{"id":7968,"date":"2020-11-29T19:39:36","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T23:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=7968"},"modified":"2021-07-01T22:58:46","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T01:58:46","slug":"an-interview-with-ms-nayla-awad-about-life-in-beirut-four-months-following-the-port-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/11\/29\/an-interview-with-ms-nayla-awad-about-life-in-beirut-four-months-following-the-port-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"An interview with Ms. Nayla Awad about life in Beirut four months following the port explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/BeirutCandle-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7969\" width=\"224\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/BeirutCandle-1.jpg 444w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/BeirutCandle-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/BeirutCandle-1-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 85vw, 224px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Bambi\u2019s regular readers know about Ms. Nayla Awad,\nBambi\u2019s childhood friend whom she interviewed on March 15, 2020: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-bambi-039-s-afkar\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"lDyr9Ymxoe\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/03\/15\/hit-by-crises-twice-ms-nayla-awad-describes-what-it-is-like-to-live-in-lebanon\/\">Hit by crises twice: Ms. Nayla Awad describes what it is like to live in Lebanon<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Hit by crises twice: Ms. Nayla Awad describes what it is like to live in Lebanon&#8221; &#8212; Bambi&#039;s Afkar\" src=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/03\/15\/hit-by-crises-twice-ms-nayla-awad-describes-what-it-is-like-to-live-in-lebanon\/embed\/#?secret=lDyr9Ymxoe\" data-secret=\"lDyr9Ymxoe\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ms. Awad (as shown in the picture below) is one of the\nmost lucid and straightforward persons Bambi has ever met in her life (her own\nmom shares these qualities). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In our last chat, Ms. Awad described the double crises of Beirut, the financial tragedy combined to the coronavirus pandemic. Six months later, the August 4th\u2019s Beirut port surrealistic explosion took place. Its images shocked the whole world. Beirut\u2019s port nightmare was devastating to say the least: 200 people lost their lives, 6000+ were injured, 12+ are still missing, 300,000 are homeless, half of the capital destroyed including food or medication storage, hospitals, schools, etc. Many citizens are still living in their damaged\/risky homes (it is now the rain season in Beirut and snow season at higher altitudes). In addition, there are those still struggling with the trauma\u2019s after-effects and\/or with survivor guilt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, there is still no accountability concerning\nthis crime or criminal negligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keeping all this in mind, here are a few questions\nthat Ms. Awad generously accepted to answer: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bambi: Thank you Nayla for your time.\nBambi\u2019s first question is as follows: Can you describe to us life in Beirut\ntoday, end of November, 2020? How does it compare to life before the explosion?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cLife was already awful and disastrous before the explosion due to the financial collapse and money devaluation, which triggered the people\u2019s revolt (since October 17, 2019). The explosion did not change anything in the sense that it is still a disaster.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&nbsp;What\nhas changed since is the following: The Beirut blast brought instant, massive, and\nunbelievable level of destruction to the capital. This means more damage added to\nthe already awful situation Lebanon has been in. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Of course, in addition to families who lost\ntheir loved ones and all the injured citizens, there are all the material costs\nto repair what needs to be fixed. It is only yesterday that we were able to fix\nour doors <\/em>[4 months post-explosion]<em>. We are lucky. Some other\npeople, like where your own parents live, like Gimmayze, Mar Mikhayel, etc. are\nstill living in their destroyed homes. People do not have money for repairs.\nThe explosion was the death blow. A death blow, morally and financially speaking.\nThe morale is usually affected by finances. Both! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>What is hard is to still not have financial support after this tragedy. The Lebanese army visited residences to estimate the costs <\/em>[and in some devastated neighbourhoods, they distributed food boxes].<em> By large, not much came out of this governmental initiative. At times, the army wanted to help and it did manage to do so in some rare cases. The problem is that you do not understand the operation\u2019s logic. Based one what criteria? How much? Why this family? Why not another one? For instance, a close relative whose house was damaged (seriously although not as much as others) received 1 million Lebanese pounds <\/em>[the equivalent of CAD$858]. <em>She was happy. Same for another old neighbour<\/em> [Bambi\u2019s childhood neighbourhood].<em> &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>All this to say that there are devastating\ncosts to the explosion, coupled to hyperinflation triggered by the financial\ncrash that began before the coronavirus pandemic and its many lockdowns\/measures.\n&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Lebanese people went into a revolution, massively taking the streets for months (over a year now). No one listened to them. People lost their savings, their jobs. People were put in jail. People were silenced. And the regime did not change. We discovered that we live under a dictatorship. Some people were beaten or tortured. Some thrown in jail. Some even have criminal records now. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>It is in this context that the explosion took place (in the middle of the pandemic too).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Since the explosion, so many people have already\nmigrated. Many are planning to leave Lebanon for good soon. There is no more\nhope. Some desperate citizens are even leaving by boats from Tripoli in\nmiserable conditions like what we used to see in the media about other less fortunate\ncountries (e.g., Somali refugees, etc.). We are now there. A father had to\nthrow the body of his dead son in the Mediterranean Sea. Can you imagine?! