This essay was written in the wake of the Beirut port explosion on August 4th, 2020. We explore the extent to which activists, academics, and practitioners can find a way to break the cycle of corruption caused by decades of sectarian power-sharing. Through our own story and experience of breaking our own cycle of hopelessness and transcending disciplinary boundaries, we document and analyze how we can create an evidence-based, community-led, and locally-driven roadmap for Beirut’s recovery. The essay focuses on our experience creating and building Khaddit Beirut (the shake-up) amidst multiple crises and in doing so opening up the university to the grievances of a devasted community. In doing so we review existing literature about what we already know about Lebanon’s political system and explain why breaking the cycle is as much an existential project as it is a political struggle.

本文是在2020年8月4日贝鲁特港口爆炸后写的。我们探讨了积极分子，学者和实践者在多大程度上可以找到一种方法来打破数十年教派权力共享所导致的腐败循环。通过我们自己的故事和打破自己的绝望循环并超越学科界限的经验，我们记录并分析了如何为贝鲁特的康复制定基于证据，社区主导和本地驱动的路线图。本文着重介绍我们在多重危机中创建和构建Khaddit Beirut（合并）的经验，并以此为基础使大学对遭受破坏的社区的不满敞开大门。