To think that the British and the French have been archenemies for so many centuries is unthinkable.
To be greeted by a French Passport Control officer at Saint Pancras station in London, and to board the Eurostar on a journey to the Gard Du Nord in Paris is unfreekingbeleivable !!!
The British and the French still keep poking fun of each other, at every possible occasion. They are now members of the EU and have a high speed train that links them both to each other. An umbilical cord of sorts. They are very similar in everything but language, yet they have managed to coexist peacefully for so long now. A Martian landing on earth today would assume they are of the same nation but of different fathers.
This brings me to my Egypt and our neck of the woods.
Imagine today an Arabstar train from Sharm El Sheikh to Jeddah. A portion of the line would also travel under water and the distance would be similar to the one I am currently traversing.
It would be a catastrophic journey.
Why you ask? Because we as Arabs, have not reconciled differences. We are still entrenched in hundreds of years of mistrust, envy and bias. We relish in our differences rather in basking in our commonality. Would half the journey serve alcohol until entry to the Saudi border? Will we build changing rooms for the ladies to dress in or out of their garb? After so many years of coexistence, we as Arabs have not yet found a formula where we can be like the French and the English? This is called civility. We are uncivilized because we as Egyptians left our civilization in 1952 and the Saudis left theirs after the death of Aly Ibn Abi Taleb.
I will get in to trouble for this rant, but I hope whoever reads this blog will take it in good stride. I mean well because I believe in our youth. They are the future of our region and they make up the majority of it. This generation is open to the world because of the ease of travel, and the wonderful border buster: the internet! They don't hold grudges and have less biases. They are purer and more open to change than our forefathers.
May our God, in his infinite wisdom, provide us with guidance and until we manage to reconcile ourselves with our past, and purge ourselves from our modern day fanaticism. Then will we be able to travel under water by train through umbilical chords.
