Bedouin Hospitality
Bedouin Hospitality Original artwork and poem by Kieran Gonsalves (c) 2026, recalling the ancient Bedouin practice that gave shelter to strangers, fed them choice dates with 'qahwa' or coffee, and housed them for 3 days in the ' majlis ' section of the tent In the extreme conditions of the vast Sahara deserts blooms empathy Even strangers given respite and treated with kindness and sympathy Three days and nights before you even ask them their names or business To do anything less is unthinkable - a heinous crime beyond forgiveness The guests are offered coffee, dates and treated with dignity and respect These are unwritten ancestral practices meant to shelter and to protect Somewhere in our rush to embrace modernity we lost our basic humanity We treat our fellow human beings as trash; What inanity! O the insanity!