Gerhard Schröder and Amre Mussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, opened the Frankfurt Book Fair on Tuesday
Published:
6 October 2004 y., Wednesday
Chancellor Schröder welcomed his Arab guests and stressed the importance creating a cultural dialogue.
The 56th Annual Frankfurt Book Fair got underway on Tuesday with more than 6,700 exhibitors from 110 countries gathering to present their latest literary offerings. This year, the literature of the Arab world will be the subject of special focus: the 22 members of the Arab League -- with the exception of Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Kuwait and Iraq -- are serving as special guests.
At the opening festivities, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Amre Mussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, stressed the importance of using such events to foster a cultural dialogue between the Arab and Western worlds.
In his speech, Chancellor Schröder rebuked those who continue to view the Arab world through a lense of prejudice and preconceptions and heralded the Arab country's attendance at the book fair as a chance to set the record straight.
"Those who rely on false assumptions should be prepared to differentiate their views," said Schröder. "That's the only way to foster understanding between different cultures -- there is no better place for that to take place than at the Frankfurt Book Fair."
Extra security precautions were taken to ensure that all goes smoothly at this year's event, which will no doubt be dominated by political debate. Indeed, even the Chancellor touched upon certain hot button issues in his opening remarks, mentioning both the situation in Israel and in Iraq.
Šaltinis:
dw-world.de
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
About 22,000 non-citizens have not yet exchanged their former USSR passports.
more »
A group of Russian and international environmental organizations have sent a letter to the World Bank’s president James Wolfensohn.
more »
Polish Education Minister Miroslaw Handke faces not only a bad grade but losing his job as well as opposition lawmakers push for his ouster over a math’s mistake.
more »
The euthanasia is widely discussed subject in Lithuania as all over the World, but people barely know how it is performed in the country where this kind of practice has been done for more than 25 years: the Netherlands.
more »
U.S. investigators say they have stronger evidence than ever that American soldiers missing in action - including spy pilots shot down during the Cold War - were held in the Soviet ''gulag archipelago'' of prison camps.
more »
More than 30,000 Poles, including President Alexander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, are to travel to Rome from July 6-8.
more »
Terrified villagers barricaded themselves in their homes as 200 Neo-Nazis chanted "Sieg Heil" and "Heil Hitler" at a weekend meeting in northern Poland which police did nothing to stop, a newspaper reported Monday.
more »
Nearly a fifth of Hungarian teenagers have been entrapped by the Internet, the Zeus Consulting and Publishing Company told MTI on Wednesday .
more »
Vilius Kavaliauskas,well-known Lithuanian political scientist, shares his view on interrelation of national minorities in Lithuania.
more »
The anti-Hungarian manifestations in Marosvasarhely (western Romania) after the second round of local elections are far from reflecting a tolerant European mentality.
more »