Three years later

Three years have passed and I am back in Dubai, this almost lexical definition of unsustainability but also the unfinished promise of all the great things that humanity may achieve in the future. The exploitation is still everywhere to be seen, the class divisions as entrenched as ever, and the economic crisis has definitely taken its toll. Yet, without any doubt, there is still a sense of optimism, a new frontier among the lucid lagoons, a common humanity revealed in the smiles that Eddie brings wherever he goes, an immediate connection that defies the stark spatial segregation. Although I have found fewer opportunities to engage in real conversations than last time around, being here definitely wants me to come back again for more. This is a place where East and West are brought together and the Arabic world is showing its aspirations for the future rather than being trapped in the memory of past injustices. I know it is naïve, but I so much would like to take Pia Kjærsgaard or, for that part, many people from dinner table conversations in Sweden along and show them all this, show the human warmth at the Lebanese restaurant, and make them see first-hand our common possibilities rather than what may divide us today.