"Know your country," "A piece of your history," "What you should know about the sister countries" — these are the features I delighted to hear, and I used to call my children to listen to them from the Syrian broadcasting station. How often I wished the broadcasting stations of the other Arab countries would introduce similar features into their programs; indeed, how I wished to see, among the resolutions of the broadcasting congress recently held in Cairo, something that would move the Arab League to take up this task by means of publicity and bulletins!!
It is a duty upon us — we who profess Arabism, who carry its torch and set it "above all" — a duty upon us to work in earnest, by every means, to acquaint the Arab countries with one another; not to confine our interest in them to the banquets and feasts we hold in honor of those of their inhabitants who come to summer among our hills; and not to content ourselves with what our newspapers write about their emirs, their immense fortunes, and the sums they spend in buying palaces, gifts, and motorcars — or in the pursuit of "luxury and pleasure."
We must be builders in what we write, criticizing and directing where direction is needed, and praising where praise is due; and our aim, always and forever, must be that our children not lose faith in the Arabs and in Arabism. We want them to be assured that this great nation — which colonialism split into small statelets, nay, into "great nations," driving artificial barriers into borders and into minds, exaggerating the divergence in thinking and in ways of living, and sowing fear, wariness, and mistrust in men's heads — we want this rising generation to believe that this noble Arab nation to which it belongs, now that opportunities lie open to it and the means, in learning and in wealth, are at hand, will rise anew, a living nation, united in its parts and in its hearts; and that the brotherhood and understanding one reads of among presidents and rulers will inevitably be followed, God willing, by brotherhood, understanding, and union among all the Arab peoples.
Is it not a disgrace upon us that our children should know more about France, America, England, and the other lands of the West than they know about the Hijaz, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, and so on... And why should our schools, private and governmental alike, not teach the history and geography of these "neighboring!" countries alongside the history of those others — I do not say in its place!
How often I wished my time would allow me to devote myself to gathering information, and to contribute, if only a small, modest share, to that duty of mutual acquaintance whose necessity I have already pointed out.
... It was a happy chance — and many a chance is better than an appointment — that allowed me to make the acquaintance of Sheikha Badriya, wife of the Honorable Sheikh Fahd al-Sabah. Sheikha Badriya calls back to memory the image of those ideal Arab princesses whose names have shone in our history through its various epochs: genuine Arabic speech, a strong and winning personality, a lofty modesty, faith in herself, a keen native intelligence, wide reading, an understanding of the problems of the world in general and of the Arab countries in particular, true depth, and a knowing, expert acquaintance with her country's history, ancient and modern. By her eloquence and the truth of her portrayal she succeeded in carrying me on the wings of imagination to Kuwait, and made me share her pride and exultation in her country's renaissance!
We began our conversation in the usual way, as is only to be expected between two persons not previously acquainted, with talk of the weather and of the summer in Lebanon. Then I asked her to tell us about Kuwait and about Kuwait's great leap forward. And it seemed to me that Emira Badriya, as she granted my request, was repeating to herself, "Talk of it, or talk about it, delights me," for she sat upright in her chair and said:
"I thank you, madam, for your interest in our country and your eagerness to know its condition, and for giving me the chance to say what I should like all our Lebanese brethren to hear. I am sorry to say that whenever I leaf through your newspapers I feel real pain: when they write of Kuwait, they write of and glorify only the men of Kuwait, and pass over in silence the renaissance of Kuwait, the building of Kuwait, the progress of Kuwait — so that often I have stopped reading altogether. We do not wish to be glorified; we wish to glorify our country and raise its name high. We want everyone to know that Kuwait, the land of burning sands, has become, by the grace and bounty of God and by the vigilance and piety of its ruler, a garden in the heart of the desert — a garden for its sons and for its people, where