Lebanon's Cataclysm Through The Eyes Of An American Forensic Anthropologist
Julian McBride is a forensic anthropologist and independent journalist born in New York. He's the founder and director of the Reflections of War Initiative (ROW), an anthropological NGO.
He reports and documents the plight of people around the world who are affected by conflicts, rogue geopolitics, and war, and also tells the stories of war victims who never get their voices heard.
He is published throughout several platforms such as the National Herald, Hellenic News of America, Journal of Forensic Psychology, and the Assyrian International News Agency, to name a few.
He recently spends some time in Lebanon to know the true situation firsthand so he can show his colleagues and peers in the US the true plight of the average Lebanese civilian.
"Lebanon is very close to my heart and the people deserve better than what they’re getting," McBride told The961.
Julian McBride at the Unites Nations - Photo via Hellenic News of America
For several years, I have kept up to date on Lebanon’s history. As an anthropologist who has studied the rich history of the Levant, Lebanon holds a special place in my heart with one of the richest histories in humanity, full of illustrious archaeological sites and architecture.
Lately, I have been involved with Lebanese politics, after many of my Lebanese friends and colleagues would plea for outside support of their country’s ever-decreasing standard of living and health.
As an anthropologist interacting with unfamiliar cultures and seeing different perspectives can give you an idea of a situation and the causes of it anywhere in the world.
I have always been in the field of human rights ever since leaving the United States Marine Corps after feeling that I served an unjust cause.
To me, the plight of Lebanon is a just cause that I had to research and see for myself. Having been in contact with many influential Lebanese activists, historians, and youth intellectuals, I took the journey to see the daily life of people in the country.
I embarked from NYC and arrived in Beirut on 18 August 2021. I stayed with one of my close friends at a loft in Baabda, right near the municipality and presidential palace.
Photo courtesy of Julian McBride
The country itself was experiencing a slow collapse since the 1975 civil war began, but it was rapidly deteriorating over the past few years. I did not imagine it would be this bad when I came.
Even though Baabda is a crown jewel of Lebanon because of the needs of the presidential palace, we were only allocated 4-5 hours of electricity per day. Some areas of Lebanon can have a little more allocated electric power, some even less.
With the electric shortages, hospitals are unable to operate thoroughly on patients and risk losing the sicker and elderly due to the lack of power.
The electricity crisis has also complicated the process of purifying the contaminated tap water, and now Lebanon faces a water shortage .
This summer has also been one of the hottest on record, and with the lack of electricity, people face insane heatwaves and humidity that can reach up to 70-80% per day, draining the life and energy out of the average citizen.
The gas crisis has been a near-death blow for the people here. The average citizen waits up to 4-6 hours a day just to fill up on fuel and, even when it is their turn, many are given only a 1/4 tank or simply turned away.
This has led to desperation as Lebanese citizens leave their cars parked overnight in waiting lines of gas stations for a glimmer of hope to fill up in the mornings, though it can be dangerous as those parked cars are vulnerable to theft and carjacking.
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Uber and cab drivers are unable to make a living anymore as it has become increasingly hard to transport clients and tourists across the country as they also suffer from fuel shortages. This equals fewer rides and more cancellations, which in turn leads to layoffs and bankruptcy.
In some instances, fights break out over gas stations , which is a very scary scene both for Lebanese and foreigners. Some fights lead to potential guns being drawn by either civilians, militias, or army near the gas tanks.
I was advised to immediately run in the other direction if I was in proximity of a fight at a gas station. That is how dangerous the situation has become.
In all of this, what is the most shocking is that the gas crisis is not a shortage; Lebanon in fact has imported more gas in the previous years than any other timeline in the nation’s history.
Bilal Jawich
It is a known fact that this devastation is due to the fuel being used in a political game, in geopolitics, and the black market. Much of the gas is hoarded by profiteers who raise the black-market price at 5 times as much as a regular fill-up.
The Party of God, al-Hizb , controls much of the fuel imports coming into Lebanon and their party/militia finances itself on the black market since much of their assets have been frozen from western sanctions.
Cross-border smuggling to major Hezbollah ally, the Assad government in Damascus, has cost the Lebanese over $20 billion USD in the last 5 years (The Independent Arabia, 15 May 2020).
That figure may not seem a lot for wealthier western nations, but for a modest Middle Eastern nation, which has gone through massive inflation and decimation of its lira, the smuggling has had crippling effects.