Convenience Big Store: Lebanon’s desperate plight

24 August, 2021

In the headlines

The August 31 deadline for the US to pull out of Afghanistan is unlikely to be extended, though Boris Johnson will try to persuade President Biden to delay the withdrawal on a call this afternoon. The Taliban says any extension will be met with unspecified "consequences". Extinction Rebellion shut down parts of central London yesterday, the start of a fortnight of protest. McDonald's has run out of milkshakes in its British restaurants because of a lack of lorry drivers.

Comment of the day

A pharmacist in Beirut with a sign saying: "No gasoline = no ambulance." Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

Lebanon's desperate plight

Revolution feels "inevitable" in Lebanon, says Nathalie Finan in Le Figaro. Petrol stations recently stopped selling fuel. "The car being the only means of getting around, everyone's stuck at home." The Lebanese, known for their joie de vivre and work ethic, are at their wits' end. Last week a hospital in Beirut came within 48 hours of running out of power. Forty adults and 15 children on ventilators would have died. Desperate doctors asked the state for help and got "a few hundred litres of fuel" in return. Safe, "for now".

The government, "high on its mountain", is to blame for this "life of lack". It ducks responsibility and buys itself time. Power cuts are widespread. Beirut is routinely plunged into darkness. There isn't even television or Wi-Fi to forge links with the outside world. When I fly to see my parents in Beirut, I take two big bags, one stuffed with medicine, the other with "foods that have run out in Lebanese supermarkets". Theft and hunger are rife. Famine looms. "Is this a 21st-century society?" Protests happen, but the people are too hungry to rise up. Or not hungry enough. Historically Lebanon has depended on France, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the US, Russia and other dominant powers. All are silent. Let's hope for the birth of a Lebanon "that all young people dream of".

Sometimes we have to fight for what we believe

Liberal democracy must occasionally be upheld by military force, says Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic. US and British politicians have said there was "no military solution" in Afghanistan, but that's not true. The military solution was to win, and the Taliban has been waiting a long time to do so. Yet many in the liberal democratic world find military intervention "too distasteful or too expensive". They pretend we can resolve conflicts with "talks", "diplomacy" and "UN declarations" instead.

The fall of Kabul will cause US allies to question "whether their own liberal society is safe" under American protection. Taiwan is particularly vulnerable. It's also a reminder that while we may be tired of "forever wars", other nations aren't. The West has enemies in Pakistan, Iran, Russia and China, all of which see liberal democracy as a "dangerous ideology" that needs to be defeated. They will not hesitate to use violence to do so. We may wish otherwise, but in the real world we must sometimes use guns to defend our ideals.

Inside politics

"There've been seven prime ministers before me, and three have died in office," says Mia Mottley, 55, the first female PM of Barbados, in Vogue. "Those were the odds foisted on me, and it's up to me to beat them." She has great ambitions for the small island: size "didn't stop Rihanna".

Gone viral

Pop It, a rubber toy that replicates the sensation of popping bubble wrap, has become the hit toy of the year. FoxMind, the Canadian company behind it, says US sales have leapt from 700,000 in 2019 to more than seven million in the past 12 months. The fad has been turbocharged by TikTok – videos tagged #fidgettoys have racked up 12.9 billion views.

Zeitgeist

Cambridge University's archaeology museum is adding notices to its classical busts to explain their "whiteness" and lack of diversity. Dons have described the move as "unhinged". "You might just about understand this coming from a student," one academic told the Telegraph, "but the idea that this has been approved by the faculty is as terrifying as it is comical." Most of the museum's 600 plaster casts of Greek and Roman statues depict Greeks and Romans.

Data update

Groceries delivered by Waitrose are on average two and a half days closer to their expiry date than those ordered from Tesco, says Which? magazine. A team of 12 shoppers ordered more than 1,000 items from six of the UK's top supermarkets.

Noted

Contrary to what pundits, politicians and the US president seem to think, "Afghan" means a people and "Afghani" means their currency. "If I had an Afghani for every time President Biden called Afghans 'Afghanis', I would have five Afghanis," tweeted Reuters journalist Idrees Ali. That's just over 4p – the Taliban takeover has seen the value of the currency fall.