Beirut Lebanon is a Crazy City

Beirut Lebanon is a Crazy City
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[@zahifar3936]

Well, looks like you nailed the Lebanese vibe spot on! Yes concerning the cost of life, it may not seem obvious. You have to live here. Like paying twice for electricity bills and thrice for water and the restaurants, etc. After the 2019 financial crash, I for example, who comes from a middle class family, can’t go to restaurants as often as before. Adding that the quality of food isn’t the same as before in practically all establishments. Menus are minimised, etc. But like in every crisis, most people get poorer and a few get richer, which explains the expensive cars. Also the traditional Lebanese will sell a kidney in order to show off and make it look like they’re living the life. As for foreign people getting work as helpers, yes that happened at a period before the crash when the dollar rate was advantageous for some countries, so many came for work. After the crash many have left and some stayed. Some left and returned later. Yea there’s this biporal, schizophreneous thing that you mentioned, the proximity and even fusion of rich and poor. Like you would see some households who can engage a helper but don’t have proper running water, due to the poor infrastructure. Their kids who make their living abroad pay for the helper. Instead of putting parents into a home. We prefer for our parents to stay in their houses if we can help it. Finally I have to say that your narration is very clear and concise. Great work and my wishes for more development with your channel. Oh and I heard you mention in a previous video those metal shafts along sidewalks. That’s for vehicles not to be able to park on the sidewalk if you didn’t get an answer.

[@aag3752]

But not all of it is accurate. We know who we are as a people. We're simply Lebanese. The fact that we have diversity doesn't mean we have an identity problem.

[@zahifar3936]

I don’t know on what basis the man says we have an identity issue. But if we have to be frank with ourselves, there is a problem. It’s obvious. And we’re a long way from solving it because we’re repeating the same mistakes.

[@tawfeekb24]

Man your videos are amazing. I don’t usually like watching videos like this, but your knowledge and input is great! The filming is crazy too.

[@blususpect]

I can’t believe I ran into Sly’s Life in Turkey, cool guy! Safe travels!

[@aag3752]

Thank you for the vid. If I may, I'll add some details and facts. (I'm Lebanese). 1. While Lebanon is a Muslim majority country, it would be wrong to think that it's an Islamic country. First of all, most Lebanese people *in the world* are Christians. Christian values are very much a part of Lebanese culture, as are Islamic ones. This goes for the country of Lebanon as well (not just the diaspora), because there is a very large Christian minority still living there (about 40%). So, it's more accurate to say that it's about half and half. Also, many of us, including myself are atheists or spiritual instead. 2. Lebanese people aren't genetically Arabs. I'm saying this, because the country was compared to Dubai in this vid. But we're not the same people. We're genetically Phoenician/Mediterranean. Culturally, we're Levantine. The northern Levant has always been a bridge of east and west, so that is reflected in our culture as well. We relate more to Syrians (than other Arabic speakers) in that regard, except that we're much more multicultural and multireligious. 3. Lebanon has always had a variety of foreign workers--from Africa, India, Bangladesh, even Europe and America. Even Keanu Reeves was born in Lebanon because his parents used to work there! Nowadays, since the economy has crashed, this is less so. But there are still some foreigners living there. 4. We KNOW who we are. I'm sorry, but saying that we have an identity crisis isn't actually true. It's just that different Lebanese people have different perspectives. But we are specifically Lebanese. People of the eastern Mediterranean who practice their own culture, which although influenced by the outside to some extent, is still distinctly Lebanese. Our Phoenician ancestors also influenced the rest of the world by spreading their alphabet, so there's nothing wrong with cultures spreading and impacting each other.

[@thehusso100]

True! (Side note: Golden State Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr was also born in Lebanon🏀His father worked at the AUB🤓)

[@aag3752]

@@thehusso100 Oh, I didn't even know that one. Thanks for the info!

[@Phe961]

@@thehusso100 the biological father of Steve jobs also lived in Lebanon and studied at AUB. He was syrian though.

[@Shichman]

Ohhhh i missed that you hit 100K subscribes, wow congrats!!!!! One of my fav channels lately!

