I always get a tingle in my heart, my sweets, when gorgeous celebrities come into town. That feeling doubles when I know they are here to do good work for the community at large. You can imagine, then, how ecstatic I was when I found out that Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie, who serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), spent her Christmas holidays in Egypt with her three year old son Maddox. Jolie also joined our own superstar actor, Adel Imam (who also serves as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador), on a visit to some of the Sudanese refugee families living in the Kilo Arbaa Wa Nus area on the outskirts of Cairo.
Jolie and Imam distributed winter clothes, blankets and toys, and Jolie donated $20,000 towards a community health project in the area, which hosts a significant Sudanese refugee population. Jolie also praised the Egyptian government for hosting refugees from many different nations: "In keeping with its long-standing tradition of hospitality, Egypt has always kept the doors open to refugees."
Imam and Jolie also talked about the possibility of embarking on similar joint initiatives around the region. Ana Liria- Franch, UNHC's Regional Representative in Cairo, said she was "deeply moved by these two extraordinary people [who] have demonstrated ... precisely the type of passion, dedication and commitment required to achieve palpable improvements to the lives of refugees and their often impoverished hosts".
Another international celebrity, Egypt's own Boutros Boutros-Ghali -- the former UN secretary-general -- was also in the news this week for declaring his total support for Egypt's bid to host the 2010 World Cup. As all of you dear readers know, we here at Al- Ahram Weekly completely agree with Ghali's sentiment, as evidenced by the special pages we have been producing about the bid over the past few weeks, as well as the many other bid-related surprises we have in store for our readers over the next few months.
Ghali was very vocal about how important the bid is for Egypt at a press conference hosted by Youth Minister Alieddin Hilal last week. Ghali, who currently serves as the secretary-general of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, said hosting the World Cup would crown the country's diplomatic success in maintaining peace and security in the region over the past 50 years.
The five-man FIFA inspection team will be visiting Egypt starting 23 January, while FIFA will announce the winner on 15 May. South Africa, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia are the other African countries hoping to host the big event.
Moving on to the world of culture, it looks as though the memoirs of Mo'nis Taha Hussein, the recently deceased elder son of Taha Hussein, one of the most prominent intellectual figures in modern Egyptian history, will be translated from French into Arabic very soon.
Mo'nis, who passed away a couple of weeks ago at the age of 82, spent most of his life in Paris. Culture Minister FaroukHosni said that the moment he realised that Mo'nis had left behind such a treasure trove of writings, he dispatched First Under-Secretary for Foreign Relations Cherif El-Shoubashi to contact Mo'nis's daughter Amina in order to negotiate the necessary intellectual property procedures that would allow the translation of the works, which will then be published by the Cultural Development Fund. The effort to translate the 800 pages is already underway, with a dedicated team sifting though the document's four parts -- entitled Dawn, Morning, Afternoon and Dusk.
A few days back, my dear colleague Mustafa El-Menshawy took me to Al-Hanager Theatre on the Opera House grounds for a performance entitled "Ten". This display of "physical theatre" was performed by ten British and Egyptian women, and was part of Connecting Futures, an ambitious programme aimed at building bridges of understanding between young people from different cultural backgrounds by encouraging dialogue through shared activities of common interest. Stage director, artist and writer Nura Amin, Deborah Barnard, artistic director of the UK-based Ludus Dance Company, and dance consultant Cath Sims facilitated the work.
Judging from the line of people queuing to get into the hall, it was clear that these kinds of cultural understanding projects had a willing audience. As well they should...
AUC's Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) office recently held a seminar on "Community Development and Equal Opportunity for Youth". SEKEM group founder and chairman Ibrahim Abul-Eish -- who recently won a Right Livelihood Award (widely known as the alternative Nobel Prize) -- was the seminar's guest speaker. EOAA director Iman El-Qaffass explained that the seminar aimed to discuss the means of effective youth participation in community development -- a goal that reflects EOAA objectives to integrate all segments of the society in the development process, regardless of their age, sex or religion. El-Qaffass also said she was proud to have attended the Right Livelihood Award Ceremony that took place at the Swedish Parliament in early December, where Abul-Eish's accomplishments in community development were honoured.
