Garbage In Lebanon Only Thing Accumulating Faster Than Garbage Takes On Lebanon

Estimates of garbage takes overtaking physical garbage in Lebanon range from six months to two years.

Beirut, August 5 – Decades of mismanagement, malfeasance, incompetence, and rampant corruption in this once-thriving country of nearly seven million have resulted in, among other fiascoes, a trash-collection system in major cities that has decayed to the point that only the actual crap and refuse in the streets gathers at a higher rate than the distorted, ignorant, bigoted, tendentious interpretations by pundits and amateurs alike regarding the troubled state.

Pro-Hezbollah partisans, armchair socialists, Iran sympathizers, US-haters, pan-Arab ideologues, Assadists, “pro-Palestinian” propagandists, Putin fanbois and fangirls, Tom Friedmans, Turkish nationalists, and others who spout their garbage takes on the history of, and situation in, Lebanon have produced a pile of misguided, stupid, and downright dangerous reactions to current events there so large that it dwarfs everything but the accumulated literal garbage itself in Lebanon that has resulted from the behavior of local decision-makers who listen to pro-Hezbollah partisans, armchair socialists, Iran sympathizers, US-haters, pan-Arab ideologues, Assadists, “pro-Palestinian” propagandists, Putin fanbois and fangirls, Tom Friedmans, Turkish nationalists, and others who spout their garbage takes on the history of, and situation in, Lebanon.

Experts worry that at current rates, the worsening economic crisis in Lebanon will cause deterioration that will slow the production of physical garbage, the quantity of which increases or decreases in direct proportion to economic activity. When that happens, the experts predict, natural decay of some of that garbage will eventually reduce its quantity, whereas the cadre of garbage-take-manufacturers only grows by the month, and their product is not subject to natural decay. Estimates of garbage takes overtaking physical garbage in Lebanon range from six months to two years.

“The truth is even those estimates depend on data that’s faulty to some degree, and it could happen sooner,” explained economist and political scientist Meg Gamati. “Just consider that in the quantity of physical garbage we’re including the thousands of tons of debris from the Beirut Port blast, which contributes to a statistical aberration that distorts the predictive model. The true figure for garbage-production that reflects the health or doldrums of the economy is far lower already, once you factor out the port debris. We need a more nuanced model that can differentiate between the physical garbage that the economy, households, and businesses produce, and the physical garbage that results from the behavior of local decision-makers who listen to pro-Hezbollah partisans, armchair socialists, Iran sympathizers, US-haters, pan-Arab ideologues, Assadists, ‘pro-Palestinian’ propagandists, Putin fanbois and fangirls, Tom Friedmans, Turkish nationalists, and others who spout their garbage takes on the history of, and situation in, Lebanon.”

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