Papers of Dialogue - 2 - 2014 - English

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Li Lifan / Understanding the New Silk Roads Debora Serracchiani / Trieste, a hub of trade and culture Abdul Aziz Saud Al-Babtain / Poetry, a message for humanity

THE NEW SILK ROADS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 03 Editorial Roberto Iadicicco Silk Road

04 “One Belt and One Road”: new perspectives on the relationships between China and the Middle East Wang Jian 08 New avenues for development and dialogue Daniel Atzori 11 Understanding the New Silk Roads Daniel Atzori

16 Trieste, a hub of trade and culture Daniel Atzori

20 Economic development and environmental sustainability 23 Francesco Russo

Cultures

36 Poetry, a message for humanity

The magic of Morocco Erfan Rashid

Daniel Atzori

26

Journeys of body and spirit

30

Tourism and dialogue between civilizations

40 Two Italians on the Bridges of Sarajevo

Erfan Rashid

www.papersofdialogue.com

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Li Lifan / Understanding the New Silk Roads Debora Serracchiani / Trieste, a hub of trade and culture Abdul Aziz Saud Al-Babtain / Poetry, a message for humanity

Papers of Dialogue no 2 - 2014 Roberto Iadicicco Daniel Atzori Marina Ranieri

THE NEW SILK ROADS

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Editorial

by Roberto Iadicicco EDITOR IN CHIEF

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he Silk Road is an extremely evocative and fascinating concept. It takes us back to a magnificent era when intercultural trade and dialogue flourished between China and the Mediterranean, connecting the people of Central and Southern Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

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Today, the growth of China’s economy is opening up new trade routes linking the East to the West. In this issue of Papers of Dialogue we will analyse some of the opportunities offered in this historical phase

oday, the growth of China’s economy is opening up new trade routes linking the East to the West. In this issue of Papers of Dialogue we will analyse some of the opportunities offered in this historical phase.

In his contribution, Professor Wang Jian, Director of the Center for West Asia and North Africa Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS), explains the importance of the “Silk Road Economic Belt”, a network of commercial routes to be opened on land, and of the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”. In his interview, Li Lifan, Associate Research Professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, illustrates the main opportunities offered by the Silk Roads to Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. Growing trade with Middle and Far East countries presents great opportunities for Europe, and especially for Italy. In

this respect, you will find an exclusive interview with Debora Serracchiani, the President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region. Trieste, the capital of this region, has been an exceptional crossroads of peoples, languages and cultures for centuries, bridging communications between the Mediterranean and Mitteleuropa.

At present, Friuli Venezia Giulia is one of Italy’s most dynamic regions and is increasingly projected onto the emerging markets of Africa and Asia.

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n our “Cultures” section, we offer stories on the people and societies living in the Middle East and along the shores of the Mediterranean. George Younes, founder and President of the Lebanese Association of Tourism (ALT), offers an original take on the beauties of Morocco while Jordanian intellectual Amer El-Sabaileh makes a few considerations on intercultural journeys and dialogue. Lastly, you will find an in-depth story on the great Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum and one on art in the United Arab Emirates.

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o, come with us on this exciting trip along the old and new Silk Roads.

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Silk Road

“One Belt and One Road”: new perspectives on the relationships between China and the Middle East The strategic initiatives known as “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” are opening new opportunities, as well as new challenges, for the development of the relationships between China and the Middle East. Infrastructures, trade, financial services, regional cooperation mechanisms, as well as intercultural dialogue, will all be crucial in the construction of “One Belt and One Road”.

Wang Jian

04 | Papers of Dialogue

“O

Belt and One Road”, which refers to concept of the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, is an important strategic initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping when Chinese national revitalization entered a new stage in history. It is conducive to promote China’s economic development and foreign cooperation by taking the domestic and international overall situation as well as balanced development between its eastern and western regions into consideration. It

From the theory of economic belt, in terms of “One Belt and One Road” today, firstly, we must clarify that the traffic infrastructure is the base.

Silk Road also will provide a new platform and space for Chinese peaceful rise.

Historically, “One Belt and One Road” has made great contributions to the promotion of material and cultural exchanges between China and the West, providing us us with lots of inspiration. For example, the need of international trade for goods exchange was the main driving force of its formation and development; a stable political and secure environment is the vital factor to ensure its effective passage; cultural exchanges have great implications in the development of “One Belt and One Road”.

Trade demand at both ends and along the route is the driving force to promote the construction of “One Belt and One Road”.

From the theory of economic belt, in terms of “One Belt and One Road” today, firstly, we must clarify that the traffic infrastructure is the base. Traffic serves as the main carrier or link for this economic belt. The new technical development of high-speed railway, port and shipping make the belt building possible.

In addition, from a broader perspective, information, aviation,

Shanghai

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Silk Road

oil and gas pipelines all fall into such technology category.

Secondly, trade must take the leading role.

Trade demand at both ends and along the route is the driving force to promote the construction of “One Belt and One Road”.

At present, the complementary resources endowments and trade elements means the possibility and necessity of expanding trade; therefore, we should further eliminate trade barriers, reduce trade and investment costs, so as to improve the speed and quality of regional economic circulation.

Thirdly, follow up of financial services is very crucial. Trade expansion and development of related industries require better financial services, especially the innovation of trade settlement and improvement in investment and financing.

Finally, regional cooperation mechanism should be forged basing on this economic belt. To enhance regional development consensus and cultural exchange is definitely another important aspect in the economic and trade development.

In conclusion, through promotion in the above several aspects we can truly achieve better policy communication, improved road connectivity, unimpeded trade, enhanced monetary circulation and deeper understanding between the 06 | Papers of Dialogue

Chinese President Xi Jinping

To enhance regional development consensus and cultural exchange is definitely another important aspect in the economic and trade development.

people proposed by President Xi Jinping.

In the order arrangement of the construction of “One Belt and One Road”, President Xi Jinping also proposed that work should be started in individual areas, linked up gradually, and over time covering the whole region.

Geographically, as I understand, the individual areas refer to key areas, major countries and organizations. For example, Central Asia is a key area along the Silk Road Economic Belt and Kazakhstan is a key regional hub, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) is an important organization. For the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, South-East Asia and South Asia are key areas; Indonesia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Burma are key countries while ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) and SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) are key organizations.

In terms of trade and industries, oil and gas cooperation; for transportation the construction of roads, pipelines and railways; and regional trade integration are priorities in the Silk Road Economic Belt; while port and free trade zone constructions are major concerns for the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Breakthroughs in such major areas and issues will certainly set up models and pilots, spilling over its effect to relevant regional and economic fields.

The linking role, as I understand it currently, is to be realized by the new continental bridge construction in Central Asia, China, Burma, India and Bangladesh Economic Corridor in South Asia and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which will gradually extend its influence over the region. On the basis of regional cooperation and economic corridor development and its expansion to Europe and West Asia, cooperation over the whole region and Euro-Asia economic integration will be achieved with “One Belt and One Road” as its carrier.

In such a context, the advantages and drawbacks of the Middle East present new opportunities and new challenges for the development of the China and Middle East

Silk Road relationship. The following advantages of the Middle East are evident: first, it has been the main trade route in history, where the ancient Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road converged. Such an advantage remains prominent in the geo-development trend as well as the construction of “One Belt and One Road”.

Secondly, enormous complementary trade exists between the Middle East and countries along the belt, China in particular.

Meanwhile, there is great potential for economic development and consumption, with countries of the region with sufficient funds. The major drawback, however, lies in the instability of the turbulent regional situation. This means it will be placed behind Central Asia, South Asia and South-East Asia in the order arrangement of building the economic belt regardless of it geographical convergence.

Under such circumstances of constructing the “One Belt and One Road”, the development of the China and Middle East relationship requires proper consideration in order to seize the opportunity with its regional advantages while overcoming its disadvantages.

My suggestions for the joint endeavors are as follows: First of all, awareness should be raised of its implications and significance. Policy communication between governments should be strengthened, and policy presentation and seminars should be held by academia, business, think tanks and the media so that the concept of “One Belt and One Road” will spread further in the Middle East.

Secondly, together with the international community, China should continue its active participation in solving burning issues of the region to create a secure and stable situation for the construction of “One Belt and One Road”.

Thirdly, a regional overall plan should be set up by enhancing regional cooperation with the Middle East. At present, the important role of the Arab Cooperation Forum should be strengthened. In a keynote speech at the opening ceremony

Chinese President Xi Jinping with Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah during the Conference of China-Arab States Cooperation Forum.

Beijing, China, 2014

THE AUTHOR

Wang Jian

Wang Jian is a professor of history and international political economy at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS).

His research has focused on global public goods, Middle East studies and the Jewish communities in China. He now serves as director of Center for West Asia and North Africa Studies (CWANAS) of SASS, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies and deputy director of Institute of History in SASS.

of the sixth ministerial conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) in Beijing this June, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the two sides to carry forward the “spirit of the Silk Road” and deepen their friendly cooperation. It would serve as a new starting point for the forum since its establishment a decade ago. At the same time, free trade zone consultation with the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) should be promoted; and SCO should be promptly taking in more countries as its members, including some Middle East countries, such as Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey.

Fourthly, Middle East countries, especially the oil-producers, can take part in the building of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to jointly improve traffic and transportation infrastructure in the Middle East.

Fifthly, China and the Middle East countries should remain open-minded to attract the participation of other countries and economic organizations in their cooperation in order to achieve high efficiency and a win-win outcome.

Lastly, cultural communication and exchanges should be further promoted in the cooperation, especially the dialogue between Chinese and Islamic civilizations.

