a) Rise of alternate forms of organizing trust. People distrust government or other organizations, and turn to alternative forms of organization and trust.
b) Rise of digital wallet/transfer systems that are fundamentally about charging for throughput/withdrawals. The article mentions that banks are restricting withdraws - presumably because banks need deposits to stay liquid. Whish on the other hand doesn't care - it makes money as a % of each transaction.
Hasn't Hawala been a thing in Lebanon for hundreds of years? It doesn't seem like a novel development at all, besides the digital tools. Informal money transfer systems are not new thing challenging the banks at all. The banks are the new thing here.
Hezbollah, Iran and extremely difficult economic situation in Lebanon, meaning there are no social lifts apart from taking Iran’s money and “being part of resistance” facing pretty certain death, plus nasty antisemitic culture and propaganda. These are the reasons Hezbollah attacked Israel and Israel issued evacuation instructions to the civilian population.
BTW the extremely difficult situation is also caused by Hezbollah, Iran and PLO before that.
Since most people won't know: the reason this crisis is developing is because of how hezbollah behaved last time.
These people are Syrian immigrants (largely), pretend to be Shi'a muslims (but aren't), and have moved to Southern Libanon, decades ago, throwing out (and worse) the original (Christian) population, because they were paid to do so. Then in the last war they ran away from the south, to avoid fighting, and they were largely welcomed into Beirut, especially southern Beirut, many taken in by Christians and Sunni (partially because they had money and Lebanon was in a deep crisis). Then a lot of them never left, threw the people who had taken them in out of their own homes. They simply stole the apartments of people who took them in, then chased inhabitants out of entire blocks.
This time, neighbors sometimes literally attack anybody tries to help these people, and chase the refugees away, for fear of a repeat.
The result is, of course, a deep typical middle eastern crisis. Deep misery. Money is deeply involved, corruption is everywhere. Nobody, especially not the people who are now in deep trouble, are innocent. And there is no real solution, nor is anybody interested in providing a solution.
Iran's islamist regime is directly responsible for this crisis, through giving these people money and weapons, but of course they are not available to resolve anything (and that's NOT because the US is attacking them, yes that's a problem, but it's not like they would help anyone if they were doing fine)
Headline really deploying passive voice here. Israel's invasion and wide bombings of Lebanon is what has displaced a million people.
Lebanon had a few million displaced before bombing even started. Many refugees from Syria, it is basically softer version of Gaza.
Syria actually worse than Gaza (5+ million displaced, 200k+ civilians killed) but over a much larger area and timespan.
Seems there are two parallel developments here:
a) Rise of alternate forms of organizing trust. People distrust government or other organizations, and turn to alternative forms of organization and trust.
b) Rise of digital wallet/transfer systems that are fundamentally about charging for throughput/withdrawals. The article mentions that banks are restricting withdraws - presumably because banks need deposits to stay liquid. Whish on the other hand doesn't care - it makes money as a % of each transaction.
Hasn't Hawala been a thing in Lebanon for hundreds of years? It doesn't seem like a novel development at all, besides the digital tools. Informal money transfer systems are not new thing challenging the banks at all. The banks are the new thing here.
Damn I wonder why they are displaced. No one to blame for sure.
Hezbollah, Iran and extremely difficult economic situation in Lebanon, meaning there are no social lifts apart from taking Iran’s money and “being part of resistance” facing pretty certain death, plus nasty antisemitic culture and propaganda. These are the reasons Hezbollah attacked Israel and Israel issued evacuation instructions to the civilian population.
BTW the extremely difficult situation is also caused by Hezbollah, Iran and PLO before that.
Since most people won't know: the reason this crisis is developing is because of how hezbollah behaved last time.
These people are Syrian immigrants (largely), pretend to be Shi'a muslims (but aren't), and have moved to Southern Libanon, decades ago, throwing out (and worse) the original (Christian) population, because they were paid to do so. Then in the last war they ran away from the south, to avoid fighting, and they were largely welcomed into Beirut, especially southern Beirut, many taken in by Christians and Sunni (partially because they had money and Lebanon was in a deep crisis). Then a lot of them never left, threw the people who had taken them in out of their own homes. They simply stole the apartments of people who took them in, then chased inhabitants out of entire blocks.
This time, neighbors sometimes literally attack anybody tries to help these people, and chase the refugees away, for fear of a repeat.
The result is, of course, a deep typical middle eastern crisis. Deep misery. Money is deeply involved, corruption is everywhere. Nobody, especially not the people who are now in deep trouble, are innocent. And there is no real solution, nor is anybody interested in providing a solution.
Iran's islamist regime is directly responsible for this crisis, through giving these people money and weapons, but of course they are not available to resolve anything (and that's NOT because the US is attacking them, yes that's a problem, but it's not like they would help anyone if they were doing fine)