You Stink
You Stink is the motto of a wave of protests in Beirut and other places in Lebanon that erupted in late August, 2015, after a month earlier a landfill that used to take the waste of half the country was closed, with the government failing to organize alternatives, leading to heaps of uncleared trash in the streets.
After the initial protests were met with violent response from police, the prime minister of the caretaker government, which failed to elect a president for over a year and extended its own mandate twice, apologized and stated that the trash issue was "the straw that broke the camel's back. But the story is bigger than this straw. This is about the political trash in this country".
After a six-hour cabinet meeting on September 9, a plan was agreed on to temporarily re-open the Naameh landfill to get rid of the rubbish already in the streets, and use two other landfills as midterm dumps. The plan was met with criticism by some "You Stink" activists but mild approval by some environmentalists.
Sources
- Lebanon’s rubbish state: A metaphor comes to life, Belen Fernandez, July 27, 2015
- Clashes erupt in 'You Stink' Beirut protest, Middle East Eye, August 23, 2015
- Lebanon cabinet fails on trash crisis amid new protests, Middle East Eye, August 26, 2015
- Lebanon - What if it Fell?, Andre Vltchek, August 28, 2015
- 'You Stink' Demonstrators In Beirut Issue 72-Hour Ultimatum, Vow To Spread Protests In Lebanon Nationwide, International Business Times, August 30, 2015
- Waste (mis)management, Analysis of the triggering problem by Matt Nash, Executive Magazine, September 1, 2015
- The Capitulation of “Grand Liban”, Ghassan Kadi, September 4, 2015
- "Revolution" in Lebanon: From Piles of Trash to Piles of Rubble, Tony Cartalucci, September 5, 2015
- Lebanon's 'You Stink' campaigners criticise rubbish plan, Middle East Eye, September 10, 2015
- A New Tahrir Square Moment? - Vijay Prashad, September 14, 2015
- ANALYSIS: Has Lebanon seen the last of the 'You Stink' movement?, Gaja Pellegrini-Bettoli, November 19, 2015
Websites
- http://youstink.news/ News aggregator