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Lebanese ask 'Should I stay or should I go' under pressures to rebuild

The pressures to rebuild Lebanon, to endure harsh working and living conditions and the fear of another tragedy add an inconceivable burden to people trying to make it in industries fraught with their own challenges.
A woman watches as rescue workers gather at damaged building in Lebanon's capital Beirut, in search of possible survivors from a mega-blast at the adjacent port one month ago, after scanners detected a pulse, on September 4, 2020. - Lebanese rescuers scoured rubble for a possible survivor in Beirut after the detection of a pulse drew crowds hopeful of a miracle one month on from a devastating explosion. (Photo by JOSEPH EID / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images)

The huge explosion in the port of Beirut, which destroyed most of the city, took place a month ago, but the blast has had such a severe impact on the Lebanese that it feels to many it only happened just yesterday.

In the early evening of Aug. 4, Hatem Imam, co-founder of Studio Safar, one of Beirut’s iconic design studios and a mainstay in the cultural scene, left his office in Gemmayzeh neighborhood of Beirut for his home in the adjacent neighborhood of Geitawi, just a few blocks away. 

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