The Lebanese were not shy to give voice to their discontent in 2012. The grievances underlying these manifestations of public discontent were clear: declining purchasing power, the decrepit state of the country’s infrastructure and public institutions, and the seemingly inherent instability and criminality in the country. Teachers and public sector workers chanted in the streets demanding a proper living wage, taxi and bus drivers blocked roads and major intersections decrying the cost of fuel, while protests struck both ends of the electricity network with customers outraged at the frequent blackouts and workers storming Électricité du Liban offices demanding fair pay and labor rights. Then there were the burning tires, the kidnappings, the protests against kidnappings, retaliatory kidnappings, and farmers and their families blocking the security services from eradicating cannabis crops. And that’s all aside from recurring armed clashes in Tripoli, along the borders and elsewhere; a brutal assassination; a sinking
