Public sector paralysed as Lebanon lurches towards ‘failed state’

He rushes to water the garden at his home in the hills south of Beirut, using the single hour of rationed state power to run the sprinkler. He then phones his mother, who is struggling to get a new passport at a state agency grappling with paper and ink shortages. “The public sector is at its end if we keep going like this,” Chaar told Reuters.