New ‘Lebanese’ car model

I’ve just stumbled across this video and I think Lebanese everywhere need to circulate it widely:

Although this commercial was originally broadcast some time ago, it seems to have made little impact. Sadly, littering remains the norm in Lebanon–witnessing someone throw garbage out the window of the car driving in front of you is a routine, if not daily occurrence. In the US this wouldn’t be allowed. It could cause car accidents. If people were involved in car accidents because of the dumping of all this gabage, they should consider talking to a personal injury attorney.

Business owners can be even more destructive as commercial dumping also seems broadly acceptable.

Here are some recent pictures I took of a beautiful mountain neighborhood defiled by reckless nearby shop owners:

And cement industries:

Sadly most dumpers go unpunished, with little to no law enforcement or fining. Lebanese government apologists will cry that there are other priorities with the country in political paralysis. But seeing that those problems have not been solved for the past three years, one sees little excuse why the country’s so-called leadership fails to tackle pollution, a relatively straight-forward problem.

Those that can be thanked are the hard working men of Sukleen, Lebanon’s biggest garbage collecting company. I’ve almost never spotted one not working.

As Lebanese pollute with abandon, Sukleen has always been there to pick up the mess. They’ve been there after all the protests, most recently after the sit-ins in downtown Beirut:

I think the Lebanese people need to do more to applaud their efforts, including Sukleen management. Sadly I’ve often spotted the men being hauled around the city, piled into flat bed trucks. (Of course many are maltreated migrant workers–another major problem for Lebanese.)

Hats off to the men of Sukleen, the hardest working folks in Lebanon.

The country would be a much bigger mess without them.