A. MEMMI Writer (Tunisia) WE (Russians, Germans, French) are different. But we have a lot in common: at least Christianity - albeit different, but the Christian roots of our civilizations. We are also united by the fact that THEY come to US - Africans, Arabs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turks... With maximum goodwill (not everywhere and not always), we often want THEM to become US, that is, Russians of Uzbek origin, Germans of Turkish origin, and French of Arab origin. The authors of this preface, of course, simplify the problem with this maxim. The question immediately arises: do THEY want this? How do THEY perceive US? Moreover, why, for example, do young citizens of Arab origin in France or Belgium, who were born in these countries and do not know any other language than French, suddenly start killing US (as recently the French and Belgians) and are you ready - not for money, but for your "ideas" - to be killed? Terrorists may be a tiny minority, but they do express a certain tendency! It can only be understood if WE are at least mentally, at least for a while, turned into THEM. And to do this, we read the essay "Immigrant", written by an outstanding writer and philosopher, one of THEM - a professor at the Sorbonne, a Tunisian by birth - Albert Memmi. He was born in Tunis in 1920. He is the author of widely known novels and journalistic portraits written in French and translated into two dozen languages. On the occasion of Albert Memmy's 95th birthday, the National Center for Scientific Research of France published a book "Anthology of Portraits", which presents his journalism. "The Immigrant" is an excerpt from a book, although it is perceived as an independent literary work. It is dedicated to the possibility of integrating people from African and Asian countries into European civilization. Albert Memmi writes about his" fellow immigrants "- sometimes with pain and anguish, sometimes just as a thinker trying to stay"above the fray." In our opinion, although more than ten y ... Read more