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Silk Road

New avenues for development and dialogue For centuries, the network of routes known as “the Silk Road” linked the civilizations of Eurasia and the Mediterranean, connecting regions so far apart as the Indo Valley, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus and the Arabian Peninsula. Today, China’s impressive economic growth is reviving the Silk Roads, opening new avenues for economic development and intercultural dialogue.

Daniel Atzori, PhD Twitter: @DanielAtzori

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or centuries, the Silk Road linked China to Central and East Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, promoting the free circulation of goods and ideas. The Silk Road is not a real-life road but a continuously expanding open network crossing over and intersecting exchanges along land and maritime trade routes. This is why it would perhaps be more accurate to speak of Silk Roads, in the plural, in order to underscore the multitude of intersecting routes. Silk Roads have extended a great bridge between societies and cultures, enhancing not only economies, by contributing to the well-being and the material prosperity of peoples, but also the creativity and imagination of Humankind, inspiring an endless number of works of art and literature. To mention two: Marco Polo’s The Million, which tells the story of the journey of the Venetian merchant from his native Venice to China, and Samarcande, the masterpiece of Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, narrating the story of the great Persian poet, Omar Khayyam.

The concept of Silk Road is rather recent: it was a 19th Century German scholar, Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, the first to call Die Seidenstrasse the network of routes that linked the civilizations of Eurasia and of the Mediterranean and connected regions so far apart as the Indo Valley, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, the Arabian peninsula and the Mediterranean Basin. However, the notion underlying this concept is age-old.

According to tradition, China started its silk production in 2,700 B.C. and records show that it began exporting this precious fibre during the Han dynasty, which reigned over the country between 206 B.C. and 220 A.D. Chinese silk was very much appreciated both in Egypt and throughout the Roman Empire. Through this ancient-time global trade network which united Xi’an, the capital of China’s Shaanxi province, to Venice, in Italy, in addition to silk, trade also involved, spices, fruit and vegetables, precious stones, works of art, and so on and so forth. The Silk Road was also an extraordinary channel of dialogue:

According to tradition, China started its silk production in 2,700 B.C. and records show that it began exporting this precious fibre during the Han dynasty, which reigned over the country between 206 B.C. and 220 A.D. Chinese silk was very much appreciated both in Egypt and throughout the Roman Empire.

Silk Road

merchants learned the languages of the countries they crossed and acquired their customs and traditions, thus enriching their own cultures and spreading new ideas and techniques. It created a cross-fertilization between economic development and intercultural dialogue.

A new phase China’s impressive economic growth is reviving the Silk Roads. In May of this year, the HSBC banking group published an interesting and welldocumented report entitled What a globalising China means for Africa and the Middle East, stating forthright the importance of economic relations between China and the Middle East:

Marco Polo

“The Middle East’s massive fiscal and current account surpluses, its decade of rapid economic growth, a near doubling of per capita wealth would have been unthinkable without surging energy demand from China. There would be no kilometer-tall towers in the desert, no ski slopes in the shopping mall, no Gulf owned football teams winning the English premier league, without the emergence of China as a global economic power. In a region that was once led by US investment, it is now China that sets the rhythm for economic growth – a structural shift to a new era that we think will persist for a generation to come”.

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Silk Road

James Joyce

The report also highlights that this new relationship is destined to affect the global economy on the middle and long term: “We do not view the burgeoning relationship between China, Africa and the Middle East as transitory, nor do we view it as unique. Rather, we see it as a powerful expression of the new southern Silk Road developing across the emerging world, and expect it to set the rhythm for growth for a generation to come”.

The growing inter-dependence and integration between China and the Middle East is evident in many sectors of activity. Of course, Beijing needs Middle Eastern oil in order to maintain the fast pace of its economic growth. However, the relationship also concerns Chinese tourism, the export of Chinese products, investments by Chinese companies in infrastructures and the activism of Chinese banks in strengthening economic relations. Chinese promoters claim that the Silk Roads will also stimulate the development of infrastructures like ports and railway systems, both in China and abroad. It has also been often said that the Silk Roads must develop in a sustainable way, minimising their impact on the environment. The stakeholders in this ambitious project have already considered the need for the Silk Roads to compound socio-economic development and environmental protection. The idea of a 10 | Papers of Dialogue

Venice, Italy

A constant flow of Chinese investments could contribute to strengthening not only economic growth but also the stability of the region: a pacified, stable and affluent Middle East could have a beneficial fallout over the whole of the world’s economy.

THE AUTHOR

Daniel Atzori Daniel Atzori, PhD, is the Editorial Team Coordinator of Papers of Dialogue.

“Green Silk Road” is quickly taking root.

Within this context of epochal change, China’s new leaders appear to be extremely sensitive to cooperating with the Arab world. The sixth China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) was held in Beijing on June 5 of this year and was attended by Chinese President, Xi Jinping, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, in addition to many other eminent representatives of the Arab world.

The event celebrated the 10th anniversary since the beginning of the China-Arab forum and took the opportunity to discuss several initiatives aimed at concretely promoting relations between these two strategic areas for the global economy.

Among other things, the initiative aims at raising the volume of trade between the Middle East and China from the current $240 billion to $600 billion over the next ten years. At the Forum, Chinese companies were called on to enhance their investments in the Arab countries’ energy and petrochemical sectors, but also in services, industry and agriculture. “We want to achieve this development for ourselves and we would like to allow others to grow equally,” said President Xi Jinping, inviting participants to build a “community with shared interests and a common destiny for China and the Arab states”.

The target is to develop trade in an atmosphere of peace and cooperation between peoples. A constant flow of Chinese investments could contribute to strengthening not only economic growth but also the stability of the region: a pacified, stable and affluent Middle East could have a beneficial fallout over the whole of the world’s economy.

In conclusion, many are the supporters of the new Silk Roads, convinced that they, in addition to driving the economic development of the Middle East, will also have a positive impact on the economies of the whole of Eurasia and open up a multitude of new intercultural dialogue opportunities between the West and the East.

Silk Road LI LIFAN

Understanding the New Silk Roads The New Silk Road is not just a road or a simple path connecting Asia and Europe, but a pursuit of peace, an initiative that aims to strengthen cooperation and intercultural dialogue, thus fostering social stability and economic prosperity.

Daniel Atzori, PhD Twitter: @DanielAtzori

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he new Silk Roads, that is to say both the land-based “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the sea-based “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, will arguably have a remarkable impact on the Eurasian continent in the years to come. In this interview with Li Lifan, associate research professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, we explore the strategic, cultural and economic importance of the concept of Silk Road, as well as its opportunities for the societies and economies of China, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Some regions of the Middle East are currently undergoing a phase of turmoil.

What are, in your view, the main challenges and opportunities for the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China?

A new stage of China’s policy should be more closely connected with Chinese western development strategy, which includes the whole of Central Asia, the Middle East, as well as South Asia, all strategic to the framework for the implementation of the layout. It combines construction through Eurasia of the “Silk Road economic zone” and “21st Century Marine Silk Road” strategic vision to continuously strengthen economic

A new stage of China’s policy should be more closely connected with Chinese western development strategy, which includes the whole of Central Asia, the Middle East, as well as South Asia.

Nanjing Road, Shanghai

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Silk Road presence in Afghanistan. Given the position and role of Afghanistan, China should be pushing both strategic vision and the energy channels in its constructive landmark. It is needed a further strengthening of the bilateral level security relations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on its platform, to actively carry out counter-terrorism information sharing, training of police officers, safety equipment updates, cooperation in specifically combating the “three forces (Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism)” and transnational crime western border cooperation to ensure peace.

The policy is also integrated with the work of Afghanistan, and together with Pakistan as a whole, to be a planning, coordinating treatment with both sincere trust and respect between China’s goodneighbour partnership, including support measures for the two countries to develop the economy and improve people’s livelihoods as well as promoting the whole region neighbouring China.

And what are Beijing’s priorities with regards to securing its energy supply in the Middle East?

Energy is the material basis for the progress of human civilization and is an indispensable basic element for the development of modern society. It remains a major strategic issue for China as the country moves towards its goals of modernization and common prosperity for its people. China imports more oil from the Middle East than any other region of the world does.

Energy systems and mechanisms are gradually improving.

The market mechanism is playing an increasingly important role in resource allocation.

Investors in the energy field are diversified, and private investment in it keeps growing.

It is an important strategic task of the Chinese government to maintain longterm, stable and sustainable use of energy resources. China’s energy development 12 | Papers of Dialogue

must follow a path featuring high-tech content, low consumption of resources, less environmental pollution, satisfactory economic returns, as well as security. It is moving towards the objective of clean and secure economic development.

Can you explain to us the meaning, as well as the strategic, cultural and economic importance, of the concepts of “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”?

Construction of the Silk Road on both land and sea is a major policy decision together with national economic reform and opening-up, especially in promoting the basic path for westward opening and westward development. Silk Road is a major thoroughfare under construction,

The New Silk Road is not just a road it is not only just a simple path connecting Asia and Europe but also a pursuit of peace.

Silk Road to be fully connected in western China, to strengthen economies in Central Asia and Middle Eastern countries, as well as to enhance interoperability with national commerce. Therefore those countries along these Silk Roads can, put together organically with their abundant energy advantage and China‘s growing demand, fully enjoy the market dividends of China’s growing economy. Silk Road construction will improve our economy in coexistence with western oil and gas production, by developing vessels, exporting refinery products, petroleum, and equipment for the manufacturing industry. It will cause the shift and transformation and upgrading of related industries into western markets, which have a role in promoting the overall strategic significance.

Investors in the energy field are diversified, and private investment in it keeps growing.

What are the values which inspire the New Silk Roads vision?

