Lebanon: One Year After the Beirut Port Explosion with Yeghia Tashjian and Rana Khoury

<p>On the one-year anniversary of the Beirut port explosion, SWANA collective members speak with regional analyst <a href="https://twitter.com/yeghig" target="_blank">Yeghia Tashjian</a> and social and political activist <a href="https://twitter.com/arkay83?lang=en" target="_blank">Rana Khoury</a>. Regular listeners may remember that Yeghia Tashjian joined us <a href="https://anchor.fm/swana/episodes/Lebanon-The-Aftermath-with-Yeghia-Tashjian--Manal-Kahale-and-Elizabeth-Boulous-from-Light-for-Lebanon-ekv168/a-a3h3u82" target="_blank">a year ago</a> to discuss the immediate aftermath of the Bierut port explosion. Today, he shares with us the international aid response, the role of corruption and the political system that culminated in this disaster, and what the community and grassroots response has been in the last year. Regular listeners may remember that Yeghia Tashjian joined us <a href="https://anchor.fm/swana/episodes/Lebanon-The-Aftermath-with-Yeghia-Tashjian--Manal-Kahale-and-Elizabeth-Boulous-from-Light-for-Lebanon-ekv168/a-a3h3u82" target="_blank">a year ago</a> to discuss the immediate aftermath of the Bierut port explosion. <a href="https://twitter.com/arkay83?lang=en" target="_blank">Rana Khoury</a> discusses the social and political organizing taken on by people on the ground in Lebanon in response to an unhelpful and corrupt government. She provides us with a historical background of what she calls "the ruling mafia" in Lebanon, and critiques what she calls "the curse of resilience" that is attached to populations recovering from ongoing forms of violence. Rana also has an important call for our listeners in the West about how they can not only help relief efforts in Lebanon, but how we can complicate our understandings of "the Arab world" and East-West binaries.</p> <p><a href="https://twitter.com/yeghig" target="_blank">Yeghia Tashjian</a> is a regional analyst and researcher. He has graduated from the American University of Beirut in Public Policy and International Affairs. He pursued his BA at H