some final thoughts before going to bed. been up for like 20 hours putting ppl in touch, sending donation pages everywhere, pressuring some contacts to send medical equipments, countering fake news shit, and just comforting friends and loved ones, keeping myself sane

it will be a long time before we fully comprehend the catastrophe that just hit us. the spike in covid19 that this will inevitably cause will worsen an already disastrous situation. we are in emergency mode now.

as best as I understand it, there will likely be enough aid in the very short-term for basic survival, but it's unclear how hospitals can cope with this + covid19 for long.

there are people with relatively 'minor' cuts that chose not to go to hospitals to avoid overwhelming them. other than the acts being selfless, it also shows how a majority of the population is hyper-aware of everyone else around them. we are extremely well-informed

even among friends and family who aren't as media-savy or work in journalism, the sense that things are getting worse is obviously very present, and precedes the explosion. It even precedes Covid19, which accelerated the downward turn.

we will be seeing a lot of dead. many people won't be able to get the care they need. the numbers won't necessarily be representative. it's like with covid19: you don't usually count the people who died not from covid19 but because the hospitals couldn't cope in general.

in the same way as famines are largely political and economic, the main worry in the near to long-term will be actually being able to access a hospital. having the right insurance because we don't have universal healthcare, and so on.

medical workers can soften the blow by working for free, which most already are (at least in terms of working overtime without compensation) because they genuinely care. but this cannot be sustainable

family networks can also soften the blow in the short-term with people going to stay at relatives but this is all temporary. you can crash at your aunt's for some time but at some point you're going to look at your own future and realise it's been stolen, if you haven't already.

the anger against this political class is something I've never seen before, and I've been protesting for half my life (I'm 29). there are open calls to murder establishment figures such as Michel Aoun and Nabih Berri (president and speaker of parliament).

the next few days and maybe weeks will be a period of mourning and recovering. a lot of people are helping a lot more people. mutual aid initiatives are everywhere, organically popping up to meet the needs of the many.

the government is nowhere to be found. our worthess president didn't say anything until the next day. two dozen countries had responded already by the time he woke up to give us a useless speech. the speaker of parliament just vomited the usual word salad

these men can have no part to play in Lebanon's future. they have destroyed generations. they have robbed us of our lives and futures. they have forced us to contemplate emigration as the only sane option despite its multiple challenges.

already vulnerable groups such as as migrant workers, including migrant domestic workers, and refugees are being put in situations that are just inhuman. governments must be pressured to repatriate workers who want to leave while

while refugees must be protected *from* being forced to leave. this government has always tried, with some success, to scapegoat Syrian refugees. they can easily use the 'we must help one another first' against Syrian refugees, risking their lives in Assad's gulags

I don't expect a single thing from 'the international community' other than immediate relief. the short-term attention span of media outlets will run its course and lebanon will be forgotten. we already know this. we live in the middle east.

the main group outside of lebanon that won't forget it is the diaspora and, as I'm currently in Switzerland, I'll be seeking to connect with diaspora groups to see what we can do.

The absolute musts:
1- aid must continue to flow in. food and medical aid. I have already set aside a percentage of my salary to send back home every month. members of the diaspora can actively do this if possible.

2- prioritise neighborhoods and community resiliency. a neighborhood that's tightly-knit is more resilient than 200 of us scattered across the country and diaspora.

3- zero tolerance for this government. we will not let them find any way out. they must absolutely resign and it is not negotiable. the sectarian power-sharing arrangement is a disaster and cannot be salvaged.

4- if you have ways to sponsor people to live and work outside of Lebanon, do so. give them some temporary relief so that they can also send money back. europe has difficult-to-obtain visas for our passports for example. very few people will ask that they change that

+ https://lebanoncrisis.carrd.co/