31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002
Issue No.571
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002 Issue No.571 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
China for us
I fondly followed President Mubarak's visit to China. It is a genuinely great country, to which the world owes one sixth of its entire population. The Chinese are the purveyors of an astoundingly successful experiment in progress and civilisation, moreover, from which we must take inspiration. For we have lived since the time of Mohamed Ali thinking that progress is the exclusive property of the West. We kept up with what was happening in Europe, sent our children to receive an education there and perused all that was available to us of its cultural products.
The truth, however, is that knowledge of Eastern cultures would have been more beneficial. China, for one such ancient culture, has chosen paths to progress not available to the West, for all the latter's glory. It is, moreover, a country with circumstances similar to ours: economically, socially, politically, historically... This makes its achievements more pertinent to the Egyptian environment than those of the West. Of all the news that has reached us from China since the president's visit, I was particularly interested in the information that progress is taking place there with such remarkable speed that those who accompanied the president on his previous visit, in 1999, saw a radically different country on their return. The 21st century does not belong to the United States alone. We must understand this and diversify our sources, gleaning all the benefit that we can. Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
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