Sri Lankan tea kicks up a storm in Lebanon
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun has come under fire after it emerged that tea donated by Sri Lanka for victims of the Beirut blast was distributed instead to families of his presidential guards.
Sri Lanka, many of whose expat community in Lebanon work as housemaids, was one of several nations that rushed to show support in the wake of Lebanon’s worst peace-time disaster.
The president’s office on Aug 24 released a picture of Aoun receiving the Sri Lankan ambassador, and quoted her as saying Colombo had “donated 1,675kg of Ceylon tea to those affected by the Beirut blast”.
After Lebanese media and social media asked what happened to the donation, it issued a second statement on Tuesday.
The presidency said Aoun had written to his Sri Lankan counterpart to thank him for “a gift of Ceylon tea that had been received by the army … and distributed to the families of soldiers in the presidential guard”.
Social media erupted in criticism, with the hashtags “tea thief” and “Ceylon tea” trending on Twitter.