A Massive You Stink Protest in August 2015

Quick Background

I remember when the garbage started piling on the streets, I was chatting with a good friend of mine and one of the folks behind the early “You Stink” days. He was asking my opinion on whether to call the movement “Ya Nazif” or “Tol3et Ree7etkon” (I was on team Tol3et Ree7tekon if you’re wondering). Little did I know back then how huge this would become, and what would come out of it.

Before delving into the analysis, let’s recap what happened.

July 2015

A couple of dozen protesters head down to the Central District of Beirut, and ignite the protest movement demanding a sustainable and environmental solution to the humiliating garbage crisis, which was the result of gross incompetence and criminal corruption by Lebanon’s ruling elite.

August 2015

In the face of rabid, savage police brutality and several political faux-pas, You Stink’s calls to go to the streets swell the numbers of protesters. For the first time in Lebanon’s history, young, independent, secular, transparent and angry men and women go down to the streets. They forced the spineless Tamam Salam cabinet to erect its famous wall of shame, then remove it, then erect it again, demonstrating how caught off guard the politicians and their parties were by the popular unrest.

October 2015

The ISF escalate their violence against peaceful protesters, and violent scuffles break out, deterring many from going back down to the streets to avoid the unchecked police state tactics against peaceful, unarmed Lebanese taxpayers demanding the most basic of rights: to not drown in garbage as the politicians try to divide the dwindling pie.

Notable Facts

The above were all protests and actions called for by You Stink. There were several instances where other groups, with a different agenda, tried to piggy back on You Stink’s momentum, dragging it into petty politics and the usual smear campaign tactics of the warlords-turned-politicians of Lebanon. I’m not talking about the “mundaseen” here, but politically affiliated movements that tried to ride the wave You Stink created to try and become relevant again.

These protests were the first crowdsourced ones in Lebanon’s history, with financial transparency that made Lebanese politicians weave stories about embassies and espionage to try and explain the money whose source everyone could see online: the protesters themselves. The media coverage, with constant live on many local broadcasters, and consistent coverage on international ones, made the garbage issue known worldwide, and shamed Lebanon’s leadership which stood, mouth open, trying to figure out how they can profit off of the situation in vain.

The Report Card’s As

Telecom sector revenues from the early 2000s were released from the grip of Lebanon’s Finance Ministry, and handed to who it was meant for: the municipalities. This is perhaps the biggest accomplishment of You Stink’s movement

The minister involved with the shameful mismanagement of the garbage crisis, Minister of Environment Mohamad Machnouk, was effectively excised from his job, not having the guts to resign, he stopped doing his job while your taxes kept paying for his salary

The government scrambled to find solutions, and even though they were far from ideal and had their personal bank accounts primarily in mind, they were forced to do the work our taxes pay them to do.

The government’s violent, human rights violating overreaction against protesters with babies and children, showed the true face of Lebanon’s government: one that is helpless in the face of violent drug lords and real criminals, but savage in their attacks on innocent taxpayers demanding what is right, peacefully.

Report Card’s Bs (Indirect Consequences)

Awareness. For the first time ever, folks who would sit at home and complain, got out of their living rooms and came together. Without a political party, without funding, without organization, they all got up and marched down to the streets to try and force the government into proper action

Independent lists in Lebanon’s municipal elections, across the nation. If you told someone in 2014 that almost every district in Lebanon would have lists of independent candidates running which included environmentalists, seculars and a gender-balanced lists, they would have probably laughed and said “maybe in a hundred years”. Well, it took one year of activating in the streets for that to become a reality, and included Beirut Madinati’s mindblowing 40% in the face of all the ruling political parties combined. In many towns, independent candidates won seats, riding the wave of awakening that had driven so many of us to the streets.

The Dalieh project in Raouche was stopped, due to public pressure and protests from the folks at The Dalieh Campaign and many of the same groups that had protested the garbage crisis.

Under popular pressure, Horsh Beirut was opened to the public for the first time in decades. It took till this year, till the current government felt the pressure from the streets was gone, for it to shut it down again and begin constructing a hospital on the last remaining green space in the concrete mess that is Beirut’s non-existent urban planning. Nahnoo and several other groups were instrumental in the initial reopening.

