Deadly Blast Is The Latest Crisis To Strike Lebanon
ANDERSON: Welcome back. Here are the usual headlines on Lebanon, economic crisis exploding in free-fall, the currency plunging, financial collapse. It is a laundry list of facts and cliches that doesn't cut it to getting you to what that really means. Let me show you. Over the last few months, the value of the currency has gone down, way, way, way down. It used to take 1500 Lebanese pounds to buy $1 of food or medicine or what have you. Now it takes that and that and that and that and that and five more of those. 8,000 Lebanese pounds to buy that exact same amount. No one is being paid anymore, they have the same salary to buy stuff that is effectively four, five, maybe more times more expensive.</s>ANDERSON: And do remember, Lebanon buys 80 percent of what it needs from the outside world. So it is affecting pretty much everything. And all that if you're lucky enough to even have a job. One in three people are out of work. The country was already seeing months of protests over the economy and corruption when the pandemic hit and now this. The devastation can be scaled down to just one scene. This is a cafe in Beirut, it is called "Home Sweet Home", it is full of customers. And this is the cafe following the blast totally destroyed windows blown out, seating area reduced to rubble and the back room completely full of debris. CNN's Nina Dos Santos is with us on the economic angle of this. And sometimes it is just easier - it is such a big issue to get your head around when you talk about a country on the verge of if not in collapse that sometimes it is easier just to take a micro snapshot. But you've been looking at the bigger picture for us.</s>NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is true Becky, when you put it in those stark terms of how much it costs to buy basic goods? This is the reality for so many Lebanese at the moment obviously coping with a twin tragedy now. One that was also just like the economic tragedy that has been unfolding there over the last couple of years entirely potentially manmade. That is why some people are saying that this could be the Chernobyl moment for a country like Lebanon, a manmade non-natural disaster that has pushed people past the brink when they were already economically exhausted. Beirut state the explosion could have not come at a worse time for Lebanon. The country has been in dire straits since last year when its banking system described as a Ponzi scheme began to disintegrate last year, pushing unemployment up, the currency down and bringing thousands on to the streets in protest. Even before the blast, half of Lebanon's population swollen by Syrian and Palestinian refugees was estimated to be living in poverty many were also living in the dark thanks to rolling blackouts. Now aid agencies are sounding the alarm.</s>TAMARA ALRIFAI, SPOKESWOMAN, U.N. RELIEF & WORKS AGENCY: It is an economic crisis, a financial crisis, a political crisis, a health crisis, and now this horrible explosion. So there are many layers to what is happening in Lebanon that is constantly testing the ability of the Lebanese and the refugees who live in Lebanon to be resilient.</s>SANTOS: Much of the immediate concern comes from the supply chain. The Port of Beirut where the explosion occurred is the main maritime hub for a nation heavily dependent on goods from abroad. 60 percent of all imports pass through it and it is where grain is stored, prompting food shortages in a market ravaged by souring prices and years of corruption.</s>ALRIFAI: In the last few months, the Lebanese society has suffered greatly from an economic and financial crisis. And the Lebanese and refugees who live in Syria have found it more and more difficult to buy food and to buy goods.</s>SANTOS: With financial support from gulf countries drying up, Hezbollah plays a more prominent role in its politic, Lebanon defaulted on some of its debt in March. At the time the Coronavirus also took hold. It tried to gain a $10 billion loan from the INF, but those talks stalled last month and Lebanon's credit rating was cut to the lowest rang by Moody's on a par with Venezuela now one revenue driver tourism has also been badly hit.</s>PIERRE ACHKAR, PRESIDENT, LEBANON'S HOTEL FEDERATION FOR TOURISM: It is a disaster for Lebanon for the economy and especially for tourism. We were maybe 5 percent to 15 percent occupancy because of Coronavirus, because of the political problem with the Arab countries. And unfortunately what happened yesterday is a real disaster.</s>SANTOS: Straddling the geopolitical fault lines of the Middle East, Lebanese is no stranger to turmoil or tragedy. But the effects of this massive blast will shake this economy to its already fragile foundations. So Becky, how did Lebanon get to this situation? Well, a lot of it has to do with the legacy of the 15 year long bloody Civil War which ended three decades ago and since then extreme inequalities have been building up in the system and also what is said to be endemic corruption. As we just heard there, that had a big impact on the banking sector, also on the currency, the country defaulted on its debt. People had capital controls imposed meaning that they just saw their savings wiped out without being able to get access to that cash in the bank just as they were losing their jobs. And prices were rising in the hundreds of percentage points at one point.</s>SANTOS: So all of this combined puts Lebanon in a very fragile position. Some people are indeed speculating it has come to the juncture where there is either revolution or reform. You saw the French President Emmanuel Macron there on the streets of Beirut speaking to people and facing down their anger. And he was very clear that when it comes to potential financial aid for this stricken country, yes, it could come from some quarters like France, but reform would have to be explicit as a result and part of that deal. Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Yes, fascinating. Well, we are awaiting comments from the French President who will be alongside his Lebanese counterpart at a press conference. That is set up that's the podium and we're keeping one eye on that for you. As soon as we see Emmanuel Macron, of course we'll bring you his words. Well, for one woman in Beirut, a day of celebration turned into a serious of terrifying moments all caught on camera. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh shows us a scene and talked to this couple.</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a perfect picture wedding shoot, the glowing bride posing for photos a short walk from the luxury wedding venue in downtown Beirut. As the smiling doctor Israa Seblani looks down at her bouquet, horror strikes, her big day blown away in an instant. The couple and the video crew run for cover, destruction all around them.</s>ISRAA SEBLANI, BEIRUT BLAST SURVIVOR: At that moment, one thing I thought about now I'm losing my life, I'm losing my husband, and now I'm going to be buried and they're - now I'm going to die. Now I'm waiting the moment how I'm going to die. Is it going to be fast? Am I going to feel it? Am I going to be--</s>KARADSHEH: 29-year-old Seblani a U.S. resident came back to her native Lebanon to get married. The original plan was to have the wedding party in the United States, but her husband Ahmad Sbeih he has been waiting for his U.S. visa for three years with immigration laws getting stricter by the day under the Trump Administration. The couple says they didn't want to be apart any longer. And finally settled on celebrating their marriage in Beirut with friends and family in the city where their love first blossomed.</s>SEBLANI: At that moment, that beautiful place I was in where the people were dining in the restaurant, shopping, walking, it turned out into a ghost town filled with dust, shattered glass. People yelling and bleeding it was a nightmare.</s>KARADSHEH: Seblani did a final run through of the bridal suite where she inspires her husband in night after the party. When the couple returned, the red rose petals thrown off the bed were all that remained of the romance they had envisioned.</s>AHMAD SBEIH, HUSBAND OF SEBLANI: Of course we are alive we can continue and don't be sad or anything, we will continue and we will make it.</s>KARADSHEH: And Israa this is very emotional for you.</s>SEBLANI: I don't know what to tell but trust me, there is no word to describe really what I feel. No matter how I talk.</s>KARADSHEH: In a city where life was turned upside down in seconds, Israa and Ahmad are just grateful to be alive. Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Istanbul.</s>ANDERSON: Up next, a masked crusader visits a shattered Beirut. The French President brings a message of hope may be even change. We're expecting to hear from him in the next few minutes, I will tell you all about that just ahead.