Bala Wasta: No Connections, All Work

Wasta. A word so common in our everyday jargon that it’s become an inevitable facet of our society. I’m sure we can all name a dozen friends or acquaintances who get jobs, degrees and even evade legal action purely through who they know and who their fathers may be. Wasta exists everywhere in Lebanon, and it’s about time we do something about it. Bala Wasta, an online initiative created in November 2012, is a group that aims to do just that.

Beirut.com interviewed the Bala Wasta founder, Nay Boustany, who shed light on the unique group’s obectives, demographics, and future campaign plans. Targeted toward the Lebanese, and more specifically, Lebanese women, the group, as stated by Boustany, aims to “raise public awareness regarding the right of every individual to have a job based on their qualifications, skills and merits and to encourage the companies to hire people without ‘wasta’ which will surely have a positive impact on their revenues as well.”

Basically, in a nutshell, Bala Wasta stands for exactly what it’s title means: without connections. After being unable to find a job with a Bachelor’s degree and two Master’s, Boustany decided to form a collective with the aid of other Lebanese individuals in similar situations. Fighting off the increasing trend toward immigration and political corruption, Bala Wasta’s next goal is to create an accreditation system for recruitment processes, implementing an auditing process to make sure there are no instances of wasta.

A group we can all get behind, Bala Wasta serves as a refreshing reminder that there are hardworking people who actually exist in Lebanon. Now let’s just get them hired.

To find out more about the initiative, contact balawasta@gmail.com or @balawasta