Yesterday afternoon, we had a special visitor at The AsiaN office in Seoul. He was Iraqi novelist and columnist, Samuel Shimon. We first met at the Al-Arabi Forum in Kuwait last March. The London-based writer in his late 50s is Editor of a modern Arabic literary magazine ‘BANIPAL.’ He came to Korea to attend 4th Incheon Asia Africa Latin America(AALA) Literature Forum on April 25 to 27 under the theme of ‘From Conflict to Peace.’

At dinner, drinking several cups of Korean style boilermaker(soju+beer) which is unusual for Arabic Muslims, what he said was impressive to me. “I couldn’t go to school because of the poverty. Instead, I had more experiences in daily lives living with others. Those experiences were my foothold to write novels and run a publishing company. I am always grateful to that.”

Working for the Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) for five years and living in the street in Paris as a homeless also became his assets to build up his own world in literature. I’d like to share the following stanza from the preface of his novel ‘An Iraqi in Paris’ he presented to us.

May 1, 2013

Sincerely,
Lee Sang-ki, CEO & Publisher of the AsiaN

P.S. This week’s headline is about ‘peace’ football match dedicated to Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai who was shot by Taliban last year. Ms. Park So-hye, Editor-in-Chief of The AsiaN, talked with Malala’s father(Ziauddin Yousafzai) over the phone last week. He said, “Thank you for selecting Malala as ‘Asian of the Year 2012.’ I and my daughter will always be with The AsiaN dedicated to the world peace.”

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