Reading Time: 4 minutes Lebanon is not a country by any easy definition. Whatever your preference in terminology, when talking about a community of people in terms of country or nation there are classic denominators involved that are either geographic, or social and cultural, but always framed as coherent and continuous. But Lebanon? Territorially, linguistically, historically, religiously, ethnically, even…
UNESCO tackles physical, psychological and systemic educational challenges
Reading Time: 4 minutes UNESCO began coordinating school rehabilitation efforts after the massive port explosion in Beirut on August 4th. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) has requested UNESCO to lead a wide international effort to coordinate the rehabilitation of public and private schools in the Beirut governorate. In this role, UNESCO will be coordinating partnerships, finance,…
The search for Lebanon’s new diaspora
Reading Time: 4 minutes Two months after the Beirut blast and one year into political and economic disruptions of local identities, the people of Lebanon are finding themselves divided in yet another invisible way. Some of the better-to-do individuals and families are proclaiming ‘never again’, and mean that they already have, or are seeking, to emigrate; their economic realities…
Executive Magazine’s September/October issue
Reading Time: < 1 minute Dear stakeholders in Lebanon’s return, dear friends with discerning minds, and all readers of Executive, We are proud to present you with the best-ever socioeconomic issue of Executive Magazine at this decisive moment for our country’s social and economic development. Our September – October 2020 issue is available to read online or for download and…
Q&A with legal expert Paul Morcos on judicial capacity and accountability
Reading Time: 6 minutes They are somewhat remote issues from the perspective of daily survival in the summer of 2020. But the questions of financial accountability and judicial processing of the complex aspects of the corrupted system and adequate prosecution of corruption are pregnant with implications for Lebanon’s systemic networks of fiefdoms, sublime tribal rulers, and previously extra-judicial interest…
Q&A with economist Freddie Baz on Lebanon’s economic survival
Reading Time: 20 minutes In discussing Lebanon’s economic survival, some local opinion makers and economists have been making nothing but dire predictions since the fourth quarter of 2019. Executive wanted to take the perspective of Freddie Baz, a Lebanese economist, banker, and citizen who has for over two decades been a regular interlocutor of this magazine on banking and…
Executive Magazine’s July/August issue
Reading Time: 2 minutes It has been just over two weeks since the deadly Beirut Port explosion that killed at least 180, injured over 6,000, and left over a hundred thousand without homes. The impacts of this horrific event are still unfolding. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Lebanon’s most recent sit rep on…
The surge of COVID-19 cases in Lebanon
Reading Time: 7 minutes The article below was written two days before the massive explosion that occured at the Beirut Port on Tuesday, August 4, just after 6 p.m, killing at least 154 people and injuring over 5,000. Its author, Dr. Lilian Ghandour, is thankfully safe, as is all the Executive team. The damage to some of our homes…
Q&A with the Bus Map Project’s Chadi Faraj, on the impacts of coronavirus measures on Lebanese public transport
Reading Time: 4 minutes Among the many aspects of our daily lives that were perceived in a new light following the four months since Lebanon introduced coronavirus-related safety and lockdown measures was the way we move from one place to another. Not allowed to use their cars on Sundays and only on alternative weekdays from April 5 to June…
Teams in MIT hackathon give Lebanon’s virtual salvation their best try
Reading Time: 6 minutes The only things that are growing fast are bouts of desperation and the holes in people’s pockets. At least that’s the popular impression of the Lebanese crisis, one that can locally be reinforced by a trip to any supermarket and that has in recent weeks further been exacerbated by superficial and repetitive international media reporting.…