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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Pack of Cards
By Madame Sosostris* One thing that really stirred my competitive spirit is definitely the very interesting Competition for Journalistic Excellence - recently organised by the Journalists Syndicate. Just imagine: a committee made up of all the great names in the press coordinated by Yasser Rizk, member of the Syndicate's council and reporter/editor for the daily paper Al Akhbar, examined the works submitted by 302 journalists and chose 38 winners. The decisions of the committee were duly submitted to and approved by Chairman of Al-Ahram organisation and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Ibrahim Nafie in his capacity as head of the Syndicate.
For the first time in the history of the competition, an honorary award was created which went to prominent journalist, writer and thinker Mohamed Hassanein Heikal of course. Between you, me and the wall, I always thought that Heikal was in a class entirely of his own.
The rest of the prizes were given in the departments of features, interviews, sports, arts, layout, photography and caricature. Rizk explained that the total value of the prizes is LE108,000 to be divided as follows: LE10,000 plus a gold medal for the honorary award, LE5,000 for first prize, LE4,000 for second prize and LE3,000 for third prize. The awards will be given in grand style on 10 June, Press Day.
I don't think dears that I will be able to mention all the recipients names (I may have retained my good looks but my memory without going exactly to the pots, is not what it used to be, I sadly have to admit) but I can still offer you a selection of the lucky winners whose names I can still recall: In the area of news coverage, first prize went to Khaled Miry from Al-Akhbar, second prize was shared between Al Akhbar's Osama Shalash and Al Shaab's Ali El Qamash while third prize was shared between Ahmed Moussa from Al Ahram and Sumaya Ahmed from Al Gomhouria. In the realm of photography, Al Ahram's very gifted Mohamed Mossad shared first prize with Al Wafd's Ahmed Shehata while our very own Sherif Sonbol shared the second prize with Al Wafd's Ahmed Youssef. Incidentally Heikal's inspiring photograph that you can see on this page has been taken by Mossad. There were many other winners dears, all very deserving I can assure you, but the old memory box has been seeping lately it seems, and these are the only names I have managed to capture.
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* Darlings I have to tell you about the wedding of someone very dear to my heart, that of the ravishing Dina Hassan to Tamer El-Sha'er, on 21 April. Dina is the daughter of chemical engineer and businessman Mahmoud Hassan and his lovely wife Mary and Tamer is the son of Engineer Hamdi El-Sha'er and his charming wife Wegdan. The wedding which took place at the Nile Hilton was entirely organised (from the flower arrangement, to the traditional zaffa and the design of the lovely bridesmaids' dresses) by the clever bride herself, who wore a stupendous wedding dress made by the famous grande dame de la couture, Vasso. Vasso of course watched Dina the whole evening, to make sure that she was not ruining her superb diamond-studded gown, as she and her handsome groom led their friends to the dance floor and some of the wild dances which marked the celebration.
Among the distinguished guests, I spotted Electricity Minister Ali El-Saidi, Al-Ahram organisation's general manager, Ali Ghoneim; financial tycoon and chairman of EFG Hermes, Mohamed Taymour; general manager of MI Bank Mohamed Ozalb and his wife Malak; Samir and Nani Maggar, the aunt and uncle of the bride, Mohamed (Maxie) and Mona Makhlouf; Taki and Laila Raissi and their son, the famous painter Aris Raissi. Why did I not tell you about this wedding to top all weddings before? Well I was waiting to hear from the happy couple who spent an unforgettable fortnight in Florida and the Bahamas. And guess what part of their honeymoon they liked best? the time they spent in Disney World they both agreed.
* Another very distinguished wedding was that of Tarek, son of our dear colleague at Al-Ahram veteran journalist Mohamed Saleh to Rania, daughter of Major-General Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Qader. Tarek works at National Society General Bank while Rania is an accountant at National Egyptian-American Bank. The celebrations took place at the Ramses Hilton and was attended by artists, journalists and prominent social figures. My favourite actor, the famous comedian Adel Imam was there and so was Mahmoud Yassin, Nabila Ebeid, chairman of the Academy of Arts Fawzi Fahmi and his wife, famous TV announcer Mervat Salama, chairman of the Egyptian Satellite Company Amin Bassiouni, Dr Ahmed Shafiq and his charming wife DR Olfat El-Seba'i, Dr Yehia El-Gammal and last but not least, En'am Fahmi, director of Al-Agouza Private School where Tarek once was enrolled in the primary grades. En'am seemed quite pleased with the way her former pupil has turned out.
