Internet services were disrupted in Lebanon on Sunday because of diesel shortages, the state provider said, adding another essential service to the list of casualties of the country’s economic crisis.
Imad Kreidieh, the head of state internet provider Ogero, tweeted that a major station in west Beirut, Al Mazraa, would run out of diesel and go offline early on Sunday.
The interruption affected over 26,000 subscribers, including the country’s General Security operation rooms, he told Al Jadeed TV.
By midday on Sunday, a resident donated diesel, allowing the station to get back online, he said. Another neighbourhood in east Beirut, Achrafieh, was out of diesel and operating on batteries.
“The situation is unbearable,” Mr Kreidieh told the TV station.
Lebanese live with only a few hours of state electricity a day and rely on a network of private generators that also depend on diesel fuel. This often leaves neighbourhoods in total darkness for hours.
Residents have to pay for multiple services, including hefty bills to generator operators, which change regularly as the crisis worsens.
Internet and telecom services were expensive in Lebanon even before the current crisis. In 2019, a tax imposed on WhatsApp services sparked nationwide protests that turned into a denunciation of the entire political elite.
The import-dependent country is also suffering from a shortage of medicines, leaving patients dependent on medicines smuggled on the black market and donations from Lebanese expatriates and civil groups.
Lebanon is in the throes of the worst financial and economic crisis in its history that has sunk the once middle-class country into poverty.
The crisis is rooted in years of political corruption and mismanagement. Lebanon is running out of foreign reserves and has gradually lifted subsidies on essential goods, including fuel and medicines.
But the government has yet to implement a social safety programme or draft a recovery plan that are essential to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund.
The crisis caused the national currency to lose more than 90 per cent of its value, while banks, fearing bankruptcy, have limited people’s access to their deposits in local and foreign currency. Meanwhile inflation has soared and prices increased.
The state-owned and other telecommunication companies complain that they are unable to keep up with rising operational costs, including fuel.
“I will not agree to continue in this post unless I have all the authorities and tools to do my job,” said Mr Kreidieh.
He blamed the service interruption in west Beirut on a civil servant who didn’t sign a piece of paper on time to allow him to buy diesel. Amid the crisis, many public sector workers have gone on strike, demanding their salaries be adjusted to rising inflation and a collapsing currency.
Mr Kreidieh said internet service was also affected outside of Beirut.
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
The specs
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
if you go
The flights
Emirates fly direct from Dubai to Houston, Texas, where United have direct flights to Managua. Alternatively, from October, Iberia will offer connections from Madrid, which can be reached by both Etihad from Abu Dhabi and Emirates from Dubai.
The trip
Geodyssey’s (Geodyssey.co.uk) 15-night Nicaragua Odyssey visits the colonial cities of Leon and Granada, lively country villages, the lake island of Ometepe and a stunning array of landscapes, with wildlife, history, creative crafts and more. From Dh18,500 per person, based on two sharing, including transfers and tours but excluding international flights. For more information, visit visitnicaragua.us.
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
