Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo
article | posted July 17, 2006 (web only)
Fear and Shopping in Beirut
Annia Ciezadlo
Beirut

The first warplanes sheared through the sky at about 3:30 Friday morning, just as the call to prayer wavered out from the mosque, the faint, pre-recorded voice of the muezzin drowned in the rising growl of their engines. The bombings began soon after, and the antiaircraft kicked in at about 4 am; we didn’t get to sleep until dawn. I woke up at 9, when a text message bleeped into my cell phone. It was from a friend in Baghdad, who wrote “I hope U R OK and fine. We all here in Iraq feel worried about U.” I was glad to hear from him, but his message didn’t make me feel any better: when Iraqis are texting from Baghdad to see if you’re ok, you know it’s not good.

We were ready for this, sort of. The day after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, all of Beirut prepared for war in time-honored Lebanese fashion: by going shopping. We bought siege food, anything that doesn’t need refrigeration — powdered milk, canned hummus, beans, cracked wheat. Less rationally, however, we bought comfort food, compiling a collective shopping list of fear and craving: I bought a chocolate cake mix for no reason. Yogurt, which will spoil once the electricity dies, disappeared from the shelves. And everyone lined up to buy bread. It’s going to mold in a day or two, but who doesn’t feel better after smelling freshly-baked bread, and who knew when we’d smell that again? I bought five loaves of it. So many of us did, in fact, that the baker’s syndicate issued a statement to the local radio stations that people shouldn’t stockpile bread, because they have enough flour to continue making it. “If you do continue to stockpile bread,” warned the bakers, “it will contribute to the crisis.” Does that mean if I stop buying bread, Israel and Hezbollah will stop bombing each other?

Our politics were as schizophrenic as our shopping baskets. The first day, everyone I talked to was furious at Hezbollah. “How can I express my anger?” wrote a Lebanese friend in a mass email blazing with sarcasm. “Maybe by saying bravo to Hizbollah, thank you to Hizbollah. Thank you for ruining the entire season for the poor Lebanese who have been struggling so hard to cover the losses of last year's events... for destroying the tourism industry and infrastructure? for weakening yet again an already weak government and flushing all the hopes of millions of Lebanese down the drain? should I say more?”

But then Israel bombed the airport, and suddenly, surprisingly, I was hearing cautiously approving statements from people who’d always railed against the Shiite militia before. These were Christians and secular Muslims, not Hezbollah partisans, but they saved their wrath for Israel and the US. “I am angry, definitely, at the Israelis,” said my friend George, who until now had always been adamant that the Party of God should give up its arms, like all the other militias that sprang up during the Lebanese civil war. “They have replied in a very aggressive manner. It shouldn’t take this much to get back the two hostages. But what I’m also angry at is the US. They haven’t done anything yet. They say that they are the country which helps the underprivileged countries, but they have done nothing to help us.”

As if this wasn’t confusing enough, another friend confessed to feeling nostalgia for Ariel Sharon—wishing the man his critics once called the “Butcher of Beirut” was still in command, instead of a relatively inexperienced Israeli government with everything to prove and Hamas on its hands. My American friends were all calling me up, asking if this whole thing was hurting Hezbollah’s credibility or helping it. I had no idea, and I don’t think anyone else did either.

Late Friday night, at about 8:30, Hezbollah’s bearded, apple-cheeked leader, Hassan Nasrallah, announced that his fighters had just bombed an Israeli warship. Look out of your windows, he said, and you’ll see the ship that attacked your homes in flames. "Now in the middle of the sea, facing Beirut, the Israeli warship that has attacked the infrastructure, people's homes and civilians — look at it burning,” he said in a tape-recorded message. He promised the Israelis more “surprises.”

It was a hot night, and we had all the windows open. As soon as Nasrallah made his dramatic announcement, I heard cheers and clapping from nearby apartments. Soon after that, cars took to the empty streets honking in celebration, as though the death and destruction that had been and would surely follow were a wedding or a World Cup victory. Don’t they realize this means more bombings, more missiles, another war, I thought? Is he trying to take us all out with him, make Lebanon into a nation of shaheeds?

