The New York Times comments on the Lebanon incompetence:
Since an orphaned shipment of highly explosive chemicals arrived at the port of Beirut in 2013, Lebanese officials treated it the way they have dealt with the country’s lack of electricity, poisonous tap water and overflowing garbage: by bickering and hoping the problem might solve itself.
But the 2,750 tons of high-density ammonium nitrate combusted Tuesday, officials said, unleashing a shock wave on the Lebanese capital that gutted landmark buildings, killed 135 people, wounded at least 5,000 and rendered hundreds of thousands of residents homeless.
The ship carrying the chemicals was en route to Mozambique when it was detained in Beirut. A Lebanese court impounded the cargo, so the ammonium nitrate was transferred to a port hangar.
Over the next six years, port officials repeatedly asked the judge to find a way to get rid of the chemicals.
In a 2016 letter, they cited “the serious danger posed by keeping this shipment in the warehouses in an inappropriate climate” and asked that it be dealt with “to preserve the safety of the port and its workers.”
The port’s director, Hassan Koraytem, said that port officials were told the materials would be auctioned off, but the auction never happened and the judiciary ignored the port authority’s letters.
He said he was unaware of the power of the chemicals so the port took no special precautions to protect them.
“Now we are living a national catastrophe,” he said. “There is no more port.”
Judicial officials could not be reached for comment.
Ah yes, the tried and true could not be reached for comment tactic. It is the favorite of crooks, liars, demagogues, tyrants, goons, politicians and corporate criminals when faced with questions they do not want to answer. There ought to be a law against it, but there isn't.
Also, the good 'ole bickering and hoping the problem might solve itself tactic is also a big hit among the corrupt, the incompetent and authoritarians who refuse to compromise to get something done. Very popular.
What's left of a small business in Beirut
What's let of the port in Beirut
The GOP and our president are similarly incompetent. Comparable incompetence and accompanying slaughter happened in 2013 in GOP controlled-America. The incompetence happened to the town called West, which is in Texas. That corruption and incompetence killed 15, injured about 160 and flattened some buildings.
West, Texas - after GOP anti-government ideology and
a corrupt no-regulation mindset has been in place for enough years
Questions: When, if ever it is moral and justified to resort to illegal, violent protest in the face of "too much" government corruption and/or incompetence? Does it depend on how many die in a spectacular blast, or can a slow, accumulation of corpses also count, e.g., George Floyd? How does one define "too much"?
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