Life under coronavirus emergency, in Lebanon a group of friends launched a new radio station

By Vanessa Tomassini.

With the spread of the Coronavirus people in many countries are locked down in their respective houses on request of their Governments. Lebanon on Sunday urged people to stay at home for two weeks and prepared to close its main airport to stem the novel Covid-19 outbreak that has killed three people in the country and infected more than 100. In Beirut, a group of friends, to try to kill time and lighten forced isolation for millions of their citizens, have launched on Friday a radio station with a group of around 10 DJs each working from their own houses, most of them in Lebanon, some living abroad. They play good music, share stories and funny moments. The only rue that they have is to not talk about coronavirus.

One DJ offered horoscope readings, for example. Another played theme songs from beloved cartoon shows of the 1980s and 1990s. Other plans to give a recorder to his father and have him narrate his weekly walk in the wilderness, where he gathers wild herbs for cooking. Reported ‘Al-Arabiya English’. “Basically, if you want news about the coronavirus you can just open any social media or turn on your TV,” al-Shihabi said.“Anywhere you turn, you will find news about coronavirus, so this is a place where you can have a quarantine from the quarantine.”Shihabi was encouraged by an Italian friend who is part of the team running Radio Quartiere, a similar concept set up in Italy to pass the time during the quarantine. After consulting with his friend, the Beirut group set up their own offshoot using ‘Radiojar’, a software that allows users to create online radio stations without needing special equipment.

 Also on social networks, people in Lebanon and other countries affected by Covid-19’s emergency as Italy, are using ingenuity and their passions to spend time in quarantine and entertain their friends and families, some do it using Facebook’s life to play music, to sing or painting, to tell jokes or play down the situation, others mount encouraging videos showing the strength and beauty of their countries.