The New Silk Road is not just a road, it is not only a simple path connecting Asia and Europe, but also a pursuit of peace along ethnic lines to strengthen bridges of cooperation. The “Silk Road economic zone” concept has been put forward at the right time, in line with the strong desire of the countries in the region that have been seeking opportunities to coordinate and collaborate in the regional development. But, due to different conditions of national interest, demands or inconsistencies along the belt, the “Silk Road economic zone” should have unprecedented openness and inclusiveness, in the form of respect for equality, mutual benefit and common The Port of Shanghai

Silk Road development as the basis for its existence and unshakable lifeline.

In your view, what could be the economic opportunities provided by the New Silk Roads to the Middle East and Central Asia?

Construction of the “Silk Road economic zone” helps stability and prosperity in Central Asia. Generally, the situation in Central Asia is lagging behind other regions in competition with surrounding economic development.

Due to continued crisis and spreading chaos from Egypt, Syria, North Africa, West Asia, the Central Asian States are facing new challenges. At it is the regional level, approaching the withdrawal deadline of the United States and its NATO allies from Afghanistan. The United States are following a “pivoting” policy with Asia, with the intent to get rid of the burden of the war in Afghanistan, even abandoning Afghanistan in the chaos it was in, as well as increased risks from the international terrorist organization “spillover”. The peace and security in Central Asia and South Asia are facing new challenges.

Central Asian countries had been hoping to gain “leverage“ from China with its strong economic development. The construction of the “Silk Road economic zone” has been precisely combining the geographical advantage: Central Asia acts as a bridge between East and West, Asia and EU. Central Asian countries might, through the promotion of transportation, trade, energy and other important areas of regional cooperation, promote their own economic development and social stability.

Meanwhile, prosperity and stability in Central Asia have a particular special significance for the stable development of Xinjiang, China. Connected with the five Central Asian countries, there are irreplaceable geopolitical relationships, with geo-economic and geopolitical convenience of cultural similarity for both Xinjiang and Central Asian countries, meaning that economic 14 | Papers of Dialogue

Li Lifan

Li Lifan is an associate research professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, advisor to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipality and Secretary General of the Center for Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies.

He was a program chair of the National Planning Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences, as well as of the National Project sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council in 20062008. He participated in the project for Consultation on Decision-Making for International Metropolis Studies in 2006 and was a chief drafter for the Shanghai Municipal plan on Overseas Chinese Affairs. He has lectured widely in the U.S., Japan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe, and published articles on a variety of topics within China and abroad.

cooperation has a more solid foundation, and has potential for sustainable development in continental Eurasia. However, ethnic separatist forces, religious extremism and violent terrorist forces together referred to as “the three evil forces” are very active in Central Asia and South Asia. Vigorous and violent terrorist activities undermine social stability in the region.

Silk Road Oil pump

Central Asian countries and Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries are deeply harmed by “the three evil forces�, therefore the regional stability and sustainable economic development are major concerns for the policy of the New Silk Road Economic Belt.

And what could be the importance of Europe, and of Italy in particular, in

The ancient Silk Road crossed 16 countries and two large deserts.

relation to the New Silk Roads?

From Italy to China there is a total distance of 14,000 km along the ancient Silk Road.

The ancient Silk Road crossed 16 countries and two large deserts. What links China and Italy? In particular Italy’s strength in design, innovation and creativity and its dynamic small enterprises which are mostly welcomed by the Chinese market, with the focus on boosting investment.

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Silk Road DEBORA SERRACCHIANI President of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia

Trieste, a hub of trade and culture A natural terminus for Mediterranean maritime traffic as well as for ships coming from Asia or the Persian Gulf, Trieste connects the Adriatic Sea, and consequently the Mediterranean, not only to northern Italy, but to all of Central Europe. What is more, the completion of the architecture of the European Union is increasingly putting Trieste at the geopolitical barycentre of the area, thus highlighting its cultural dialogue and bridging capabilities.

Daniel Atzori, PhD Twitter: @DanielAtzori

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or a magazine dedicated to the dialogue between cultures like “Papers of Dialogue”, Trieste (the capital of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region) represents an extraordinary example of intercultural communication.

In the 19th and 20th centuries your city, besides being a crossroads of intellectuals of the calibre of Italo Svevo, Umberto Saba, Rainer Maria Rilke, James Joyce and Ivo Andric, was a true model of integration. How will the capital of Friuli Venezia Giulia continue to be a bridge between cultures also in the 21st century?

There is a saying that correctly states that Trieste does not “have” a port; it “is” a port.

This definition metaphorically includes all the characteristics that make the city open,

There is a saying that correctly states that Trieste does not “have” a port; it “is” a port.

Port of Trieste, Italy

inquisitive and tolerant. The completion of the architecture of the European Union is increasingly putting Trieste at the geopolitical barycentre of the area, thus highlighting its cultural dialogue and bridging capabilities. Here, there has been no interruption in the long-dated and more recent presence of different ethnical and linguistic communities, including the Muslim community. World-renowned writers like Claudio Magris, Boris Pahor and Veit Heiniken bear witness to the vital force of a multilingual culture that thrives on ever-new contributions. Alongside the letters, education and science are the other two pillars sustaining the international role of Trieste: the United World College of the Adriatic, the International Centre for

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, the Universities of Trieste and Udine, the Area Science Park, are only some of the over 30 research centres that steadily employ thousands of foreign researchers. They are the assets thanks to which the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia hopes to enhance the role of Trieste in the world.

Debora Serracchiani President of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia

The port of Trieste has an exceptional potential as it connects the Adriatic Sea, and consequently the Mediterranean, not only to northern Italy but to all of Central Europe. What are the port’s current development options?

Thanks to its port and logistic facilities, Papers of Dialogue | 17

Silk Road

Italo Svevo

James Joyce

Trieste constitutes a natural terminus for Mediterranean maritime traffic as well as for ships coming from Asia or the Persian Gulf. Indeed, Friuli Venezia Giulia is the only European region to be located at the crossroads between Europe’s Baltic Adriatic corridor, which directly links Trieste to Munich, Vienna, Prague and Central and Eastern Europe, and the “Mediterranean” corridor, formerly known as Corridor 5, which crosses the region to give quick access to Budapest but also to Milan, Turin, Switzerland and Lyon, in France. Trieste is located at less than 500 km from Italy’s economic hubs (Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont, and Emilia-Romagna) and from Central and Eastern Europe (Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland) via a very efficient motorway system. The depth of the port enables the docking of lastgeneration transoceanic vessels of any size. This is Trieste’s point of strength from which we can upgrade its international role. Construction work on a new dry port logistic platform offering new facilities and financed by private investors who have decided to invest in Trieste is scheduled to begin soon. It includes all the main terminals, also for cruiser ships, and roll-on-roll-off container terminals.

Furthermore, the Regional authorities 18 | Papers of Dialogue

Construction work on a new dry port logistic platform offering new facilities and financed by private investors who have decided to invest in Trieste is scheduled to begin soon.

have recently received from the Italian railway company, Ferrovie Italiane, a project to re-launch the port’s railway station and a decision will soon be taken on the timing of this investment, which is aimed at enhancing the efficiency of railway infrastructures over the next few years.

Numerous additional rail freight services are now offered from Trieste to Central and Eastern Europe at very advantageous costs. This means that the re-launching effort is not on the drawing board but is ongoing.

In your capacity of Head of Infrastructures for the Democratic Party (PD), you have addressed the need to re-launch Italy’s network of ports. What reforms are you planning in this field?

Italy’s system of ports needs to be reformed and the Government has begun tackling the issue with great determination. The provisions that have already been presented are aimed at fostering the development and growth of Italian ports, while reducing the number of Port Authorities, modifying their governance systems, introducing a more appropriate port classification system and especially promoting the integration of Italian ports into the logistic network.

This is precisely the innovative approach: clarifying the now unavoidable connection between ports and ground services must be seen as a strategic asset, especially in linking ports to transnational transport networks like European TEN-T corridors.

The new governance of Port Authorities will have to therefore take into consideration not only the maritime portion of transport but also the ground transport segment by putting in place an efficient logistics chain capable of cutting costs and increasing profits for freighters and, indirectly, also for the State.

The Friuli Venezia Giulia Region is characterised by very dynamic

Silk Road Palazzo del Municipio, Piazza dell’Unità, Trieste, Italy

business activities. What initiatives do you intend to propose in order to increase import and export relations with the Middle East, North Africa and Asia?

The new Friuli Venezia Giulia Administration intends to open the door to economic relations with all rapidly developing countries. We consider these areas to have a high potential not only in terms of their rate of development and economic opportunities but also in terms of establishing with them a collaboration on an equal footing, respectful of everybody’s needs. In addition, we also intend to guide our businesses by supporting the companies and institutions of this region with a structured economic cooperation plan capable of highlighting three of my Region’s main values: utmost professionalism, maximum reliability and friendliness based on the respect for traditions and institutions.

In the past, many of my region’s businesses achieved great success in a number of Middle Eastern, African and Asian countries. Now we have put in place an institutional business guidance system as

As for Asia, we intend to intensify our relations especially with South-East Asia, mainly through technology exchanges and scientific cooperation.

THE AUTHOR

Daniel Atzori Daniel Atzori, PhD, is the Editorial Team Coordinator of Papers of Dialogue.

well as reception facilities for foreign investors. There is a wide range of opportunities: we have a very advanced mechanical engineering industry, we produce the largest cruisers in the world, we have one of the best scientific and applied research systems in Europe employing thousands of researchers and scholars, and a system of infrastructures that any foreign business can use to transport its products to Central Europe in only a few days.

