A Castaway’s Treasure Chest
Language is his ultimate vehicle not only of carrying meanings and feelings, but also of separating the truth from falsehood. I always tell my close friends that the climax of my career was the second 30 seconds in the report produced on Barack Obama’s presidential victory. “A Black man is now the US president,” I wrote. Those images invoked in me hundreds of other reflections, which I inked into the report. The history of African-Americans’ struggle can draw hundreds
of allegories in the Arab world. Sectarian and tribal conflicts are only a few. I first entered Al Jazeera as a castaway, marooned on an island of moving images. Now, after 25 years of perseverance, I have the audacity to claim I have found the hidden treasure of this noble profession. I am sure you have too.
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