Ayoon Wa Azan (on the summit’s sidelines)

I spent several days in Kuwait to attend the first summit of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD). I will not go into too much detail, but I will instead choose a paragraph from the address by the Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah at the opening of the conference and then summarize it. He said that the success of economic cooperation needed the creation of a good climate for investment, enacting necessary legislations to encourage it, and stimulating trade between the countries of the continent, in addition to developing infrastructure, particularly in transport and telecommunications. Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad also highlighted the need to improve education in his speech, and combat disease and assist poorer countries. The above can act as a good summary of the ACD conference and its goals. I will thus continue with what I saw on its sidelines. My experience tells me that large conferences as such provide participants with opportunities that are as important as the conferences themselves, namely that of meeting friends, government officials and experts, and holding meetings on the sidelines that are beneficial and good for the cause of exchanging information. Kuwaitis may not notice things that visitors may observe in their country. Inside the media center at the conference, I noticed that the female staffers were alternately bareheaded or wore the hijab, the headscarf. I support all Arab women, whether they are bareheaded, wear the headscarf or wear the niqab, the face veil. My only criterion in that is personal freedom, that is to say, that adult women would be deciding this out of their own choice, without pressure or coercion. The young men and women from the Ministry of Information were highly professional, and worked hard to please the guests. In addition, I found Saba and her colleagues to be exceptionally good-looking, and felt as though I was in Damascus surrounded by beautiful damascene ladies. Nevertheless, this does not mean that there wasn’t some good old Arab chaos, as I found out when I went to get a membership card for the conference with colleagues Rajeh Khoury and Khairallah Khairallah. Rajeh moved from Al-Hayat to Al-Nahar, and found that the name on his card was Rabih, and that he worked for Al-Anwar. Khairallah had also moved from Al-Nahar to Al-Hayat and other papers, and yet his card made him a journalist for Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. Both colleagues were luckier than I was, however, as the card made me an employee of the British Embassy, or in other words, a spy. At the opening session, I expected to see my friends among the Kuwaiti officials. I saw Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on his way out, as well as Brother Jassem al-Kharafi, the former speaker of parliament. Then in the afternoon, I had a long meeting with Jassem, who ostensibly broke away from (I am not saying quit) Kuwaiti politics, so we did not discuss that. Instead, we talked about Egypt and her economic woes, the ongoing revolution in Syria and its impact on Lebanon and other neighboring countries, and the so-called Arab Spring in other countries. I also saw my friend Dr. Nabil Elaraby, the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, and it seemed like he had lost hope in the Syrian regime, and he now believes that there can be no solution with it. Then on the following day, I was surprised to see in Kuwaiti newspapers interviews with Ms. Rima Khalaf, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Rima is a dear friend, and I respect and appreciate her work very much, and I wish I knew she was present with us at the event. I do not know if my friend Mohammed Jassem al-Saqr attended the opening, but I did not see him there. Nevertheless, he was prominently present on the next day. An editorial by him took up half of the front pages of al-Qabas and al-Anbaa newspapers. Saqr waged a fierce attack against one of the frenzied neurotics (two words from my own lexicon to describe some members of the [parliamentarian] majority, but not all). It seems that the former MP in question deeply angered Mohammed al-Saqr by making false accusations against him, prompting the latter to respond in kind. All I know about this former MP is that he is mischievous, so I will accuse him of nothing, but I have known Mohammed Jassem al-Saqr for decades, and find him to be loyal, honorable and honest. Al-Qabas also ran another similar response by former MP Marzouq al-Ghanim to one of the majority MPs. I say: If a person learns to write, that does not make him a writer, and if a person gives a speech, then that does not make him an orator. To such people I also say: Every one of us has a hundred and one flaws, and they do not need to lie, fabricate and invent. All they have to do is look for the flaws, and they will eventually find them. I will conclude with something much better, as I was pleased to have had meetings and conversations with the renowned colleagues Turki al-Sudairi and Ahmad Jarallah. I managed to discuss the concerns of our nation with brother Turki in the manner of “don’t complain to me unless you want me to cry to you,” and discussed the concerns of Kuwait and her issues with brother Ahmad. Ahmad Jarallah, as I recall, and my memory is good, was the only Kuwaiti journalist who had criticized Saddam Hussein in an article bearing his name before the occupation. Today many pretend to be heroes, so I tell them all that I knew a real Kuwaiti hero called Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad, Rest in Peace, and I say to them that they are not like him, and they never will be.  -- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.