[@nightgod1325]

Thanks for sharing your experiences in Beirut! Sounds like a head trip. If anyone’s curious about the conditions of Ethiopian domestic workers in Lebanon, Al-Jazeera ran an article about it in 2021. It’s crazy conditions they have to deal with.

[@asmalaysi9687]

Cool video series in lebanon mate! I believe anyone willing to visit lebanon and beirut specifically needs to have an open mind and expect to see a country that is slowly recovering from alot of traumas that it suffered and still suffering from in recent years,traumas that have affected every aspect of life there.Lebanon is such an interesting amazing fun-filled country but catching its vibe is only for people who truly want to dig deep in its beauty and not scratch the surface of it and be judgemental of its tough situation. Hope you had a great time there!!

[@xxxs8309]

The area you visited is only a tiny part of Lebanon.I wish you had visited the mountainous towns which are splendid at this time of year.

[@MinataDi]

Good on you for your research! Thank you so much, we enjoyed your video

[@BBall-gz1wr]

They go there for work..... Servants.... People are doing what they need to do to survive

[@Hannahx1104]

Its normal for Lebanese to have hired help. Decades ago you would see Sri Lanken maids everywhere, now it seems to be be Ethiopian. I'm surprised after the financial crisis and everything people still have maids. There you go! Lebanese will always be who they are, no matter what! 😊

[@leonardnyaoke1380]

Welcome to Lebanon, came here 2 weeks ago and am loving it! Walk along the streets in Badaro and you will think you are in France, and there is a house there flying the kenya 🇰🇪 flag

[@vastolive8]

It wasen't a majority muslim before the civil war, A lot of christians left Lebanon since the war, now it's like 38-40% chritians, the rest 60% is mixed of sunnite, chiaa and druzes

[@rhosus2-wx5fg]

Now christian in best case scenario are 20% mainly because Muslim birthrate is far more higher

[@abdelkarimbaghdadi2094]

and opportunity to move to the west are higher for Christians than muslims​@@rhosus2-wx5fg

[@userxfgtx665fgt34]

and what do you think the reason is ?

[@vastolive8]

@@rhosus2-wx5fg On records they are higher def

[@Itsshadowgod]

Sad

[@Itsshadowgod]

Not going to lie the city looks pretty nice

[@coolbill9301]

It's not trust me

[@zackh7450]

Thanks for visiting and researching 😊

[@iPhilledBanks]

damn wish i could have took you up to our mountains... this is dope though thanks for giving ppl an inside and unbiased look at our failed state looooooool if you come back HMU let me show you around the mountains

[@howtodoit5466]

I like how positive you are❤

[@LoverOFhopeANDcompassion]

As a Leb born raised residing in Boston Mass, Like any place on earth people are self-cemtered, suspicious of others & jealous too (Hmm, you have a bigger stick - ho ho i wanna it) Libnan is no diff. Civil war was moslems very jealous of us christians economically finiancially culturally ahead in everything. Discrimination was rampant. Palest. refugees in1948 2nd wave in 1967 sparked 1975 civil war.

[@rozbickad]

Thanks, yes learning as with all your videos. Thanks for authentic view.

[@sousane.mcneill49]

Thank you so much for another beautiful video 😊

[@NitroBrewbell]

Care givers have prices. Lebanon currently can't afford those coming from India or Phillipines. Ethiopian labor market is currently very cheap. There are no regulations so most people take advantage of them as well. Those from Asia (typically India or Philipines are currently higher ) and have more regulation on how or what to pay the laborers. I sometime feel like it's modern day slavery.

[@SammyHamawi-b2j]

Mario zagallo and branco were on the 1994 fifa world cup winning team.