The next initiatives will focus on the Persian Gulf countries, which have already asked to meet with us. As for Asia, we intend to intensify our relations especially with South-East Asia, mainly through technology exchanges and scientific cooperation. Lastly, turning to the Mediterranean, in addition to intensifying relations with Turkey and the Mashreq countries, we also intend to increase our presence in the Maghreb countries, especially in a few sectors of interest such as maritime port connections, the agro-food industry and industrial machinery.

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Silk Road MAURO ALBRIZIO Head of Legambiente’s European office

Economic development and environmental sustainability

Another significant fact is that the proposal was put on the table before mid-term elections: Obama is not afraid of losing votes on this front, also in view of the repositioning of Republicans on the issue.

Francesco Russo

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hat do you think of the 30% power plant emission cut ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama?

He issued an executive order (an act of Government that does not need to be approved by the Congress), which is only the latest of a number of acts passed last June and specifically concerns coal-fired power plants already in operation.

Previously, the U.S. had introduced standards for new generation power plants that were more ambitious than the ones in Europe, as well as measures on the “fuel quality” of cars and commercial vehicles. In the present round of negotiations on climate change, which will next be held in Lima at the end of the year, the objective is to reduce the overall amount of emissions, extended to all sectors of the economy.

The step taken by the United States is the first in the right direction towards breaking the stalemate in negotiations but it is not sufficient to keep on track in keeping below the critical 2-degree rise limit in global temperature. America will have to do much more because electric power plants produce 40% of the country’s total emissions. It is not a coincidence that they have taken this step now, because the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has summoned a world summit on climate in New York for September. Another significant fact is that the proposal was put on the table before mid-term elections: Obama is not afraid of losing votes on this front, also in view of the repositioning of Republicans on the issue. Just think of the case of Tom Steyer, the Californian billionaire who created a 100 million dollar fund with which to attack Republicans that run in the elections with a negationist stand on climate change. Lastly, it is no chance

China is the first producer of global emissions and its main problem is to establish the peak year, meaning thereby the year in which emissions will stop growing in absolute terms.

Silk Road

that the following country to take a precise stand was China‌ China has committed, for the first time, to set a binding emission target. What do you think this will imply?

China is the first producer of global emissions and its main problem is to establish the peak year, meaning thereby the year in which emissions will stop growing in absolute terms. Up to now, Chinese emissions have diminished only in relative terms, i.e. in terms of carbon density and, for the first time, Beijing is tackling the problem of setting a deadline by which emissions will start decreasing also in absolute terms.

Some have proposed 2030, but the governors of large metropolitan areas, where smog is a big problem, think that the peak year should coincide with the government’s 16th five-year plan and therefore 2020. It is therefore probable that a compromise will be reached on 2025 but it will depend on the speed at which renewable energy sources will be developed and on the amount of pressure exerted by the other countries of the world during negotiations. However, no one will be allowed to stand by and simply buy time: neither the Republicans in the United States, nor the most short-sighted industries in Europe. Nobody will be allowed to just stand by and wait for the Americans and the Chinese to take action.

In essence therefore, after the position taken by the U.S. and China, it will no longer be possible to close the Lima summit empty-handed and blame it all on the world’s two super-powers...

A few days ago in Bonn, the first round of preparatory negotiations for the Lima summit ended in a very positive climate, so much so that a second round was convened

for the end of October, in order to arrive at Lima with a draft text to discuss, which will be the negotiated draft text for the global agreement to be signed in Paris in December 2015. The aim of the Lima summit is to outline a draft agreement to be negotiated throughout 2015 in order to arrive at Paris with a prenegotiated agreement, thus avoiding the fate of Copenhagen 2.

These are full-scale negotiations and nobody is allowed to opt out any more.

The road is uphill but the ball is finally rolling and everybody has accepted to play in the match. However, the real match will be played on the amount of funds to be allocated to the Green Climate Fund. For developing countries to meet the targets, they will need money.

In essence, Germans aim to reach an agreement on a position similar to the 40/30/40 proposal voted by the European Parliament last February, so in the Paris summit from a position of strength.

Talking about emerging economies, do you fear that the economic slowdown they are currently suffering might cause a drop in emissions so great as to curb structural initiatives?

No, because they are seeing a great mismatch between their GDPs and their emissions. For example, a success story is that of Portugal, a country that, according to Eurostat, recorded a GDP growth of 44% between 1990 and 2012 while it reduced its emissions by 19% and greatly increased its renewable energy sources.

Europe started decommissioning its fossil fuel-powered plants already in 2005 and its new installed capacity is only fuelled with renewables. This trend was particularly significant in Portugal also because of its economic recession, which obliged it to make the best of a bad bargain, learn from the errors committed by Spain with its incentives and follow a more commonsense policy like the one put in place by Germany, which introduced an automatic reduction criterion reducing fossil fuel

Papers of Dialogue | 21

Silk Road

consumption proportionately to the greater market penetration and technological maturity of renewable energy sources.

What is the European Union likely to bring to the Lima summit? The 2030 Climate and Energy package is now down to the final stretch‌ That’s right: it is scheduled to go to the European Council on 23rd and 24th of October. And, during the European Energy Council of 12 and 13 June, Germany put on the table a three-target proposal: a domestic 40% reduction of greenhouse gases, a threshold which is to be subsequently raised ahead of the Paris agreement; a minimum 30% renewable energy target and an energy efficiency target for the achievement of which Berlin 22 | Papers of Dialogue

has asked the European Commission to draft a proposal as soon as possible, possibly before the summer break. According to corridor rumours, the target should range between 30% and 35%. In essence, Germans aim to reach an agreement on a position similar to the 40/30/40 proposal voted by the European Parliament last February, so that it might be approved by the new parliament in order to start negotiations in the Paris summit from a position of strength. Italy, which up to now has only stood by and watched, as the rotating president of the European Union must now call the shots and do its utmost to bring forward the German proposal with force.

Cultures LAURA TERZANI

The magic of Morocco

Laura Terzani

The best way to know a beautiful country such as Morocco is sitting down with its people, also with old men and women, and listen to their marvellous stories.

They will greet you with goodness and generosity, and they will allow you to discover their land and their values.

Erfan Rashid

A

fter working many years as a journalist for Italian public broadcaster RAI, Laura Terzani gave new impetus to her life by finally doing what she always wanted to do: “being the mother of many children in Tangier”. That is why she calls them “My children in Tangier”: they go to her house there, in Tangier, without being announced; they “knock on the door and come in, just like children do when they’re not carrying their house keys in their pockets”.

Morocco, and Tangier in particular, so thrives in the hearts of Laura Terzani and her husband, Massimo Ghirelli, that they opened a Moroccan corner in the heart of old Rome, only a few steps away from the River Tiber. We meet Laura and Massimo at “Bab el Kasbah”, the Gateway to the Kasbah, a concept store integrating a shop, a café, a meeting point but, above all, the gateway to Morocco, the Morocco that is never shown on the news or on the media: a Morocco of real-life, hardworking people who love their land and their values.

Bab el Kasbah, is intended to be one of the many doors that Laura Terzani has brought back with her from Tangier on giant prints that she exhibited at the Castel dell’Ovo, in Naples.

“Every one of those doors is intended as a beckoning to come inside this country to discover its real values and essence”.

Laura Terzani, Italian journalist and photographer: «My children in Tangier won the key to my heart before getting the key to the house»

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Cultures see Morocco not through the superficial eye of a tourist or of those adventure-lovers planning to go on wildlife safaris in the magnificent desert. You need time to sit down with people, also with old men and women, and listen to their marvellous stories. You need to know Moroccan women to understand how determined they are. They are factory workers, teachers, lawyers and even football players: young women wearing a scarf on their head while playing football”.

Gulf of Naples

Yes, they are a beckoning to take a deep look into that world. How did the pictures fit in with Naples?

“Yes, you’re right. Those pictures seem to have been shot right there, in Naples, because Naples, despite everything, is a city similar to many North African cities and it is a city that stretches out its arms to welcome newcomers, without putting up barriers. It is a city that is exhausted but extremely beautiful and fascinating.

Some of Naples’s corners bring you straight to Morocco and, through my pictures, I try to take people to Morocco, bringing viewers closer to that country by entreating them to look at those people with a different eye.

There is an obnoxious saying that I have heard repeated many times: «The Moroccans who live at home are better than those who live abroad».

I find this saying misleading and I always try to explain that it is necessary to look at a country comprehensively and not only through its negative aspects. Morocco should be known through the goodness and generosity of its people. Most Moroccans are poor but if you visit their homes, they greet you with great generosity and offer you the little they have.

I think that we should convince people to 24 | Papers of Dialogue

“Every one of those doors is intended as a beckoning to come inside this country to discover its real values and essence”.

THE AUTHOR

Erfan Rashid Erfan Rashid is the Head of Agi Arab desk.

Speaking about football, I know you managed to bring a football team to Rome which was made up of young boys born in Tangier; can you tell me the story and what happened?

“Yes, I brought them to Rome: 11 players, one coach and one deputy coach and another man who came as the party’s political manager. After a lot of lobbying and efforts, we managed to obtain passports and visas.

They were accommodated in the guest quarters of the Navy and, five minutes after the match with the youth team of the Roma football club, five of them vanished. They escaped to Spain. They were 13 and 14 years old at the time. It was a hard blow on me because I felt betrayed. They betrayed the trust that I had placed in them. But after a while, we started thinking that maybe it was better this way. It was better for them to have reached Europe on a scheduled flight rather than on a dinghy because, sooner or later, they would have fled Morocco.

A while later I went to Spain to look for them and they weren’t too bad off”.

Among the pictures you exhibited in Naples, there is one showing several Moroccans sitting on stones on a beach at dusk, looking towards Spain, where they hope to go one day. Some of your children came to the West but then returned home.

