♣ Indian Ambassador to Egypt Navdeep Suri and his wife Mani welcomed media figures and journalists last week to a press conference at the embassy's media office in Zamalek. The occasion was the opening of the India by the Nile Festival (13 April-13 May). The activities of the festival will take place at the Hanager Art Centre on the Cairo Opera House grounds, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and El Sawy Culturewheel (see Listings p.21). At the conference, Suri said the festival, which took six months to put together, aims primarily at cultural exchange. A photo exhibition, he announced, will be inaugurated by the granddaughter of Gandhi at El Sawy Culturewheel. The director of the festival Sanjory Roy said, “it is a privilege to be here in Egypt, a country famous for its incredible culture and architecture; through this festival we would like to introduce the similarities and differences between both cultures.” On the occasion, Suri also gave a reception at his residence in Zamalek overlooking the Nile. Present were Minister of State for Scientific Research Nadia Zakhari, Minister of Communication Atef Helmi, singers Iman Al-Bahr Darwish and Hisham Abbas, actress Laila Elwi and a number of foreign ambassadors.
♥ Last week at its headquarters in Dokki, the Cervantes Institute (Spanish Cultural Centre) organised a conference celebrating Spanish and Arabic poetry that predicted the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Present were Director of the Cervantes Institute Eduardo Calvo García, President of the Egyptian Hispanic Association Nagwa Mehrez, Ambassador of Ecuador Edwin Johnson, Ambassador of México María Carmen Oñate Muñoz, Ambassador of Cuba Otto Valliant Frías, Ambassador of Guatemala Laris Pira and the Spanish Cultural Counsellor Montserrat Momán. Artist Farid Fadel's new exhibition “Bread and Water” opened at the Cala Art Gallery in the presence of AUC professor Mona Zaki, Fadel's wife, German Ambassador to Egypt Michael Bock, Australian Ambassador to Egypt Ralph King and his wife, Canadian Ambassador to Egypt David Drake and his Turkish counterpart Héseyin Avni Botsali, as well as former minister of social solidarity Ali Meselhi, former minister of administrative development Ahmed Darwish and businessmen Shafik Gabr, Raouf Ghabbour and Nader Riad (see Listings p.21).
♠ The Turkish Ambassador to Egypt Héseyin Avni Botsali held the annual Turkish Spring Charity Bazaar to the benefit of the 57357 children's cancer hospital. Among the guests who enjoyed a sunny day in the garden of Botsali's residence in Giza were former prime minister Abdel-Aziz Hegazi, Giza Governor Ali Abdel-Rahman, former minister of information Osama Heikal, President of the International Union of Muslim-Christian-Jewish Dialogue and Peace Education Ali Al-Samman, writer Laila Takla and Ambassador Abdel-Raouf Al-Reidi.
¨ Al-Shorouk publishing house, owned and directed by Ibrahim Al-Muallim, held a prestigious ceremony at the Cairo Opera House Open Air Theatre to launch Nady Al-Sayarat (The Cars Club), novelist Alaa Al-Aswani's latest book (see Listings p.21). Actor Ezzat Al-Alayli and actress Yossra read extracts from the novel. Present were celebrities and public figures including former culture minister Emad Abu Ghazi, judge Fouad Abdel-Moneim Riad, actress Athar Al-Hakim and producer Mohamed Al-Adl.
♣ The first edition of the International Festival for Drums and Traditional Arts (19-25 April) will take place at the Salaheddin Citadel, on Cairo Opera House grounds, at the Al-Ghouri Caravansary, the Banha Cultural Centre, Cairo University and the Children's Museum in Heliopolis. Various troupes from around the world will participate in the festival; they include Columbia, Namibia, Sudan, Greece, China, France, Pakistan, the Maldives, Togo and Ecuador. The head of the General Organisation for Culture Palaces (GOCP) Saad Abdel-Rahman announced the participation of the GOCP troupes in the first round of the festival.
¨ The School of Sciences and Engineering Outreach Programme is hosting its fourth annual Cairo Science Festival (11-25 April). The festival this year is on the theme of enriching people's lives, and it will seek to cultivate scientific literacy through a multitude of activities that connect science to sports, the arts and everyday life. “The festival renews itself each year according to the challenges and opportunities of the time,” said Alaa Ibrahim, associate professor of space astrophysics and founder and coordinator of the festival. “We want to foster a positive attitude about society through science and to have people experience science as a hobby.” The festival opened on 11 April with a keynote address by Bruce Alberts, United States Science envoy, former president of the US National Academy of Sciences (1993-2005) and former editor-in-chief of Science magazine (2005-2013). The speech, “Science and Democracy: Critical Roles for Science and Scientists in a Democratic Society”, explained why a broadly engaged scientific community is essential for stimulating a democratic society in the post-revolution phase in Egypt and other emergent democracies in the Arab world. A second keynote address, “The Science of Well-Being”, was delivered by Ahmed Okasha, professor of psychiatry at Ain Shams University and president of the Egyptian Psychiatric Association, in the Moataz Al Alfi Hall, AUC New Cairo. Okasha discussed how to develop positive emotions and maintain an optimistic attitude in life amid social and political transformations. In the spirit of engaging the public, the festival also included a video conferencing session with Jonathan Grindlay, professor of astronomy at Harvard University.
♥ For the third time in a row and after its successful projects Shawarena and Communal Mosaic in Alexandria in 2012, Mahatat for contemporary arts is working on a number of revolutionary workshops in Damietta. In a press conference attended by Mai Samih in Cairo, Heba Al-Sheikh, co-founder of Mahatat, announced the start of the project, Face to Face, which will take place throughout the next three months. The artists giving workshops are Rana Al-Nemr on documentary photography, Mohamed Shindi on theatre performance and Hanaa Al-Deghami and Dalia Refaat on visual arts in public space. “The idea of the project is that we give artists the opportunity to mingle with the environment and at the same time let the outside world see them,” Al-Sheikh explained. “The project consists of two components: the online side includes a virtual world on a website we are working on that will enable people to know what artistic events are going on in a given city, and the offline side includes workshops to develop skills.” Al-Sheikh also offered a glimpse of Mahatat's future plans: “We intend to cover all the Delta governorates and will organise the closing conference of the event in September in Damietta.”
♠ Congratulations! During the 50th General Assembly of the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA) held recently in Istanbul, Secretary-General of the Egyptian Hotel Association Hala Al-Khatib was elected member of the board. This is the first time an Egyptian is picked in these elections since the foundation of the IHRA in 1869.
