Happy new year?
As 2003 draws to a close, George Bahgory shares his sketchbook
Edward Said
Ahmed Maher
Khairi Shalabi
Palestinian mother
Iraqi people
Iran's earthquake
Laila Rostom and Louis Greiss
Faces from the Ninth Cairo Biennale
l-r: Sayed Yassin, Ahmed Fouad Selim and Fatma Ismail
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It is hardly possible to think of 2003 without recalling the tears and screams of pain in Iraq, Palestine and Iran. A difficult year. It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth that makes it difficult to smile as we welcome a new and as yet ambiguous year. One tries, nonetheless, to maintain a spirit of good cheer, concentrating on those things that inspire hope for the months to come.
Weeks ago I took my sketchbook to the joyful annual celebration of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal, where I made a sketch of the winner, novelist Khairi Shalabi, in the company of the jury who selected him. A pleasant denouement to the painful plot of the past 12 months. The next day I was invited to attend a discussion of modernism and Western trends in the plastic arts, held on the occasion of the Ninth Cairo Biennale -- another happy event. Art always brings me comfort in times of strife, and events like the biennale help inspire confidence in the triumph of the human spirit.
Grieving, I remembered such rare people as Edward Said who, along with many others, passed away as Rome burned, though his example lives on -- a ray of light in the predominantly dark tunnel from which one hopes to emerge next year.
At last, by chance, I found an old sketch, almost forgotten among my Paris papers -- a pigeon, symbol of peace. And it is this that I am offering the readers by way of a seasonal present.
