[HN Gopher] Nearly 80% of households in Lebanon don't have food ...
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Nearly 80% of households in Lebanon don't have food or money to buy
food
Author : triple_m
Score : 74 points
Date : 2021-07-05 18:01 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.yahoo.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.yahoo.com)
| kilroy123 wrote:
| Very anecdotal but just today I was talking to a Lebanese person
| who is going home this weekend.
|
| They said the situation is very bad but life is still some what
| humming along. They're going to a wedding next week and plan to
| go out and party with friends.
|
| Maybe they're in the top part of society?
| anm89 wrote:
| To be fair, just knowing foreigners is probably predictive of
| higher economic outcomes
|
| I would imagine this to be equally true of Americans
| MomoXenosaga wrote:
| There are entire countries living off Western Union. People
| in my country send food packages to the former colonies. And
| every summer tens of thousands of travel to Morocco.
| anm89 wrote:
| I'm talking about just socially randomly knowing people
| from other countries.
|
| It sounds like what you are talking about is more
| family\immigrant diaspora networks.
|
| Based on the way the parent said "a Lebanese person"
| without mentioning a relationship I implied the former.
|
| Different definitions of "knowing foreigners"
| mwint wrote:
| Wait a sec, this headline doesn't pass the smell test. If you
| have no food, and no means to acquire food, you'll die in short
| order.
|
| So are we saying 80% of Lebanon households will be dead in
| (however long starvation takes)?
|
| Or are we saying that they can't get food meeting $standard in
| quality/quantity, yet are still surviving (albeit with
| nutritional or other drawbacks)?
| neom wrote:
| The former. The situation in Lebanon is indeed becoming quite
| dier, any food people have is given/shared. The entire
| government resigned last year over the explosion. It's not a
| good situation for the Lebanese people and I'd imagine there
| are a lot of people who are currently dying and the situation
| will progress as you'd expect. DW (the german broadcaster) has
| done a lot of good reporting on it (youtube), I'd encourage you
| to check it out if you're interested in this.
| https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/cpi-2020-lebanon-system...
| neom wrote:
| btw fwiw: the red cross has a specific Lebanon campaign:
| https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/lebanon from my googling
| around on what I could do, seems like the best way to help.
| Marsymars wrote:
| The article text "In total, 77 percent of households do not
| have enough food" doesn't match the headline.
|
| Eating "not enough food" will mean you starve, but death by
| starvation can take a long time.
|
| https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-can-a-pe...
|
| > Unlike total starvation, near-total starvation with continued
| hydration has occurred frequently, both in history and in
| patients under medical supervision. Survival for many months to
| years is common in concentration camps and during famines, but
| the unknown caloric intake during these times makes it
| impossible to predict survival.
| aaron695 wrote:
| > If you have no food, and no means to acquire food, you'll die
| in short order.
|
| They only mention a lack of funds, but food is free everywhere.
|
| The two exceptions is in war, where supplying food is often to
| hard. And mental illness where supping food is sometimes too
| hard within the system.
|
| > yet are still surviving (albeit with nutritional or other
| drawbacks)
|
| This is the biggest issue around the world, it causes brain
| damage and early death to billions. Probably not the pressing
| issue in Lebanon.
|
| Read the real report -
| https://www.unicef.org/lebanon/media/6541/file
| anm89 wrote:
| Nutrition is not a binary distribution of starve or not starve.
| davidf18 wrote:
| It is important that the people not starve.
|
| The UN should require that Hezbollah give all of their missiles
| pointed towards Israel in exchange for food.
|
| Israel would probably fund the deal in exchange for the missiles
| which are useless anyway.
| bronzeage wrote:
| I wonder if it's worth it for Israel to help get Lebanon
| stabilized. Maybe offer a lot of money in exchange for hizballah
| disarming? It could be less costly in the long term than the
| security cost of being constantly on guard for a war.
| ArkanExplorer wrote:
| 50,000 people petitioned France last year to recolonise the
| country:
|
| https://www.euronews.com/2020/08/06/over-50-00-sign-petition...
| akomtu wrote:
| Why would they want to be colonized?
| throwaway316943 wrote:
| Presumably to be under the control of a less corrupt and more
| capable government?
| akomtu wrote:
| And what would France get in return?
