These days everybody seems to be preoccupied with questions of identity. It may seem paradoxical that while the world is now witnessing a move towards globalisation, such a national tendency surfaces. I shall quote just one item from over 60 which seem to reflect the dilemma we are facing. The other items also reflect the difficult situation faced by the Third World. Certainly the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the bloody events in former Yugoslavia contribute to this, and the chauvinism which is currently all the rage in the bits and pieces of these two former countries are efforts to retrieve identities lost under totalitarian systems.
Cultural prejudices are nothing new.
Here in Egypt we have been through them, not least the historical competition between Britain and France in the educational and cultural fields. They reflect the ever existing clash between Anglo-Saxon and Latin cultures. Egypt has benefited from this competition and managed to quaff from both cultures. What is more we have no feeling of inferiority towards either cultures, which makes us shrug our shoulders to the so-called cultural invasion. This is reflected in the great efforts expended on the conservation of monuments, be they Pharaonic, Coptic or Islamic.