Epilogue

From the first words I warned you that reading the first three or four paragraphs you would have enough, curious reader. Do you remember the beginning of everything? 

«Je n´ai pas plusiers identités, j´en ai une seule, faite de tous les éléments qui l´ont façonnée, selon un ‘dosage’ particulier qui n´est jamais le même d´une personne à l´autre.»

He advises Europe to claim every element of its history and convince its citizens that they must feel fully European while remaining Germans, French, Italians or Greeks (it´s symptomatic that he didn´t set the example of the British, a precocious premonition of Brexit?)

With regard to this last point, and in previous posts, I have already expressed my opinion about the unity of Europe and what I foresee is not precisely a Europe like the one Mr Maalouf wishes.

Finish, Amin Maalouf, with the dream that the land that saw him be born leaves behind the time of the tribes, the time of the holy wars, and the time of the murderous identities. He dreams of the day he can call the whole Middle East as he calls Lebanon, France and Europe, homeland, and compatriots to all Muslims, Jews and Christians of all origins.

By the way, Tristram Hunt's article in The Guardian (13 Jan 19), and his argument against politicians who try to use art in nationalism, fits me like a glove.

From my Borstal

LDR

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/13/leonardo-man-renaissance-not-narrow-nationhood

Les Identités meurtrières. Amin Maalouf. Editions Grasset & Fasquelle, 1998. Edition 13-mai 2009 Paris