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| A basket case, which people will blame France for when it
| can't be fixed. Plus a battle for influence with Iran.
|
| If I were France, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-meter
| pole.
|
| (Completely off topic: I have seen a literal 10-foot
| pole. It had a hypodermic needle on one end. It was used
| to tranquilize a skunk caught in a (humane) trap, without
| getting sprayed.)
| Leparamour wrote:
| >A basket case, which people will blame France for when
| it can't be fixed. Plus a battle for influence with Iran.
|
| You can add more Islamic terrorism in the future in
| mainland France.
| enjoy-your-stay wrote:
| In the 80's Lebanon was also a bit of a crazy place, I
| remember seeing pictures of American battleships firing
| into the mainland to attack enemy militias, which kinda
| reminded me of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and
| thinking that place will never be stable. Looks like I
| was wrong up until a few years ago though, it's a real
| shame for the people there.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/20/world/us-warships-
| fire-in...
| PoignardAzur wrote:
| Same things we get in Sahel:
|
| - A foothold in the region.
|
| - Access to negligible amounts of natural resources.
|
| - A shit-ton of bad press and diplomatic conundrums.
|
| - Needing to constantly fight islamist insurgents to stay
| in place.
|
| - Not having to deal with a refugee crisis ten years down
| the line.
|
| Macron has visited a few times, but considering he
| recently announced France would withdraw from Mali, I
| doubt he'll move towards any kind of re-establishment of
| the Lebanese protectorate any time soon.
|
| The christian-aligned population is lukewarm to the idea
| at best, and the muslim-aligned population will fight it
| to the death, so it would have to be an active invasion.
| It's not a realistic prospect by any consideration.
| AlanYx wrote:
| I was curious about the quotation from the linked article that
| says: "The World Bank has described what is happening in Lebanon
| as possibly one of the top three economic collapses seen since
| the mid 19th Century."
|
| It turns out that's in reference to the Reinhart and Rogoff "100
| episodes" paper, which focused on examples of historical
| financial crises in largely western countries. Stalin's push for
| collectivization, Mao's great leap forward, etc. aren't included
| in that study. So the World Bank isn't implying that the current
| situation is as dire as those kinds of situations.
| anonu wrote:
| Yes it's bad. It's horrible actually. Lebanon has become a basket
| case of a country.
|
| But I think the headline may be exaggerating the direness of the
| situation. Yes it's bad but I don't think Lebanon is about to go
| into a famine situation which is what the headline portends to...
|
| Source: people on the ground in Lebanon.
| akomtu wrote:
| What stops them from fixing their food supply?
| neom wrote:
| Corruption and lack of organization. Since the explosion the
| government and the ability to systematically get things done
| has basically gone to zero.
| recuter wrote:
| Well, the currency lost something like 90% of its value over
| the last year since the blast.
| (https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/05/lebanon-currency-
| inflat...)
|
| This April the black market rate dropped to 12,000 and caused
| minor riots. Now its at 18,000 and plunging in fits and starts.
|
| The median salary is now something like $30 a month (down from
| $600 couple years ago). The army no longer being able to afford
| to feed its soldiers has resorted to giving helicopter tours to
| tourists (https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-
| east/2021/06/29/Le...).
|
| There's gas shortages and riots everyday all over the place.
| This is Tripoli now:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/lebanon/comments/oaw4h5/tripoli_rig...
|
| The foreign currency reserves have dwindled over the last year
| from $30 billion to $15, the minimum required by law is
| currently $14, and their very extensive food subsidies program
| is costing them 500 million a month and is about to be nixed.
| They can't maintain their electric grid and people get only a
| few hours of power a day.
|
| Also this whole time there hasn't been a government. All the
| key players are corrupt beyond belief and wanted for either
| terrorism, drug trafficking or embezzlement.
|
| Pretty sure they will indeed have a famine soon if nothing
| changes.
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| "Better to have a corrupt government than no government at
| all"
| devoutsalsa wrote:
| > The foreign currency reserves have dwindled over the last
| year from $30 billion to $15, the minimum required by law is
| currently $14
|
| Is that $15,000,000,000 or $15.00? Just curious :P
| aparsons wrote:
| Comments like these are generally not constructive to
| discussions. You are on the internet, on Hacker News, so I
| assume you're probably living in a first-world country and
| completed secondary school or college. Which number do
| _you_ think is more likely?
| andyana wrote:
| What a dumb assumption on your part.
| temp22334455 wrote:
| This was really eye opening. Thank you for posting. In your
| opinion, what stops people from organizing to form a new
| government?
| Bombthecat wrote:
| Wow, that's bad, you think there will be a revolution?
| Goety wrote:
| They should be concerned of who wants to buy the
| infrastructure at a reduced price
| recuter wrote:
| That'd be Russia and Iran presently (after failed bids by
| Germany and France to rebuild their port).
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