Tedxobserver - Kamal mouzawak - Make food not war in Beirut

Thank you so much for being here. I'm very honored and happy to share some stories with you. I wanted to start by sharing a small piece of bread but I don't think I'm going to find any person who still have this piece of bread in their hands, right? (Laughter) -- Really? You've already had 3 of them anyway, right? (Laughter) -- So, there's something wrong around here. I wanted to start with a small piece of bread, which we call man'oushe, which is a typical breakfast of our Lebanese mountains, a simple bread top with wild thyme, that men and women pick from all over the Lebanese mountains. I don't think something can speak better [about] the traditions of a place and its people rather than a small piece of bread. I don't think something can speak better of a people more than their own food. Food is the best expression of traditions. It's the best expression, the most authentic and sincere expression of who we are, where do I come from. Yesterday, I arrived in London, a city which a like a lot, and went straight to eat at Margot Henderson's Rochelle Canteen, and we were eating chicken from somewhere in the English countryside, Jersey potatos, and wild garlic that has just sprouted. People express their traditions through many ways -- through costumes, through architecture through music, through poetry -- still food is the best expression of our traditions. There are 5 million Lebanese in Lebanon, 15 million around the world, and they just took with them their tabbouleh and their kebbeh. Italians took around their pizzas and pastas, Chinese their noodles, Japanese their sushi, and Indians came to this country and brought their curry with them, and today, it's a British National Dish. Thank you for passing back the man'ousheh, this is a very Lebanese way of doing it -- we just found a solution. This is what we try to celebrate in a very small country like Lebanon, while I don't know very much about the size of the regions in England, it's not bigger than -- just a very small English region. It's 200 squares long, 200 Km long, 50 Km large, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. And there's is such a diversity of geography between a coastal plain [and] very high mountains inland -- There's such a diversity of people, ethnicity, religions and politics, and everything is cramped in such a small place. In that sense, Lebanon is a real case study where the concept of "the other" does not exist. What is "the other"? It is a minority compared to a majority. In Lebanon there's no minority, no majority. It's a 50/50 country, a half/half country. Half Christian, half Muslim. Half people looking to the east, half of them looking to the west. Half sea people, half mountain people. No one is "the one" and no one is "the other". It's such a fragile equilibrium that makes it such a catastrophe sometimes, and very often -- as you've heard very often of all of these different wars that happen in Lebanon -- and it's such a celebration very often, to where we can, like -- not do conflict resolution, forget the differences, and rather celebrate diversity between different people. Is it possible to have some pictures just as a slide show, please? In a random way -- Wow, that's the right way, thank you! (Laughter) (Music) No music! (Laughter) So, what we've tried to do -- This is our [baker], Ushef, from my neighborghood in Batroun, a very small village on the Lebanese coast. What we are trying to do since 2004 -- I'm a son of farmers and producers, I studied graphic design, I went to be a food and travel writer, discovering a country that I'd heard about but I'd never visited. I was born in '69, the war started in Lebanon -- one of these different wars -- started in 1975, and I'd never had to visit that country, because during that time this very, very small country was totally and completely divided, one region from another, and we couldn't, like -- It was very difficult and very often we couldn't cross from one border to another. In 1991 the war ended -- we don't know why it started, we don't know why it ended -- and it was, like, "OK, you have it all for you", so, what are we going to do about it? I started touring the whole country to discover what were these other places I'd never visited, and who were these "others" I've always heard about as my enemy, and as the others that wanted to kill me and my family, and eradicate me. And people often ask me what did I find as wonderful things -- a scenery, an archaeological site, a historical site -- and for me, I'd just discovered wonderful people. Where I discovered "the other" [was] just totally like me. Where if I'd come to him with open arms, he'd have had wider arms. If I'd come with a gun, they'd have shot me before I get to them. So, we're totally all the same. There was no "other", we're all the same. So I said, why do we need to think about conflict resolution, why don't we think about a common project, a common ground, a common vision, a common dream, that we can all build together. In 2004, I started a dream. I started a project that I called "Souk el-Tayeb." "Souk" means market, as you know, which is like these oriental souks that you hear about and [remind us of] all these smells and flavors that are in our mind. And "tayeb" means good, good in Arabic means, good as a taste, good as a person, but good as life, too -- and we tried to put all of these meanings in this project. The project started on July 10, 2004. It started as a farmers' market, a weekly farmers' market every Saturday morning like -- every Saturday it was like a market day-to-day. To date there were people coming from all over the country, small scale producers, people doing wonderful shops in their own villages, but what can