Scenes of tragic queues
Who among us does not recall the sight of car queues in front of stations, which have become the meeting point for Lebanese of all sects and religious and political beliefs. The high demand for gasoline and the lack of quantities on the market, made cars line up on the sides of the roads from early morning until evening in front of the stations. And to overcome the long wait, the phenomenon of selling gasoline on some streets at high prices has spread through filling up 10-liter plastic "gallons" and displaying them on the side of public roads.
In turn, during the crisis that erupted, Information International issued a report entitled “The average cost of standing in petrol queues is 1,100 billion pounds,” in which it pointed out that the fuel shortage crisis “has caused great losses in various productive and economic sectors.” It stressed that there were losses due to the formation of queues of cars and vehicles in front of all stations, and long hours of waiting under the scorching heat of the sun that burns the nerves,” explaining that “it is difficult to calculate the cost of diseases and health crises caused by waiting and stress, as well as the cost of pollution."
However, waiting at gas stations was not without comic scenes that might make you smile amid this misery. The sight of the groom, who was cut off from gasoline on the day of his marriage, was widely popular on social media, with activists commenting: “A good start for a marriage,” while others said: “You can tell a book from its cover, if this is what happened to him on his wedding day."
Acts of violence and casualties in front of gas stations
Gradually, the fuel crisis began to witness violence. The gunfire scenes at gas stations has become frequent, in addition to the smashing of their contents such as fuel machines. This resulted in a large number of casualties. Young Ghaith Al-Masri was killed in front of the family's gas station in the town of Bebnin - Akkar, in connection with a customer who was not satisfied with filling the allocated amount of gasoline. This incident is similar to cases witnessed in other regions in Lebanon where the citizen always falls victim due to the absence of the role of the state and the security services.
And who can forget the accident on the Saadiyat Highway towards the capital Beirut, at the Barja junction, which resulted in the death of a mother and her four daughters. One of the reasons behind the accident was the search for a gas station to refuel the car, when the family was surprised by the queues of cars amid a complete darkness caused by power cut.
The role of gas stations workers during the crisis
Citizens suffered from cheating and fraud practiced by some station owners or workers who took bribes from citizens in return of doubling the share of each car. While other workers were able to act as mediators between citizens and station owners to mitigate the impact of the crisis. The severity of the disputes intensified with gas station workers subjected to cursing and insults, and sometimes to beatings by citizens dissatisfied with the status quo.
During our conversation with “Kumar”, a gas station worker, we learned about the dangers the workers were exposed to at the stations. Kumar, a Bangladeshi national who has become fluent in Arabic because of his presence in Lebanon for more than 6 years, said that he faced many difficulties at the beginning of the crisis as a result of the chaos and the lack of the role of the security services in regulating the cars presence in order to fill them with fuel.
The station witnessed violence and riots. According to Kumar, one of the citizens, while filling his car, attacked the owner of the station for not providing him with the quantity he requested, let alone the violence and smashing of the station’s properties. For its part, the municipality closed the station in the presence of members of the security services to avoid the problems.
Worker Kumar and his role as “mediator”
However, the decision to close the station made matters worse. So Kumar had to seek other means and ways to help the affected people, who contacted him through his Facebook account and asked him for help to refuel their cars.
Kumar was able to act as a link between citizens and the owner of the station. He said, "All the people of the village love me, and I am in good relations with everyone, especially during the crisis, because I have provided assistance to everyone who was in dire need of filling his car with gasoline." Kumar added, "However, I refused the request of anyone who contacted me to fill his car more than once during the day, fearing that he would sell it on the black market,” confirming that all these measures he took were in coordination with the owner of the station.
It should be noted that Kumar is widely popular on social media for the people of the region due to the comic videos he posted during the crisis. In view of the large number of followers Kumar gained on his Facebook account, municipal members asked him to shoot a video in front of the municipal building to urge citizens to register their names on the electronic platform that was adopted in order to facilitate the process of filling citizens' cars with gasoline.
Kumar pointed out that this platform played a major role in mitigating the crisis we witnessed. The municipality, in cooperation with young volunteers, managed to organize the presence of cars in front of gas stations without the incidence of riots between citizens on the one hand, or between them and station owners and workers on the other.
Mediation as an alternative means of conflict resolution
Mediation is a flexible tool that has been able to prove its effectiveness in meeting the challenges posed by the Lebanese crisis. Mediation is no longer just a theory that can be condoned, but rather, it has become an essential need to be introduced into our societies to establish a culture of dialogue, civil peace and conflict resolution, and to strengthen the role of mediation as an alternative means of conflict resolution.
It should be noted that, while the mediation process may seem easy on the surface, but in order to reach a solution that would end the conflict, it may be very necessary that mediation do not to depend on the manifestations of the conflict but rather dive into its origin to find its roots in order to help the parties find a satisfactory solution for all.
For example, worker Kumar has been able to play the role of mediator perfectly although he has no university degrees or experience in this field. He didn't exploit people's pain for personal ends, but rather worked to find a compromise between them and the station owner, and the evidence lies in the love of the people of the region for him.
This is how a mediator accompanies the parties to find together a common ground that the mediator helps to generate. The parties to the conflict must also find a mutually acceptable solution, with the assistance of the mediator, in the sense that the two sides will win with such a solution through the constructive handling of disputes. This makes it imperative for us to promote a culture of mediation in our societies.
Change starts from within
What we need today, in light of the crises plaguing the country, is a "Patron of Reconciliation" (Sheikh El Solh)who has long served as an innate mediator between the adversaries, and whose mediation has always been crowned with success. Every licensed, specialized, and qualified person in mediation can access and practice this field, and master the art of dialogue and negotiation in bringing viewpoints of the adversaries closer. Thus, change takes place in the soul and from within, therefore this culture must be disseminated and pursued in order to reach a typical homeland.