As usual, my mother-in-law summed it up best. “Why is Hezbollah doing this now? What are they thinking?” she complained. “Look at Egypt and Jordan, and all the other Arab countries—they’re not attacking Israel. It’s only in Lebanon that we we carry the board sideways,” she said, using a Lebanese expression for someone who tries to force a board horizontally through a doorway, stubbornly ramming it against the doorframe, instead of simply turning it vertical to carry it through.


Copyright 2006 The Nation

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The Washington Post
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 4
The world has plenty of wheat. Putin still uses it as a weapon.
May 6, 2022
The Washington Post

How Putin is using wheat as a weapon of psychological warfare.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The Guardian
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 6
Why do the super-rich treat affordable housing in the Bronx as a lucrative asset class?
January 14, 2022
The Guardian

Follow the money, and you will find a line from the broken doors and space heaters in buildings all over the city to the big banks that finance affordable housing deals.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo WIRED
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 8
The Facebook Papers Must Be Shared With Outlets Globally
November 3, 2021
WIRED

The news consortium exposing the company's worldwide abuses hasn’t included the journalists best equipped to report on them—those in the global south.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Flevo Campus, the Netherlands
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 10
"About Food: The Food System in Turbulent Times” [in Dutch]
October 29, 2020
Flevo Campus, the Netherlands

If cities can starve in Syria—a country with abundant food and water, in the heart of the Fertile Crescent—they can starve anywhere.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The Washington Post
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 12
The safety problem for restaurants isn’t the dining room. It’s the kitchen.
May 29, 2020
The Washington Post

As customers head back out to eat, most of the public discussion about safety is focusing on the front of the house — where customers sit. But in the back of the house, the part that most customers never see, a very different conversation is taking place.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The Guardian
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 14
Why is New York’s most famous library getting into bed with the Saudi Crown Prince?
September 19, 2019
The Guardian

Using the library’s main branch to promote a despot’s private event betrays the NYPL’s founding mission of serving the public.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Politico
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 16
Anthony Bourdain: The TV Star Who Used Food to Break Down Barriers 1956–2018
December 30, 2018
Politico

"What made Bourdain great was that he kept reminding us it wasn’t just about him: He used his platform on TV and in print to speak up for people he felt had gotten a raw deal—people who, in a more just world, would have the opportunity to speak up for themselves."

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Orb Media Network: Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh; Folha de Sao Paolo, Brazil; Politiken, Denmark; Die Zeit, Germany; South China Morning Post, Hong Kong; The Hindu, India; Channels TV, Nigeria; Louisville Public Media, USA
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 18
“Under Water: How Rising Waters Cost Us All,”
October 8, 2018
Orb Media Network: Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh; Folha de Sao Paolo, Brazil; Politiken, Denmark; Die Zeit, Germany; South China Morning Post, Hong Kong; The Hindu, India; Channels TV, Nigeria; Louisville Public Media, USA

We frame climate change in terms of the future: cities underwater by the year 2040, 2050, 2100. But for a growing number of people across the globe, that watery future is already here.

As higher temperatures lead to sea level rise and more extreme rainfall, more and more people are already learning to live with catastrophic flooding. Many find creative ways to adapt. But it comes at a cost—first and foremost to them, but in the end to all of us.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo KCET-TV
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 20
Breaking Bread: Food in Times of War
December 14, 2017
KCET-TV

“I am currently a medic in the Army and have spent a considerable amount of time in Iraq,” he wrote.... He added that he was crying as he wrote the email, and added, in closing, “I was always taught that Soldiers aren't supposed to cry.”

