By Maha Al-Azar
Reporter, The Daily Star
Beirut, Lebanon
Hosted by The Washington Post

Like the Little Prince, I will be facing bad baobabs** — authoritarian kings and serious accountants when I go home.

But our baobabs are already fully-grown, the kings don’t give reasonable orders and accountants ... well, they are accountants.

So will I be able to find a sheep that would eat the baobabs, a king that would issue reasonable orders and accountants who enjoy the sunset?

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of “The Little Prince,” had an answer in another book of his, “The Wisdom of the Sands”: “As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.”

How will I enable my future and my country’s future?

I’ll use a slogan used by environmentalists here: Act Locally, Think Globally.

I might not be able to topple governments or end corruption, but if I manage to implement even a few of the ideas I’ve gathered while here, I would have accomplished something.

First, I will tell you about the ideas that would improve the journalism at my newspaper.

Many editors at The Washington Post don’t merely correct or rewrite a reporter’s article, as they do at my paper. Instead, they guide the reporter to discover the loopholes, awkwardness and weakness in the story. Then they ask reporters to fix their own articles. I guess these editors have read “The Little Prince” and agree with the Reasonable King. Perhaps, they also wish to nudge their reporters in the direction of wisdom.

“Then you shall judge yourself,” the king answered. “That is the most difficult thing of all. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.” — “The Little Prince.”

Once I’m back in my newsroom, I will ask to work as an assistant editor, directly with the young and new reporters, many of whom have never been trained in journalism but who have lots of potential. During my time here, I have been making note of all the mistakes that are showing up in articles in my newspaper. I want to help minimize them. Already, I have spoken with the newspaper owner/publisher — who is our supreme decision-maker — about improving the editing process and he was receptive.

I have also found an online editing course that I plan to sign up for, to sharpen my raw editing skills.

Having one or two interns every summer would also keep our newsroom dynamic. I will explore the possibility of establishing a link between The Knight Foundation and my newsroom — something which would also provide an opportunity for U.S. journalists to be exposed to a different culture and different work conditions.

To share all the other concepts and attitudes that I have picked up during my stay here, I am planning to hold a discussion meeting, and invite everyone to ask me questions.

In that meeting, I will give a presentation of my experience and distribute copies of the main documents we picked up at the Poynter Institute, such as the writing tool-box.

And accuracy.

And ethics.

And using the Internet.

(The presentation will also spare me from repeating the same stories ten million times!)

These are my immediate goals. But I have more ideas. Some of them have nothing to do with journalism.

You see, I don’t think that this fellowship is only meant to help us in our reporting skills.

To steal from Saint-Exupery, it is also meant to enable our future.

A ghost tour of Old Town Alexandria (near Washington, D.C.) and a pumpkin-picking trip both gave me ideas which I would like to translate back to Lebanon. I know some environmental activists who are very interested in heritage and environmental tourism.

A conversation with the Department of Health and Human Services lawyer (who turned out to be a distant cousin) brought to my attention that U.S. judges are only appointed to their positions after accumulating extensive experience as lawyers. This system is more likely to prevent bribery in the judiciary, because legal experience also means the chance to prove one’s integrity over the years. I will be discussing this idea with reformists.

Another conversation, another idea.

This time it was with the executive director of the Daniel Pearl Foundation in Washington, D.C. High school newspapers don’t really exist in Lebanon. I would like to change that within the next two years.

So maintaining all the contacts I’ve built here will not only be a goal, but also a pleasure.

(Although I might need a personal assistant to organize all the business cards I’ve accumulated!)

[Of course, I don’t wish to imply that my experience was all smooth-sailing, but again Saint-Exupery says it best: (yeah, it’s obvious it’s my favorite book) “Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”]

Finally, I cannot even begin to capture all the things I learnt from all my fellow Fellows, my Friendly friends. Nepal, Pakistan, Colombia, Hungary, Poland, Brazil, Botswana, Ecuador, and Romania: you have left your mark on me.

I hate to say good-bye. So I will say you are always welcome wherever I am.