Al-Ahram Weekly 31 August - 6 September 2000 Issue No. 497
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Pack of Cards By Madame Sosostris * A good move on Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni's part, who decided that the recently renovated Roman Theatre at Kom Al-Dikka in Alexandria will feature the same performances as the other four theatres of the Cairo Opera House and vice versa. The great success of Walid Aouni's Shahrazad Korsakov presented at the Roman Theatre last week encouraged the Opera House to include the spectacle in the Twelfth Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre. The show will run from 3 to 8 September at the Opera's Main Hall. photo: Sherif Sonbol

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* I just heard dears the good news: a number of my good friends will be travelling to Rhodes next month to attend the Peace Forum of Women Creators of the Mediterranean organised by the Prefecture of the Dodecanese under the auspices of the UNESCO to develop the theme of Women Artists and Peace in the Mediterranean. Each participant country is sending five among their most prominent women artists who will present art work stressing their own ways of promoting peace. Our own photographer, Randa Shaath will be in good company: the other famous artists selected are none other than film director Atiyat El-Abnoudi, jewellery designer Azza Fahmi, poet and writer Fatma Qandil and last but not least, painter Gazbiya Sirry.

* Many among the people I know have family in Canada and this is where they usually elect to spend their holidays. Not every one however is so lucky, and for those of us who are not, the Semiramis-Intercontinental will be bringing the pleasures of Québec down to the banks of the Nile during an unusual festival scheduled to take place from 5-10 September. Of course as I suspected from the beginning dears, this has to do mainly with la gastronomie, which, as you well know is la francofonie's twin sister. Incidentally forget about your diets, for a while at least. Plenty of time to munch on raw carrots when this is over. Highlighting this event will be the cuisine of Jean-Paul Grappe and Pierre Faucher, and the famous Sucrerie de la Montagne, a natural maple grove in Québec, I am told. To relieve you from the remorse of committing the sin of la gourmandise, musical entertainment will be provided and will include the mountain trio Pierre Cardinal Vent d'Ouest.

* This summer has been full of surprises really, among them the recent opening, of Egypt's first centre for the grooming of hantour horses on the outskirsts of Luxor under the auspices of the head of the city council of Luxor Mahmoud Khalaf. The centre is the first project of Animal Care in Egypt (ACE), a British charity formed last September to work exclusively for the welfare of animals in Egypt. And a good thing someone finally took pity on these poor creatures my darlings, it breaks one's heart to see how overworked, ill-treated and undernourished they generally are. The ACE centre will provide facilities for the washing and grooming of the horses, for pre-veterinary inspections to prevent minor ailments, saddle sores and mouth cuts from developing to the point where serious medical attention will be needed. Furthermore, a farrier will be in attendance to check hooves and make shoes. Guess what: All this will be provided to the hantour drivers for free! During the opening ceremony ACE's executive director, Julie Wartenberg thanked Khalaf for his time and pointed out that caring for the horses will profit the tourist industry as visitors do not like to see suffering animals and will avoid taking a hantour if its horse is in poor condition. ACE was funded by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) of which Julie herself is a co-founder in the UK. She spent a year working in Egypt for IFAW before setting up ACE, but she says, animal welfare costs money and though IFAW provided the initial funding she is now looking for donors for the coming year. I hope dears that her call will not remain unanswered because, as she says it herself "Egyptian animals deserve help."

Free at last: Emmy and the joys of sailing in Marina bay photo: Ola Seif

* As I am writing, Furniture 2000 Egypt's top furniture exhibition grouping Egypt's leading furniture manufacturers and importers is getting ready to launch one of the finest collections to date, starting 1-4 September at the Cairo International Conference Centre. Karim El-Sayed, the event's project manager at ACG &ITE (the organising company) was saying to me the other day that "Connoisseurs of fine furniture are in for a real treat this year." According to him, the event will group the country's furniture powerhouses showing collections that will set new trends and simply revolutionise the furniture market. Among the exhibitors are Sic Matic, MM Galleria, Forum, Contishtahl, Al Home, MIAC, Habitat, Bang and Olufson, La Stanza, Autrefois, Tiffany, Gulftex Spectrum Staff Egypt, BiF and Chinar to name just a few. And don't go thinking that just anyone is allowed to participate. Ahmed Ghozzi, managing director of ACG &ITE was very clear: "Our success in organising the event starts with selecting the exhibitors who are allowed into 'Furniture'; we only choose the leaders, designers and high quality producers in the trade," he said. Well my poppets, if you have some decorating or redecorating to do and need, furniture, antiques, bathroom appliances, carpets, curtains, upholstery, garden and swimming pool furniture, kitchen cabinets or a brand new way of looking at your lighting system, you know where to go.

* I am happy to congratulate one of our colleagues, deputy editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Ahmed Youssef El-Qora'i who was awarded his PhD in African Political studies from Cairo University with the highest distinction. The subject of his dissertation, "the African syndicate movement and the influence of Egyptian syndicates" is a little bit above my usual concerns of course, reason enough I think to extend even heartier felicitations.

* Another colleague, our dear Omayma Abedel-Latif has also been dabbling in the realm of higher education recently. She has just received her MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) during a lovely graduation ceremony held in Logan Hall, Institute of Education.The time -honoured tradition of opening the event with a selection of oriental musical works was carried out by Zimbabwe's top drummer treating the audience to three extraordinary improvisations. Dr Charles Tripp, Omayma's supervisor, was not far when the time came to extend congratulations to the new graduates and nor was Assem El-Qersh, Al-Ahram's bureau chief in London who invited her and Amer Sultan, Al-Ahram's correspondent in London to a scrumptious dinner at the famous Lebanese restaurant, Fakhreddin. Although Omayma is rather vague on the food she ate--she was apparently too happy to tuck in--she remembers that their table overlooked the most beautiful green park.

* Medical Engineer Dina Mahmoud Amr and Assitant-professor at the Arab Academy Ahmed Abdallah El-Erian chose the Mariott hotel to celebrate their wedding in a lively reception animated by DJ Walid El-Hariri who kept the young people dancing to the rythms of Edward and the Gypsies. Attending the celebrations were Minister of Higher Education Mufid Shehab, Sayed Mash'al, head of military production and director of EEAA, Ibrahim Abdel-Gelil, among other distinguished guests. At 3.00am the happy couple withdrew for a few hours sleep before flying to Spain on their honeymoon.

* I have always been fascinated by photographs of land- and city- scapes which uncover angles that I had never observed myself. This is why I am so looking forward to the exhibition at the Italian Cultural Centre of the collection of photographs titled Egitto and Italia Paesagi. The exhibition will be opened by Attilio De Gasperis, director of the Italian Cultural Centre and Adel Gazarin director of the Italo-Egyptian Friendship Association.

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