Economy featured

Joslin Faith Kehdy: “Lebanon – Beyond Resilience”

May 31, 2023

(Conversation recorded on May 09th, 2023)

Show Summary

On this episode, Nate is joined by Joslin Faith Kehdy, a changemaker and citizen of Lebanon. Over the last 3 years, Lebanon has had a 50% drop in GDP and 98% devaluation in their currency, massive unemployment, and – among many other things – an ongoing waste crisis. Throughout this, Joslin has been a leader in responding to and coming up with new (and old) ways for living a dignified and simplified life. Joslin is an environmentalist currently living ‘The Great Simplification’ – she offers a valuable perspective on what ‘sustainable’ living really means and insights for what may come to the rest of the world.

About Joslin Faith Kehdy

Joslin Faith Kehdy is the Founder and Director of Recycle Lebanon, whose goal is to make a circular system change to “re-psyc’le” our mindset towards action. Since 2015, Recycle Lebanon has been organizing projects focusing on reducing plastic usage and pollution in Lebanon, while building initiatives to expand nature based consumption & production alternatives. A hands-on unlearner with a devotion for land & water stewardship, Joslin lives off-grid, homesteading in the rural village of Baskinta, Lebanon.

Joslin’s organization, Recycle Lebanon, is fundraising for their newest initiative: TerraPods. If you’d like to learn more or support this project please visit: Sustain Lebanon – TerraPods

Watch on YouTube

Show Notes & Links to Learn More:

00:35 – Joslin Faith Kehdy + Recycle Lebanon TerrPods Fundraiser

00:46 – Economic crisis in Lebanon 

01:12 – Recycle Lebanon

06:05 – Fast Fashion Industry

07:30 – 50% GDP drop, 82% poverty rate, and the value of the currency has lost 90%

09:10 – Corruption in Lebanon

12:03 – Rolling blackouts in Lebanon

12:09 – $1.5 million electric budget and 40% of debt 

12:57 – Texas booming oil and gas industry

16:59 – Bank account closures in Lebanon, Account holders robbing the banks

19:57 – Lebanese revolution in 2019

21:34 – Onions and tear gas

22:53 – Beirut Port Blast

23:54 – Lebanon medical care shortage and deliberate medicine inflation

26:01 – Lebanese food imports

26:25 – IMF and World Bank

26:40 – NGOs in Lebanon

29:17 – Lebanese Fuel Outages

32:15 – Circular Economy

33:20 – Regenerate Hub Circular Economy Database

34:35 – Waste management crisis in Lebanon

36:59 – EcoSouk

37:35 – Zero Waste Shops

44:50 – Dive Into Action

47:20 – TerraPods

47:49 – Plastic Alternatives Guide

48:50 – Makerspaces

51:22 – STEAM

1:00:15 – Microplastic release from fabrics made of plastics when washed

1:01:01 – Fiber Farms

If you’d like to contact Joslin or Recycle Lebanon

Kehdy@recyclelebanon.org or Connect@recyclelebanon.org

 

Teaser photo credit: Baskinta. By Elias zaghrini – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49796889

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens is the Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) an organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition. Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughput lifestyles. Nate holds a Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He teaches an Honors course, Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota.

Tags: building resilient societies, economic contraction, powering down