In a video titled “People in Lebanon Can Only Get $100 a Week of Their Own Money”, Vice News highlights Lebanon’s unfortunate financial crisis.
Vice Media’s Vice News is a channel that aims to cover under-reported stories and upload them in mini-documentaries on YouTube. They have over 5 million subscribers from all over the world.
For a while now, Lebanon’s economy has been crumbling. Deep in debt, the government started imposing taxes on its already not-well-off citizens.
Many Lebanese are underpaid or unemployed, and a good chunk of the population lives under the poverty line, with some extremely poor families who live off of less than $4 a day.
The coronavirus has taken an impact on the already suffering nation by halting many businesses and transportation. Restaurants, cafes, schools, stores, and more are closed for business.
Bus and taxi drivers are being told to remain in lockdown, otherwise, they will be given a fine for violating the rules; such as the man who set his taxi on fire out of desperation, and McDonald’s in Beirut that opened for delivery.
Vice News asks a Lebanese woman to explain the situation in simple terms and she said, “The banks have used our deposits to fund the government at excessively high-interest rates… Why would the government borrow such exorbitant interest rates? Because our politicians and their friends own the banks so they’re basically paying themselves exorbitant interest rates from public funds.”
Comments about the video came flooding from around the world; here are some notable ones:
“Your government locks you in your homes, doesn’t have any intention of providing you food and water, is going to use your taxes to save their failed nonsense corruption program they call an economy, and now they won’t even let you access your own money? GUILLOTINES!” – Pavor
“Our grandparents who didn’t trust the banks and kept cash at home weren’t wrong.” – Whooaaa Chillout
“Love how this virus is being blamed for the ensuing economic collapse. Sure, the virus is bad, but the economy was in terrible shape before this thing hit.” – Kim DotNet
“Sooner or later the United States is going to follow down the same path.” – Inkaz2
“Such a beautiful country, filled with full-hearted people, sad to see how unfair their government treats them.” – r1freak1
The country has yet not recovered from the civil war nor gone back to magnificent Lebanon it was before. It’s so absurd that a team of Lebanese parodied Dance Monkey to portray the typical day in the life of a Lebanese person.