What memories have they retained of the Italy that they visited?

“Many of them spent a long time here. But the memory they haveLaura retained is of the Terzani disappointment of not having found the

Cultures

Ali ben Youssef medersa, Marrakech

paradise they were dreaming of. They thought that the affluence of the West meant making easy money.

When the five boys escaped to Barcelona, they found out that living in the West means extenuating labour. Two of the five headed home and three stayed. As I said, they’re not bad off. One of them works as an assistant plumber and the other as an assistant butcher. They will never become rich even if, in the meantime, they have grown to be men. They dreamt of becoming football players and they ended up working as labour in several fields of activity. It means the end of a dream�.

Marrakech spice market

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Cultures

Journeys of body and spirit

The mysteries of travel are many, some being difficult to understand or comprehend. A connecting point between the person and his feelings, travel is also the way to discover the magic of places, and to unveil the deepest secrets of reality.

Amer Al-Sabaileh

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ravel is magic in ways words fail to describe, a magic that caresses the soul, plunging deep inside to generate a convergence of the self and its longings, somewhere between dream and fact, reality and imagination.

Travel is the way to discover the magic of places. It is the strange meeting between man and place. It is a chance for the rebellious soul to mix with an unknown place, a chance to meet the past and bend before the magic of that which is at once past and present. Returning to the past and stepping between the paths of eternal memories, meeting the souls of the greats

Travel is the way to discover the magic of places. It is the strange meeting between man and place.

Cultures

that have refused to depart from that place; this is the way to detect the missing secrets, to question the trees and stones – keepers of history and silencers of secrets.

Throughout the ages, travel has been imposed on mankind as a basic means of moving about in the constant search for means of livelihood. Perhaps the most beautiful description, which comes close to an intimate part of a human soul and attempts to express the depth of feeling evoked by travelling within our Arab region - where the desert was always the most difficult of places in which to roam - is contained in the words of the late Jordanian

Throughout the ages, travel has been imposed on mankind as a basic means of moving about in the constant search for means of livelihood.

poet, Taysir Al-Sayul in his great poem “Desert Sorrows”. In it he paints an image of the Bedouin and his journey as the chanting of time and unique strumming of the instrument of hope, as the fusion between the origin of mankind and the anguish of the Arabian desert: Once upon a time From the depths of eternal caves Flowing over stretches of Arabian deserts Flexible as the dream, magical and touching As the nights of Scheherazade Crossing the summits of dunes, traversing the chasms Papers of Dialogue | 27

Cultures The poetic imagery of the journeyman and the relationship of man with place, the secrets of travelling and its pains are again portrayed by the poet, with deep imagery of the symbolism surrounding a desert journey, its difficulties and hopes, pains and groans, aesthetics and magic: It was as if I returned to see him, a Bedouin crossing the desert steeped in futility The sun’s glare in his eyes and the sand promising more sand Silent desert expanses and the anguish of travelling The voice sang and spread across the Arabian desert Bidding farewell to the torment of his melancholic songs amidst the sand With the progression of human life, travel was no longer limited to necessity alone but became a matter of choice for those wishing to break the ice and monotony of daily life, those who are ready to overturn the routine and repetition of images. Long distances are covered by man nowadays, searching from place to place for a measure of sustenance, independence or even some sort of freedom. The reasons

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are many but the means are one: travel.

Travel changes one’s world view. The hours of the day may seem longer.

Man’s emotions become muddled and the door is opened to comparisons and different approaches.

Journey of Body and Journey of Soul How many of us have travelled in our soul to a place we desire before even seeing it? How many of us have cherished in our mind’s eye images of the places we love without having set foot on those lands? How many of us have carried within them hopes and dreams along the course of their long journey that the eyes of others have never seen?

The best part of the bodily journey is its connection with the journey of the soul deep inside us. It is the opportunity for the images in our memories to converge with moments passed by in a hurry, moments of reflection and being alone with oneself, escaping the commotion of daily life, seizing the moments to rest within one’s soul and depend on oneself, allowing the feelings of tranquillity and peace of mind to permeate the most pleasant moments, moments in which man meets his soul, placed on the sidelines by the concerns of daily life.

The mysteries of travel are many, some being difficult to understand or

Cultures comprehend. Travel changes one’s world view. The hours of the day may seem longer.

Man’s emotions become muddled and the door is opened to comparisons and different approaches. This presents a true opportunity to see things from a variety of angles. At some points, the journey seems to be a sort of connecting point between the person and his feelings, something more akin to self-discovery and the quest for wisdom. These emotions naturally steer us to ask whether travel is only limited to the corporeal realm. This is hard to answer but many do feel that their spiritual emotions and sensations have greater reactivity than their bodily sensations when travelling and moving from place to place. Images of the past, memories of yesterday, pictures of loved ones and moments of joy and sadness cling to them in a jumble of feelings and confused senses; all spontaneously triggered when a person is travelling.

Quest for points of divergence and convergence with the other In spite of the great differences among mankind, whether in appearance, colour, customs, rituals and life patterns, most people lack interest in exploring other ways of life and miss out on the pleasure of discovering the new and different. This is where the magic of travel carries a latent appeal in terms of encountering the new and different and uniting with others, a call to break through typified thinking and stop believing one has the only model of living.

Travel makes man able to see what is different from him and spurs him to merge the facts to arrive at the important conviction that all that mankind bears of history and geography is merely a part of the whole. Every human on earth is the son of history and geography and we all know that. One person’s world cannot possibly be the world of everyone.

Moving away from the discovery of the other, travel also holds the secret of the self, a hidden power that enables man to delve deep into himself in a trip that could be described as a trip of self-discovery. This is the point where he realizes his inner potential, which he would not have

THE AUTHOR

Amer Al-Sabaileh Amer Al Sabaileh is a University Professor and journalist.

He was born in Amman, where he currently lives and where he obtained a degree in Modern Languages and Literature, with a specialization in English and Italian.

In 2003 he obtained a Master’s Degree from the University of Rome in “Educating for Peace, International Cooperation, Human Rights and European Union Policies”, with a dissertation on women’s rights in Jordan.

From 2004 to 2007 he lived in Pisa to take part in a University project on crosscultural and inter-religious dialogue.

Since 2007 he is Professor at the Department of European Languages of the University of Jordan in Amman, holding courses on literature, the media, contemporary thinkers and human rights.

Among his works are “Contemplations (Taámulat)”; “When Cultures Talk (The Figure of Ali in the West)”, “Limitations of America’s Public Diplomacy in the Middle East”, “Managing Dialogue (The Figure of the Prophet Mohammed in the West)”, while 5 more books are currently being printed.

discovered without the concept of travel.

Man’s desires and sentiments, what he loves and what he wants, who he is and where he is – how else could he reveal himself and compare his ideas and convictions, sorrows and memories, images and stories with his counterpart, the other? Self-discovery is one of the secrets of travel, but the limits of travel form a major hindrance to people today – borders, passports, visas and restrictions.

We may ask here: How many of us have had to abort our dreams due to the obstructions of borders and passports?

How many of us were stopped by borders from crossing into the land or place they loved or wished to embrace?

The great poet Mahmoud Darwish answered these questions in his poem “Passport”. His words called on mankind to adopt a humanitarian passport as the only medium for travel. Darwish says: “The hearts of all people are my nationality, so let my passport be revoked.”

Wisdom and Travel It is quite a challenge for the life of humans to become like the life of birds, following the desire to live and find an end to journey after journey. Migratory birds appear to be free, but in reality they are bound and compelled to fly from sky to sky and place to place, migrating in every season. Imagine what it is like to be obliged to depart with every coming season. It may be the fate of a soul to be like the birds in the sky, taking on the image of migratory souls, souls that are victim to restrictions and captive in the prison of time.

This is the greatest mystery of travel, the search for knowledge and wisdom – wisdom acquired by humans through travelling and mixing with a plurality of minds and civilizations, with models of humanity, where humans meet their brother humans. Travel is not just moving from one place to another; it is moving up through steps of intellectual growth to reach the pinnacle of thought, that is, wisdom.

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Cultures

Tourism and dialogue between civilizations Morocco played a remarkable historical role, being at the same time a gateway to Europe, Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It boasts an impressive cultural heritage, together with natural landscapes of exceptional beauty. Morocco is, therefore, not only a top tourist destination, but also a brilliant example of dialogue between civilizations.

Dr George Younes President of A.L.T FIJET Lebanon (1)

1 A.L.T (Association Libanaise pour le Tourisme), Membre of FIJET FIJET (Federation International des Journalistes et Ecrivains de Tourisme).

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T

ourism has evolved over time and has become a cultural voyage between people and civilizations, aiming to safeguard e patrimony of our ancestors and the environment throughout villages and nations, and to transmit the legacy to our children who will have the mission to develop sustainable tourism.

Tourism strengthens the intercultural encounters and dialogue between civilizations, which is manifested in different creative fields: journalism, arts, music, mass communication, religion and business.

The 55th congress of FIJET (Federation International des Journalistes et Ecrivains de Tourisme) leads us to Morocco. 150 members from more than 35 nations participated in the congress, which was organized under the theme of “Tourism Vector of Dialogue among Civilizations”. We had the opportunity to visit Casablanca and Marrakesh under FIJET auspices at the annual congress that took place in the Golden Tulip Hotel from the 7th to the 13th of September, 2013, presided over by Mr Tijani Haddad, ex minister of tourism in Tunisia.

History has proven that civilizations are a shuffling of cultures and Morocco is a fertile place for human encounters, and universal dialogue. Historically known as “Al Maghreb al Arabi”, it emerged as a famous destination in North Africa, and the gateway to the Atlantic Ocean, welcoming the visitors of the Mediterranean countries.

