When Lebanon was on its descent into civil war in 1975, some militia bosses sicced the ‘poor’ upon the ‘rich’, telling their followers to loot the Spinneys store in Ramlet el-Baida. I remember watching the riot from our balcony — the first to drive up to the deserted store were the warlords and their top goons. After they carried off the store’s fine wines, caviar and quality foodstuffs in their luxury cars, they allowed their disheveled band of followers to raid what was left. Only after their departure, poor people from the area were able to pick through the little that the professional looters had left behind. I saw a child that took away a can of dog food. The warlords had plundered a private business, then left the scraps to the poor. But that was only the beginning. Those same villains began to spread a destructive thought among the