[@yipmabaruya1148]

Good night fromYipma Baruya KZbin channel Papua New Guinea, I enjoyed watching your contents, thanks for sharing. May God bless you

[@minerva566]

I wish I was there when you visited, I would've shown you the best places. And you could've spent the best time. I hope you visit again, and then please contact anyone there like content creators who can help with touristic places, you'll have the best of time

[@Ziadnasrawi]

I am surprised no one told you about racism there (especially that you mentioned ethiopian women)

[@VERZACEDADA]

100K CONTRIBUTIONS 🎉BROTHER I hope one day my child could reach that amount of subscribers

[@theroyalmemes8611]

The Ethiopians is the Kafala system, which also works in UAE, KSA ect

[@O.G.LIL-MAN]

Sly, for a middle eastern country, Lebanon is about 60-40 Muslim to Christian, which is a rarity in the region. Prolly the reason, after all the civil wars, that they split representation in their government. At the same time, I hear that there used to be more Christians, but they fled due too many wars Lebanon has had. I live in a spot in the states where there are lots of Lebanese, who I know, talk about this.

[@OhShunz]

Congrats on the 100k!! Man it’s clear that Sly has brass balls going to places like Mogadishu and Beirut etc. but glad your experiences were good ones. I wonder if you have interest in visiting Tehran at all? So much history in that place and contrast of life there prior to the revolution of 1979 to modern life today. Might be really interesting visit for you. Take care brighter and can’t wait to see where you land next! Oh also if Israel might be in the plans a ton of past business partners would carry two passports when traveling in the region. One passport to be stamped for Israel work trips and the other passport for everywhere else basically to minimize any issues. Since you already visited Lebanon you might be good to go but just popped in my head so wanted to share in case useful.

[@najielkhalil7079]

Country of contradictions... I hope you enjoyed your visit Sly. I certainly enjoyed your vlogs.

[@ela7893]

Lebanon has lots of refugees from Palestine and Syria, which might account for the higher muslim rate. You should have gone to Batroun, Jbeil, Jouneih, north mountains etc... it has such a great vibe and you will see churches, crosses and massive statues everywhere.

[@rickfromjersey8098]

Great incite thanks Sly !

[@daredevil3598]

amazing video and very accurate

[@aynulhabib]

Given the economic crisis, was it easy to get cash and such? Did places accept cards?

[@waelshmeit]

Yes its super easy to get cash , u can exchange USD to LBP anywhere even u can pay in $ most of the places have the in $.. for card part notall places accept card cuz its hard to get the money from the bank soo cash is the king 🤴

[@aynulhabib]

@@waelshmeit What about the ease of getting USD? Basically the question is should I bring enough USD for the entire trip?

[@waelshmeit]

@aynulhabib if you watched the last video, he said that he withdrew usd from the bank, but the bank "ATM" took 5%

[@youme1414]

Thank you, sir

[@SammyHamawi-b2j]

Erixson danso had played in the lebanese premiere league.

[@jasonbrown6534]

Thanks for sharing

[@Malaka-r9p]

Do the numbers include born abroad Lebanese Christians with Lebanese citizenship? Because i enter Lebanon with Lebanese national identification photo card and western passport. I don’t need a visa. I’ve thought about obtaining a Lebanese passport but i thought it’s all good with western passport. Only thing is digital fingerprinting is taken at the airport. That’s how i obtained the national card processing. Electronic fingerprint processing. My dad & grandfather etc Lebanese.

[@D.E.Saccone-no4og]

youre so incredibly right about Lebanon being pulled at from almost all external govt forces....and Israel wants war with them in the worst possible way. And as you look at the bombing from Israel, its towards the eastern Christian side of the city, lest people think this is only about Muslim aggression. And to your point, even with its myriad dilemmas, it is hardly a failed state. This people, and im sure you felt it, are as 'good' as any in the world. Unfortunately for the indigenous population, its various and sundry Intelligence organizations keeping it from real sovereignty and political sanity....constantly playing the left/right, christian/muslim dichotomy against its own people, who would rather a rational, secular state. Sound familiar? So many countries suffering from this...including America - and you can thank for that the Intel communities in the west, who share information enough to control and regulate all the others....very easily seen in many S American countries. All hail the MIC, brother! It cares not what culture you come from. ySee President Eisenhowers farewell speach from the oval office, just for fun someday. Kudos for taking the road less traveled. May Fortune smile upon you

[@nikosparskala2014]

It’s only a slight Muslim majority.

