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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 July 1999 Issue No. 437 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 July 1999 Issue No. 437
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Books Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters 
Pack of Cards
By Madame Sosostris
- It's been a very glamorous week, dears, that's for sure. International celebrities have been coming into town faster than you can say "photo op". I feel fairly certain that this sudden burst of limelight will continue well into the next millennium. Of course, it's the approach of the millennium that has been attracting so much attention to Egypt and the Pyramids in the first place. Those amazing structures have been around for at least five millennia or so, and it's no wonder that with the approach of the year 2000, a gaggle of TV stations, charity organisations and international stars want to pose in front of all that monumental glory, making it their own, at least for a while.
- The first big shot to give me a call (they all do, dears, the minute they set foot at the airport, via their "roaming" cell phones) was James Bond, er, Roger Moore, who was here this week for several reasons. As a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, he was participating in a project commemorating the decade that has gone by since the United Nations Charter on Children's Rights was signed. Although I couldn't make it to Alexandria, where Roger was concentrating his activities, he told me that he had a wonderful time on the shores of Abu Qir with about 150 handicapped and learning-disabled children, singing, painting and talking about life in general.
Later, when he came back to Cairo, Roger made sure to acknowledge the incredible efforts of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak in improving the welfare of Egypt's children. Roger paid Mrs Mubarak a courtesy call during which they discussed the successes of the past, and plans for the future. If that wasn't enough for good old Roger, 007 was also here to tape segments for programmes to be aired later this year by the Fox network. Roger was resplendent in black tie standing in front of Khufu and extolling the glorious history of our incredible civilisation.
- With him was the American magician Franz Harary, who was also filming a segment for a programme to be broadcast by Fox later in the year. Harary was allegedly attempting to make the Sphinx, that stalwart of history, disappear. No easy task, I'm sure, even for someone who supposedly has already made the US Space Shuttle vanish for a while, and levitated India's Taj Mahal 12 metres above the ground. Although I am a firm believer in tricks, dears, I was a sceptic on this one. After all, the Sphinx has been there for so long and survived so much, I doubted the American trickster would be able to make even one of its toes disappear.
Although Harary later claimed that he did in fact manage to make the Sphinx disappear for two minutes, my good friend Zahi Hawass, general director of the Giza Plateau, confirmed that the whole thing was really an exercise in smoke and mirrors, albeit on a rather grand scale. Zahi, who is always there to take important visitors on tours of the ancient sites and make sure everything goes according to plan, said that Harary is actually an expert photographer who somehow makes things disappear on film. Makes sense, I suppose, and now you know one of the magician's secrets.
- Zahi was having a busy week indeed, for a few days later, the beautiful Brooke Shields had to be taken on a tour of the Pyramids. Now Brooke, the American actress who first catapulted to glory as a teenager in Blue Lagoon, is here as part of a massive project called Listen. Organised by London-based TV production company Tribute, Listen is a multinational project which aims to raise some $99 million in charity to help unfortunate children around the world.
From top: Mrs Mubarak and Moore; Moore with the magician in front of Khufu; Abla, Shields and Hollingsworth at the intimate Listen press briefing; Moore with the children in Alexandria
My dear friend and colleague Tarek Atia sat down with the programme's executive producer, Tony Hollingsworth, for a few hours and got the scoop on what's going on. It turns out Brooke is just one amongst 99 stars taking part in the project on an international scale. With her are people like Sting, Jamie Lee Curtis, Goldie Hawn, Jeff Bridges, Peter Gabriel and many more big names of cinema, music and TV. The program is designed to get these big stars to change their roles, for a while, as Tony told Tarek, and listen instead of talk.
"Today," Tony said, "25 per cent of the world's children are healthy, wealthy, educated and immunised. The other 75 per cent of children live in poverty, as did their forefathers one thousand years ago. Of the money donated, 90 per cent will go to projects helping children in the developing world, with the other 10 per cent going to projects in the developed world."
The next day Tarek found out from Brooke herself that she visited two humanitarian projects in Giza, one a Health Improvement village where children with a parent who has a contagious disease live so as not to be infected, the other a programme called Access to Primary Education and Literacy which helps provide girls whose families can't afford it with primary education.
Brooke said that she "didn't hesitate at all when asked to participate," and that she "was amazed that not one child was willing to be negative about their lives. The children are positive about situations that I'm not sure I could handle."
"I was incredibly blessed to share jokes with children whose language I don't even speak," Brooke said. She was most impressed by a young girl who said that when her father was away, "there was no taste in the house, no music." The stories she heard confirmed her belief that "the most valuable voice we have worldwide is the voice of a child."
The footage of Brooke listening to the children will be featured in commercials to be aired as promotions for the two one-hour international TV specials, two albums, two videos, a three-hour international television spectacular concert from India and the world's first pan-international telethon, all to take place in the last six months of 1999.
Tony, who is organising the project, is a great pitch-man, who believes that it is not enough to be merely an idealistic dreamer. A pragmatist who is used to hearing 99 "no's" before hearing one "yes", Tony's previous executive producing credits include the 11-hour concert celebrating Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday, as well as the very famous concert starring Pink Floyd that took place in Berlin during the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.
The Listen project will also include a charity art auction featuring the work of some of the most prominent artists in the world. One of them is Egypt's very own Mohamed Abla, who also joined Brooke on her tour of various places to listen to what Egypt's children had to say. Mohamed was amazed that, at the Health Improvement Village, all of the children wanted to be doctors when they grew up so that they could help other children.
Atallah Kuttab, the Egypt field office director for Save the Children, one of the charities participating in Tribute, also told the story of the very poor six- and seven-year-old children who took the initiative to raise money for the children of Kosovo. In two or three weeks the children exceeded their self-set goal of $200 dollars, and ended up collecting $1,000.
All I can say, dears, is that maybe we really should listen and learn more from our children after all.
- Now, a little bit about the celebrities who were supposed to come to Cairo this week but for various reasons didn't seem to make it. One of them is Indian superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who was expected to be in concert on 8 July at the Arab Contractor's Stadium. Bachchan ended up delaying the show till the 22nd. You can be sure that I will be there for that one, along with the thousands of people who just adore his super-heroic song and dance antics.
The other entertainment bigwig who didn't show up is Algerian rai star Cheb Khaled, who was scheduled to be in concert at the Pyramids on 1 July . Again, Khaled was a no-show, but the promoter is merely claiming that the concert has been pushed back to September or October. Well, we'll see about that one. We've all heard about Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel and other big acts coming to town but the only ones we've actually seen -- not that I'm complaining, of course -- are Barry White, Coolio and Shirley Bassey. Now, there is also talk that superstar Whitney Houston is on her way, for a concert as part of this year's Music Festival. I won't believe it until I'm there in the front row, singing along.
