By Middle East correspondent Adam Harvey, Tom Hancock and Cherine Yazbek in Beirut — abc.net.au —They are articulate and optimistic and extremely patriotic. They do not want to move away. They want to transform Lebanon into a place where you do not have to leave to find a job. They blame their nation’s dire economy on a political system that is still dominated by the civil war that ended 30 years ago, before they were born. Wartime militias turned into political parties and the protesters on the streets of Lebanon say they looked after their own interests, and not that of the nation. The ABC went to the heart of the protests to speak to the twentysomethings who want something better for Lebanon.

Olivia Yacoub is a 22-year-old Lebanese Australian who came home after completing her master’s degree in Melbourne. She has been here for 18 months but will probably have to leave again to find work in her field of expertise, food science. “It is such a beautiful, chaotic country. There is something so special about this country,” she said. “That’s what driven me to leave Australia where I could have easily found work, and come back to Lebanon and hope that I can work here and live with my family.” Ms Yacoub said she would like to build a career in Lebanon without having to depend on family funds or political connections to find a job. “I’ve lost a lot of friends and family members who’ve had to leave to find work overseas. It’s really sad,” she said. Ms Yacoub would also like the Government to change a law that prevents Lebanese women from passing their nationality to their children. Currently, citizenship is only a right for the children of Lebanese men. “I’m protesting for very simple things. I want to be able to give my future children Lebanese nationality. I want to be able to live in a Lebanon that has 24/7 electricity, and has clean water and clean air,” she said.

This year anti-Government demonstrations have swept more than a dozen countries, including Hong Kong, Chile, Bolivia and Spain. “People overseas are really fighting for this, so we’re not on our own,” Ms Yacoub said. “I’m very hopeful that we will be able to live in a better Lebanon, the Lebanon that we deserve.”

Young protesters take over the derelict ‘Egg’

One of the most striking sights these days in Beirut is that of protesters gathering on the curved roof of a derelict cinema that overlooks the heart of the revolution in Martyr’s Square. Nicknamed the ‘Egg’, the modernist concrete structure was built in 1965 and abandoned 10 years later at the outbreak of the civil war. It is now a focal point of the protests, and after a wobbly climb up a rusted stairway to the Egg’s roof, the ABC interrupted 25-year-old Chariff Kaiss from his task of waving Lebanon’s national flag. “The youth who weren’t alive when this place was built are having the chance to enjoy it because the state doesn’t have control anymore to suspend us from going in,” he said. “We’re sitting on the Egg, we’re not inside the Egg. It’s a nice place. Now you can feel it with me,” he says, and after 40 years of zero maintenance, the Egg indeed does vibrate in tune with the passing traffic.

Mr Kaiss finished his master’s degree in law four years ago and, unusually, has stayed in Lebanon. “I’m a patriotic guy. I have suffered to find a job, and never ever have I thought to leave the country, despite my suffering,” he said. “I stayed four years looking for a job. But my love for this country kept me determined to stay here. When you love a place it’s hard to leave it.” Mr Kaiss said there were not enough opportunities for young people in Lebanon, and many were giving up and moving elsewhere. “Our dream is to create opportunities for the youth to build something in their country, in their homeland,” he said. A young girl in pigtails wrapped in a Lebanese flag Also on the roof was another student, Robin Harfouche, who was wrapped in a Lebanese flag. “This place is really like a mark, a place everyone knows and everyone wants to go up onto the roof — it’s a thing,” she explained. “My parents used to come here and watch movies, then it got demolished.” If Lebanon’s economy does not improve, Ms Harfouche will undoubtedly also have to leave when she graduates. “I want to stay here. Sadly, in my domain, architecture, there are no jobs here in Lebanon. I have to make that decision in three years. I hope in three years it will be better.”

A young woman climbs down a ladder as men reach to help her Back down the rickety ladder, and inside the concrete Egg, there was a group of students taking selfies in the dimly-lit interior. Nearby, a graffiti artist daubed a wall and somewhere in the gloom, an opera recording played. We asked the same question of third-year medical student Ahmed Abuzeyd that we asked everyone else: if there was just one thing he could change here, what would it be? “The most important thing for me is secularism, to end the sectarian politics of Lebanon,” he said. “Tomorrow, if it were possible, I wish there were only two political parties, not parties backed and driven by religion. Just two general parties, and within them, all the religions together.”