tourism in lebanon is finished. the arabs see it as another yemen/iraq at this point. no westerners will come here. the level of arabs/westerners visiting lebanon will be drastically reduced from here moving forward, even if the current crisis is solved.
the banking sector is finished as it is now obvious to everyone that they were running a legalized ponzi scheme with the 10-12% return rates paid with other people's deposits. trust will be even more damaged once it is clear to more and more people that large sums of money were moved abroad once the big players caught wind of what was going to happen.
lebanon's medical sector and engineering sector is also irrecoverably damaged as the vast majority of educated people will seek to leave the country as they can make 10x the salary available here even in eastern europe or south america. the pedigree of future doctors/engineers will slowly erode as AUB falls to HA dominance/influence. USJ will hang on for a small while but will also fall to the same thing. Both universities will likely lose their western accreditation as the country sinks more into poverty and chaos.
let me tell you guys something about lebanese people. if the AC doesn't work, you turn on the fan. the fan breaks so you use an old fashioned fan, the one you hold, and when that breaks you sit in front of a window waiting for a breeze to hit your face every once in a while. it never occurred to them to figure out what's wrong with the AC, who is responsible, and how to fix it. through some combination of social and demographic factors, one thing or another, this population now has an IQ that rests somewhere along with haiti, congo, etc. it will not be long before people here forget how electricity and running water even work, or that these things were ever important in the first place. a society like this one needs vast amounts of oil, and western benefactors to extract the oil, in order to enjoy any semblance of comfort. lebanon does not have this.
so stop talking about tourism, and designer clothes, and which mercedes you want to buy. if you have half a brain, leave this place and let the animals fight over who gets to own the villa near that garbage pile and who gets to own the villa next to the open sewers. who gets to have electricity for 5 hours a day and who gets 10 hours. this place is finished so go start knocking on embassy doors until one of them opens.
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