{ "article": { "title" : "Cannabis Farming in Lebanon", "author" : "Yumna Al-Arashi", "category" : "visual", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/cannabis-farming-in-lebanon", "date" : "2024-05-09 12:05:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/yumna_alarashi_banner.jpg", "excerpt" : "Welcome to Lebanon. Home to one of the most beautiful and historic landscapes on the Mediterranean coast. To the North and East, Syria, a country besieged by a brutal war and genocide, leaving a tiny Lebanon overflowing with over 2 million of its refugees. To the South, Occupied Palestine, a never-ending story, whose Nakba has flooded into Lebanon’s borders, driving sectarian division and ultimately leading to the decades-long civil war. Lebanon, home to its own conflicts, and corruption.", "content" : "Welcome to Lebanon. Home to one of the most beautiful and historic landscapes on the Mediterranean coast. To the North and East, Syria, a country besieged by a brutal war and genocide, leaving a tiny Lebanon overflowing with over 2 million of its refugees. To the South, Occupied Palestine, a never-ending story, whose Nakba has flooded into Lebanon’s borders, driving sectarian division and ultimately leading to the decades-long civil war. Lebanon, home to its own conflicts, and corruption.From its waterways, soil, and surrounding oceans, Lebanon has dug itself into an almost irreversible ecological position. Landfills are overflowing into the oceans and streams, waste is burnt all over the country, polluting the air, and clean water is becoming scarce. Waste management and the preservation of natural landscapes seemingly becomes less important when faced with extreme political dilemmas.If one plant could perfectly symbolize all of the country’s political, physical, and cultural problems: it is cannabis. It is one of Lebanon’s largest agricultural export industries, harvested and processed to make hashish. Because of Cannabis’s illegality, it is quite literally run on Lebanon’s corruption. Driving through the Bekaa Valley, one cannot see an end to the Cannabis fields.I began a journey into the world of Lebanon’s cannabis to understand how an illegal industry can thrive. Legalization of this crop can create jobs, release innocent people from prisons, improve economies, and heal the ill. Instead, the crop is kept illegal, and exported to European nations en masse.In 2017, Human Rights Watch released a 64-page report titled “As If You’re Inhaling Your Death” of the country’s toxic waste burning, calling out Lebanon’s government for poisoning its citizens in much of the country. Not only has trash-burning been a problem, but the levels of E. coli and streptococcus on almost all ocean fronts are at levels unfit for safe swimming.With only one road in and out of the valley, Yammouneh, a small village situated in Northern Lebanon is completely geographically separated from the rest of the Bekaa Valley. Upon your arrival, a large, man-made, emerald body of water glimmering in the harsh sun. My driver boasts about how they just built this water supply for themselves. As you drive further in, you realize that the entire valley is filled to the brim with cannabis. The houses are large, a sign of the wealth derived from the crop. Everyone here grows cannabis, and they’re all from the same family. This does not feel like the rest of Lebanon. It’s clean. But, the familiar sights of UNHCR logo scattered on refugee tents are still around.After building the large, man-made reservoir, Yammouneh became somewhat immune to Lebanon’s water pollution, while simultaneously insuring their crop. They live in a bubble. But, just a few meters out of the valley, the trash settles, and not far, a war is raging. The industry still thrives on laborers from Palestine and Syria. Although Yammouneh separates itself geographically, it is not immune the region’s conflicts. It profits from it.We left Yammouneh to Baalbek, one of the larger cities in the Bekaa. Like Yammouneh, it is a stronghold of Hezbollah, a Shi’a Islamist political party and militant group. Their political propaganda is pasted on every corner of Baalbek - it is not easy to pass a poster with the leader of Hezbollah and Assad’s face celebrating their solidarity with one another.In August and September, Lebanon’s crop will grow another meter high and begin to dry and Syrians and Palestinians from all over the Bekaa will come and prepare its harvest. It will be funneled into buildings where the hashish will be processed, packed, and ready for trafficking. The best and cleanest hashish, from Yammouneh, will be exported to Europe. The rest finds its way to Africa and the rest of the Middle East. Lebanon’s population gets the lowest grades for its own personal use." } , "relatedposts": [ { "title" : "100+ Years of Genocidal Intent in Palestine", "author" : "Collis Browne", "category" : "essays", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/100-years-of-genocidal-intent", "date" : "2025-10-07 18:01:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/1920-jerusalem.jpg", "excerpt" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:", "content" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:{% for person in site.data.genocidalquotes %}{{ person.name }}{% if person.title %}<p class=\"title-xs\">{{ person.title }}</p>{% endif %}{% for quote in person.quotes %}“{{ quote.text }}”{% if quote.source %}— {{ quote.source }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}{% endfor %}" } , { "title" : "Dignity Before Stadiums:: Morocco’s Digital Uprising", "author" : "Cheb Gado", "category" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/dignity-before-stadiums", "date" : "2025-10-02 09:08:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Cover_Morocco_GenZ.jpg", "excerpt" : "No one expected a generation raised on smartphones and TikTok clips to ignite a spark of protest shaking Morocco’s streets. But Gen Z, the children of the internet and speed, have stepped forward to write a new chapter in the history of uprisings, in their own style.The wave of anger began with everyday struggles that cut deep into young people’s lives: soaring prices, lack of social justice, and the