Given the scale of destruction, we feel it is relevant to share these raw excerpts from a short, informal interview we conducted on 6 August 2017 with a low-ranking port officer in Beirut. It says volumes about the state of affairs that led to this calamity.

"As a customs officer, I make just 900 dollars per month, working only night shifts. The only reason why I do this kind of thing is that I must support my two parents, who are old but alive, and depend on me. [...]

"I play quite a bit of ping pong at work, and otherwise I sleep. When a cargo load comes in, which is always at night, employees come to wake me with flashlights. [...]

"I take the paperwork and sign off on everything: yes, yes, yes. I check all the right boxes to let the goods in, whatever they are. I do it quick so I can get back to sleep. [...]

"They let anything in, literally anything. If I started doing my job, I wouldn’t last a month. They’ll keep me where I am only as long as I don’t do a thing. [...]

"The real money, of course, is only for the higher-ups, who are totally corrupt. Making money is all they have in mind. But it doesn’t trickle down to people like me. [...]

"But what the heck: Am I the guy who's going to change Lebanon? The day my parents die, I won’t spend a minute more in Lebanon. I’d rather Bangladesh, frankly. It can’t be worse than here."

This snapshot helps understand that the port of Beirut is not merely a piece of logistical infrastructure, where an accident occurred. It is the cornerstone of a system that has sacrificed everything to short-term gains over any sense of public good.

For a detailed examination of how infrastructure projects around the country have produced little more than kickbacks, see @cmparreira’s essay, rich with documented examples. https://www.synaps.network/post/lebanon-protests-uprising-poor-governance