Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Between Cairo and London...

When I was leaving for Cairo late July for a meeting, family and a few friends were a bit concerned. Their worries were triggered by the bomb blasts at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh which left scores of holiday-makers dead. They were relieved when I came back in one piece. The only thing which shattered me, though, was the thought that the world may not be a safe place anymore. Terrorists could just strike anywhere they want to, be it in Egypt, the United States or Europe. To think that the places affected by the bombings in London on July 7, were among those I had passed through during my stay in Cambridge was enough to make me feeling apprehensive. I enjoyed my stay in England, Egypt and all the other places that I had been fortunate enough to visit in the course of my work as a journalist. Moscow, Pyongyang, Buenos Aires, Washington, Almaty, Dombei in the Russian Caucusus, Karachi and Hydrebad, to name a few. As I get on with my new responsibility of building bilateral and multilateral news exchange agreements with others, I could surely expect to travel more, even to the remotest places on earth. Of course, I would want to travel in peace and be assured that the world is safe.