Although the world is not exactly the most cheerful place these days, that hasn't stopped people around the world, my dears, from celebrating. This is, after all, the height of the holiday season, and the beginning of any new year is always a time for rejoicing. If anything -- we all tend to think -- if last year was bad, perhaps next year will be better.
Well, dearies, we should hope so anyway.
Here in Cairo, a lot of people brought in 2004 at the Cairo Opera House, where Nubian-born pop star Mohamed Mounir wowed the audience with a selection of his greatest hits. The fireworks in the night sky made certain that everyone had a smile on their face.
I, meanwhile, have selected a lovely collection of images from around the world that show just how much people everywhere get into New Year's Eve.
A couple of weeks ago, my sweets, I became quite emotional upon hearing that my dear friend Satnam Jit Singh, the Indian ambassador, and his lovely wife Rinku would soon be leaving town. Singh held a farewell reception that was attended by a bevy of luminaries, including senior Egyptian officials like Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. India's honorary consul in Alexandria, Amr Badreddin, Al-Wafd Party Chairman No'man Gomaa, First Under-Secretary for Foreign Relations at the Culture Ministry Cherif El- Shoubashi, as well as most Arab and foreign diplomats in Cairo, were also there.
Culture Minister and artist Farouk Hosni's latest exhibition of paintings is currently showing at Zamalek's Al-Fan gallery. The exhibition showcases 19 paintings created by Hosni in 2003, the majority being displayed for the first time. This is Hosni's 28th exhibition, which will also be touring Qatar, Bahrain and the United States, where it will be displayed at the National Geographic Museum. A spectrum of senior officials, artists and literati attended the opening. Among others there was Minister of Industry Ali El-Saedi, Cairo Opera House Director Samir Farag, caricaturist Mustafa Hussein, businessmen Naguib Sawiris and Mohamed Farid Khamis, poet Abdel- Rahman El-Abnoudi, actor Nour El-Sherif and his gorgeous actress wife Poussi, as well as actresses Youssra, Samiha Ayoub, Elham Shahine and Libliba.
My dynamic friend Mona Makram Ebeid, a former MP who teaches political science at AUC, was invited by Mary Eisenhower, the grand daughter of US President Dwight Eisenhower, as well as Amr Badr, the Regional President of Abercrombie and Kent, to give two lectures to the students and adults who were participating in the Youth Peace Camp, recently inaugurated by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak and hosted by the Suzanne Mubarak International Movement of Women for Peace International, in collaboration with the US People to People International Organisation.
The topics of Ebied's lecture -- which was delivered on a Nile cruise -- were peace, democracy and the region's political prospects after the capture of Saddam Hussein.
My sincerest congratulations, my loves, go out to newlyweds Mohamed Ahmed Hassan, a credit analyst at CIB, and Sahar Farag, who got her journalism degree from AUC. Sahar and Mohamed had their wedding party at the Conrad, where friends and family joined the bride and the groom for a lovely night of fun. The groom's father, Ahmed Hassan, who heads the General Land Reclamation Company, and the bride's father Alaaeddin Farag, chairman of the Radiology Department at the Air-Base Hospital in Saudi Arabia, were beaming with pride. The romantic couple, I am told, has gone off to the Far East for their honeymoon. I certainly wish them all the happiness they truly deserve.
Pack of Cards
Although the world is not exactly the most cheerful place these days, that hasn't stopped people around the world, my dears, from celebrating. This is, after all, the height of the holiday season, and the beginning of any new year is always a time for rejoicing. If anything -- we all tend to think -- if last year was bad, perhaps next year will be better.
Here in Cairo, a lot of people brought in 2004 at the Cairo Opera House, where Nubian-born pop star Mohamed Mounir wowed the audience with a selection of his greatest hits. The fireworks in the night sky made certain that everyone had a smile on their face.
A couple of weeks ago, my sweets, I became quite emotional upon hearing that my dear friend Satnam Jit Singh, the Indian ambassador, and his lovely wife Rinku would soon be leaving town. Singh held a farewell reception that was attended by a bevy of luminaries, including senior Egyptian officials like Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Youssef Wali and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. India's honorary consul in Alexandria, Amr Badreddin, Al-Wafd Party Chairman No'man Gomaa, First Under-Secretary for Foreign Relations at the Culture Ministry Cherif El- Shoubashi, as well as most Arab and foreign diplomats in Cairo, were also there.
Culture Minister and artist Farouk Hosni's latest exhibition of paintings is currently showing at Zamalek's Al-Fan gallery. The exhibition showcases 19 paintings created by Hosni in 2003, the majority being displayed for the first time. This is Hosni's 28th exhibition, which will also be touring Qatar, Bahrain and the United States, where it will be displayed at the National Geographic Museum. A spectrum of senior officials, artists and literati attended the opening. Among others there was Minister of Industry Ali El-Saedi, Cairo Opera House Director Samir Farag, caricaturist Mustafa Hussein, businessmen Naguib Sawiris and Mohamed Farid Khamis, poet Abdel- Rahman El-Abnoudi, actor Nour El-Sherif and his gorgeous actress wife Poussi, as well as actresses Youssra, Samiha Ayoub, Elham Shahine and Libliba.
My sincerest congratulations, my loves, go out to newlyweds Mohamed Ahmed Hassan, a credit analyst at CIB, and Sahar Farag, who got her journalism degree from AUC. Sahar and Mohamed had their wedding party at the Conrad, where friends and family joined the bride and the groom for a lovely night of fun. The groom's father, Ahmed Hassan, who heads the General Land Reclamation Company, and the bride's father Alaaeddin Farag, chairman of the Radiology Department at the Air-Base Hospital in Saudi Arabia, were beaming with pride. The romantic couple, I am told, has gone off to the Far East for their honeymoon. I certainly wish them all the happiness they truly deserve.