Its culture is a blend of Arab and Berber with European influences.

The Phoenicians were pioneers in instigating dialogue by creating the alphabet, and in the XII century BC they settled in Morocco, then arrived on the Mediterranean coast (Mellila) and Atlantic coast (Lixus and Magador). The Romans in the II century BC, settled in Maghreb and Mauritania, and in the year 33 AC, Juba II encouraged the arts and literature in Morocco.

Oqba Ben Nafi initiated an expedition in Maghreb and replaced Latin with Arabic.

Cultures

Ait Benhaddou, fortified city in Morocco

Medina of Marrakech, Morocco

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Cultures The year 788 BC witnessed remarkably the foundation of the first Muslim Dynasty, by Idris I, who is the descendant of Fatima the daughter of the Prophet Mohammad.

Later in the X century the imbalance between sedentary farmers and nomadic pastoralists, blossomed in the growth of Morocco. Actually the two successive reformer movements: the Almoravids and the Almohads Dynasties, congregated the Berbers and created an empire that stretched over Spain, Algeria and Tunisia.

During the extraction and manufacturing of gold in Ghana (900-1500), the Muslim merchants crossing the desert once per year, carrying salt and other products and escorted by a procession of camels of Romain origin, returned back home with slaves and animal skins and gold gathered at Gao. This commercial exchange enriched the dialogue and succeeded to

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His Majesty Mohammad VI King of Morocco, rules over a constitutional Monarchy with an elected parliament, is adopting a touristic vision for the future in compliance with the globalization requirements

convert to Islam the princes passing through, despite the perilous journey and the threat of nomadic Touareg.

Ibn Batouta the famous voyager of Islam born in Tangier (1304 – 1369) drew the headlines of great achievements in tourism and dialogue, and introduced another type of communication channel to many dynasties ahead: the Watassides, Saadiens, Alaouites, who succeeded from 1420 till 1900, before the institution of the French protectorate in 1912, and having considerable impact on the independence of Morocco in 1956.

A different approach to dialogue is expressed and materialized, in a live example shortly narrated below. Mr Khaled el Quandili, the Ex-Moroccan world champion in Kick Boxing, is currently the manager of Atlas TV Channel, destined for the Moroccan diaspora in France. Actually in 1980 the

Cultures young Khaled, immigrated to France and later on started his career in Kick Boxing, and was reputed for his peaceful action in the French suburbs, propagating communication, helping the police in preserving security, and struggling against violence and disturbance among the immigrants in his dwelling area. In other terms dialogue is the alternative and credible instrument to support peace and to overcome difficulties and terrorism.

Mr Quandili was present during the congress and he stated that the Atlas Channel will become a satellite channel of Franco Belgian and Moroccan contribution, promoting tourism as a vector of dialogue, showing that Morocco is a safe destination despite being surrounded by unrest in the neighboring countries.

His Majesty Mohammad VI King of Morocco, rules over a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament, is adopting a touristic vision for the future in compliance with the globalization requirements. Morocco has become a platform for international tourism and cultural and ecological development.

Currently the tourism sector represents 10% of GDP, and the Moroccan authorities are targeting 20 million tourists in 2020, putting Morocco consequently among the top 20 tourist destinations in the world.

Actually 20 billions of dirham were invested in 2013 in tourism, and 150 billion are expected to finance new projects in order to achieve the target in 2020, and creating 200,000 new beds making by this fact the joy of the tourism observer.

The 2020 target will be adopting an advanced regionalization policy, consisting of tourist attractiveness and critical mass necessary for an international position.

Casablanca and Marrakesh are considered among the key tourist destinations in Morocco.

They are aggressively contributing to the economic and tourism boom, since they are enhancing the exchange of culture, arts, architecture and different styles through a continuous dialogue of civilizations.

Casablanca is playing a major role in the Papers of Dialogue | 33

Cultures

Lands of Amanar, Morocco

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development of different economical industries in Morocco, and at the tourism level, the city is displaying “ArtDeco” by excellence, different periods intertwined, a combination of “Hispano- Moresque” and “Streamline Modern” style architecture dating back to 1930.

The prosperity of the city is owed to some precursors, mainly: Prost “surnamed Haussman” who defined the courtesy plans, and Ecochard who, since 1950, executed eminent projects and works.

The Hassan II mosque is another breathtaking site to visit, the construction started in 1986, and the inauguration took place in 1993, it is the largest mosque in the country and the 7th largest in the world. Its minaret is the world’s tallest at 210 meters and is designed in a square shape which is different from the other minarets in the Arab countries, and is considered a wonderful sacred place open to tourists.

Morocco Mall the largest Mall in North Africa, lies on the Atlantic Ocean borders on the Casablanca Cornice, a giant space stretching over 70,000 m2 and includes large landscaped gardens.

Outside the Mall you can experience a live giant festival of hundreds of water jets, which is the 3rd biggest musical fountain in the world, 250 meters long, providing aerial choreographed scenes, inviting you for a ride of relaxation and contemplation.

Moroccan tourism takes into account the preservation of natural resources, the maintenance of socio-cultural authenticity of the regions and the development and well-being of local people, to ultimately serve sustainable tourism.

Marrakesh is the ideal city to explore the natural life and discover huge and impressive lands throughout the desert, Berbers huts made out of clay and tents made out of goats’ hair. In the bigger villages the Berber tribes live in huts

Cultures made out of stone. Here we see donkey carts, cactus plants and tasty cactus pears that make our mouths water so that we wish to taste them in the hot desert.

Marrakesh is one of the major cities of Morocco, sitting at the foot of the High Atlas, the highest mountain range in North Africa with, in the south, the desert and to the west the Atlantic Ocean, the city enjoys a strategic geographical situation and is a site of exceptional beauty, with more than 1.5 million inhabitants. It stretches out over 700 km and is served by an airport.

The Jemaa el-Fnaa square is the main square in Marrakesh. The name probably refers to old destroyed congregational mosque. It is a center point of live dialogue among traditions and cultures, and is listed as one of UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage sites.

Passing through al Haouz Province, we visit an awesome attraction, the nature reserve Terres d’Amanar, being located 35 minutes away from Marrakesh, the ecotourism estate is totally integrated in the Berber landscape and culture, and offering to travelers (couples and families) in search of nature and solitude an exceptional hypnotic panoramic view of Berber villages and the snow-capped imposing Atlas mountains.

In this exceptional natural haven you are invited to relax and reconnect to nature while discovering the richness of Berber landscapes and traditions. Terre d’Amanar offers a wide range of experiences from physical and cultural activities to simple moments of pure relaxation. Mountain biking and the rope course with a Tyrolean traverse, swimming pools, hiking and donkey or horse riding. Guests have the opportunity to attend local arts, crafts, glassware and pottery courses, and to share unique experiences with local communities, savoring together the famous dish of Tagine.

Morocco is reputed for handicrafts, where tourists can buy leather bags and traditional shoes, and the oil of Argan extracted from the trees near Agadir City, which is renown worldwide and

In this exceptional natural haven you are invited to relax and reconnect to nature while discovering the richness of Berber landscapes and traditions.

THE AUTHOR

Dr George Younes Born in Lebanon from an immigrant family established in Brazil since 1890, George Younes graduated in 1975 in Political Sciences from Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon. Later on, he obtained his State Doctorate (Doctorat d’État) in History from the Lebanese University.

He is the founder and president of the Lebanese Association for Tourism (ALT), which is member of the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FIJET).

George Younes is also member of the Consultant Committee of the Ministry of Tourism in Lebanon, executive member of the Federation of Syndicates of Tourism in Lebanon and joint secretary of the Arab Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FAJET).

recommended for food, massage and cosmetics.

On the whole, like the early roaming merchants, FIJET is weaving relations based on knowledge of each other, accepting the diversity of cultures and civilizations, and is endeavoring to highlight different religions, to bridge cultures among Mediterranean countries, bring cultures closer, in particular the Muslim and Christian religions, and to make the Occident understand that Islam is a religion of mercy, forgiveness, advocating tolerance and consolidating love and peace, condemning violence and terrorism.

Europe should open up a dialogue with all countries bordering our Mediterranean and studying the means which enhance the cultural dialogue with Islam and find solutions based on human rights, patrimony, democracy, language, culture and media, because not only Europe’s future, but also world peace, hangs in the balance. Euro-Mediterranean cooperation is returning, strengthened by the need to safeguard the historical and geographical union represented by the Mediterranean, which is the bridge between cultures and also a great economic resource.

The geostrategic location allowed Morocco to play a vital historical role, a gateway to Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and to the Atlantic Ocean, and is located midway between America and Europe. The ambitious Moroccan people have always dreamed of majestic achievements.

Nevertheless Morocco is aware of the massive tourism growth inconvenience, given that the social disparity that might create some rebellion movements, which will impair the prosperity of the country, therefore the authorities are endeavoring to preserve human sustainable development and security.

Finally Morocco is a good destination for culture, aspiring for the execution of giant touristic projects, and planning to attract bigger number of visitors, enabling the country to promote tourism and dialogue among civilizations.

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Cultures ABDUL AZIZ SAUD AL-BABTAIN

Abdul Aziz Saud Al-Babtain

Poetry, a message for humanity

The Al-Babtain Foundation for Poetic Creativity and the AlBabtain Foundation for Dialogue Among Civilisations are engaged in the promotion of culture, mutual understanding and tolerance among the peoples of the world.

Daniel Atzori, PhD Twitter: @DanielAtzori

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Kuwaiti poet and well-known businessman, Abdul Aziz Saud AlBabtain is the chairman of the board of trustees of the Al-Babtain Foundation for Poetic Creativity and the AlBabtain Foundation for Dialogue Among Civilisations. He has major commercial and industrial interests in Europe, the USA, China and the Middle East and has various investments in a number of Arab countries.