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The Washington Post
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 22
Why would Assad use sarin in a war he's winning? To terrify Syrians
April 11, 2017
The Washington Post

From the conspiracy-site far right to the anti-imperialist left, the question of why Assad would attack his own people when he was already winning the war managed to sow confusion and doubt. But history tells us that Assad had plenty to gain from using chemical weapons.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 24
Analysis: The World According to Trump, and What It May Mean For Syria
December 19, 2016
Syria Deeply

As Trump ushers in an era of deals between states, the real conflicts will be between increasingly authoritarian states and their increasingly dissatisfied subjects.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply Long Read
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 26
The US Has Intervened In Syria, But Not the Way You Think
October 31, 2016
Syria Deeply Long Read

The debate over a theoretical American intervention against Assad is obscuring this central fact: the United States already has intervened militarily in the Syrian conflict. As of October 25, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS had carried out 5,616 airstrikes in Syria, the vast majority of them by U.S. warplanes.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 28
Why Assad’s Propaganda Isn’t As Crazy As It Seems
October 3, 2016
Syria Deeply

In the realm of ideas and images, the Syrian government’s propaganda is just as effective as its bombing campaigns.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 30
After Battle For Wadi Barada, the Damascus Water War Isn’t Over
February 14, 2017
Syria Deeply

The long history of water as a weapon in the Syrian conflict.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 32
The Fall of Rebel-Held Aleppo is a Warning to Others Who Oppose Assad
December 14, 2016
Syria Deeply

What happened in Aleppo was many things, but most of all, it was a warning – to anyone who may think of resisting the power of the state.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 34
Trump is the US President Assad Has Been Waiting For
November 23, 2016
Syria Deeply

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has made it clear that he considers the fight against the so-called Islamic State more important than anything else in the Middle East – including Syrian civilian lives, which are likely to be a low priority for his administration.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 36
Green Gold: How ISIS Is Making As Much Money From Wheat As From Oil
October 20, 2016
Syria Deeply

Like the Syrian government, ISIS is a net cereal exporter – and may get almost as much revenue from the spikes of grain above the ground as the black gold underneath.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 38
Game of Shrines and the Road to Darayya
September 15, 2016
Syria Deeply

How an Iraqi cleric's prayer in a Syrian city is fueling an ongoing process of sectarianization that will be difficult to reverse.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 40
No End to Aleppo’s Brutal Stalemate
August 22, 2016
Syria Deeply

Aleppines expect very little from high-level talks between the American and Russian governments. And if history is any guide, they are right.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 42
The Siege Sector: Why Starving Civilians is Big Business
August 11, 2016
Syria Deeply

Besieged civilians are a captive and extremely lucrative market.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 44
How Evacuating al-Waer and ‘Other Darayyas’ Will Help Assad
September 5, 2016
Syria Deeply

The tactic of withholding food and medical supplies, when used against civilians, is a war crime under international law. But the sieges have ground on, leaving the government free to besiege these areas for years – and now, one by one, to force them into surrender.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 46
For Syrian Kids in Lebanon, School is ‘Like a Miracle'
July 26, 2016
Syria Deeply

When parents’ lives are precarious, children end up not attending school.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Syria Deeply
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 48
Sowing Hope and Weeding out Siege Profiteers
July 18, 2016
Syria Deeply

People in Syria's besieged areas have discovered a secret weapon that’s difficult to detect and almost impossible to defeat: seeds.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The Washington Post
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 50
The most unconventional weapon in Syria: Wheat
December 18, 2015
The Washington Post

In the Syrian conflict, all the players are using wheat and bread as a weapon—and civilians are paying the price.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Guernica magazine
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 52
Be Like Water
December 15, 2015
Guernica magazine

Refugees on Lesvos.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The Washington Post
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 54
Paris is a city. Beirut is a ‘war zone.’ Why the way we talk about those places matters.
November 17, 2015
The Washington Post

ISIS bombed a neighborhood, not a "Hezbollah stronghold."
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Politico magazine
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 56
Greeks Bearing Gifts
November 30, 2015
Politico magazine

How Greeks are helping refugees despite their destroyed economy.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Al Jazeera America
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 58
A garden grows amid the daily dangers of a siege in Syria
May 18, 2015
Al Jazeera America

Yarmouk’s forgotten civilians have been fighting the medieval weapon of hunger with creativity, humor and the ultimate grass-roots resistance strategy: gardens.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The New Republic online
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 60
The War on Bread: How the Syrian regime is using food as a weapon
February 14, 2014
The New Republic online

