Lebanese activists stole world headlines this spring when they used drone footage to expose massive garbage dumps hidden from public view in industrial areas around Beirut – the result of the state’s failure to collect waste in a nine-month sanitation crisis (see Unreported Year, NI 489).
Lebanon’s tourism minister threatened to sue the activists for ‘harming the country’s image’ and claimed the clip violated copyright because it spoofed the ministry’s own drone video glorifying Lebanon’s natural beauty. But as the footage went viral over social media and news outlets around the world, the damage to tourism had already been done. The cabinet called a late-night emergency meeting to approve the reopening of disused dump sites near the Mediterranean coast. Hundreds of trucks began queuing to pick up the piles and the state took the unprecedented move of ordering the military to protect these trash convoys from further disturbances from demonstrators.
