In today’s Lebanon there are two biases. Let us call them the phoenix bias and the shithole bias. The first is the narrative of an indestructible culture, a country and haven of wealth that has never defaulted on its financial obligations and where no depositor of wealth has to fear the disappearance of a single…
Lebanon needs a long-term solution to its trash woes
Lebanon on the precipice of another trash crisis, with its own garbage floating in the sea, lining the streets, and forming a mountain in Tripoli. All this not even five years after the last crisis that, in 2015, saw mounds of garbage pile up on the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon. In the north,…
Lebanon’s budget: One hurdle is passed, many more remain to be overcome
Three months is not a long time, depending on one’s perspective. If you are a rock that has had Mediterranean waves washing up against you for the last 11,000 years, three months are almost nothing. A blink. On the other hand, if you are a silk moth eager to feast on mulberry leaves, three months…
The Lebanese government needs to do more to improve the education sector
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” so said Nelson Mandela in a 2003 speech. Indeed, the impact of quality education—the kind that expands the learner’s mind and aids in the development of a well-rounded personality—resonates long after the optimal 18 – 20 years of formal education (15…
Transport is transforming and Lebanon must keep up
When compared to political revolutions, it has never been exactly clear what economic revolutions entail nor how long they take. But it is clear that these economic revolutions combine multiple change and adaptation processes, whether one talks of periods of fundamental economic transformation as “revolutions,” beginning with the first agricultural revolution in the fertile crescent…
A potentially important step toward a new social contract
As a democracy, Lebanon has a sovereign. This sovereign—which the constitution affirms to be the people of Lebanon—has, for the longest time, appeared remarkably unconcerned over a very specific dereliction of duty by its public officials. The dereliction in question was the government’s serial failure to produce a sane, credible, and timely budget, and the…
Banks have done a lot for Lebanon, they deserve our trust
Banks have offered much to Lebanon. They have financed the country’s public and private sector needs for the entirety of the post-conflict years. They stood throughout the 1990s with a people scarred by violence and economic trauma. Through the 2000s, they stayed at the side of a state that was under constant financial pressures. In…
Freshwater sites need to be protected and promoted
Various stakeholders—from the current and previous ministers of tourism and heads of hospitality-related syndicates to restaurant operators and local retail business owners—have all said that tourism was a main driver of the Lebanese economy. Speaking at a March conference on tourism entitled “Towards Sustainable Tourism,” Prime Minister Hariri said he believed that the total contribution…
Economic Roadmap
Building on the first draft of the economic roadmap published in the December 2018/January 2019 issue of Executive, this second draft includes an additional 261 measures and three entirely new national priorities that address judicial reform, labor, and how best to preserve national heritage. As was the intent from the beginning, we took a participatory…
An uninspiring economic vision
In January, Lebanon published slides outlining McKinsey’s economic vision—the outcome of a report commissioned by the Ministry of Economy and Trade in late 2017 following government discussions. The 1,274-slide document was developed over the first half of 2018, and outlines an economic vision produced by the consulting firm and owned by the government. If…