The mass media frames food as something that brings the Middle East together during conflict, not something that tears it apart. Which is why, when leaders use food as a weapon, we often fail to recognize this hideous war crime until it’s too late.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The New Republic
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 62
Bashar al-Assad: an Intimate Profile of a Mass Murderer
December 2013
The New Republic

In 1982, not long after his father's military pulverized a town called Hama, Bashar Al Assad got a jet ski...
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo granta.com
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 64
Bread of Beirut
August 2, 2012
granta.com

On bread, war, and the age-old tradition of the public oven.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo Foreignaffairs.com
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 66
Let Them Eat Bread: How Food Subsidies Prevent (and Provoke) Revolutions in the Middle East
March 23, 2011
Foreignaffairs.com

How the bread that used to ensure obedience turned into a symbol and a source of revolution.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo nytimes.com
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 68
Eating in Public: Pleasure or Peril?
February 28, 2012
nytimes.com

Echoes of Victorian finger-wagging from lawmakers who pit public eating against cleanliness, godliness and that elusive quality we refer to as being “civilized.”

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>Foreign Policy</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 70
Eat, Drink, Protest
May/June 2011
Foreign Policy

In the wrong hands, food can be a weapon: a short, sweet history of food propaganda.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New York Times Magazine</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 72
Does the Mediterranean Diet Even Exist?
April 3, 2011
The New York Times Magazine

The more we try to eat like Mediterraneans, the more they're trying to eat like us.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>Time</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 74
History on a Plate
July 21, 2011
Time

A short history of harisa/haleem, the mixture of meat, spices, and grains that people have been eating across continents and centuries.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>Saveur</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 76
They Remember Home
December 2008
Saveur

Marooned in Beirut, Iraqi refugees ease the pain of exile with home cooking. Included in Best Food Writing 2009.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The Nation</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 78
Sect Symbols
15 February 2007
The Nation

The secret history of downtown Beirut and the man who rebuilt it. (Book review.)
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 80
Eau No
18 January 2007
The New Republic

Hezbollah perfume: the smell of resistance.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i> Online
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 82
Camp Rout
24 May 2007
The New Republic Online

Armed militiamen help out the overstretched Lebanese army.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i> Online
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 84
Hezbollapalooza
5 December 2006
The New Republic Online

Hezbollah's answer to the Cedar Revolution.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New York Times</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 86
Baghdad Thanksgiving, 2003
22 November 2007
The New York Times

Thanksgiving in Baghdad, four years ago.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 88
Tour de Force
24 August 2006
The New Republic

Exploring scenic South Beirut, the Hezbollah way.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 90
Militias' Intent
1 December 2006
The New Republic

Lebanon's dying anti-Syria movement.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The Nation Online</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 92
Fear and Shopping in Beirut
17 July 2006
The Nation Online

What do you crave when a war breaks out?

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 94
Entombed
20 July 2006
The New Republic

With friends like these, Lebanon’s Shia don’t need enemies.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The Washington Post</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 96
Beirut Diary: So Much for the Postwar
23 July 2006
The Washington Post

One week of war.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 98
Sheik Up
28 August 2006
The New Republic

Nasrallah's war: a profile of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the 2006 war.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The Nation Online</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 100
Dreams Deferred in Lebanon
2 August 2006
The Nation Online

How Lebanon's Slow Food movement fared during the war.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 102
Crying Shame
21 August 2006
The New Republic

The man who cried: a profile of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo <i>The New Republic</i>
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 104
Next
2 March 2006
The New Republic

Is Lebanon the new Iraq? Sunni-Shia tensions on the rise.

annia ciezadlo Recent articles by Annia Ciezadlo The New Republic Online
Articles by Annia  ,  article artwork image 106
Comic Relief
February 27, 2006
The New Republic Online

In Lebanon and Syria, the cartoon jihad is not a battle between West and East. It’s a struggle by mainstream Sunnis to contain a growing network of radical Islamists.