by gulfnews.com — Beirut: Beirut is a city awash with construction sites. Sleek condominium buildings are constantly being erected, towering over a population that increasingly cannot afford the cost of living. Developers have gobbled up the city’s public space and privatised beaches. But in recent weeks, protesters have begun reclaiming their city, tearing down the metal slats that boarded up the abandoned Grand Theatre, a pre-civil-war relic, and taking over the Egg, an oddly-shaped unfinished cinema, empty for more than 50 years. On the first two nights of unrest last month, the protesters hid in the abandoned structures from police wielding tear gas and batons. Wael Zorkot, 24, hunkered down with them until a column of security forces flushed them out and forced them down the street. He had been with the protesters from the beginning, airing his frustration over the political and economic conditions in his country.
Zorkot said he works at least four days a week bartending at two bars to pay for his education and living expenses, typically finishing at 4am and catching some sleep before going to class. His father owns three stores in their hometown of Zrarieh in southern Lebanon, selling clothes, toys and motorcycles, but life is still tough. His mother is battling cancer and flies to France every four months for treatment because it is too expensive in Lebanon. “I have a lot of plans,” he said about the future. “But not here.” Dozens of young protesters, when asked about their futures, also said they want to emigrate.
The Lebanese economy on average creates no more than 3,000 jobs a year, said Jad Chaaban, an economics professor at the American University of Beirut, but the need is at least 20,000. “There’s a huge mismatch, because of the bad situation in the country, the lack of economic reforms that stimulate job creation, the fact that the government is very corrupt and only invests in projects that are not geared for job creation,” Chaaban said. Lebanese college students benefit from a good education system but at graduation cannot find suitable jobs. He said they endure a period known as “waithood” – waiting for visas to emigrate and for things to change – and grow frustrated with the economic situation.