17 - 23 May 2001
Issue No.534
|
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 17 - 23 May 2001 Issue No.534 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Pack of Cards
* The Diplomat's Club downtown was the venue last week for the annual get-together of members of the League of Diplomat's Wives with Mrs Suzanne Mubarak. The event -- attended for the first time by the wives of foreign ambassadors and diplomats -- included a luncheon and exhibition of the needlework and other crafts of diplomat's wives, the proceeds of which are annually channelled to various social causes. |
Mrs Mubarak stressed the importance of the league's involvement in voluntary and social work, saying that the fields of social work are wide open and there are numerous sectors of society in need of help. "The more volunteers we have to support governmental efforts, the better off society will be," she said. Last month, the league's voluntary labours bore fruit with the opening of the Ibn Touloun School for mental rehabilitation of special needs children. Proceeds of the league's fundraising activities, as well as close follow-up efforts by diplomat's wives, helped the school refurbish its buildings, upgrade facilities, improve the quality of care given to children, train teachers and develop curricula. Accompanied by Nagwa El-Fiqqi, the league's president, and Laila Moussa, wife of the former foreign minister, Mrs Mubarak opened the annual exhibition of arts and crafts. In addition to national crafts and products of participating countries, the exhibit included jewellery, paintings, brass works, as well as artwork made by children at the Ibn Touloun School. Income from the exhibit, which lasted three days, will go to the Renaissance Project of the Egyptian Red Cross. |
* Darlings, I have such good news for you: famous actress Lubna Abdel-Aziz has added to her celebrated talent on screen and adopted the pen (or the keyboard rather) joining thus the family of Al-Ahram Weekly. She will be writing a weekly column on this very page. I am sure that you will be enthralled by her original style and devour the interesting tidbits about the silver screen that she will offer you. Other columnists beware, our dear Lubna may well become the most popular of our writers in no time. Another prestigious contributor has also joined the Weekly, as you may already have noticed: the great archeologist and director of the Giza Plateau and Bahariya Oasis Zahi Hawass will be writing about his fascinating experiences on a bi-weekly basis for the greatest joy of archaeological buffs. Aren't we lucky to have all these clever, clever people helping us to please all of you?
|
* A farewell reception was held for US ambassador to Cairo Daniel Kurtzer and his charming wife Sheila, on the occasion of their impending departure. I was delighted by the number of warm friends the Kurtzers have made during their almost four-year stay and who are now all very sorry to see them go. The party was hosted by professor of orthopaedics at Qasr El-Aini University Abdel Salam El-Hamamsi and his wife Mariam Zaki, the distinguished Channel one TV anchor. Although comprised mostly of a circle of intimate friends, the gathering had the air of a star-studded event. Present were Mariam's parents, Ambassador and Mrs Adel Zaki, and Ambassador Mohamed Shaker, head of the Council for Foreign Relations, and his exquisite wife Mona Awad El-Quni. Ambassador Salah Bassouni and his wife, the brilliant architect Mona Ali, were also there. And I had a most interesting conversation on the merits and risks of diplomacy with the head of Egypt's diplomatic mission in Croatia, Saeed Hindam and his wife Huwaida, who will soon leave for Zaghreb.
I also met the American Embassy's Medical Resident Officer for the Middle East George McKormick, with whom I had a most interesting medical discussion, and, of course, his wife Patricia. I also glimpsed Ivine Hashem, professor of English literature at Cairo University whose husband Mohamed Ali El-Hamamsi, CEO of Click GSM unfortunately did not attend as he was out of the country. I was delighted, as well, to meet businessman Sherif El-Maghrabi and his wife, the exquisite Rashda Abboud. Last and definitely not least, I listened to the fascinating conversation over dinner in which, as always, the dynamic Laila El-Hamamsy, former director of AUC's Social Research Centre, captivated the audience with the debate she launched, and which was at once, most erudite and amusing . |
* My dears, I have always championed the cause of cultural exchange and co-existence. Live and let live, that is my motto. Imagine my delight last Monday when I heard my dear friend Dr Milad Hanna delivering a thought-provoking address entitled "2001: Year of the Dialogue of Civilisations" at the Islamic Benevolent Society, in Sayida Zeinab. Hanna's Coptic Al-Tawfik Society was established in 1892, coincidentally the same year the Islamic Benevolence Society was founded. Naturally, he focused on the role played by Arab-Islamic culture. Hanna was bombarded with questions as soon as he finished his address, mostly concerning relations between Copts and Muslims in Egypt today. He stated quite categorically that the relationship between Copts and Muslims in Egypt is exemplary.
|
|
* This week, the teaching staff of the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport was busy attentively examining the students' project presentations for graduation in numerous fields. Safir Hotel hosted the event during which Gamal El-Din Mukhtar, president of the Academy, announced the establishment of a holding company affiliated to the Academy with a paid-up capital of LE5 million. Karim Darwish, famous Egyptian squash player who is also a marketing student at the Academy, received an incentive prize for his recent achievement in the world championship. Among the brilliant ideas for projects presented by these top academics were a railway project connecting Cairo to Hurghada and an agricultural development project for Toshka. |
* With all the cultural events going on this week, I hope that you have not forgotten to attend the Lehnert and Landrock in Palestine 1924-1930 exhibition, which opened at the Sony Gallery at AUC. If you have, it is not too late: the show will be on until 28 June. It is a very interesting series of photographs taken by the two partners during the period mentioned and recently reproduced from the original glass plates. Scenes of churches, temples, mosques, landscapes and portraits of native people show the overwhelming beauty and dignity of the traditional Arab environment.
|
* The AUC community is one that knows how to have fun when fun is the order of the day, I could not help thinking, as I attended the celebrations of International Day, on 9 May. Food, music, dances and an exhibition of crafts from different parts of the world contributed to the unique atmosphere. Spanish dancers drew many cheers from the crowd of visitors, while students, parents and guests waxed lyric about the improvements in the this year's fair organisation. They declared unanimously that the most popular booth was the Palestinian one. I agreed wholeheartedly.
|
Our very active state minister for environmental affairs Nadia Makram Ebeid is at it again. This time she offered the governorate of Damietta a splendid map showing the state of the environment there, after announcing the implementation of the Support for Environmental Assessment and Management Programme (SEAM) for the area. The programme has been launched with assistance from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Egyptian Environmental Agency Affairs (EEAA) and is based on popular participation. The project has already been tried in Daqahliya and Sohag. Later, Ebeid toured the factories which are now implementing the new safe directions for a clean environment with Abdel-Azim Wazir, governor of Damietta, British Ambassador Graham Boyes and Ibrahim Abdel-Gelil, head of EEAA.
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page