Pack of Cards

This Sunday, my dears, I was quite honoured to attend a glamorous event celebrating my dear friend John Gerhart, president of the American University in Cairo, being awarded the First Class Decoration of Arts and Sciences by President Hosni Mubarak. Gerhart, AUC's ninth president, assumed office in 1998 and has resigned this year for health reasons.

 

AUC President John Gerhart (above and left) is presented the First Class Decoration of Arts and Sciences by Minister Mufid Shehab

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mufid Shehab presented Gerhart with the honour. The award ceremony was attended by Esmat Abdel- Meguid, former secretary-general of the Arab League, Gretchen Welch, wife of American ambassador to Egypt David Welch, as well as various members of Egypt's educational circles, including Egyptian university presidents Farouk Ismail and Naguib El-Hilali, and AUC Provost Tim Sullivan, Counsellor Nagui Shatla, former Vice-President Abdel- Khaleq Allam, deans Nicholas Hopkins, Amr Mortagy and Jan Montassir, and others.

In his speech to the assembled gathering, Minister Shehab stressed that "Egypt has always had a special relationship with the United States in the political, economic and educational fields [and] that international cooperation in education, science and the technological fields will strengthen the bonds of friendship and understanding between our peoples and advance the state of cooperation to the benefit of both countries."

Gerhart, who is certainly the most popular AUC president of late, perfectly represents those strong bonds. As was evident in the award ceremony, he has gained the respect and admiration of both the AUC community as well as Egyptian educational circles. Along with his charming wife Gail, professor of political science, the Gerharts are no strangers to Cairo. They lived here from 1980 to 1985 when John worked for the Ford Foundation and Gail taught at AUC. They have established many friendships in Cairo over the years.

During his term AUC has flourished and achieved a number of goals including the establishment of new undergraduate programmes in electronics engineering, modern history, philosophy and art, as well as graduate programmes in physics, forced migration and refugee studies. What's more exciting for the AUCian book worm that I am is that 50,000 new volumes were added to the AUC libraries' collections in those last four years. In addition to Gerhart's outstanding leadership and management skills he is also a talented fund-raiser. Under his direction and in large part due to his personal efforts the university's budget has grown from $64.5 million in 1998 to $78.4 million in 2001. Gerhart's prized project, and his most outstanding achievement, is the development of the new university campus that is being built in New Cairo. Gerhart's oft- stated goal during his term, which I myself repeatedly heard at various academic and social functions, was to build a world-class university serving Egypt and the Middle East, and he hopes to continue helping in the fundraising for that project even after he leaves office.

I am sure you will all join me in wishing John and Gail the best of luck and praying that as John becomes appointed president emeritus of AUC, the couple will have many occasions to visit Egypt in the future.

British Ambassador John Sawers and his wife Shelley greet Tourism Minister Mamdouh El-Beltagui

Everyone, darlings, was at a reception on Sunday evening in the gardens of the British Embassy hosted by British Ambassador John Sawers and his lovely wife Shelley to celebrate the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The gardens were beautifully lit with candles and fairy lights, and decorated with red, white and blue flowers, and the Riff band led by Ahmed Harfoush played jazz and pop music in keeping with this week's celebrity concert at Buckingham Palace. I had a chat with my old friend, the distinguished minister of foreign affairs, Ahmed Maher, and among the other distinguished guests, I also spotted the ministers of industry, environment and tourism, former prime minister Abdel-Aziz Hegazi, the governor of Cairo, the governor of the Central Bank, and ambassadors and attachés from Commonwealth and European Union member states, as well as a great many of my colleagues, including Mursi Saad El-Din. The host asked guests to raise their glasses to President Mubarak for "his relentless efforts for peace" and to the Queen on the happy occasion of the 50th anniversary of her reign. God bless her! Luckily, there was no fire in the garden like at the parallel celebrations taking place at Buckingham Palace!

on board the Cuauhtemoc in Alexandria

Of all the invitations that piled up on my desk this week, my dears, the one from Ortega Jaramillo, commander of the Mexican Navy's Cuauhtemoc training ship, intrigued me the most. The Cuauhtemoc was on an official visit to Alexandria, and I was invited, along with my colleague Reham El-Adawi, by Jaramillo and Mexican Ambassador to Egypt Miguel Orozco, consul Federico Moreno Lantos and the honorary consul of Mexico in Alexandria Hosna Rachid, to attend a ceremony organised aboard the ship itself, commemorating Navy Day.

The training ship was in Alexandria for a few days, during which Jaramillo and Orozco paid courtesy calls on various naval and civil authorities including Alexandria Governor Abdel-Salam El- Mahgoub, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Navy Tareq Nour and Commander of the Alexandria Naval Base Mohab Mamish. Jaramillo will also attend a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Sailor and will visit sites of historic, military and cultural interest in both Alexandria and Cairo. In Alexandria, the midshipmen on board will undertake an intense programme of social, cultural and sport-related activities put together by the Mexican Embassy. After crossing the Suez Canal on 10 June, the ship will continue its eastbound journey, visiting the ports of Bombay, Singapore, Bangkok, Shanghai, Tokyo, Honolulu, and San Francisco, before ending up at the famously beautiful port of Acapulco, Mexico. The Cuauhtemoc's crew consists of 252 captains, officers, midshipmen, petty officers and sailors. Known as the Ambassador and Gentlemen of the Seas, the Cuauhtemoc has tirelessly navigated the waters since it was built in 1982, logging 378,725 miles, in 2,953 sea days.

Halim-alike Abdu Sherif

I am so excited, my sweets, about the two-part concert coming up on 10 June at the Cairo Opera House's Main Hall, featuring the Abdel- Halim Noweira Arabic Music Ensemble led by maestro Salah Ghoubashi. The first part will include a repertoire of oldies by great composers such as Riyad El- Sonbati, Zakariya Ahmed, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, to be performed by vocalists Maye Farouk, Marwa Naguie and Tamer Abdel-Nabi. The second part will feature rising star Abdu Sherif, the Moroccan singer known for the amazing resemblance between his voice and that of the late legendary singer Abdel-Halim Hafez. Best of all, Sherif will be performing a group of Halim's classic love songs.

And finally, my muffins, at the Heliopolis Meridien Hotel, the En Vogue Modelling & Dance School headed by Shirley Shalaby recently celebrated its yearly ballet recital. Young En Vogue ballerinas danced parts of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker ballets and culminated their performance with Spanish and Samba routines. Oh, how my heart soars to watch the young and nimble... not that I can't spin a pirouette when necessary, dears. Believe me, I certainly can.

Clockwise the young and nimble En Vogue performers