Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 6 - 12 December 2001 Issue No.563
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Averroes in Berlin
CRITIC Mahmoud Amin El-Alim is due to travel to Berlin tomorrow, to receive the Averroes Foundation 2001 Award for Free Thinking. The Averroes Foundation, headed by Nabil Boushnaq, is an independent, non- profit institution established in Germany with the purpose of "spreading and endorsing values of freedom and democracy in the Arab world." Among the members of the jury who settled on El-Alim, in recognition of "his intellectual and analytical contributions to, and support for, free dialogue and rational debate in the Arab world," are the Syrian writers Burhan Ghalioun and Aziz Al-Adhma, as well as the Egyptian critic Farida El-Naqqash. The ceremony, to be held on Saturday, will include an address by writer Hamed Fadalla, a member of the foundation, a formal reception and a press conference. For his part El-Alim will give a lecture on rational and free-thinking aspects of Averroes' achievement.
El-Alim is due to give another lecture, at the Open University of Berlin, on "philosophy and technology," following which he is to tour Germany and France to commission a series of articles on "alternative globalisation" for a special issue of the Egyptian magazine Qadaya Fikriya (Intellectual Issues).

Mahfouz's trophy
ON THE occasion of the 90th birthday of Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, the American University in Cairo Press will hand out the annual Naguib Mahfouz Award in a celebration to be held on campus on Tuesday 11 December. The award comprises $1,000 in cash and a silver medal as well as the translation of the winning novel into English. In the course of the celebration, two of the Press's latest publications will be launched: Naguib Mahfouz in Sidi Gaber, a collection of conversations with the author by Mohamed Salmawy, that first appeared on the pages of Al-Ahram Weekly, and the English translation of the Lebanese novelist Hoda Barakat's latest work, Harith Al- Miyah (Ploughing Waters).

Theatre's senators
LAST week Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni officially drew up the higher committee of Al-Bait Al-Fanni lil-Masrah (the House of Theatre), whose job it is to agree on the policies that govern the running of state theatres and put together a programme of productions. The committee includes some of Egyptian theatre's most veteran names (director Galal El-Saharqawi, playwright Alfred Farag and actress Samiha Ayyoub) and well-known writers including Anis Mansour and Abdel-Aziz Hammouda, as well as Sabri Abdel-Aziz, the dean of the Institute of Theatrical Arts, Cairo University. The first meeting of the new committee, Hani Mutawi', the head of the House of Theatre announced, will be held as soon as the Eid holidays have ended.

Mediterranean confluence
THE FIFTH triennial Conference of Egyptian and Italian Universities will be held in Turino at the end of this month. Organised by the Egyptian Society for Graeco-Roman Studies, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, the conference, under the title "Pharaohs as Ptolemys and Ptolemys as Pharaohs," will bring together representatives of all of Egypt's and Italy's universities in addition to other European scholars. Topics under discussion range from mythology and archaeology to the study of papyri. The event will also include the publication, in book form, of papers submitted during the previous round of the conference, held in Wahat, Egypt, in October 1998.

The Arab Vikings
MODELLED on the Institute of the Arab World in Paris, an Arab cultural centre is to be established in Stockholm at the start of 2002. A provisional committee of scholars, writers and journalists specialising in the Arab world, and belonging to a variety of Swedish establishments, has been drawn up. Although the financial situation is as yet uncertain, the committee hopes to procure funds for this non-profit project from the Swedish government as well as private- sector benefactors. The provisional head of the centre, Lars L¿enbeck, former Swedish ambassador to Jordan, explained that the object of the project is "to spread Arab culture in Sweden in its various forms of expression, promoting cultural exchange between Sweden and the Arab world and thus endorsing democracy through open-minded dialogue concerning the diversity of cultural and social life across both parts of the world regardless of political and religious restraints."

Dignified blockbuster
THE PRODUCTION Sector of the Radio and Television Union is currently embarking on a large-scale cinematic production depicting the sinking of the Israeli warship Eilat in October 1967, a proud episode in the history of the Egyptian marines. Entitled Yawm Al-Karama (Day of Dignity), the film, written by Gamaleddin Hussein and featuring actors Hanan Turk and Tareq Lutfi, is to be directed by Ali Abdel-Khaleq.
The filming, under the direction of cameraman Samir Farag, will take place in collaboration with the Marine Forces on location in Alexandria and Port Said. It is to commence, Medhat Zaki, head of the Production Sector declared, directly after the upcoming Eid. He added that it is among the Union's largest projects to date.
Compiled by Youssef Rakha

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