The illegal project of Eden Rock on Beirut’s last public beach, Ramlet El Bayda, was stopped by two major judicial verdicts thanks to public pressure and amazing work by Beirut Madinati activists and Legal Agenda among others. Judicial verdicts that the spineless Lebanese government has failed to execute till this day, in blatant, shameful and despicable disregard for the Lebanese justice system who dealt a verdict in favor of Lebanese taxpayers for once, not the ruling elite.

The Freedom of Information law, which stipulates that any taxpayer can demand information from public institutions and bodies. Even though many of those institutions will and are disobeying these requests, the mere fact we have access to this information, legally now, can be a game-changer in a country like Lebanon, whose administration is synonymous with opaqueness and corruption.

Report Card’s Cs

You Stink rearranged the entire political status quo in Lebanon. Suddenly, former sworn enemies till the bitter end, became BFFs. Today, we see the Lebanese Forces (LF) in the same cabinet as Hezbollah. If Geagea from 2014 saw what Geagea in 2016 did, he might have had a stroke. The LF’s raison d’etre for many years was just opposing and contradicting every word and move Hezbollah (HA) does, suddenly, they are in the same cabinet, conspiring together against the Lebanese taxpayer.

At the same time, less than a year before, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) was calling the Future Movement (FM) ISIS members, with banners depicting Tamam Salam as an ISIS member in a suit. The FM was calling Aoun a mentally ill person. Less than a year after the uprising, Hariri made Aoun president, and Aoun made Hariri prime minister.

If You Stink decide to open a conflict resolution firm, they’d have won the Nobel prize for physics for reconciling what decades of war, sectarian rhetoric and consecutive crises couldn’t… Who knew all it’d take is for Lebanon’s youth to come together spontaneously and say: enough.

What Should Happen Next

It didn’t “fizzle out”

From July 2015 to March 2016, You Stink did things that will go down in history as some of the smartest, most resilient movements Lebanon has ever seen. From protests, to smart stunts and actions and a page which has a quarter of a million supporters.

However, protesting forever is never the answer, and I was glad they stopped actions on the ground to leave space for all the independent municipal elections candidates to run beautiful campaigns and win seats on many places across Lebanon. Also, if they had continued with the “3ahd jdid”, you’d get the usual “give them a chance to govern! (as if they didn’t have several decades already). We have a president now, everything will be fixed!” Well, almost 5 months in, things have only gotten worse.

They increased the pensions of dead presidents, prime ministers, speakers of parliament, members of parliament and ministers from 75% to 100%, even after they die, indefinitely. This without passing the wage increase for all other Lebanese, the actual taxpayers. They’re also passing a savage tax hike, with the excuse to find revenue to fund the wage increase, which they have yet to do if it doesn’t concern their own salaries, which they never have a problem increasing without revenue streams first. They’re planning another extension of this illegitimate parliament’s term. The list goes on and on…

Some More Discipline This Time

Don’t fall into the trap of the politicians, and start asking questions that only serve their purpose. Who cares who the spokesperson is? Who cares about their personal lives? Who believes any of us are spies? This is bigger than all of that, and this time, the stakes are much higher. If protests reignite, they need to be better organized and with clear objectives we can achieve. It mustn’t be a platform for ideologues to pedal dead political ideologies whenever they see a camera and run to recite the speeches they practice in front of their bathroom mirrors.

Enough lies. Enough corruption. Enough audacity. The tax hike, with zero reform concerning the billions in corruption and mismanagement of taxpayer money, is not ok. It never should be. Protest fatigue? Suck it up. Nothing will change? A lot has, but a lot more needs to be. Protests don’t solve anything? Sure, then give us an alternative that doesn’t include applying for visas somewhere far away. We need to do this if we are to win seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections. We need to remind people of how horrifyingly incompetent thieves the current ruling class are, and that the octogenarian warlords need to retire, and leave some space for the young to try and fix the disasters they have plunged us in with their sheer stupidity and unchecked, unpunished greed.

More soon. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: There’s a protest TONIGHT, 7PM. RSVP Here