Beiruti drivers line up at a gas station as shortages grip Lebanon
Could this be possible?
Lebanon has run out of gasoline?
I thought good things never happened to our poor little country, and then this surprise blessing!
Because of a price squabble between the Energy and Finance ministries, the prices of gasoline were not sent to the suppliers, who have in turn not distributed gas to stations across Lebanon.
We had a brush with this crisis a couple weeks ago, but it was temporarily resolved, only to rear its beautiful head again now.
But why on earth, you may ask, should we celebrate a country-wide fuel shortage? Because without gas, Lebanese can’t drive, and aren’t cars – and Lebanese drivers – one of the worst things about this country?
Isn’t reckless driving what makes Lebanon one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be on the roads in? Aren’t car accidents the number-one cause of death of young men in this country? Isn’t cars parked willy-nilly on sidewalks what prevents pedestrians from being able to walk in a straight line for more than five feet? And isn’t the thick blanket of car exhaust hovering over our cities what blocks out our magnificent mountain views – or views ten feet in front of us, for that matter?
Without crazed drivers barreling at us in their giant metal boxes a hundred miles an hour, we meager pedestrians can once again venture out onto the streets without fear of being mowed down by some oversized SUV speeding the wrong way down a one-way street. We can open our lungs and breathe in air untainted by gasoline pollution, and we can experience the sounds of life in our country instead of a chorus of a thousand horns blazing impatiently at every stop light.
We don’t have a lot of hope for a good government that will protect our financial or security interests – or even work to provide us with 24/7 electricity or decent internet – but we can thank those same inept, battle-prone leaders for this latest crisis, which will at least provide our little country with a few days of safe, unpolluted and quiet streets.
Sunny Beirut 