Pack of Cards

I must say that in spite of the hot weather artistic activities are still going strong, as you will see if you attend the exhibition by Omani artist Nadra Mahmoud at the Cairo Opera House Art Gallery, which is to be inaugurated today by presidential adviser on political affairs Osama El-Baz and Opera House director Samir Farag. The exhibition, lasting until 15 July, showcases around 50 abstract paintings.

The artist will donate 40 of her works to charities involved in the care of Egyptian children suffering from cancer and those with special needs. Incidentally, Nadra was the founder of the first art gallery in Oman in 1993. She has participated in several solo and group exhibitions in Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, France, Mexico, Spain, Germany and the United States.

The keynote speaker will be Prime Minister Atef Ebeid. The event will also be attended by Minister of Higher Education and Minister of State for Scientific Research Moufid Shehab, as a guest speaker, President of Cairo University Naguib El-Hilali Gohar and head of Georgia State University Carl Patten. The MBA programme was established under the auspices of the Binational Fulbright Commission in Egypt (BFCE), through partnership between Cairo University's Faculty of Commerce and Georgia State University's J Mack Robinson College of Business. The BFCE succeeded in establishing the first joint MBA programme in the country. The graduated class comprises 22 students, whose certificates are jointly endorsed by both Cairo and Georgia State Universities.

Did you know that the US News and World Report's 2000 survey of the best graduate schools ranked Georgia State University's J Mack Robinson College of Business fifth nationally, making it the sixth consecutive year that the college has been recognised by the magazine's annual survey?

In a seminar titled "New Treatments for Immune Deficiency Diseases," Al-Ahram Regional Press Institute invited the Egyptian scientist Mamdouh Ghoneim, who currently lives in the United States, to lecture on the most up-to-date and effective treatments for such disorders. Ghoneim's topic was the new MGN3 medicine, produced from rice straw to cure this fatal ailment. The seminar, led by professor of immunology at Ain Shams University Abdel-Hadi Misbah, was attended by the head of Al-Ahram medical administration Dr.Bakri El-Sherif and Al- Ahram Science page-editor Hatem Sedqi.

Isn't it marvellous, dears, and so noteworthy, that a private company like Orascom Construction Industry (OCI) is now providing educational scholarships to outstanding students, giving them a chance to study in the world's leading universities with the help of the Onsi Sawiris Scholarship?

In its first year, the Orascom Construction Industries Foundation has awarded scholarships to five of Egypt's brightest students, who will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and the Imperial College of England.

The scholarships are awarded on the basis of character and merit as demonstrated through academic excellence, extracurricular activities and entrepreneurial initiative. Nassef Sawiris, chief executive officer of the OCI Foundation, expressed the company's pride in being able to help developing Egypt's promising youth in an address delivered during the award ceremony of the scholarship certificates. A terrific initiative, and one that should inspire many other companies, I think.

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