He published his first collection of poems Intimations of the Desert in 1995 and his second, Wastefarer, in 2004. He has received many honorary degrees and several prestigious honours, for his outstanding contributions in the fields of poetic creativity, education and intercultural dialogue.

How did your passion for poetry start?

It started in my childhood having been born into a family that was very fond of poetry. My older brother Abdul Latif used to collect Nabatean poetry in the diwaniya in the 1940s.

I would serve them at night and would bring tea, coffee and water. I was 8 at the time and I learned the rhythm of poetry from them and it became imbued in my mind. I grew up in the Diwaniya and within me my ardour for poetry grew. When my father and my brother Abdul Latif saw that I had this talent, they encouraged me and I composed my first poem at the age of 11. They introduced me to great Arab poets like Omar Bin Abi Rabia, Al Shaabi, Mahmoud Taha and Jamil Buthaina. I hungrily gobbled them up and acquired a linguistic repertoire of poetic language. I recited my first poem in classical Arabic when I was 14. As I learned more about poetry and poets, I became convinced that poets are

As I learned more about poetry and poets, I became convinced that poets are different from other people.

Cultures have electricity. To this day, I do not sleep unless I have read for at least half an hour.

Next to my bed, at home or in a hotel, or wherever I am staying, you will find a book next to my bed. I read it until I go to sleep and the book falls from my hands. All of this has benefited me so much.

Al-Babtain Central Library for Arabic Poetry, Kuwait City

different from other people. The poet carries a message for humanity. I also believed that God had given man a trust and I was convinced that God had given me the responsibility of striving for harmony between people and eradicating evil, violence and hatred among people.

What was your family’s social standing and your relationship with books?

I grew up in a modest family. My father was neither rich nor poor, but I could not complete my studies because my family needed me. In 1954, I worked as a secretary at the Shuwaikh secondary library in Kuwait. I immensely benefited from this library which I was able to organise in a contemporary manner. I had to read the books I was classifying and place numbers on them. I did not only read poetry but about all areas of knowledge. In September 1957, I left my job at the library and went to work in the wages department at the Ministry of Education.

There, too, I continued reading. I remember that my older brother would give me a book and I would read by the lantern as we did not

Thanks to God, thousands of students have graduated through the Foundation’s delegations and today they are in top positions in their countries, including ministers, ambassadors and judges.

How did you make your fortune?

When I was 20, I started to think about my financial situation, so I rented a small shop in a village in Kuwait. Unfortunately, after 6 months, I was unable to pay rent and wages for a shop worker as I wasn’t dedicated to trading. From 1956 to 1962, I had four occupations in one day: in the morning, I worked at the Education Council, in the afternoon, I traded at the shop, and in the evening I studied. I also ran a household.

When I felt that trading at the shop would fail, I started to think differently and decided to take goods to the grocers so that the grocer would not have to leave his shop and waste money on a taxi coming and going, so I would provide them with the food and save the additional cost and loss of customers if they closed. This work amazed grocers and increased the trust between us. My revenues improved and I bought a small second hand car and instead of going around the streets on foot, my work expanded to other villages and grew. Of course, it’s a long story. Then some companies who liked my business came to me and I made lucrative agreements with them whereby I became an agent for a number of companies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. I had a shop in Kabul in Afghanistan and shops in all the ports on the Mediterranean Sea such as Istanbul, Port Said, Alexandria and Athens. At that time, my brothers Abdul Wahab and Abdul Karim were at university. Then they came to work in 1973. The head of one company died a couple of years ago. He was 93 and based in Athens. He was the manager for Kuwait, the Gulf and North Africa. He wrote 13 pages about me in his memoirs. He was amazed by the work. He wrote, “I am certain that Abdul Aziz thinks about buying and selling even in his sleep”.

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Cultures How did you become interested in culture?

In the beginning, I was interested in learning as I had not finished my studies. To relieve my conscience, I started the Saud AlBabtain’s Kuwaiti Commission for PostGraduate Studies, in the name of my late father. We started this in 1974 by sending 5 students each year from poor families to complete their studies outside Kuwait in America, Britain or France. In 1983, this expanded to Kuwaiti students who did not get the grades to be able to go to Kuwait universities or join delegations, so we sent them to these countries for language courses and stipulated that they had to get outstanding grades to qualify for entry to Kuwaiti universities. In 1991, after the liberation of Kuwait, we went to former Soviet states and now take 100 students each year for studies in Egyptian universities.

After that, we added 50 more students each year from Africa and North Africa. We have given 50 grants each year to the children of Palestinian martyrs. After the fall of Saddam’s regime in Iraq, we went to Basra, Najaf, Karbala, Baghdad and Mosul, renewed our connections and sent students from Iraq. Thanks to God, thousands of students have graduated through the Foundation’s delegations and today they are in top positions in their countries, including ministers, ambassadors and judges. I am content that I was able to save these needy people and refused to turn them away without offering them support. The Al Babtain Foundation has so far built 26 schools in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia and in a month, we will open a school in Mongolia. The Maldives is also involved.

What about the training sessions you’ve held?

We’ve held training courses for 15 years to teach Arabic and poetry in 57 universities in most Arab countries and African and Asian countries. For the past 15 years, we’ve been Arabising the Comoros in dealings and even the language. It is an Arab state that speaks 38 | Papers of Dialogue

We’ve held training courses for 15 years to teach Arabic and poetry in 57 universities in most Arab countries and African and Asian countries.

Swahili and French and we made an agreement with the president to set up Arabic courses for 15 years. The courses are offered to judges, teachers, ministers and even students. I remember the last time we travelled there, we found a very positive response from men and women as they have found that Arabic is the language of the future. We covered four islands and gave them modern learning equipment, 50 items, to help them with pronunciation and to learn Arabic quickly. The current president of the islands is African and doesn’t know Arabic. He asked us to follow up the issue ourselves with his people and under his auspices. He too is learning with an Arabic teacher. Around two months ago, for the first time, the president gave a speech to the people in Arabic. We have also had their poets take part in our poetry festivals and published a magazine and journal in Arabic for them. In Chad, we are currently carrying out similar work. We have students there and they have a poetry prize. With respect to cultural centres, we built a centre in Alexandria with the University of Alexandria to work on poetic heritage and we have printed dozens of poetry collections that have been neglected for a thousand years.

We put them together and printed them. At Cordoba University, we have set up the Al Babtain Centre for the Dialogue of Civilisations and at the University of Rome III we have set up the Al Babtain Institute for Euro-Arab Dialogue with the Spinelli Centre.

In fact, the dialogue of civilisations and centres started after the events of September 11, 2001 which were exploited to attack Arabs and Muslims and particularly to accuse them of terrorism. The truth is that terrorism, in specific circumstances, can emerge in any religion. Terrorism is a phenomenon that is separate from religion, but it can exploit religion. Religions were originally and continue to be about peace and love.

Do you have special relationships with world leaders?

Of course, with kings and presidents. I can mention that with Cordoba University and

Cultures under the patronage of King Juan Carlos, we held the Ibn Zaidoun course through which our voice reached all European countries. The proof of this is my invitation by UNESCO’s Japanese head to meet 14 Japanese ambassadors in Paris. He literally told me, “the aims of your foundation are very similar to those of UNESCO in holding a dialogue of civilisations and co-existence between different religions, and we would like to cooperate with you in this field”. After that, we held the Lamartine and Shawki courses in Paris under the auspices of the French president Jacques Chirac. This was at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Both poets worked on the dialogue of civilisations and religions. Lamartine wrote about the prophet of Islam when he stayed in Egypt and the Levant. Shawki did the same when he studied in Paris for three years and brought lyrical theatre into Arab literature. It was something Arab poetry had not experienced before.

There are lots of other examples of this in the Foundation’s history.

The Foundation’s current focus is on dialogue of civilisations?

Absolutely. I have taken the important first step as what is needed is that we talk to Europe and we show them the facts as they are, without mediators. For this reason, I established the Al Babtain Translation Centre to translate scientific, philosophical and other books for Arabs. The aim is to find a way of reaching a mutual understanding between people. This is why many westerners have written about the Foundation. Last November, at the European Parliament building in Brussels, we held a large seminar on Euro-Arab dialogue under the auspices of the president of the parliament. It was attended by politicians and intellectuals from the Arab world, Europe, the United States and Asia. It was one of our most successful seminars as we brought the two sides together and discussed issues rationally and seriously.

On 21 October this year, we have an important meeting with King Mohamed VI at a carnival in Marrakech about the poets Abu Tammam and Ammar Abu Risha. In 2015, there will be a meeting about the dialogue of civilisations in

The international Conference: “EuroArab dialogue in the twenty-first century”, 2013 Brussels

We are striving for peace and we are against bloodshed. God created men as brothers to enjoy life and not to fight one another. We want mutual understanding and tolerance.

London, UK. As usual, we will invite representatives of the three faiths – Muslims, Christians and Jews - to give speeches on love and brotherhood.

What message do you want to communicate to the world through these activities?

We are striving for peace and we are against bloodshed. God created men as brothers to enjoy life and not to fight one another. We want mutual understanding and tolerance.

We have had enough of wars and we have had enough of dangerous ideas. At the Foundation, we do not discriminate between people. We don’t care about their sex, colour, appearance and language: they are people.

