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DAR AL-SHOROUK this week launched the long awaited Fi Intizar Badr Al-Bodour (Awaiting the Full Moon), a compilation of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali's journal from 1997 to 2000. The latest event in the life of one of the Arab world's best established publishing houses, the book launch was held in Dar Al-Shorouk's First Mall outlet in the presence of Ghali, who signed copies of the book. Among the high-profile figures who attended the event were Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, novelist Gamal El-Ghitani and journalist Moufid Fawzi. After welcoming his guests, the head of Dar Al-Shorouk, Ibrahim El-Moallem -- also chairman of the Arab Publishers Union -- inaugurated the ceremony with an otherwise silent big smile. For his part, having exchanged a few words with El-Moallem and Moussa, Ghali, now 85, took a seat and started signing. A quiet event, the launch nonetheless gave way to a particularly garrulous volume -- one that reveals many otherwise unavailable secrets to which Ghali's diplomatic career gave him access, providing the reader with an informative framework through which to view such issues as the Arab- Israeli conflict, the growth of Islamic extremism and 11 September.
Ghali expresses anger, disappointment and doubts -- the freedom with which he approaches his subjects will instantly engage most readers, as they discover previously unknown facts about political figures and events. Ghali's honesty, the pleasure he takes in documenting details with perceptiveness and sarcasm make for an exciting window onto recent history. "This journal starts on 31 December 1996," Ghali wrote in his introduction, "the day I concluded my term as United Nations secretary-general; it ends on 31 December 2002, which marks the end of my term as secretary- general of the Organisation de Francophonie... There were days when I did not write a single word, while on other days I wrote much. There were days when I wrote as an objective witness; on other days I wrote as a romantic who completely gives in to dreams. I missed momentous events, many of which were discussed in seminars and highlighted in media; other, less significant events I discussed at length." The global events discussed in this book are of incredible diversity, but one, somewhat unlikely theme connects them -- time. Departure from the United Nations is initially conceived of as "a kind of death", and towards the end Ghali still hasn't "assimilated the idea that we could be liberated of time -- how our sense of time is supposed to grow weaker as we grow older. This evening I'm in despair. I feel so little time to think, to work, to build, to approach the world."
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