A few days ago, a march was staged in downtown Beirut, in which there were only no more than a handful of participants. The slogan raised by the demonstrators was “For the Return of the Loaf of Bread” after the Lebanese official sides decided to raise its price. In the meantime, the Rashaya population blocked the main road near the town in protest against the rise affecting the prices. In reality, this rise in the price of food items is not limited to Lebanon. Indeed, the tomato prices in Syria, Jordan and the territories of the Palestinian authority reached record highs, and many families decided to dispense with this fruit which is considered a staple of the local cuisine. In this context, the Israeli press said that the price of one kilogram of tomatoes had exceeded 12 shekels (around $4.5). Moreover, in addition to bread and vegetables, the prices of meat among other animal products (eggs, milk and cheese) rose madly in many Arab countries. In light of the powerlessness and silence of the official regulatory authorities, the reasons being circulated are ranging between the fact that the wheat prices around the world have skyrocketed from $170 at the beginning of July to $301 at the end of it, the great fires in Russia, the poor crops in many countries and the increasing demand to cover the needs of many affected areas. In the Arab states, there is talk about a heat wave which has been invading the Levant countries for years and has caused a large-scale migration from rural areas where the cultivation was massively damaged toward the cities. Certainly, the entire issue involves clear signs of corruption, exploitation and the monopolization of basic products. Still, the small demonstration in Beirut revealed the extent of the general interest in issues of welfare and standards of living. The most vivid comment related to the limited number of demonstrators was the one saying that the latter would have amounted to hundreds of thousands had the demonstration been staged to protest against a religious or sectarian offense issued by a fool here or there, or to support some factional, partisan or regional bigotry. The idleness in assuming the responsibility of defending the living standards of the majority of the Arab citizens and the quasi-total surrender before the rise of prices, the inflation and the deterioration of livelihood in exchange for an unrivaled zeal in responding to sectarian and religious incitements, does not highlight a “pre-statist” hypersensitivity responding to retaliation demands and instigation (as it happened with Al-Khansa' and her brother Sakhr). It rather calls for the consideration of the severe shortage suffered by the protest mechanisms against reality. The rise of the price of bread is practically due to the importation by the Arab countries of most of their wheat needs from abroad and the interference of the factors of corruption and monopolization in the subsequent stage. And as it was the case of those who called for the Beirut demonstration, the protesters are not putting forward realistic visions to bridge the gaps generated by the rise of the prices at the level of the budgets of the importing official sides. Instead, they are finding it easier to hold these sides responsible for the rise. Although there is no arguing about the latter responsibility, the realistic solutions require the protesters to present applicable alternatives or to force the governments to seek alternatives and solutions and not settle for verbal protests. Nonetheless, the surrender before the deterioration of the social conditions does not stop at this level, since it seems to be a general phenomenon spread throughout the Arab communities suffering retreat in the education, healthcare and public services sectors. It thus looks as though our people do not care about their livelihood, as much as they care about the futilities of some mudslingers among the instigators of animosities which we thought had dissipated forever.
