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International
Writer Conference
Arab spring and the role of the writer and artist in an area of
conflict
Sometimes history is quicker than
our mind. When we in the beginning of September last year discussed
the idea of an international writers´cruise in Eastern Mediterranean
in Istanbul nobody had ever heard of "The Arab Spring".
Our plan was to hire some 200 cabins on a cruiser going from
Istanbul to Alexandria in six days with some stop overs in the
harbors on its way. In Alexandria we planned to hold a three day
conference with invited writers from some of the Arab countries. The
theme of the cruise and the conference should be "The Role of the
Writer and Artist in an area of conflict". On board we planned to be
some 150 writers, translators and journalists. This should have been
the third cruise of its kind. The first cruise was carried out in
1992 in the Baltic Sea when 300 writers and translators met for the
first time after the collapse of Sovjet union. That cruise resulted
in the Baltic Centre on the Swedish island of Gotland under the
auspices of UNESCO. The second cruise took place in the Black Sea
and the Aegean on a Greek ship with 400 participants from 30
countries. The result was the International Centre of Rhodes, Greece,
also under the protection of UNESCO. Both these cruises took part in
the right historical time. Perhaps one can say that we were
hitchhiking with history!
But now history suddenly decided to speed up! The uprise that
started in Tunisia was soon speeding up Libya and Egypt. Yemen and
Syria. Of course all these turbulent and revolutionary events
effected our dream of a writers cruise. Of course we could not
continue to plan for a cruise of the past when future was lying in
front of us! Also the big touristic ship altered its destination
from Alexandria to Haifa for "security reason". Of course we had to
command "full back". Going from Istanbul to Haifa was for us
impossible after the Gaza attack. So what to do? Postpone the cruise
to another decade? Forget about a writers cruise and do something
else?
But then, in this very crucial minute, I became aware of an
Egyptian-Swede, Same Egyptson, who among other things is organizing
cruises for tourists on the River Nile. In Sweden he was an
academician for twenty years but then decided to bring Swedish
tourists to the heart of this old country. He also got involved in
the Egyptian revolution and took part in the still ongoing
demonstrations on the Tharir square. But still he has access to the
boats on the Nile, perhaps with fewer tourists now than in the past.
But a trip on the Nile is at the same time a journey of the past.
The ships are big and moves slowly between historical monuments on
their way. There is plenty of place onboard , as done for
conversations, readings and discussions. Our new idea is now that we
all shall meet in Cairo for 2 or 3 days in October 2012 for a joint
conference with reports from all uprising states and then continue
our discussions for 4 days on the Nile to get to know each other and
finally end up in Cairo again where we all will be invited to the
Swedish Embassy for a closing session.
In order to investige if this plan is realistic I recently flew to
Cairo where Sameh Egyptson had provided a detailed program for me. I
was invited to stay in his "Scandinavian Cultural Center" (you may
google it!) and from there we made exursions to various places and
institutions in this 22 million city. We visited the Egyptian
Writers Union, The Egyptian Journalist Union as well as a number of
outstanding writers like Nawal Al Sadawie, Karima Elhefnawy, Mohamed
Salmawy (who is also president of the panarabic network) and Fareda
El-naqash. They all expressed their interest of taking part in
organizing an international conference to discuss the writers role
and the outcome of the Arab spring as well as how to improve the
relations between all writers in the world. Our ideas were also
generously welcomed by the Swedish Ambassador Malin Kärre.
Of course there are many details that must be cleared out before we
can call for this meeting. First of all we need to call for a
working group meeting in Kairo by April-May to take final decisions
about economy and logistic questions. Meeting with Mamdouth El-wally
at the Journalist Union we were immediately offered their big and
modern congress hall for our Kairo meeting. It can host up to 500
participants. Same Egyptson has also good contacts with Meriott
hotel where we could be hosted. When it comes to the cruise on the
Nile there are different sizes of ships, from ships with pace for
100 persons to 150. We also have to discuss and decide our agenda
both in Kairo and on the ship. Egyptson estimates the cost for each
participant to 1300 USD (everything, also internal flights, included
except the international flights to and from Egypt).
But first we have to get an idea about how many that still are
interesting to take part in this historical event.
Therefore we kindly ask you to answer this letter. Unfortunately we
cannot today serve you promises from sponsors and perhaps we must
all look for different solutions in our different countries. But as
there are so many writers that have expressed their interest to
participate we hope that we all together will be able to solve these
problems. But don´t feel that you must have the answer to this or
any question when you answer this letter. And if you feel that you
would like to join the working group please let us know as soon as
possible. This letter will also be sent to UNESCO and to other
cultural organizations like the Goethe Institute (who has promised
us to give support to the German writers).
Organizer in Egypt will be the Same Egyptson Travel Group.
They will also offer an office for us.
With our best regards and hopes for a
successful cooperation!
'
Peter
Curman Sameh
Egyptson
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