From his office, Shady Rizk was in the front row to film the apocalyptic explosion in the port of Beirut. After receiving 350 stitches, It is a miracle that he is still alive, and now he wants to live this second chance far away from Lebanon.
This 36-year-old telecommunications engineer is one of the many Lebanese who were already fed up with the prolonged economic crisis and the almost non-existent public services before the deflagration devastated Beirut.
The drama of August 4, caused by the explosion of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in the port for years, despite warnings about its dangerousness, revived the protest movement unleashed in autumn 2019 against the political class, considered corrupt and incompetent.
The explosion was for some the catastrophe that was missing. Now they see no other options than to leave.
“I don’t feel safe here anymore,” Rizk declares. “God has given me another life, a second chance, I don’t want to live it here”, sentence.
Less than two weeks after the explosion, which hit him squarely, leaving his body full of crystals, he says he plans to move to Canada, where he hopes to start over with the help of relatives who live there.
“Really anywhere, but not here. I’ve lost all hope, “he says.
‘Physical security’
The history of Lebanon in recent decades is also that of exile. With the civil war (1975-1990) and the economic crises, there is no family that does not have a son, a brother or a cousin who has gone to Europe, the United States or the Gulf.
Today, the diaspora is estimated to be three times the size of the population that remains in Lebanon, some four million.
In recent months, as Lebanon plunged into its worst economic crisis since the civil war, thousands of Lebanese emerged, amid a wave of mass layoffs and wage cuts. A crisis aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic.
Disappointment was also spreading as the unprecedented protest movement started in the fall, which fueled hopes for change, was losing steam.
Canada, one of the main emigration destinations for Lebanese, said on August 13 that it was preparing a task force to ensure that “immigration issues can be addressed quickly.”
A few minutes after the explosion, Walid Abou Hamad called his ex-wife in Paris to tell her that he was sending his two children to live with her.
“She was trying to calm me down. I used to tell him, ‘Take them, take them,’ “recalls this 40-year-old doctor, his voice cracking with emotion.” As a father, I have to try to prevent my children from being traumatized or risking their lives. “
Walid was with one of his 17-year-old sons at the time of the tragedy. His reflections of who lived the civil war returned and he took refuge in the bathroom, hugging his son.
The drama has accelerated the departure of his two sons to France, where he had planned to send them for university studies.
“I would have liked not to have to make this decision in a hurry,” he says.
“Sitting on a bomb”
Like many Lebanese, Walid Abou Hamad criticizes the negligence of a government that admitted that it was aware of the presence of 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored for years in the port, located in the center of Beirut.
“It is not surprising, we have lived in a country without a state for 40 years”, spear.
Heiko Wimmen of the International Crisis Group also believes there will be an exile. “The country could lose an entire generation it needs to lead reconstruction and to accomplish a necessary political change.”
Sharbel Hasbanu, a 29-year-old makeup artist, is determined to leave Lebanon. It ensures that you may need to ask friends and family for financial help to emigrate. His work decreased with the crisis and the bank blocked his savings.
On the day of the deflagration, he was in the devastated Gemayze district. Wounded in the head, he walked from hospital to hospital, passing wounded friends on the road, before being taken by car to a hospital 20 km from Beirut.
He lists the names of bars he used to frequent in the fashionable neighborhoods near the port, now destroyed. “We were always there, not knowing that we were sitting on a bomb.”
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