[@Adan11961]

It's not just ethiopian women, its from a variety of African, South Asian, and East Asian countries. The surface level idea is that they are hired help (caretakers, house keepers, nanny's, etc.) that essentially have a full time job living and working at their employers house. Beneath this surface however, and there are exceptions of course, is that they live and work in inhumane settings. Their passports are often withheld by their employer until their contract is terminated. The contract - practically speaking - can only be terminated by their employer. Their legal status in the country is tied to their employer, so if they try to run away they can get in legal troubles. They can be often abused, mistreated, or SA'ted. Their salaries used to be below minimum wage for lebanon but still considerable for their home countries, after the Lira collapsed their salaries became comparable to high level public positions. They are often expected to work - or at least be ready to work - throughout the day (far more than say "8 hours" and all days of the week. Some are never allowed to leave the house - not even for grocerry shopping or whatever - unless they are accompanying their employer. Some times they are "allowed to leave" in order to walk the dogs or do some grocery shopping. That being said, of course it is not always like this. More educated - humane - families/employers understand they have limited working hours per day, have a day off per week assigned to them where they are free to do what ever ("including leaving the house"), so on and so forth. Also, over the years this situation has become significantly better. Both in terms of the severity of mistreatment, the widespreadness of mistreatment, and the legal/discourse awareness of the situation with local human rights organisations and civil actors acheiving strides in legal changes and perspective changes. There also pro bono legal support (lawyers), etc. In lebanon the situation remains far far far better than some other middle eastern countries where the same system exists though, both in terms of how many families treat their caretakers well vs not and in terms of the extremeness of the mistreatment.

[@CsalbertCs]

You should go to Syria next, I think you will like it a lot!

[@ShadowHawk-g8f]

Bosnia has something very similar.

[@jiresamatar1116]

Your soul is G-O-O-D Sly, which is why I joined your channel. You won't see Somalis doing what the Ethiopians at 6:40 are doing in Lebanon. (There is a Somali woman that campaigns for their rights. Check her out on KZbin.)

[@jiresamatar1116]

You are a REPORTER in the making, though: the way you balanced your reporting here AMAZED me! 🤩

[@theroyalmemes8611]

The government is a failure but Lebanon is Lebanon, people are acting as the government and taking good care of it

[@dezu-mu5380]

Interesting perspective I gained about foreign care givers ( or nannies as we call them). My brother and his wife have a foreign care giver for three children. They had one nanny of the same ethnicity as them and the nanny felt comfortable physically disciplining the childen like they were her chrildren, which my brother did not like at all, and got a new foreign nanny, who obviously had no familiarity with their ethnicity and country, and so treated their children and them with more caution, respect and professionalism. I think this is a big reason why people *prefer foreign nannies. They want people to act professional and not feel they're entitled to act a certain way because they're of same ethnicity and background. Just one of my observations. Im sure there are plenty of other reasons the ethiopian women popular to be employed there as nannies.

[@BigKeith510]

It is majority Muslim dude to immigration of Muslim from Israel through the wars that formed Israel. It is a very interesting history.

[@ahandous6]

No, many converted to islam like my town. Why do people lie about Christians reverting to Islam in Lebanon?

[@samiarja201]

@BigKeith510 You pulling this information out of your ass or something? Muslim has been in Lebanon for centuries, even before renaming the country as Lebanon

[@BigKeith510]

@@samiarja201 they haven't been there majority troll

[@dieu5041]

@@samiarja201lmao he said it used to have more christians now it has more Muslims.

[@jtray3]

Wow. Interesting.

[@Jeremynano]

Lebanon is beautiful if the people unite

[@cmearl2009]

Some of these caregivers get abused by their employer.

[@wissammoussa7540]

Welcome to Lebanon, hope you're enjoying your time here

[@AliSaleh-xw9lr]

Ethiopian and Lebanese is 1 Family

[@LoyalOpposition]

What do you mean?

[@bilenina]

Ethiopians working as maids are treated terribly - Kafala system is disturbing (terrible working conditions, employers have complete control and exploit the women, etc).

