55 min
Carol Abi Ghanem: The Resistance of the Nuisance Nazra: Politics, Society and Extremism
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- Politics
Carol Abi Ghanem wants to be a nuisance. Not for the sake of it, but because she has to be. A researcher with the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, an activist, DJ, actress and psychologist, Carol is also an outspoken and passionate campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights, a feminist and a proud Lebanese woman, who is not content to wallow in sorry while her country collapses around her.
When protests erupted in Lebanon on Thursday the 17th of October 2019, ostensibly because of a proposed WhatsApp tax, Carol could sense this was more than just a once-off event. The protests ended up lasting months, extended well beyond Beirut to encompass the entire country and at their height, involved the vast Lebanese Diaspora in a global outcry denouncing decades of corruption, incompetence, theft and deception by an incorrigible sectarian political class.
It's now over one year since the Thawra, or revolution, commenced and Lebanon's plight has worsened to depths that nobody could have foreseen. The explosion at the Port of Beirut on the 4th of August was for many the ultimate proof of how badly Lebanon had been governed since 1990, to the point where citizens now feel threatened not by each other, not by foreign meddlers, but by the sectarian warlords-cum-politicians who were supposed to protect them.
Carol and I discuss all of these events with the benefit of hindsight, what Lebanese can learn from the past year and what people can do next to keep the movement alive.
Carol Abi Ghanem wants to be a nuisance. Not for the sake of it, but because she has to be. A researcher with the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, an activist, DJ, actress and psychologist, Carol is also an outspoken and passionate campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights, a feminist and a proud Lebanese woman, who is not content to wallow in sorry while her country collapses around her.
When protests erupted in Lebanon on Thursday the 17th of October 2019, ostensibly because of a proposed WhatsApp tax, Carol could sense this was more than just a once-off event. The protests ended up lasting months, extended well beyond Beirut to encompass the entire country and at their height, involved the vast Lebanese Diaspora in a global outcry denouncing decades of corruption, incompetence, theft and deception by an incorrigible sectarian political class.
It's now over one year since the Thawra, or revolution, commenced and Lebanon's plight has worsened to depths that nobody could have foreseen. The explosion at the Port of Beirut on the 4th of August was for many the ultimate proof of how badly Lebanon had been governed since 1990, to the point where citizens now feel threatened not by each other, not by foreign meddlers, but by the sectarian warlords-cum-politicians who were supposed to protect them.
Carol and I discuss all of these events with the benefit of hindsight, what Lebanese can learn from the past year and what people can do next to keep the movement alive.
55 min