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During the past 12 days, some190,000 expatriates living abroad, mostly in the Gulf countries and Africa, returned to Lebanon for the holidays, and many went shopping. Photo by Dalal Saoud/UPI
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 30 (UPI) — With the majority of Lebanese further impoverished by the country’s acute economic crisis, year-end festivities are no longer an occasion for joy. Celebrating Christmas and New Year’s has become a luxury that few still can afford.
The economic and political crisis has deepened in 2021, leaving an exhausted population struggling with a skyrocketing inflation, 22-hour power outages per day, soaring fuel and gasoline prices, and medicine shortages.
While the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value against the U.S. dollar, food prices have jumped 576% since the outbreak of a popular uprising in October 2019.
As it became harder to buy enough food and other basic necessities, getting new clothes or toys for the children at Christmas is out of question.
Tony, a divorced mother with three sons who asked to be identified by her first name, barely could prepare a Christmas dinner made up of few chicken pieces, french fries and salad.
“It was so depressing and sad. Never in my life did I have to say to my sons how much each should eat because we barely have enough food on the table,” she told UPI. This year, she said she could not afford to buy even the smallest Bûche de Noël, the traditional Christmas cake.
For two years now, they have not had fish, and when the prices of meat and chicken soared, they shifted to lentils and chickpeas.
Tony, who works at Arcenciel, a non-governmental organization, earns a monthly salary of 1.8 million Lebanese pounds ($66 at the current parallel market rate of 27,200 LL for $1) that hardly covers their essential needs for 10 days.
Rationing food is a must to be able to pay for her generator bill, cooking gas and transportation. The price of one bottle of cooking gas has jumped to more than 330,000 LL ($12).
“I can’t buy bananas or chocolate for my younger son,” Tony said with tears in her eyes. “Christmas this year was like any other day. We are living day by day. I don’t even know if tomorrow I would be able to prepare a meal for my kids.”
A family of four would need 2.3million LL ($84) per month for very basic meals, according to Information International, a Beirut-based research and consultancy firm.
The number of poor has drastically increased this year. Last September, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia warned that poverty is affecting about 74% of the total population, and poverty rate doubled from 42% in 2019 to 82 % this year.
The commission said nearly 4 million people live in multidimensional poverty, representing about 1 million households, of whom 77% are Lebanese.
This year too, charity organizations stepped in to keep Christmas spirit alive and bring some joy to the most affected.
Beit el Baraka, a non-profit organization that has been assisting more than 226,000 people since it was founded in 2019, maintained its tradition of distributing a full Christmas dinner to each family.
“We gave them a traditional Christmas dinner, although not turkey this year, but chicken, with wine, Bûchede Noël and toys for the kids,” Maya Ibrahimchah, founder and president of Beitel Baraka, told UPI. “There was a feeling of togetherness, unbelievable solidarity and lots of emotion.”
Ibrahimchah said very poor people always existed in the country, and were neglected over long years, even before the country’s recent crisis. She cited Beirut’s Nabaa and Bourj Hammoud neighborhoods as well as the northern city of Tripoli.
“Today, we are seeing a new class of poor … people like you and me, who now cannot even afford to buy a bundle of bread,” she said. “Those people have worked hard all their life, paid their taxes, but ended up losing their savings [in the banks due to the crisis]. It is frightening.”
Donations still pour in to help Lebanese in deep financial distress in the absence of any government support.
Ibrahimchah explained that the bulk of Beit el Baraka donations come to a large extent from Lebanese in the United States, and it hopes hope to collect up to $4 million this year, in addition to $10 million “to put back 32,000 students in schools.”
Lebanon’s large diaspora also has played a critical role in alleviating the suffering of their families in the crisis-ridden country by sending them money and supplies.
During the past 12 days, some190,000 expatriates living abroad, mostly in the Gulf countries and Africa, returned for the holidays, according to Pierre Achkar, head of the Lebanese Hotel Association.
Although they usually stay with their families and not in hotels, they are expected to pump some money in the ailing tourism sector by eating at restaurants, frequenting skiing resorts and pubs, and attending New Year’s parties.
Achkar estimated Beirut’s hotel occupancy rate at 40%, while the occupancy rate in ski resorts could reach 70%. Fortunately, it snowed just before Christmas this year, allowing the resorts to open and skiers to hit the slopes.
But not many foreign tourists are showing up even though Lebanon has become a cheap destination with the steep devaluation of its national currency.
“One hotel room that used to cost $200 per night is now at $70,” Achkar told UPI. “But being cheap alone is not an attraction. Our problem is political in the first place, and this resulted in a state of enmity with the international community and Arab countries.”
The growing influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah, the country’s instability and the escalating political conflict with Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf countries have kept Western and Gulf tourists away from Lebanon.
“With no tourists coming anymore, we should attract Lebanese expats to come and spend in their country instead of doing that in London, Paris or Monaco,” Achkar said. “They are our only source of revenue.”
However, the fear remains of repeating last year’s “catastrophic scenario,” in which coronavirus cases at one point in January reached a record 5,500 a day following gatherings and parties during Christmas and New Year holidays.
On Wednesday, the Health Ministry announced a record of 3,153 new COVID-19 cases and 15 deaths in 24 hours, raising the total number to 715,950 cases and 9,072 deaths since the outbreak of the virus on Feb. 21, 2020.
With no lockdown being considered for now due to the critical economic conditions, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said that coronavirus preventive measures for touristic establishments, including restaurants and bars, will be strictly enforced to avoid a dramatic COVID-19 spread. Violators risk penalties and prison.
Suleiman Haroun, president of the Syndicate of Private Hospitals, said 80% of the available 400 intensive care unit beds and 500 isolation beds are filled.
“There are no indications so far that the situation will be worse than last year. A great number of people have been vaccinated, and even if they are infected by the virus, they won’t need to be hospitalized or need to be in the ICU,” Haroun told UPI.
“But if the coronavirus cases increase, Omicron infections spread and people don’t abide by the restrictions, we will have a problem.”
However, he noted that those who were infected and hospitalized were not vaccinated.
Lebanon’s hospitals already are under significant strain because of the deteriorating economic conditions and exodus of doctors and nurses, who are leaving the country because of the crisis.