[@zackh7450]

Only in lebanon you can see a Bentley next to someone looking for food in the Garbage

[@havok627]

You'll see this in literally every country in the world.

[@rogerhaddad7937]

Sly, you didn't mention what the Lebanese ladies look like.😂

[@SammyHamawi-b2j]

Ferry corsten backstage documentary on youtube.

[@Phe961]

Saying that muslims are the majority is really oversimplifying it. We are 18 religious communities. The largest one being the maronite christians (catholic church of Lebanon), hence the president being a maronite by law. And btw, the commander of the army and the governor of the national bank also have to be maronites. We are not only christians and muslims. We are 18. A shiite muslim is very different from a sunni muslim. And a maronite christian is very different from an assyrian, chaldean or an orthodox armenian Lebanese. In Lebanon, we are around 50/50 christian/muslim. By law, the parliament has to be 50/50. But the Lebanese people as a whole are mostly Christian (around 80%). That’s due to a large diaspora of Lebanese people (3 times larger than the population of Lebanon itself) and they’re all mostly christians.

[@alisaleh6135]

That’s just 100 percent not true there are millions of shia Muslims in the diasapora in Africa and South America

[@Phe961]

@@alisaleh6135 yeah there are definitely shia muslim lebanese in african countries like the Ivory coast. However, the majority of the diaspora is christian. You can look it up. South american Lebanese are mostly christian (huge numbers in Colombia, Brazil,…)

[@Phe961]

@@alisaleh6135 in Brazil for example, where there are more than twice as many Lebanese as in Lebanon, only 5% of them are muslim (shia, sunni and druze combined). 65% are catholics and 30% are orthodox christians. In colombia, there are approximately 3m Lebanese, mostly all catholics. In the Ivory coast, it’s true that the majority of the 400k Lebanese are shia.

[@aag3752]

Exactly bro. @@Phe961

[@Phe961]

@@alisaleh6135 but don’t get me wrong! No matter our religion, traditions (more western/more arab…), or the way we dress, we should definitely focus on what we all have in common: our love for our food, our olive oil, our fantastic nature, and most of all our Cedar Passport! Our mountains were the refuge of each of those 18 communities at some point in history!

[@barlevy5760]

you have to visit israel too its not fair! youll see we have the same diversity of colture religion and race and ill intreduce you to some ex-lebanese christians and palestinian christians and israeli jews who will explain to you the other side of the conflicts i think youll find it really intresting

[@samjeremy6276]

Ha! Ha! This city looks exactly like athens, you should go for some good Greek food and check out the beauty of athens 🙌😂😂😂🙌

[@aag3752]

Yes indeed! I also found out that both Greeks and Lebanese share ancient dna. I checked my admixture and it had Greek and Roman haha. Cool stuff. Well, we are Mediterranean as well so none of that is surprising. I love Greece too btw. Haven't been there yet, but I have some Greek friends, cool people.

[@jackholman5008]

Go to iraq or syria

[@chaturanuwankumara9513]

❤🇱🇰

[@r_x004]

I don't understand why you brought up the Ethiopian maids as if it was something bizzare to see on the streets? Have you ever visited Singapore or Hong Kong? If feels like Filipino maids are even more in population than Singaporeans themselves as if every household has 2 maids or smth.

[@Nubianette]

I can only speak for myself, but as an African-American, we’re sensitive to others possibly being treated as slaves. It stands out when you see only one ethnicity doing that sort of work, like Filipino women as maids. Even in the upper west side of New York, 20 years ago, when I went a lot, I saw a lot of Caribbean women as maids and nannies. Of course they were employed, and not slaves. That stuck out for me as well. Mainly, because most places in the US, you wouldn’t see so much of that.

[@JohnDoe-sr1dd]

Rich people with nice cars but nearby homes with bullet holes - are you in Chicago?

[@هاديحربيه]

ولي عهد السعوديه تربى على يد خادمه اثيوبيه يهوديه كذلك امراء الامارات

[@adem6452]

How is that relevant?

[@muusakahin4135]

Ethiopian women are all mates in Lebanon what they call jaria

[@joeschmo6126]

Penguins everywhere.