Issue No. 600
People
Previous issue
Site map
|
|
22 - 28 August 2002 Issue No. 600 People |
Current issue Previous issue Site map | |
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Pack of cards
Following on the heels of this year's 3rd International Video Clip Festival, which recently took place in the beautiful resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, the festival's organisers held a celebration here in Cairo to pay homage to Palestinian resistance in the arts.
Awards were given out at a lavish party which took place at the Gezira Sheraton hotel. I sat entranced as festival director Abdel-Moneim Saad granted Nadia El-Guindi a best actress honour for her patriotic role in Muhima Fi Tel Abib (A Mission in Tel Aviv). Actor Farouk El-Fishawi was named best actor for his distinguished performance in Fatah Min Israel (A Girl from Israel).
Singers Nadia Mustafa and Arkan Fouad, as well as Palestinian vocalist Aida Ali, were also feted for their pro- Palestinian musical performances, as were record companies Sawt Al-Qahira and Adawiat.
The celebration was attended by Mohamed Sobeih, the Palestinian ambassador to the Arab League, as well as Cherif El-Choubashi, the under-secretary of the Ministry of Culture for Foreign Relations and director of the Cairo Film Festival. A galaxy of stars including actress Nabila Ebeid, belly dancer Lucy and budding singer Wesam Hosni, were also in attendance.
I certainly hope all of you got the chance to attend some of the concerts that were part of the 14th Citadel Festival for Music and Song, which ended yesterday with a stunning grand finale of a show at Al-Mahka Theatre. "Tango" was the name of the performance featuring Uruguay's Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra.
The best part, dearies, is that if you missed it, the chance to enjoy these particular South American delights still exists. Scheduled to headline at Alexandria's Roman Theatre in Kom Al- Dekka on 24 August, the show combines the tango's four elements: music, singing, poetry and dance.
Each performance begins with La Cumparsita -- whose melody identifies the tango anywhere in the world. Authored by Gerardo Matos Rodriguez, La Cumparsita was performed for the first time in 1917.
This week's shows have their origins in maestro Federico Garc’a Vigil's life- long dream of conducting an Uruguayan Orchestra in Egypt. That's what Vigil told Cairo Opera House director Samir Farag when the contract for the shows -- envisioned as a means of reflecting the mutual respect and love between the people of Uruguay and Egypt -- was signed.
How I hate, my sweets, to see good friends go... but when it means a boost to their careers, I can't help but be delighted. That's why I was all smiles on the Saraya boat, at a recent gathering celebrating the promotion of Alaa Bin Hadi, a former media counselor at the Moroccan Embassy in Cairo, who is now set to be the deputy chief of mission at the Moroccan Embassy in Bahrain. In addition to my glorious self, media officers from many Arab embassies, as well as regional editors at the country's most important newspapers, were all there to wish Bin Hadi a fond farewell.
I am so proud of my dear, diligent and dynamic friend Mona Makram Ebeid, the former member of Parliament, for she has recently received an invitation from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), headquartered in New York, to participate in the World Summit for Sustainable Development, set to take place in South Africa. I am also quite excited about the fact that the summit's proceedings will be web-cast around the world via a programme called Virtual Exhibition.
Ebeid was chosen in her capacity as an expert on the Committee for Policy Development, and as one of the judges who have evaluated sustainable development success stories around the world. Among the projects she has evaluated are the Siwa Development Project in Egypt, the Assilah Development Project in Morocco and about 100 others in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the United States.
My dear colleague Mahmoud Bakr has just returned from an exciting trip to Syria, my sweets, and yours truly was the first to get the full story on what he was doing there. It turns out that Bakr was covering the 11th Arab Environment Symposium and Camp, an annual event which brings together youth from across the region to discuss the latest developments in the field. This year, 300 young people from 15 Arab countries participated, with Iraq sending a delegation for the first time. Workshops and clean-up campaigns in parks and streets near the camp's venue in the hilly Hams governorate were the order of the day, with the enthusiasts discussing things like waste water management, desertification of green space, industrial pollution, and environmental media, under the auspices of Magdi Allam and Mohamed Mahmoud, the head and secretary-general, respectively, of the Arab Union for Youth and Environment.
The evenings were reserved for gala parties featuring food and traditional dances. On its assigned day, the Egyptian delegation -- which was headed by Mamdouh Rashwan -- provided the troupe with delicious koshari and eggplant dishes, which apparently received rave reviews.
Bakr tells me that thanks to Maged Shadoud, head of the Syrian Youth and Sports office (the equivalent of a ministry), as well as Adnan Arbash and Ali Ballan, the head and vice- head, respectively, of the Syrian Revolutionary Youth Union, the entire event was a phenomenal success.
I'd like to let you in on a little piece of news, dearies, so that you can be just as "in the know" as I am. I was told by the Saudi Egyptian Touristic Development Company, owners of Le Royal Meridien Cairo hotel, that they have terminated the management contract signed with Le Meridien hotels and resorts as of 8 August.
That means that while the company selects a new management firm to replace Le Meridien, the tremendous hotel occupying a prime piece of Nile-side real estate will be called The Royal Nile Tower. I've been assured that it will also be functioning as is, with its signature 41st floor restaurant revolving as steadily as ever over this city that never sleeps.
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| 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 |
