October 2024

You’re looking at Ayman Baalbaki’s painting, Untitled, 2011

When the war is over and the economists are done with the calculations, the magnitude of the losses will probably shock even the most pessimistic among us. The baseline, I suppose, would be the last major clash in 2006, whose toll is estimated at $3.5 billion.

You’re looking at a snapshot of displacement. The caption at the top reads: Oh, sea! Oh, you father of the orphaned!

Does war have its routines?

Of course it does. Mayhem’s very disruptions are routines: mass murder, assassinations, razed neighborhoods, massive displacement, the insecurities of existence without shelter, food, water, electricity, medical care, schooling, mother, father, son or daughter…