Lebanese look ahead to new year after tough 2020

Worn down by the dramatic events that unfolded in Lebanon in 2020, the Lebanese people are looking ahead to the New Year.On the first day of 2021, pedestrians went walking at Beirut's seafront, as others exercised by the sea.Among those going for a walk was 37-year-old car mechanic Mohammad Ayoub who labelled 2020 as "very tragic."

In less than a year, Lebanon was hit by an economic meltdown, mass protests, financial collapse, a virus outbreak and an explosion that virtually wiped out the country's main port.

Engineer Kamal Slim said the past year was tough on people all over the world and hoped that 2021 would bring some solutions.

But Khaled Salam, who was in the famous Hamra shopping street on the first day of the year, was far less optimistic.

"There is no hope in Lebanon, there is no hope in the Lebanese people," he said.

Salam thinks it is better to leave the country with all its problems to the politicians.Lebanon's ruling class has been in power since the end of the 1975-90 civil war, including some of its warlords.In demonstrations that erupted in October 2019, protesters accused them of mismanaging Lebanon's wealth and of widespread corruption.

The country's foreign reserves are drying up and the local currency is expected to spiral further downward.Lebanese — half of whom are in poverty — soon face yet another leap in basic food prices.

(IMAGE CREDITS:AP)