Lebanon after the Beirut blast: A nation stuck in a moment
Al Jazeera
Our lives are still defined by what happened during a few moments on that August evening more than a year ago.
It was a quiet, balmy August evening. I had just finished running a workshop for Lebanese journalists on the rise of hate speech in Lebanese media and was enjoying summer drinks with three women friends at the Commodore Hotel in Hamra, at the very heart of the Lebanese capital.
Around 6pm, we received a message on WhatsApp from a friend in London, informing us of a tweet he saw about an “explosion” at the Beirut Port. The tweet was accompanied by a photo showing clouds of grey smoke above the port. As we did not hear an explosion, we doubted the story, but still went straight to our phones to check if there were any corroborating reports. We found nothing. I made a comment about how dangerous such “fake news” can be, especially in a politically unstable country like Lebanon, but we didn’t think much of it.
A few minutes later, we felt a jolt followed by strong tremors that shook our table. It felt like an earthquake, but we instinctively knew what we were experiencing was not a natural disaster. A fraction of a second later, we heard a loud bang, and pieces of shattered glass started to rain on us. It felt like the world was ending.
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