Note to the Reader: This commentary is written on behalf of youth in the Arab region who are struggling to find a new place under the sun. In my lengthy interaction with the young population, be it in my professional life or as a mother, I hope I have been able to transmit their feelings and dreams for a better future. I fervently hope that in the process of negotiation and recantations within political circles their voices are not silenced nor their presence overlooked, for in bypassing this important segment of society we risk murdering the future just as we adults have been responsible for messing up the present.
History is not only the distant past nor is it the recent past which is always prone to distortion; history is also the future which is being written at present for better or for worse, i.e.history is always in the making. I wonder if the famous quote: “The power of the pen is mightier than the sword” is still true in the modern world of technology, and for a moment I am inclined to think that the bullets that take away the lives of our youth by the dozen everyday are thus more powerful. But in the end I comfort myself with the thought that the power of the pen is still stronger, for what was the power of the pen has become the power of Facebook and the internet backed by technology. This is the same technology that has been a tool for this massive tsunami in the Arab world and the same technology that is being used to quell it. Tet again the power of the pen has proved to be mightier for no matter how many bullets have been shot, the wave of the tsunami is rising higher. (more…)
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