they do [out] of their tomatoes in their tomatoes villages -- who would like to have tomatoes in their tomatoes village? or cherry in their cherry villages? -- It was about how to bring producers from rural to urban, where there's a demand and a purchasing power. It was about bringing the producers and the consumers together to a direct relation, in direct contact, for the consumers to understand that food is not just a commodity product, it's not just a product of the supermarkets' shelves that only money can buy -- it is something, it's a live product that someone planted, harvested or cooked. So, how to have again this direct relation between the producers and the consumers, how to give back a direct recognition to the producers, how to cut the middle man and the middle system, and give back to the producer all of the gains of his work -- The project started in 2004 as a farmers' market, where we support organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture and all the good ways -- From 2004, it was -- why is it only a movement from rural to urban? Why don't we go back to the villages from time to time and celebrate local specialties of these different villages? Where we would go back to Hammana, a village known for its cherries, and celebrate a "Cherry Day" once of a year. It would be a celebration from the city going back to the rural areas. For the people in the rural areas to understand that they're as important as anyone else. For the people in charge of development to understand that development doesn't happen only in one part. It's not just about building bridges, and roads, and buildings in the city. It's about an equilibrium between -- An equal development between both rural and urban, and both places together. It's understanding that urban and rural are not antagonistic parts, but one part that compliments and feeds the other. So, how to go back from time to time to rural areas to celebrate what these areas have as treasures? We don't have diamonds, we don't have gold, but Hammana has cherries, Ehden has kebbeh, and Batroun has its fish. And every land has small treasures. So, how to celebrate the treasures that we have? From there, we went onto education in schools and different universities, then we developed many different projects -- The latest project is called "Tawlet", it started in November 2009, where it was about -- it's great to organize the farmers' market, all the different projects, but we would like the producers not to be only suppliers of individuals who would buy produce -- fresh produce or canned produce -- and go to cook them at home, or not to supply big name chefs, for them to cook at their own restaurants. It is how these producers, mainly the women, how do they cook and transform the produce into cuisine. So, we created "Tawlet" and you will see like many different -- This is Mona, from a very small village on the southern border of Lebanon, she is preparing a typical dish, which is kebbeh -- this is raw meat kebbeh and what you see is the first plan -- and Mona prepares her kebbeh in a southern way, which is totally different than what we produce in the north. So, [you can see] how each region has a total different expression, and we express ourselves through the products of the land, through the agriculture, through the food production and the cuisine itself. Since November 2009 -- so, this is Suzanne, she [prepares] kebbeh from the north -- so, that was Suzanne and Mona -- Oum Ali -- two antipodes of two totally different cultures, the Maronites from the north and the Shiites form the south, how each one has a different expression, but still under all these different expressions how we can get all together through a common ground, how we can go over our different religions and politics through a common project. These wonderful women were at "Tawlet" a week ago. Palestinians in Lebanon are in too many different camps, which are more like ghettos or prisons, so what we've tried to do is develop a project at two Palestinian camps in Lebanon, that we called "Atayeb Palastine" -- the wealth or the good things about Palestine -- where we're working with these wonderful women through developing a line of typical Palestinian products, and typical Palestinian cuisine. And when we started working with them, nothing talked to their hearts more than the food itself and the memories of food. "Tawlet" exists since November 2009, where it's an open kitchen, where everyday, a different woman from a different region would come and prepare a whole buffet typical of her own region, like if you're invited to her home. For all these different projects, it's not about the food, it's not about the kebbeh, it's not about the tabbouleh, it is about how to support wonderful people, wonderful men and women who are doing a great job. It is how to create human development projects. It is how to do better what you have to do. Islam says: "Every act is an act of worship." We don't need to go to a mosque or to a church to pray, it's just by doing perfectly well whatever we're doing, that we're going to have the best contribution to life. Through this very small project, in this very small country, it was how to put in direct contact the producers and the consumers, how to perpetuate history and traditions through a very simple medium, which is food, how to break already existing systems of -- "I'm a full profit, I just make money, I don't have responsibilities, or I'm a non-profit, I have responsibilities, but I'm afraid of money" how to do full benefit projects. It was about how to bring all these ideas together, and to always remember what Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see." Don't nag about it, just do it. Thank you [Poli] for doing it and for saying it. (Applause)