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Quote by Annia Ciezadlo

“If you look at the list of the top wheat importers for 2010, almost half of them are Middle Eastern regimes: Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Tunisia. Egypt is the number-one importer of wheat in the entire world. Tunisia leads the entire world in per capita wheat consumption. So it's no wonder that the revolutions began with Tunisians waving baguettes in the streets and Egyptians wearing helmets made of bread.”

Quote by Annia Ciezadlo

Author

Annia Ciezadlo is a respected journalist recognized for her work in international journalism. The specifics of her birth and death dates are unknown. more

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“Rulers like Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser started subsidizing bread as a way to buy loyalty, or at least obedience, and this system became so pervasive that the Tunisian scholar Larbi Sadiki described countries who used it as dimuqratiyyat al-khubz - "democracies of bread." But the problem with this system of offering bread in exchange for genuine democracy is that it can never last - sooner or later, the bread will run out, and people will start demanding bread and roses too.”

People Way Country Problem Running Lasts Used Democracy Rose Loyalty Genuine Bread Obedience Als Offering Scholar Rulers Sooner Or Later Egypt

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“The Middle East is the only region in the world outside of sub-Saharan Africa where rates of malnutrition actually rose over the past decade or two, instead of falling.”

World Two Past Fall Middle Rose Rate East Decades Regions Middle East Over The Past Malnutrition Sub Saharan Africa

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“There's a long history in the Middle East of "bread intifadas," starting with 1977 in Egypt, when Anwar Sadat tried to lift bread subsidies. People rebelled and poured into Tahrir Square, shouting slogans against the government just like they did earlier this year. Sadat learned his lesson and kept bread subsidies in place, and so did a host of other Middle Eastern dictators - many of whom were propped up for years by the West, partly through subsidized American wheat.”

People Years Long Government Middle Lessons West Starting East Bread Lifts Squares Host Middle East Dictator Egypt Eastern Slogans Shouting Wheat Subsidies Sadat Tahrir Square

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“As a journalist, or an anthropologist, the convention is that people are there for you to study, and they are your objects.”

People Study Objects Journalist Conventions Anthropologists

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“Being an American journalist can put people on the defensive. In countries where people assume the press is partisan, like in Lebanon, or where it had essentially become an extension of the government, like in Iraq, people tend to see a journalist as an agent of his or her government. That can be dangerous if the United States military is occupying their country, or aligned with their enemies.”

People Ifs Country States Government United Enemy United States Military Dangerous Presses Assuming Iraq Agents Journalist Extensions Partisans Lebanon United States Military

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“But being an American woman married to an Arab guy - and a Muslim to boot! - put me in a different category. People would open up, and tell me things that they would never tell another journalist, no matter how persistent.”

People Different Matter Guy Married Journalist Categories Boots Persistent American Woman

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“You [can] become part of someone else's narrative. Every once in a while I would get people asking me questions like, "If your husband is a Muslim, then why haven't you converted to Islam?" Interestingly enough, almost every person who asked me that was a Sunni, and it was their not-so-subtle way of implying that my Shiite husband was a bad Muslim for letting his infidel wife run around unconverted.”

People Ifs Way Persons Enough Running Wife Havens Husband Asking Islam Narrative Subtle Your Husband Infidel Implying

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“Which is one of the dangers of immersion journalism: you can find yourself getting sucked into battles you have nothing to do with, in this case an ongoing battle between Muslims.”

Cases Danger Battle Journalism Finding Yourself Ongoing Immersion

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“I don't have a problem with the media focusing on bad things happening. That's our job, after all. But I think it's incomplete, and I would even say it's inaccurate, to only portray a place through its tragedies.”

Thinking Problem Jobs Media Happenings Tragedy Things Happen Bad Things Incomplete Bad Things Happen

Author:Annia Ciezadlo

“For my generation - the "Children of Nixon," as I call us in the book - the Lebanese civil war was an iconic event. Downtown Beirut became a metaphor for so many things: man's inhumanity to man, what Charles Bukowski called "the impossibility of being human." It shaped our perceptions of war and human nature, just as Vietnam did for our parents. We used it to understand how the world works.”