Beirut is picking up its trash – but Lebanon’s protests were about so much more

Lebanon’s government has agreed to resume rubbish collection and disposal after weeks of massive protests – but the real causes of the protesters’ anger are still at work.

The recent protests may have superficially targeted the issue of trash collection (or rather, non-collection), but in fact, they transcended it. For many of the “You Stink” protesters, the estimated 20,000 tonnes of rubbish lying uncollected in Beirut’s streets are a perfect symbol of the the power-sharing government’s incompetence.