his assailant cut in front of him in traffic. This incident happened just two months after the announcement of new traffic regulations and supposed control.

In the winter, the main tunnels on the road to the airport fill so high with rainwater that people nearly drown in their cars because the minister in charge at the time skimped on the construction budget for his own profit, and did not build adequate drainage.

The present garbage fiasco is equally the result of political maneuvering and delaying tactics to ensure the continuation of the existing waste management company’s monopoly and to safeguard the financial stakes of so many politicians from all dates in March !

Years of negligence have recently been compounded by the problem of the surplus of population. Lebanon is hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees, nevertheless the dereliction of duties itself, is "Made in Lebanon".

We are confronted daily with the net effects of this negligence: incompetence to adhere to a constitution, incompetence to elect a president, incompetence to plan for the future, incompetence to get sufficiently organized to do anything with long term benefits for the beleaguered Lebanese citizen.

The Lebanese State is a reactive machine that cranks into gear clumsily when push comes to shove, but there is no foresight, no roadmap because that stage of development is never reached. The power cartels carve up the cake even before it is made, and the generous donations of well-intended international benefactors vanish into the Lebanese black hole of opportunism.

The garbage piling up everywhere is the just the surface symptom of a deep underlying cause and it can be summed up as simply as: “Savage Selfishness”.

When 24 educated Ministers cannot sit in a room together and put aside their differences long enough to do any good, then what good are they? 

It means that their vested interests keep them from solving any problem that does not benefit their parochial sectarian needs. It means that they are acting as emissaries and not public servants.

Many of our politicians have pillaged the future of the country. Financial monopolies are sheltered and supported through outlandish government policies. These have crippled the social balance of the country’s economy, which is being relentlessly impoverished and sadly causing our youth to flee to greener pastures.

Before it is too late, let's wake up and smell the garbage.

Tracy Chamoun
Baabda 24-7-15