Issue No. 603
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12 - 18 September 2002 Issue No. 603 People |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Pack of Cards
Yesterday, my dears, marked the one-year anniversary of those horrible events of last year. Here at the Weekly, we've marked the occasion with a 20-page supplement brimming with a plethora of hard-edged reporting and intriguing commentary.
I hope you enjoy and appreciate it as much as I enjoyed the exhibition opened by Al-Ahram's Chairman of the Board and Chief Editor Ibrahim Nafie and US Ambassador to Egypt David Welch on Sunday night. Called "After September 11: Images from Ground Zero", the exhibit showcases the photographs of Joel Meyerowitz, who gallantly documented the destruction that took place in New York that day, and the heroic rescue efforts that followed. "To me, no photographs mean no history," Meyerowitz is quoted as saying in the exhibit's brochure. "I decided at that moment that I would find my way in and make an archive for the city of New York." And that he did, capturing touching moments with titles like The North Wall, Twilight, Welders in the North Tower, Firemen and Cloud, The Wall of Remembrance and The South Tower.
Nafie (left) and Welch tour the exhibition
In introducing the exhibit, Nafie said, "We were shocked and filled with sorrow by these criminal acts and by the human loss and pain they caused. Our sorrow and pain were compounded by reports that the terrorists responsible for these shameful acts belonged to this part of the world, for a criminal few do not represent a classical and distinguished cultural tradition. We have fought terrorists here for years and are ready to continue to fight them everywhere for years to come if need be."
Nafie said that he hoped the memory of the victims of 11 September inspires us to seek a new world of peace, justice and tolerance, here in the Middle East and all over the world.
The exhibit, which runs through 18 September, is located in Al-Ahram building's main lobby. The exhibit's opening was a true media event, covered by Arab satellite channels galore, and attended by a plethora of diplomats and thinkers from the Arab world and the West.
This week, I also had the pleasure to attend, along with my colleague Reham El-Adawi, a performance of Ain Al- Yaqin (Eye of Truth), a musical drama described as an "expansive national epic" written by poet and author Fawaghi Bin Saqr Al-Qasimi, wife of Sheikh Khaled, the crown prince and deputy ruler of Ra's Al-Khaima in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
A scene from Ain Al-Yaqin
The performance's opening night, which took place at the Cairo Opera House's Main Hall on 8 September, was attended by a bevy of Egyptian literati and artists, as well as a significant faction of the Emirati community in Egypt. I mingled with, among others, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, the UAE's Ambassador in Egypt Ahmed Ali Al-Zo'abi, TV announcer and Nile Culture Channel head Gamal El- Sha'ir, stage director Lotfi El-Kholi, actor Sherif Mounir, writer Safinaz Kazim and Al-Ahram Weekly's very own theatre critic Nehad Selaiha.
Ain Al-Yaqin is the name of a ship that sails to eight nations in a symbolic search for God. As it stops in places like China, India, Egypt, Iraq, and Palestine, abstract ideas such as peace, oneness, truth, wisdom, and virtue are conveyed.
Fawaghi explained that it took her 30 days to write the epic, which implicitly advocates peace and unity amongst Arabs and the entire world. She said it was previously shown in Ra's Al-Khaima, and that this is the first cooperative effort between Egypt's Opera House and the UAE. A mega-production featuring around 170 artists from the Cairo Opera Ballet Company, the Academy of Arts and Al- Shams Club, the show was performed under the artistic supervision of director Abdel-Moneim Kamel, and was truly an exercise in unity.
The music was composed by Sayed Mansour and directed by the Emirates-based Egyptian Magdi Kamel. The performance was accompanied by Qur'anic verses recited by veteran actor Mahmoud Yassin and Syrian artist Mona Wassef, and, in an attempt to bridge cultures, each scene was followed by an English translation.
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