For example, in Brussels, we gave a major honour to the Jewish thinker Avraham Shlaim, a lecturer at Oxford University. Afterwards, the former president of Portugal in his capacity as a head of the coalition between civilisations asked me for a bursary for 10 Syrian students who did not complete their studies because of the war in Syria. I respected this from a man who is not Arab or Syrian. He is a noble and courageous man. We gave him 100 bursaries for Egypt and 10 for Portugal. This is our role that I hope states will cooperate with us on.

We heard that you have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and that you are in the top ten...

This is true. I was nominated by European agencies and some Arab intellectuals. I am grateful to them for this. The prize isn’t what matters; it is understanding the purpose behind the prize and its philosophy.

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Cultures LEONARDO DI COSTANZO VINCENZO MARRA

Two Italians on the Bridges of Sarajevo

Artists make huge efforts to reinforce the language of coexistence in areas ravaged by conflict, and one such area was the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo which, until the start of the tragedy of the Balkan war, was a model of coexistence between different groups and different religions. In fact, artists are constantly rethinking and promoting the history of that city in order to make it, once again, a starting point for dialogue and coexistence.

T Erfan Rashid

he film “No Man's Land” The directors Vincenzo Marra and Leonardo di Costanzo talk about their experiences in a European anthology film which warns against the dangers of war.

The film “No Man’s Land” directed by Bosnian Danis Tanovi ends with a scene of great portent and foreboding; and the entire world should take note, especially after a series of wars, great and small, which have affected a number of continents since the break-up of the Soviet block: wars in the Gulf and in the Balkans, as well as other conflicts

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The film “No Man’s Land” directed by Bosnian Danis Tanovi ends with a scene of great portent and foreboding;

On set of "Bridges of Sarajevo"

in various parts of Europe: The scene is in a trench where two soldiers from opposing sides find themselves facing the same fate. Against a horizon which is definitively closed, each finds himself facing the other in the presence of a wounded man lying on a plank of bare wood under which is a landmine which will explode if he makes the slightest movement.

The significance of the scene is clear in its extreme bitterness: an empty and meaningless battle leads everyone to the same inevitable fate, a fate which will not distinguish between them. Everyone, just like the two antagonists in the Balkans, is

Yet there is another meaning here, even bitterer than the destiny of imminent death: the world is lying on a landmine which could explode at any moment.

sentenced to die and everyone, just like those men, is trapped in the same trench.

Yet there is another meaning here, even bitterer than the destiny of imminent death: the world is lying on a landmine which could explode at any moment.

This is why artists make such efforts to reinforce the language of coexistence in areas ravaged by conflict, and one such area was the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo which, until the start of the tragedy of the Balkan war, was a model of coexistence between different groups and different religions. In fact, artists are constantly rethinking and promoting the history of Papers of Dialogue | 41

Cultures

Vincenzo Marra

that city in order to make it, once again, a starting point for dialogue and coexistence.

It is in this context that we must consider the work of thirteen European filmmakers who presented their joint omnibus project “Bridges of Sarajevo” as part of the official programme at the sixty-seventh Cannes Film Festival last May. The group includes a number of big and important names in European cinema, such as Jean-Luc Godard, as well as two Italian directors Leonardo di Costanzo and Vincenzo Marra. In addition to them there are the Bosnian Aida Begic, the French Isild Le Besco, the Bulgarian Kamen Kalev, the Franco-Swiss Ursula Meier, the Russian Sergei Loznitsa, the Serbian Vladimir Periši , the Romanian Cristi Puiu, the Catalonian Spanish Marc Recha, the German Angela Schanelec and the Portuguese Teresa Villaverde.

The magazine “Papers of Dialogue” met with the two Italian filmmakers Leonardo di Costanzo and Vincenzo Marra at the Cannes Festival.

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Leonardo di Costanzo

We have to continue doing our work humbly, with care, while remembering that we have to keep on the alert, keep our defences up because we tend to think that war either belongs to the past or to someone else.

You have taken the story of the Sarajevo war from the point of view of those who were considered to be cowards or who did not take part in the war but who were real heroes because they had the courage to refuse, to say no to the war, sometimes paying with their lives. Why did you make this choice?

First of all thank you very much for having perceived this aspect of the film. Of course I had read a lot on World War I and this aspect of people’s individual responsibility, of the extent of individuals’ involvement in conflicts and massacres and what they can do is something that is widely debated. But these are heroes because generally heroes are considered to be those who kill and not those who refuse to, but this idea of refusing war to the point of committing suicide was important because it is not by chance that, in the film, the one who commits suicide is precisely the bravest, the one with the most experience who was expected to assure the success of the

Cultures mission. So, this extreme act is at the same time due to fear, like in De Roberto’s story, but it is also an act of rebellion against a way of reasoning. During WWI, like in many other wars, there were a lot of people who rebelled and I think we should pay tribute to these unknown heroes and their acts; even if their acts arise from fear, which is human, there is no man who does not know fear and, if there were, those would be the people to fear.

While we’re talking there is a violent rainstorm with bolts and lightening and luckily they can bring us luck, even if, a few thousand kilometres from here, there was the war of Sarajevo and of the Balkans but now there is another war going on in Syria. Certainly you thirteen directors give a hard blow to all the international community, warning them that there is war around the corner, but what is the importance of your presence here? You are like the twelve disciples and Jesus, thirteen in all, but Judas is elsewhere, if we can put it that way…

We continue to make films on war because war is not something with which man is at peace. War continues. We have to continue doing our work humbly, with care, while remembering that we have to keep on the alert, keep our defences up because we tend to think that war either belongs to the past or to someone else. Instead, we have to think that, at any point in time, we can fall prey to war. We have to keep our defences high; right now we are surrounded by war: in the Middle East, in Syria, in Ukraine. War is not over for us.

I don’t want to oblige you to talk about politics but current events directly involve politics. There is another war in the Mediterranean Sea, with thousands of people fleeing from wars.

I don’t think we can stop this changing process: war is always around the corner and therefore we have to continue believing this even if we don’t like it and would prefer facing something else, we have to keep it in mind because, in some way, it is a sign of opening up, both externally and internally. It is our only option: we don’t have any other

Apart from the fact that talking about the diaspora of these people was obvious and almost obligatory, I thought it would be a great opportunity.

Although over two decades have gone by since the end of the war, there are still two and a half million Bosnians who still living away from Bosnia.

option; I can’t imagine people returning within their boundaries. Quite the opposite: we have to continue opening boundaries and welcome the people fleeing from wars. I hope the situation will improve in the future and I think we should commit to improving it and I really can’t understand these anti-European feelings which only hide nationalist and parochial and individualist feelings, closing doors to the external world.

Vincenzo Marra Memory for me has always been a fundamental issue, along with the issue of emigration and of people’s belonging. My very first film talked about this. I try to talk about this in every film: someone who has had to escape independently from his will from poverty, being exploited, and obviously, also from war. This time, I was immediately greatly interested in the Away from Sarajevo project. When I was told that, if I wanted to, I could film one of stories on Sarajevo, I thought it was a very interesting project. Apart from the fact that talking about the diaspora of these people was obvious and almost obligatory, I thought it would be a great opportunity. Although over two decades have gone by since the end of the war, there are still two and a half million Bosnians who still living away from Bosnia. It is an incredible number in proportion to the country’s overall population. So I thought it was necessary to pay tribute to all those who had to flee the country to save their lives or for some other reason. I’m sure that this is what makes the theme universal.

And is this why you chose Rome, to convey this sense of universality?

No, I chose Rome because my idea was to portray faces but also what lies behind these faces: I liked the idea of making the most of the 9-minute film that was allotted to me. I was categorically told that the films were to last nine minutes each. In my films, I have always tried to put in something metaphorical and Rome conveyed this idea of metaphor: the metaphor of the image, Papers of Dialogue | 43

Cultures

Vincenzo Marra & Fatima Neimarlija

there are many references made to religion, to identity, a broken bridge that is much more eloquent than a thousand words, a knife cutting meat. Rome could offer me many opportunities: the last Queen of Bosnia who is buried on Capitol Hill; in short, a lot.

There is also the water that flows underneath that bridge, marking the passing of time. Another metaphor is that this couple doesn’t have children.

Was this a choice or did you choose to make this family childless because of lack of time?

The idea was that of a coup de theatre revealing that they had lost a child during their journey. I chose a couple of amateur actors and turned them into a couple, into actors, and to date, in their real life, neither of them has had children so it reveals an extraordinary coincidence with my madeup story.

Vincenzo, during this festival we have also seen a film on the ongoing war in Syria. Every day in the Mediterranean there is another war with people dying amidst the waves.

What is going on? The crisis, fear, difficulties and distress: all this can often create xenophobic and racist reactions. History 44 | Papers of Dialogue

In my life, I have often live outside of Italy, also in so-called Third World Countries, and I like to quote what they say over there: “You don’t even know the real meaning of crisis”, quite a strong statement that sometimes reflects the truth.

tells us this. I don’t want to criticize anyone because I think we must of respectful the difficulty of individuals. In my life, I have often live outside of Italy, also in so-called Third World Countries, and I like to quote what they say over there: “You don’t even know the real meaning of crisis”, quite a strong statement that sometimes reflects the truth. The creation of wealth without retaining the memory and foresight of many events. The only thing that interests is the economic aspect, this division of wealth, while there are many things in our lives that should also remind us of who we are and where we come from. Italy is a country of emigrants and so we should show more solidarity at times. It might appear to be a rhetorical statement but anybody saying so should be reminded that, even behind rhetoric, there can be some element of sincerity. So if someone tries to make a little statement with the best intentions and people immediately jump on you saying that you are a director and intellectual saying something obvious and rhetoric. But then when can a director say something?

You can never say anything because people tend to label you. So I go ahead and say it: if a country overlooks talking about the past perhaps it has also lost a bit of its dignity.