A civil war in Lebanon? Is it the solution for the Lebanese crises? Ever since the Lebanese revolution in 2019 started and Lebanese have been hearing that there might be a possibility of a civil war. What happened in 2019 in Lebanon? In 2019, Lebanese revolted mainly because of the sectarianism that exists in the country. After the revolution, people started saying that a civil war might take place in Lebanon because of the conflicts that are arising between different sectors and religions in Lebanon. However, I wanted to check if actually a civil war is the solution for the Lebnase economic crisis or not.
Therefore, I analyzed data about GDP growth % in Lebanon over the past 10 years but more specifically over the year 2006. Well, that’s because in 2006, a war disrupted in Lebanon due to many conflicts in the region. Thus, I wanted to check if the 2006 war that happened was beneficial or not to the Lebanese economy.
As we can see in the below graph, GDP growth was the lowest in 2006 the year the war happened, which means that the 2006 war has tremendous impact on the decline of the GDP growth. Having low GDP growth has many negative effects on the country and on its citizens. It causes people to loose jobs, inflation to increase, and living standards to decrease.
In conclusion, a civil war in Lebanon should NOT happen because of the war’s negative effects, and so we would not go into an even more severe economic crisis. The solutions for the conflicts that are happening between different sectors and religions could range from educating people to be more open and accepting one another, decrease socio-economic gap and encourage civil soceity development and many more solutions that are far away from a civil war. SAY NO TO WAR.
Local media outlets tend to praise Lebanon as the regional leader in entrepreneurship. Yet it seems that executives and board members tend to disagree with the headlines. They have openly criticized the media for spreading misconceptions, explaining that Lebanese start-ups struggle to sustain themselves due to governmental intervention, ancient business laws, and the absence of free economic zones. So I thought, why not harness the power of data to see where things really lie? Are laws interfering with Lebanon’s competitive ability? Using the World Development Index, Lebanon’s performance was evaluated through the number of governmental procedures required to register a start-up, and benchmarked with two of its main rivals: KSA and UAE. We observed the development of this metric over time from 2003 until 2019. Lo and behold, though it was the reigning champion a decade ago, Lebanon now significantly lags behind both its competitors. Lebanese Laws must be amended to streamline start-up registration procedures, or the country will be out of the race to assert itself as the regional entrepreneurial hub it once was.
Most underdeveloped countries suffer from their young generations immigrating to look for a better future for themselves. Here I will visualize the net migration around the world which is the difference between the people the immigrate to a specific region or country and people the immigrate from it. Moreover, I will visualize the correlation between unemployment and immigration and how if governments spend more on education, they might be able to decrease their unemployment rates.
It is important to continuously pursue equality among populations and improve standards of livings. However, the pandemic has hindered our progress towards a more sustainable standard of living. Approximately 150 million people will be pushed into poverty in 2021 due to the pandemic. The pandemic has already pushed 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty in 2020.
While short-term solutions are important, long-term solutions are key to continuous sustainability. There is a clear correlation between the share of a population that use internet and GDP per capita. Policy makers should consider providing easy accessibility to the internet for its benefits which include, easy access to free education, work and connections.
Although the relationship is a correlation and not a causality, there still remains a conceptual understanding that investing into people will allow them to grow and invest back into their country’s economy. Accessibility to the internet can be a long-term solution towards sustainability!
The below storyboard highlights and examines a correlation between the GDP per capita and population age distribution. The visualization shows a comparison between regions and across time. This correlation makes us think more about future problems like pensions, economic growth, child labor, retirement age, and possible social problems. It is worth examining further if there is causality. Are economic changes coming based on age distribution?
The dashboard is interactive. Please feel free to filter, highlight, and discover the data in more depth. The fullscreen setting will allow for a better viewing experience.
