Susan Korah reports on the desperate state of the former Mediterranean oasis one year after the blast that decimated Beirut.
One year ago today was a night of splintering glass and splattering blood.
On August 4, 2020, as the last hours of pre-sunset daylight illuminated Beirut’s skyline, a cataclysmic explosion shook the city like the blast of an atomic bomb. It turned out to be the spontaneous combustion of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse near the port. It plunged the city— and through its ripple effect— the entire country, into a long dark night of terror and chaos.
A night from which the country has not yet recovered. In fact, it has sunk into a deep depression.
Sounds of shattering glass and clouds of billowing smoke filled the air that night, as people—6000 of them seriously injured— staggered through blood-splattered streets. About 200 were killed, and 300,000 rendered homeless.
Gebran Kally, a volunteer with the Swedish humanitarian aid organization A Demand for Action (ADFA) is still traumatized by the events of a year ago.
Kally was on his way to the hospital to visit his critically ill daughter when the explosion set the ground shuddering under his feet.
“The windows of my daughter’s hospital room shattered, and the whole hospital was plunged in darkness,” he told Convivium through a translator. “Fortunately, my wife was with her at the time. She grabbed her and pulled her out of the way before the flying glass could kill her.”
A few months later, Kally’s daughter succumbed to cancer.
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These days, Kally and other volunteers keep themselves busy, soothing their own grief by helping others—distributing food and medicines— in a deeply wounded country in danger of sinking even deeper into a vortex of anarchy and civ...
Reviewer Taylor Hyatt finds Larry McCloskey’s latest book the kind of irritating that opens readers to touchstone stories able to articulate the almost inexpressible.
Peter Stockland argues that despite the legitimate criticism journalism gets for all its institutional failings, abundant first-rate reporters and writers serve Canadian democracy well.
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From a profound Christian faith, Residential School survivor Chief Kenny Blacksmith believes true healing will come not from politics but from paying our debt to God, Jonathon Van Maren reports.
Peter Jon Mitchell, Cardus Family Program Director, reports on the link between Canada’s severe baby-making problem and young Canadians increasingly choosing to delay or reject marriage.
Brett Fawcett argues Alberta charter schools should be free to operate on religious grounds to meet the just vision of Canada’s founding constitutional vision.
Cardus Executive VP Ray Pennings breaks down for Convivium’s Peter Stockland new data on the eagerness of Canadians across faith traditions to gather again in their churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples.
The latest call to defund Ontario’s Catholic schools both rewrites Canadian history and goes counter to international schooling norms, Cardus Education Program Director David Hunt argues.
Daniel Proussalidis and Monica Ratra write that while 2020 was a forgettable year for many reasons, Cardus initiatives throughout the year provided memorable highlights for the organization and our supporters.
The Assembly of First Nations is a national voice on issues like reconciliation and residential schools, but its July 7 leadership vote tests the strands that link Indigenous people, Peter Stockland reports.
Updated July 6th, 2021
In its 40th year, the Assembly of First Nations is in the throes of a seven-candidate race to select its National Chief next Wednesday.
But with skeletons of children being rediscovered by the hundred...
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