Pack of Cards
By Madame Sosostris
* One of the things which depressed me most when I was living in London was the British fondness for always bringing the weather into discussions. I tried to point out to my friends and acquaintances that it was an extraordinary put-off, but their reply was that it was often, if not always, the most exciting part of any conversation.
The summer is here, and the Cairene are looking for immediate relief from the seering heat as demonstrated by the lenses of Randa Shaath (top) and Antoune Albert (above)
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"You would not understand, dear," I was once told by a good friend; "after all, in your country you don't have a weather, you only have a climate." Well, as you may have noticed lately, we have been living in a rather hot one, and for people who, like me, do not favour staying home with the maddening humming of modern refrigeration, the sight of water, or even a closer encounter when and where accessible, can bring instant relief as cleverly noted by renowned veteran Al-Ahram photographer Antoune Albert during one of his frequent strolls around the city, and by our own Weekly photographer Randa Shaath, whose lens was just trained on a tourist as she decided to give herself a quick rinse.
* Soheir Bakhoum, a researcher in the field of numismatics, has more important things on her mind than the weather, however. She works in Paris with the Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques (CNRS) and very recently published a very important tome titled Dieux Egyptiens à Alexandrie sous les Antonins, Recherches numismatique et historiques -- which means "Egyptian Gods in Alexandria under the Antonines: Numismatic and Historical Research".
In this weighty work the author retraces the thematic and iconographical history of the divinities of the valley of the Nile during the second century. Bakhoum used as the basis of her work the coins of the Workshop of Alexandria. The publication of the first edition of the book was lavishly celebrated in Paris by dear friends of the author: Hoda and Samir Chacour, HE the Honorable Ali Maher El-Sayed, ambassador of Egypt, Nevine Halim Semaika, the general consul of Egypt, Cultural Attaché Hani Helal and Director of the Egyptian Cultural Centre Salah El-Naggar all attended.
* Another important book that I intend to read promptly is the one just published by the Centre for Political and Strategic Studies entitled Palestine, the Land and the People, authored by one of the centre's senior researchers, Emad Gad. It relates and analyses the events which have occurred in Palestine between 1967 and the Oslo Accord. There are quite a few questions which have been puzzling me with regard to this period and a quick perusal of the book's contents have informed me that I may now finally be given all the answers.
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Above: Prize giving ceremony : Makram Ebeid and the four winners from Al-Ahram Organisation; right: Salah Jahin by Salah Jahin
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* The Society of Writers on Environment and Development (SWED) marked their yearly celebration with a prize-giving ceremony that took place last week in the Conference Hall of Al-Ahram Organisation and was presided over by Minister of the Environment Nadia Makram Ebeid and the head of the society, renowned Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama. Before attending to the business of rewarding those active in the protection of the environment, the Society paid posthumous tribute to famous poet and journalist Salah Jahin. After having honoured his role in promoting environmental awareness, attention was directed to the winners of the competition on Environment and the Law. Among the winners, I was quite pleased to spot Al-Ahram photographer Khaled El-Fiqi and our own Mahmoud Bakr, who keeps our readers informed on environmental events throughout the year. There was also Khaled Mubarak of Al-Ahram's Environment department and, last but not least, Fayza Fahmi, a layout editor at Al-Ahram Al-Iqtisadi. Of course, I take this opportunity to extend my heartiest congratulations to my environmentally aware colleagues, whose example I believe we should all follow by giving more care and attention to our surroundings and teaching our children the respect they owe to Mother Earth.
* From what you just read, you may have had the impression that despite the weather (or climate), we are all fully involved in serious endeavours. This is by no means the case, however -- not that I consider marriage a light matter: on the contrary, but for some reason it is reputed to be less strenuous than writing a book. Well, regardless of what you and I think of holy matrimony, my dear friend Sherif Guindy has gone right ahead and taken time off his job as pre-sales system engineer at Tritech to celebrate his engagement to the ravishing Karine Moheb Abdallah, a third-year student at the Higher Technological Institute. The future groom is the son of renowned ENT surgeon Raafat Guindy and soprano Nabila Erian, while the future bride is the daughter of interior decorator Moheb Abdallah and Claudine Morris, who is secretary of Egypt Duty Free Shops. Karine's apartment remained ablaze with lights throughout the night while strains of romantic music filtered into the street below, indicating that the young people did not tire from dancing till the wee hours of the morning.
