Beirut blast: Where is justice six months on?

The Stream looks at three stories making headlines.

Lebanon blast
It has been six months since a catastrophic explosion destroyed Beirut’s port area. The blast killed more than 200 people, injured 6,000 and left more than 300,000 without homes. Thirty-seven people have been indicted so far, most of them customs, port services and security officials, but the state has yet to issue formal charges. Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said: “the stalled domestic investigation, riddled with serious due process violations, as well as political leaders’ attempts to stop the investigation reinforced the need for an independent, international inquiry.” In this segment, we ask what justice should look like.

Ethiopia crisis
Conflict erupted in northern Ethiopia in November and, now, another crisis is simmering. Several prisoners from the Oromo ethnic group, convicted on charges ranging from terrorism to arms possession, have gone on hunger strike. Government critics say some of the prisoners are among the main rivals of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who is also Oromo. In this segment, we look at the burgeoning tension between the Ethiopian government, the Oromo Federalist Congress party and other Oromo leaders.

Filipino nurses
The coronavirus has taken a deadly toll on healthcare workers across the globe but Filipino members of the profession have been particularly hard hit. A December 2020 report from the largest nurses’ union in the United States found nearly a third of the nurses who have died of coronavirus there were Filipino, despite Filipino nurses making up just four percent of nurses in the US. The toll includes both nurses who were born in the Philippines and immigrated to the US and Filipino-American nurses born in the US. In this segment, we ask what has led to the pandemic extracting such a terrible price from this community.

In this episode of The Stream, we are joined by:
Carmen Geha, @CarmenGeha
Associate Professor, Political Studies and Public Administration, American University of Beirut

William Davison, @wdavison10
Crisis Group Senior Analyst, Ethiopia

Jennifer Nazareno
Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Brown University, and Co-founder, PHIRST Health