Keep looking to East

Walking through the streets of Nicosia is easy to come across in Middle Eastern restaurants. But it is difficult to resist the scents coming from these. Therefore, one day I stop and decide to order a traditional dish. "Green wheat" and lamb. Intrigued, I research and discover that nowadays this grain is considered as one the super food. The green wheat or freekeh (brother of the well-known durum wheat) is cropped when still green, then sundried and roasted. Traditionally spread throughout the historical region of the Levant. And particularly, the high quality freekeh is cultivated in Jabal Amel, a region in the south of Lebanon.

Southern Lebanon…recently we heard about it sometimes in the TV news. A south that seems so far, but the area of Lebanon is half in size of the Sardinian one. Hence, the distance between north and south is like the one between Sassari and Oristano, just to have a familiar idea of dimension. But there is no more familiarity with these people. Even though, probably we shared parts of our DNA, being they the new generation of the ancient Phoenicians.

(I am always surprised every time I think about our super globalized era in which the human interest for other human beings does not exist. Perhaps because we are convinced that they have no value, economic…)

Let's get back to Lebanon. In the present time. The intensity of attacks between Israel and Hezbollah (paramilitary group in Lebanon) in the border area has increased since the 7th of October 2023. Between the two countries, the relationship has never been idyllic. The war "ended" in 2006 has left wounds that do not seem to heal. Always living in a state of intimidation, with continuous Israeli military aircraft trespassing. More than 20'000 in the last 15 years, an average of four per day. People are exhausted. Moreover, an abnormal financial and economic crisis arrives (in 2019) during which all the cash disappeared from the banks in one night. Moreover, an explosion at the port of Beirut (in 2020) that, among other things, has brought many people (300'000) to lose their houses. Moreover, for almost a year and a half, Lebanon does not have a president; the parliamentarians have been unable to elect one. And nowadays, a military escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, that has reach also Beirut, could switch from low intensity war into a high intensity war.

One of the events passed a little bit quietly, without raising too much indignation, is that Israel drops illegal white phosphorus bombs (kindly made and exported by USA) on southern Lebanon. In addition to their extreme toxicity to humans, white phosphorus released into the air reacts with oxygen, causing fires. Thus, the Israeli strategy is to use them in agricultural areas. Crops burn, fields are polluted, becoming unusable. Consequently bringing civilians to their knees, without food or income.

That battered south of Lebanon was the land of high quality freekeh. After 2006, some projects have planned to safeguard this crop. But all the following events do not seem to give space to these initiatives.

It looks like we have decided that we are going to eat weapons and death.

BUT I LIKE FREEKEH!