This new issue of the magazine Sea was being prepared      at the beginning of September.
It will be presented at the international exhibitions of transport, transit and logistics in Kiev, Odessa and Hamburg.
We assign it to the subject of collaboration between the East and the West. Our readers will find here the articles of experts from Lithuania, Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Belorus, Uzbekistan and other countries discussing prospects of collaboration, methods of co-operation of efforts and financial means to support the economic growth and improve people’s lives.
We tried to show how fruitful the cooperation between two civilizations could be when it is based on peace and healthy competition.
I wanted to share these optimistic thoughts with you, dear Readers of the magazine, speaking different languages of the world.
That was before 11 September - the day the press proclaimed as the beginning of war between the civilizations.
That day, in the course of a few minutes while the hijacked planes were flying into the human civilization objects, the world changed. During these minutes a line was drawn, by crossing which we would never be the same as we used to be. Even with a firm belief that a common sense will win and sensible solutions will be prompted by historical experience of senseless wars, it will be much more difficult to build friendship bridges between the East and the West.
Now we will have to overcome the opposition between the civilizations.
We have to learn to restrain the pain of loss and blind hatred.
We have to distinguish condign retribution from revenge.
Name the guilty and protect the innocent.
Give a hand to a man of another race, religion and world outlook.
Our universe is too small for civilization wars.
We need the civilization of the East as a cradle of the world culture. And we equally need the new civilization of the West with its advanced technologies.
Enriching and complementing each other they both should prosper creating a monument to the human virtues, not to his destructive power.
Let’s hope that the 21st century man will have enough wisdom to understand that.