silencing of their voices in politics. They didn’t need traditional leaders or party manifestos; the movement was born out of a single hashtag that spread like wildfire, transforming individual frustration into collective momentum.", "content" : "No one expected a generation raised on smartphones and TikTok clips to ignite a spark of protest shaking Morocco’s streets. But Gen Z, the children of the internet and speed, have stepped forward to write a new chapter in the history of uprisings, in their own style.The wave of anger began with everyday struggles that cut deep into young people’s lives: soaring prices, lack of social justice, and the silencing of their voices in politics. They didn’t need traditional leaders or party manifestos; the movement was born out of a single hashtag that spread like wildfire, transforming individual frustration into collective momentum.One of the sharpest contradictions fueling the protests was the billions poured into World Cup-related preparations, while ordinary citizens remained marginalized when it came to healthcare and education.This awareness quickly turned into chants and slogans echoing through the streets: “Dignity begins with schools and hospitals, not with putting on a show for the world.”What set this movement apart was not only its presence on the streets, but also the way it reinvented protest itself:Live filming: Phone cameras revealed events moment by moment, exposing abuses instantly.Memes and satire: A powerful weapon to dismantle authority’s aura, turning complex political discourse into viral, shareable content.Decentralized networks: No leader, no party, just small, fast-moving groups connected online, able to appear and disappear with agility.This generation doesn’t believe in grand speeches or delayed promises. They demand change here and now. Moving seamlessly between the physical and digital realms, they turn the street into a stage of revolt, and Instagram Live into an alternative media outlet.What’s happening in Morocco strongly recalls the Arab Spring of 2011, when young people flooded the streets with the same passion and spontaneity, armed only with belief in their power to spark change. But Gen Z added their own twist, digital tools, meme culture, and the pace of a hyper-connected world.Morocco’s Gen Z uprising is not just another protest, but a living experiment in how a digital generation can redefine politics itself. The spark may fade, but the mark it leaves on young people’s collective consciousness cannot be erased.Photo credits: Mosa’ab Elshamy, Zacaria Garcia, Abdel Majid Bizouat, Marouane Beslem" } , { "title" : "A Shutdown Exposes How Fragile U.S. Governance Really Is", "author" : "EIP Editors", "category" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/a-shutdown-exposes-how-fragile-us-governance-really-is", "date" : "2025-10-01 22:13:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Cover_Gov_ShutDown.jpg", "excerpt" : "Each time the federal government shutters its doors, we hear the same reassurances: essential services will continue, Social Security checks will still arrive, planes won’t fall from the sky. This isn’t the first Governmental shutdown, they’ve happened 22 times since 1976, and their toll is real.", "content" : "Each time the federal government shutters its doors, we hear the same reassurances: essential services will continue, Social Security checks will still arrive, planes won’t fall from the sky. This isn’t the first Governmental shutdown, they’ve happened 22 times since 1976, and their toll is real.Shutdowns don’t mean the government stops functioning. They mean millions of federal workers are asked to keep the system running without pay. Air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, food inspectors — people whose jobs underpin both public safety and economic life — are told their labor matters, but their livelihoods don’t. People have to pay the price of bad bureaucracy in the world’s most powerful country, if governance is stalled, workers must pay with their salaries and their groceries.In 1995 and 1996, clashes between President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich triggered two shutdowns totaling 27 days. In 2013, a 16-day standoff over the Affordable Care Act furloughed 850,000 workers. And in 2018–2019, the longest shutdown in U.S. history stretched 35 days, as President Trump refused to reopen the government without funding for a border wall. That impasse left 800,000 federal employees without paychecks and cost the U.S. economy an estimated $11 billion — $3 billion of it permanently lost.More troubling is what happens when crises strike during shutdowns. The United States is living in an age of accelerating climate disasters: historic floods in Vermont, wildfire smoke choking New York, hurricanes pounding Florida. These emergencies do not pause while Congress fights over budgets. Yet a shutdown means furloughed NOAA meteorologists, suspended EPA enforcement, and delayed FEMA programs. In the most climate-vulnerable decade of our lifetimes, we are choosing paralysis over preparedness.This vulnerability didn’t emerge overnight. For decades, the American state has been hollowed out under the logic of austerity and privatization, while military spending has remained sacrosanct. That imbalance is why budgets collapse under the weight of endless resources for war abroad, too few for resilience at home.Shutdowns send a dangerous message. They normalize instability. They tell workers they are disposable. They make clear that in our system, climate resilience and public health aren’t pillars of our democracy but rather insignificant in the face of power and greed. And each time the government closes, it becomes easier to imagine a future where this isn’t the exception but the rule.The United States cannot afford to keep running on shutdown politics. The climate crisis, economic inequality, and the challenges of sustaining democracy itself demand continuity, not collapse. We need a politics that treats stability and resilience not as partisan victories, but as basic commitments to one another. Otherwise, the real shutdown isn’t just of the government — it’s of democracy itself." } ] }