"I gave everything I had to Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...for these two years, but Lebanon is not giving back," she says, her eyes welling up above three face masks, inside a top Beirut hospital.
"So I applied for immigration to the US," she said, to take up a job offer at Harvard.
As soon as her visa is approved, she will join hundreds of doctors who are fleeing Lebanon's political and economic crises, even during a pandemic.
Doctors warn a country once dubbed "the hospital of the Arab world" is hemorrhaging its best and brightest.
Hair tied back into a floral surgeon's cap, the 32-year-old medic rushes around the bustling emergency department at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.
Her white coat streaked with blood from treating one patient's gunshot wounds, she holds up an X-ray to understand the pain of another visiting from a nearby Arab country.
In the corridor between the emergency and coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
wards under her watch, trainee doctors repeatedly approach her for a second opinion.
The decision to leave, she says, "eats you up every day".
But "you're doing what's best for you and your kids if you want to have a family."
Since starting work in September 2019, she has treated maimed protesters, witnessed economic freefall, fought a pandemic, and helped treat hundreds after a massive explosion in Beirut.
She was at the hospital on August 4 when hundreds of tonnes of fertilizer went
kaboom!at the port, killing more than 200 people and sending shockwaves through the capital.
"The ceiling fell on us," she says, pausing between tears.
Up to 500 maimed streamed in, followed by desperate relatives looking for their loves ones.
Hours later, her husband told her their flat had been badly hit.
"Beirut is like opium," says Jalbout, whose anesthetist sister will also emigrate. "It's so good, but it's so bad for you."
Lebanon's worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war has hit even the top echelons of the population.
Doctors have seen their salaries or fees plummet in value, and their dollar savings trapped in the bank, all the while being overwhelmed by a deadly pandemic. Even basic medication has gone out of stock.
Many say they are far better off than most, but still see no future for their children.
Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked
Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features.
If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng,he pointed out, his voice tense,
we all die!...
a deeply divided political class -- accused by many on the street of being useless and corrupt -- has for seven months been unable to form a government.
The head of the doctor's syndicate, Charaf Abou Charaf, says 1,000 doctors have left since 2019, while a similar number of nurses have departed as well, according to their representative.