(Submitted by the author)
It may seem paradoxical, but despite having borne witness to the countless humanitarian and environmental disasters of recent decades, I am an optimist. But being an optimist does not mean simply looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses, like Voltaire’s Candide, and declaring everything to be for the best, despite an endless array of misfortunes.
We are not just visitors on this planet, it belongs to us as we belong to her, its past is ours, so is its future.
Amin Maalouf, Lebanon
