Relations that go back more than one hundred years

A Kuwaiti friend phoned me and asked: Shall we go to Durham tomorrow? I know Durham is an English city near the Scottish border, i.e. about a hundred miles from London, and so I suggested that I invite him to lunch in the English capital. But he laughed and said that the reason he suggested we go to the northern city was that Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah, former Prime Minister of Kuwait, will be launching a new international program bearing his name there. This is how we went on to go to Durham in a three-hour train trip. I found many Kuwaiti and Arab friends on board, something that made the journey feel somehow shorter. The city reminded me of what my grandmother used to say, to describe any faraway place: The place where the monkey lost its young one. No doubt, her phrase has its roots in an old myth, but my grandmother told me nothing about it. Sheikh Nasser gave a generous grant that has allowed Durham University’s School of Government and International Affairs to establish the Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Programme in International Relations, Regional Politics and Security, which will promote greater understanding of Middle Eastern societies and cultural understanding. I discovered when I was in Durham that its world-renowned university has relations with Kuwait and the entire Gulf countries that date back more than one hundred years, with common interests in many fields, including archaeology, geography and politics, as well as government and energy. Sheikh Nasser’s relationship with the university dates back to 1984, and I believe the reason is that his son Sheikh Sabah studied there. Sheikh Nasser received the launch certificate of the programme named after him at the end of a session that lasted more than 3 hours, and in which lecturers and professors spoke about the future of Chinese-Middle Eastern relations. I don’t have any particular interest in China, which is very far, but I have known that it is the superpower of the future for more than 20 years, after I read an article about China written by my friend Mohammad Sayyed Ahmad, Rest in Peace, in Al-Ahram. Ahmad also contributed articles to Al-Hayat. After that article, I sat with its author, who is a graduate of the Sorbonne. He told me about his visit to China, and the massive development he saw in Shanghai and elsewhere. What I remember from that meeting is that he told me that communism in China will not collapse like it did in the Soviet Union, because the Chinese rulers have found a way to rejuvenate their leadership, unlike the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the USSR. Their members had eventually aged, and the regime aged with them, until the resounding collapse of the USSR in 1989. I had become lost in my daydream, until the end of the lectures brought me back to the north of England. We went for lunch, and I walked with Sheikh Nasser, who was visibly pleased. I was about to ask him: Isn’t the climate in university nicer than the glumness of Kuwaiti politics? But I ended up not asking him for two reasons. First, he would have certainly agreed with me, and second, I wanted to avoid retorts by those who like political niggling in Kuwait. Thus, Sheikh Nasser came to Durham, and we received him then bade him farewell without anyone from the guests uttering a single word about politics in Kuwait. The conversation around the lunch table was academic or social. I found an opportunity to exchange a quick word with Professor Anoush Ehteshami, head of the Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah programme, which also includes a section for students named after Kuwaiti Ambassador Khalid Duwaisan. The program prepares students of different nationalities to get a Ph.D. in international politics, public affairs and security. The visit was cut short when Sheikh Nasser and embassy staff went to London to welcome the Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, and bid him farewell after he made a stop in London for one day on his way back from the United States to Kuwait. I stayed behind with some friends, and we took a tour of the campus which caters to 15,000 students from 120 countries. The most beautiful landmark there is no doubt Durham Castle, which is around 1,000 years old. The castle was annexed to the campus in 1837, and is along with the nearby cathedral a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I returned to London on the train, where I found myself with three young and pretty Kuwaiti women diplomats, after the seniors had cut the visit short. I contacted the friend who went with me to Durham, and told him that my travel mates on the way back were prettier than him, and prettier than me too. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.