By General Monzer El Ayoubi
Translation: Dr. Pierre A. Sarkis
It may be considered a second home for a lot of Lebanese, several generations embraced by their women and nurtured in their childhood, a time of plenty gone or slain. A middle class, a broad spectral grey community repositioned between wealth and poverty. Brought in by a solid conviction far from notability, even with the pretention of a few. If they found in the country of the Cedars refuge and legitimate livelihood, the relationship has become so intimate that they were integrated into a family. They carried the ultimate task, an alternative to motherhood and housekeeping, were never maids, ignorant is whoever thought, presumed or believed they were. Disappointment prompted them to leave hurriedly following the Revolution of October 17 and the subsequent events and collapses, a conviction of despair from recognizing a need or return…
They are the women of the tears of India and its daughter “Sri Lanka”, the beautiful radiant island of the Northern Indian Ocean, the meeting point and intersection of the sea routes between West and South-East Asia. Privileged with a vital natural diversity and a global tourist destination, in tandem with a deep cultural heritage in the time span and the traces of human presence and where Buddhism led without supremacy.
What happened in a bad coincidence, it was struck by the contamination of the disaster-stricken country, this country has defaulted on its foreign debts totaling $55 Billion in the backdrop of the worst economic crisis, with a recession it has faced since its independence in 1948. Financial deterioration, a shortage in foreign or hard currencies, an attempt at a useless recapitalization, or a postponement of repayment of debts and dues to right holders with the option of collecting in Rupees, the national currency.
The state of the population in suffering, resentment generated by a high inflation rate of 12%, turned into protests objecting to government policies and were accompanied by sporadic violence; a low standard of living, continuous interruption of electricity supply, serious shortage of medicine, food and fuel, banks that did not provide equal treatment with depositors, etc. In short, there is a high poverty rate as a result of the economic downturn in conjunction with the COVID-19 Pandemic, a decline in tax revenues, a dwindling tourism activity, a random and uncalculated government spending and a huge debt owed to China at nearly $5 Billion.
In a mini-analogy with the Masters of the Cedars Country, a state of corruption has engulfed public and government departments to name but a few, “put several four-wheel drive vehicles at the disposal of ministers and deputies, as well as, dozens of escorts and guards, in addition to open consumption of fuel, along with high financial privileges in salaries, such as, housing and recreational allowances.”
As far as remedies are concerned, sluggishness and confusion following the downgrade in their rating by international agencies; attempts to obtain $4 Billion to overcome the crisis of the balance of payments and consolidate depleted reserves, cause an inevitable slide to the International Monetary Fund, and a painful dependence with fears of bankruptcy, prompting the Governor of the Central Bank to resign voluntarily, “unlike our Governor” on the backdrop of his lack of collusion with a desperate authority, floundering in putting together a bailing program prompting the 26 ministers of the current government to resign.
Finally, the crisis is at a stalemate, and if we miss its people when they were leaving their homeland and homes to live among us, this simplification does not truly pay them their dues for their stories and suffering are bigger and deeper. Sri Lanka, which in the days of old was called “the land of smiling people”, has a famous verse in common with us from the poetry of Ahmad Shawki “I advised and we have different homes… but in worry we are all in the East.”
Beirut, 19/4/2022
Scholar in Security and Strategic Affairs
