Warehouse 12: the bonfire of corruption?

As protests in Lebanon mount in the aftermath of the catastrophic explosion in Warhehouse 12 in the dockyards of Beirut, it is too soon to know how, if at all, it will impact on the Government led by the Christian Michel Aoun, for every President of Lebanon must be a Christian under the National Pact of 1943 that was agreed when French rule over its invented state ended.

Michael Aoun in most other countries would have been described as a terrorist leader a long time ago, having been part of the Christian violence that contributed so much to the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990 initially targeted at (mostly Palestinian) non-Christians. Then, in 1989, Aoun embarked on a vicious war against another Christian, his rival Samir Geagea, known, apparently without irony or sarcasm as the 'war of liberation', though it is not clear who was being liberated or doing the liberation. What we do know is that Michel Aoun is as corrupt as they come in a country where, owing to climate change, corrupt political leaders now outnumber Cedar Trees, the natonal symbol of the country.
You can read up on these two nasty men here-
https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Le...l-history.ashx

This being the Middle East, hard facts about the incident are both available, and bracketed with conspiracy theories -that the Israelis are responsible, that a bomb or missile caused the explosion in Warehouse 12, and so on. The Conspiracy theories are looked at and debunked here-
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/b...ries-explained

Here are some basic facts, most of which will reveal the problem with maritime law -which allows the movement of goods by sea where one vessel is subject to numerous problems of ownership and liability-and the utterly corrupt nature of Lebanon's politics, where nothing moves unless not one, but maybe up to 3, 4 or who knows, 10 or 20 people get their percentage.

We do know that a shipment of Ammonium Nitrate was ordered by Fábrica de Explosivos Moçambique, an exposives manufacturing company, but it is not clear who they purchased it from. The stock was loaded onto a ship in the port of Batumi in Georgia in September 2013, and made it through the Bosphorous into the Mediterranea Sea when the ship, the Rhosus, experienced technical problems and put in to the port of Beirut for repairs. Or to be polite, the Rhosus was a rust-bucket carrying a cargo worth approx $1 million, equivalent to of one of those clapped-out ferries that have sunk somewhere between Cebu and Manila.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/07/m...ion/index.html

The Rhosus was owned by a Russian called Igor Grechushkin. Grechushki lives in Cyprus, the firm that he set up to manage the Rhosus is registered in the Marshall Islands, and the Rhosus sailed under the flag of Moldova. Right here is this chronic problem with international shipping: owners finding ways to limit the liability of their cargo and escape any payments due to accident, losses or anything else which prevents the vessel from making it from A to B, while pocketing the value of it.
Greshushkin is said to have pocketed the $1 million the cargo was worth, before deciding to abandon the crew and the ship when the port authority in Beirut declared the Rhosus was not seaworthy. Although most of the crew were repatriated, the Captain and three other crew members were effectively imprisoned on the ship until 2014, not allowed to leave owing to immigration law, and without any financial support from the owener -their food and drinking water was provided by a local man who they say, saved their lives. You can read about it here-
https://stableseas.org/blue-economy/...eafarer-rights

With the Rhosus stuck in port, in 2014 the decision was made to unload the cargo, which was stored in Warehouse 12. So far it has been claimed that a nearby Warehouse, no 9, stored fireworks, but that 30-40 bags of fireworks had been moved into Warehouse 12, and that welding work on the gates outside sparked the fire in Warehouse 9 that spread to Warehouse 12, one explosion igniting the other. The same report claims port officials complained 10 times over the last 6 years about the storage of such explosive material- it appears the complaints fed into the bureaucratic labyrinth common across the Middle East where any request for a thing, be it an imported car or a box of paper clips, must be signed and stamped on the relevant form by up to 20 different officials, usually taking a minimum of 6 months though some have waited more than a year for a motor vehicle in some Arab countries. Whatever, President Aoun, following in the fine tradition of Lebanese politicians, declined to take resposibility for the explosion. He claims

"...he was first told of the dangerous stockpile nearly three weeks ago and immediately ordered military and security agencies to do “what was needed.” But he suggested his responsibility ended there, saying he had no authority over the port and that previous governments had been told of its presence."
https://www.timesofisrael.com/firewo...itrate-report/

There was a time, before the OPEC Revolution of the 1970s, when Lebanon was the playground of the Middle East. Rich Saudis who these days take their Filipino toy boys to Dubai, used to go in search of them (any Nationality accepted), and much else of varying genders and ages, in Beirut. The cool mountain areas were ideal for a summer holiday, and in the days when oil wealth was measured in millions rather than billions, Beirut was their banking centre. It had fine hotels and restaurants, and the liberal alcohol laws that for some rich Arabs was as much an attraction as the hotel bedroom overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in which it could be consumed. The OPEC Revolution and the Civil War ended those hedonistic days, as the country became submerged in inter-communal violence that was initially targeted at the Palestinians who left Jordan in 1970 -mostly miliants of Arafat's Fateh organization- to cause disruption and mayhem, particularly in the south near the border with Israel. Those interested can read up on the Palestinians in Lebanon from Chapters 12 through 15 in Armed Struggle and the Search for State, by Yezid Sayigh (1997).

In the 1970s Syria moved into Lebanon, a State it has never really recognized, believing, quite rightly, that the French carved this little state as a Christian enclave out of what ought to have been the Syria succeeding Ottoman rule. The Syrians were eventually evicted in the 'Cedar Revolution' of 2005, but an absence of external influence in Lebanon extended by Iran which had in any case been funding its favoured part, Hezbollah (with Syrian approval) since the late 1970s, just as Saudi Arabia moved in to back the rest, proving its power was real when, in 2017 Lebanon's Prime Minister, Saad Hariri was in the Kingdom and invited to visit the Royal Palace, but not for the start of a camping trip in the desert-

"instead he was stripped of his cellphones, separated from all but one of his usual cluster of bodyguards, and shoved and insulted by Saudi security officers. Then came the ultimate indignity: He was handed a prewritten resignation speech and forced to read it on Saudi television."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/24/w...n-lebanon.html

So here we are: one explosion, many ripples that have yet to come to rest. Corrupt politicians and officials inside the country who viewed the substance of Warehouse 12 as an opportunity to make their percentage pay; while outside, Iran and Saudi Arabia see another opportunity to maintain their not-so-private war with no regard for what the Lebanese people want, or need.

One ship docked in Beirut and 7 years later devasted more than the port; one wonders how many ships leaving Beirut will carry Lebanese people to a new life in France, Canada or the US, as they finally give up and abandon their own country.

Why should they stay?