ON the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, observed every year on May 3, I did not find many reasons to defend this precarious profession. The condition of the freedom of press in our Arab world is confusing to say the least. Therefore, I changed my mind and decided to write about the rising prices of tomatoes though I am not quite sure if the prices have gone up or if they have remained as they are without any change. However, if a liberal writer decries the high prices of the tomatoes, he will come closer to the concerns of the public. He will be a hero in the eyes of his people. Tomato is a vital agricultural product that is important for all cuisines and a must in many dishes. In our national dishes, such as shakshouka and kabsa, we cannot do without it. Therefore, confronting any attempt to increase the prices of tomatoes is a duty of the free and responsible press that is reflecting the hopes and aspirations of the people. The reader may think that the human race has known tomatoes for a long time and that the Umayyad caliphs and the Abbasid poets were using the fruit in their green salad dishes. This is totally untrue. The entire world came to know tomato only after the two Americas were discovered. This red product was first found in Mexico before it had traveled to Europe and later landed in our Arab world in recent times. The first appearance of tomatoes in the Arabian peninsula was in the Hejaz area of Saudi Arabia before it obtained its current name in 1932. The people then used to call it the “red eggplant” because it belonged to this species. Tomato has different names in different countries. In the Levant countries it is called “banadoura”. In Egypt it is called “quota”. Despite its various names, tomato in the Arab world is often called the “crazy” because of its madly fluctuating prices. No doubt there are many kinds of salad that do not require tomatoes but their presence in any salad dish will give it variety. The absence of tomatoes from a green salad dish will lead to the hegemony of the watercress and lettuce. This may, of course, be a blatant disrespect to the taste of some people who may like to see tomatoes in their salad dishes. A friend of mine told me that the classification of tomato as a vegetable is a common mistake. He claimed that tomato is a fruit because its seeds are inside. He said a lot of injustice has been done to tomato and lettuce by considering them vegetables when in fact they are fruits. In all cases, tomato has always risen above the classification games that are often played without any ideological considerations. If it has not been classified as a vegetable, tomato may consider itself a communist because of its red color. Finally, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, I find it a professional duty to salute every tomato in the world because it has stood erect in its place regardless of all the attempts of the onion and the radish to neutralize and marginalize it in the salad.