The seminar also featured a lovely oud recital by AUC's Cultural Activities Programme Manager Mohamed Yakout and AUC Alumni Hisham Niaz on piano.
This week, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, along with Fine Arts Sector Head Ahmed Nawwar, inaugurated the new Electronic Centre for Arts and Culture at the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Giza. The centre will help people access art produced by the ministry's various venues. Hosni said annual subscriptions will be priced at LE30, and that the centre will mainly serve scholars, researchers and graduate students from the faculties of art. More information is available at www.fineart.gov.eg.
I would also like to tell you, my loves, about a new programme called "Fit for Life" which aims to educate 3,000 local school children about the essential components of a healthy lifestyle. Sponsored by Master Foods Egypt, the groundbreaking programme features a colourful musical play featuring life-sized puppets and live actors who will perform at various public schools around Cairo, teaching kids about balanced diets and the importance of physical activity, in a new and exciting way.
Congratulations are due to Olfat Ahmed El-Khashab, a student of Al-Ahram History Studies Centre head Yunan Labib Rizk. Olfat recently obtained her Masters degree on the impact of the Israeli state on Arab-Arab relations, from the Arab Studies and Research Institute. Alf mabrouk!
Pack of Cards
I always get a tingle in my heart, my sweets, when gorgeous celebrities come into town. That feeling doubles when I know they are here to do good work for the community at large. You can imagine, then, how ecstatic I was when I found out that Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie, who serves as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), spent her Christmas holidays in Egypt with her three year old son Maddox. Jolie also joined our own superstar actor, Adel Imam (who also serves as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador), on a visit to some of the Sudanese refugee families living in the Kilo Arbaa Wa Nus area on the outskirts of Cairo.
Another international celebrity, Egypt's own Boutros Boutros-Ghali -- the former UN secretary-general -- was also in the news this week for declaring his total support for Egypt's bid to host the 2010 World Cup. As all of you dear readers know, we here at Al- Ahram Weekly completely agree with Ghali's sentiment, as evidenced by the special pages we have been producing about the bid over the past few weeks, as well as the many other bid-related surprises we have in store for our readers over the next few months.
Moving on to the world of culture, it looks as though the memoirs of Mo'nis Taha Hussein, the recently deceased elder son of Taha Hussein, one of the most prominent intellectual figures in modern Egyptian history, will be translated from French into Arabic very soon.
A few days back, my dear colleague Mustafa El-Menshawy took me to Al-Hanager Theatre on the Opera House grounds for a performance entitled "Ten". This display of "physical theatre" was performed by ten British and Egyptian women, and was part of Connecting Futures, an ambitious programme aimed at building bridges of understanding between young people from different cultural backgrounds by encouraging dialogue through shared activities of common interest. Stage director, artist and writer Nura Amin, Deborah Barnard, artistic director of the UK-based Ludus Dance Company, and dance consultant Cath Sims facilitated the work.
AUC's Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) office recently held a seminar on "Community Development and Equal Opportunity for Youth". SEKEM group founder and chairman Ibrahim Abul-Eish -- who recently won a Right Livelihood Award (widely known as the alternative Nobel Prize) -- was the seminar's guest speaker. EOAA director Iman El-Qaffass explained that the seminar aimed to discuss the means of effective youth participation in community development -- a goal that reflects EOAA objectives to integrate all segments of the society in the development process, regardless of their age, sex or religion. El-Qaffass also said she was proud to have attended the Right Livelihood Award Ceremony that took place at the Swedish Parliament in early December, where Abul-Eish's accomplishments in community development were honoured.
This week, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, along with Fine Arts Sector Head Ahmed Nawwar, inaugurated the new Electronic Centre for Arts and Culture at the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Giza. The centre will help people access art produced by the ministry's various venues. Hosni said annual subscriptions will be priced at LE30, and that the centre will mainly serve scholars, researchers and graduate students from the faculties of art. More information is available at www.fineart.gov.eg.
