A journalist sometimes falls in love with a city he visits in search of a report or to carry out an interview or write a report. This love perhaps comes from the feeling that the city sleeps on poems, melodies and art so timeless. Or maybe because they are the heirs of a turbulent history that has left deep wounds in his mind.
Traveling the world, I was marked by Baghdad and Paris. History is the most powerful and hardest teacher. Those who do not learn from it are wrong, whether they are leaders, opponents or journalists.
I love Baghdad no matter who runs it or what system governs it. It has a rich history and is the pride of Al-Mutanabbi and Al-Jawahiri. I love Paris because its streets bear the names of poets and writers who, more than generals, helped shape its reputation.
The difference between the two cities is that when night sets over the Tigris, I feel the fear of days to come that is absent in Paris, which claims to have ended its wars and left the bloody days behind.
Envy is a bad feeling but it comes naturally to people in the terrible Middle East. I felt it when I slept in Vienna, Paris or Berlin. I envied those cities that never thought about preparing their armies for a possible invasion or preparing for an impending civil war.
I wondered, “When will the capitals of our region get rid of the fear of the outside and the inside?”
Editor’s note: Mosaïque is a press review that offers the reader a selective and quick overview of the key topics covered by renowned daily newspapers and media in the Arab world. Arab news in French is content with a very summary publication, sending the reader directly to the link of the original article. The opinion expressed in this page is the author’s own and does not necessarily reflect that of Arab News in French.