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>No, we do not see the light at the end of\nthe tunnel. We live day by day. Today may be a dark day. Tomorrow, we do not\nknow. Lebanon\u2019s situation is highly volatile. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The worst is that we are stuck with the government\nthat resigned after the explosion but which we did not want in the first place.\nIt is now acting as a caretaker government. The formation of a new government seems\nquasi-impossible. There doesn\u2019t seem to be any hope, as we speak. As citizens,\nyou do not understand all the shenanigans between those in power. Some say as\nlong as there is the actual President with Hezbollah allied to his son-in-law\n(Mr. Bassil), things cannot move forward\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bambi: Where were you when the Beirut\nexplosion happened? How did you react? What thoughts came to your mind then or\nfollowing this tragedy, if you feel like sharing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cI was in the car, driving and my son with\nme. We were in Bourj Hammoud. Thank God, a wall protected us. By a miracle,\nglass did not explode in our faces. I even managed to drive us back home in the\nmiddle of this chaos. The sensation I had was that we were going to die, both of\nus in the car. This is our end. I spontaneously thought it was an Israeli\naviation airstrike. There has been a rumour circulating in the country for a\nwhile that a war with Israel was going to break out in August. Even for a whole\nweek following the explosion, I was still left with the same sensation of an\nair strike. As I mentioned earlier, my first sensation was simply our death.\nThen, whilst driving on the bridge to get to our neighbourhood, I was again convinced\nwe were going to be hit by those airplanes. In the past, bridges were hit by the\nIsraelis in earlier wars (e.g., July, 2006). I was driving seeing bloodied\npeople walking and walking, almost everywhere. Some were lying on the streets. I\nwas seeing endless destruction and death all the way. I do not know how I kept\ndriving until we reached our destroyed street and damaged building. I saw my\nhusband and daughter outside of the building, in a state of shock and worried\nabout us. Shattered glass was everywhere. Again, more bloodied injured people. When\nwe reached our apartment, we realized that was also quite damaged. We were speechless.\n<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Yes, we survived (grateful to be alive&#8230; others\ndid not have this luxury), but, make no mistake, we are still dead inside. We exploded\nwith that explosion\u2026 Our country exploded. We have been robbed &nbsp;spiritually, physically, mentally, morally\u2026\nand financially yet again\u2026\u201d <\/em>[Nayla explained that after\nfour months, she is able to say all this without crying\u2026 It is Bambi who could\nnot contain her tears at that time of the interview. Nayla joined her. Mind\nyou, the latter lost many friends in that explosion. Anyhow, after pausing for\nseconds to wipe away their tears, they continued their Zoom interview]. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bambi: Where do you see Lebanon in the\nshorter and longer-term? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cHell. In the short and long-term. No\nhope. Even before the explosion. I will tell you I had that feeling 20 years ago\n(it is not new) and this is what made me immigrate then. They weakened and destroyed\nLebanon from within and from the outside. Both! For me, it is like a conspiracy\nplan against this country. To use the words of the Lebanese Maronite <\/em>[Roman\nCatholic] <em>Patriarch, \u201cthey have weakened Lebanon to the point of threatening\nits existence\u201d. They have impoverished it. People cannot afford educating their\nchildren anymore. Some schools are literally destroyed. And we are sinking\nlower and lower in misery, day after day. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Every external solution, the Lebanese\npoliticians made it fail, starting with Mr. Emmanuel Macron\u2019s initiative. It is\nas if there is a plan, both internal and external, to turn Lebanon into a\nfailed state. I will re-use the words of this same Patriarch, people are now impoverished,\nwithout their savings, immigrating to avoid being killed. There is no hope.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bambi: What words of comfort or what piece\nof advice would you give to Lebanese youth of the same age of your children?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cGet the fuck out of here!\u201d. This is what I tell them. This is what I tell to myself too. I daily repeat it to myself in my mind. I feel for those who want to stay, those who have to stay, or those who cannot leave. I am afraid that, in order to survive, they will have to build an alliance with the corrupt thugs in charge.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bambi, I cannot end our conversation on a\npositive note. I wish I could. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>No one feels this hope, Bambi\u2026 Well, maybe\nthere is a former politician who has resigned, Mr. Hikmat Fraim, who is among\nthose who believe in Lebanon and still do so. According to him, there will be a\nnew movement and a new system in this country one day. Although I usually like\nlistening to him because of his optimism, I admit that I do not see this hope\u2026 Not\nanymore.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"233\" height=\"671\" src=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nayla.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7970\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nayla.jpg 233w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nayla-104x300.jpg 104w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 85vw, 233px\" \/><figcaption>Thank you Nayla!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/heart-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7971\" width=\"215\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/heart-5.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/heart-5-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 215px) 85vw, 215px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bambi\u2019s regular readers know about Ms. Nayla Awad, Bambi\u2019s childhood friend whom she interviewed on March 15, 2020: Ms. Awad (as shown in the picture below) is one of the most lucid and straightforward persons [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7968"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11542,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7968\/revisions\/11542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}