* Looking at the number of exhibitions which will be taking place this month, I can only reflect that we are not suffering from a shortage of talents, quite the contrary, an opinion that I am sure you will share when you attend the opening under the auspices of Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni of George Bahgory's exhibition at the Gallery Picasso on 21 May. Of course you have been seeing my good friend George's caricatures in our esteemed paper and he really does not need an introduction from little old me. Still, I think that it is my absolute duty to tell you that you should really not miss seeing his paintings in which he expresses both a great understanding of human nature and a fantastic sense of humour.
* One more exhibition entitled "You Can Touch: Modern Egyptian Art Works" this one, is running until 31 May at Karim Francis Gallery, located downtown. The exhibition comprises more than 150 works from many generations of artists. It displays sculptures, drawings and paintings created by a group of gifted artists: our very own caricaturist Georges Bahgory, Sobhi Guirgis, Ahmed Nosseir, Assem Sharaf, Fathy Afifi, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Hazem Taha Hussein, Mohamed Abla, Shadi El Noshokaty and many others.
l-r: Samira Ahmed, Mervat Farrag and the children at Le Meridien Pyramides;
Nardini* I may have already told you about the programme launched by Le Meridien Pyramides which is entitled "we are planting love" and is supervised by the hotel' general manager Barry Curran and organised by the very able government public relation manager of the hotel, Amal Bedair. The idea of the campaign is to invite a number of aged citizens from different homes together with hearing and speech-challenged children who performed in different plays for their enthusiastic audience. Famous artist Samira Ahmed graced the performance and promised to participate on a regular basis. And to make sure that the event would not pass unnoticed, famous TV anchor Mervat Farrag and the Channel 2 crew duly recorded it.
* On the occasion of the10th anniversary of AUC's English Public Lecture Series, the university will present a lecture entitled "The Impact of Egyptian Diplomacy on the Global State", on 22 May. The key speakers will be former Egyptian Ambassador to the United States and present director of the Mubarak Library my dear friend Abdel-Raouf El-Reedy; former Egyptian Ambassador to the UK and chairman of the Egyptian Council of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Shaker and Anthony Lang, AUC professor of political science. A reception will follow the panel discussion due to be held at the Oriental Hall. If you feel in a diplomatic mood this is definitely the place to be.
* On 24 May, the Italian Cultural Centre will continue its series of lectures titled "Two Authors and a Confrontation" which began in March. Wednesday's encounter will be between the Alexandrian novelist and critic Edwar El-Kharrat and Italian writer Claudio Magris. Both novelists believe in a cultural dialogue between countries and accepting the opinion of others. The fact that Magris is attracted to the Danube and El-Kharrat to the Nile made both authors agree on the similarity and differences, between Egyptian and Italian literature. Magris is the author, among other things of course, of The Voices (1997). while El-Kharrat's recent works have been published in Italy by Jouvence Publishing House, particularly his 1990 novel The Girls of Alexandria.
* On 20 and 21 May, the Italian Cultural Centre will present a piano recital by Antonella Bellettini at Al-Gomhouria Theatre. Bellettini will pay homage to pioneer pianists by playing parts of their masterpieces such as Schubert's Impromptus, Schumann's Phantasiestücke and Chopin's Ballata. I also heard dears that Bellettini is the current maestro of the Italian Television and Radio symphony orchestra. Isn't that impressive?
* Practically on the heels of this event although very different in content, , the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC) will be organising a cultural activity week at Rashid Cultural Palace starting 23 May which will include a painting competition for children, Indian documentaries and feature films, a photo exhibition on India depicting places of worship, people in prayer, festivals, craftswomen, costumes, famous dishes, architecture, space exploration, industrial units, musical instruments, tourist places and Indian leaders. Wow!
* My dear friend Gamil Atiya Ibrahim who is our man in Geneva as you may know from your attentive reading of our pages, has written a new novel Khazanet Al-Kalam (Chatter-Box) which I have just received in the mail, courtesy of the author. If it is anything like the fascinating1952 and its sequels, I dare say that in the next few days I will not be getting much work done until I have read it from cover to cover.
