Beirut Port Explosion

On August 4, 2020, an explosion took place at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands of others, and causing numerous environmental damages. The cause of the explosion was found to be from improperly stored ammonium nitrate that had been confiscated in 2014 from a ship owned by Russian businessman Igor Grechushkin . The news of the blast shocked the whole world, and scientists immediately went to work to determine the environmental impact.  Before understanding the root cause of the explosion, people feared it to be a nuclear attack. Everyone going into the hospital with injuries from the blast was checked for burns and other signs of radiation exposure (nausea, vomiting, fever, seizures, etc). However, nobody tested positive or showed any signs of exposure to high levels of radiation. On August 12, 2020 environmental samples of the area determined it to be safe for non-military personnel to enter ground zero. Fig. 1 Google map of Beirut showing

Lebanese Society On August 4th, 2020, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history destroyed the port of Beirut and damaged half of the city. The loss of physical life and infrastructure was immense. The blast killed 218, wounded 7,000, and 150 gained a physical disability. The blast also damaged 77,000 apartments, 163 public and private schools, and destroyed over half of Beirut’s healthcare centres. From the explosion 300,000 people became homeless.The reason for the explosion was due to stored ammonium nitrate, which is “a fertilizer often used in improvised explosive devices”, ( Abouzeid, New York Times, How Corruption Ruined Lebanon, 2021). The ammonium nitrate was poorly stockpiled in 2014 and was left unattended until the eventual blast in 2020, the reason for this explosion was because of corruption in Lebanon. Lebanese society has many different problems that stem from the country's corruption. After the fifteen year civil war ended in 1990, a post war system was i

Lebanon’s Political System If you want to understand Lebanon and how it functions then looking at how the political system operates is a major thing to know. Lebanon is officially modelled on a Parliamentary democracy in which power is divided into three branches of government: The judicial branch, the legislative branch which is called the National Assembly, and finally the executive branch. “The head of state is the President who is elected via a two thirds majority by the National Assembly,” ( Britannica, 2022, Government and Society section ). While the President is the head of state he must work with the Assembly to select a member to become Prime Minister and form a cabinet. However, while this seems like a democracy you could find in the West, there is a key difference and that is the seats in the parliament and in the cabinet are assigned based on a person’s religion. There are eighteenth religious sects in Lebanon and all of these groups are assigned seats in Lebanon’s 128 sea