A whole nation is on the scrounge. As Lebanon collapses in slow motion, its people have turned to whatever means they can to survive.
Adham Maamari, a hospital director in Tripoli, sources generator oil on the black market. He has already stopped taking in critical-care patients for fear of what will happen to his ventilators if the power cuts out, and he is running out of medicine. “How do they expect us to treat people,” he asked. “Black magic?”
A medical secretary spends two hours every morning scouring pharmacies for her elderly mother’s medicine. The pharmacist is ringing a friend in Dubai to ask what drugs she can bring with her when she comes back from holiday.
