♣ Italian Ambassador Maurizio Massari and his wife Mary chose to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the Republic of Italy with a lavish reception at Al-Manial Palace Museum; Reham El-Adawi was there. The evening started with the national anthem of Egypt and Italy performed by Egyptian and Italian artists from the Cairo Opera House, followed by Massari giving a speech in which he confirmed Egypt's old and deep relations with Italy in the fields of industry, art and archaeology; only last year, 14 Italian missions have been excavating on Egyptian archaeological sites. Despite the very high temperature that day, the party was overcrowded by diplomats, businessmen, tourism experts, artists, media figures, diplomats and high-profile figures including among many others German Ambassador Michael Bock and his wife Dogmar, his Turkish counterpart Hussein Avni Botsali, Oman Ambassador Khalifa bin Ali Al-Harthi, Saudi Ambassador Ahmed Qatan, Minister of Justice Ahmed Suleiman, Ambassador Nehad Abdel-Latif, the foreign minister's assistant and former minister of family and population Mushira Khattab, Al-Wadi Al-Gadid Governor Tarek Al-Mahdi, tenor Hassan Kami, supervisor of the Cairo Opera House Ballet Company Erminia Kamel, composer Gaber Al-Beltagui, tourism expert Amr Badr and painter Farid Fadel. ♥ The Azerbaijan Ambassador to Egypt Shahin Abdullayev celebrated the national day of his country at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza Hotel, where a documentary on the country's most important tourist attractions, its great history, art and culture was screened. Present were the Turkish Ambassador to Egypt Hussein Avni Botsali and his wife, the Iranian Ambassador to Egypt Mujtaba Amany, the engineer Yasser Abbas, the owner of an international chain of hotels, the former governor of Qalioubiya Adli Hussein, the head of Garden City Lions Club Awatef Serageddin, among others.
ª Swing Latino troupe from Colombia concluded its seven-country tour in Egypt at the Cairo Opera House Small Hall. The tour was organised within the framework of cultural exchange between countries such as Holland, Lithuania, Turkey, Poland, Cyprus, Latvia and Egypt. The Swing Latino troupe is well-known for its unique salsa style presenting the Colombian folklore.
¨ The Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria saw the graduation ceremony of the first class of the mass communication department at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport. Academy President Ismail Abdel-Ghaffar honoured the graduates and delivered a brief speech. During the ceremony, various celebrities were honoured: the media figure Ingy Abdallah, the Editor-in-Chief of Akhbar Al-Nogoum magazine Intessar Dardier, the TV presenter Maye Hamed, the radio presenter Osama Mounir and the head of Nile Cinema satellite channel Omar Zahran, who expressed their admiration for the graduation projects of the students. Also present were actor Sami Al-Adl, musician Selim Sahab, actresses Dorra, Mona Hala and Ferial Youssef, singers Mahmoud Al-Esseili and Shaza, and filmmakers Sherif Mandour and Karim Al-Adl.
♣ On the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the first Republic of Armenia that lasted only for two and a half years (28 May 1918-29 November 1920), the Housaper Cultural Association have organised a celebration at its Heliopolis club this week. Guest speaker that day was no other than the Armenian Ambassador to Egypt Armen Melkonian, who stressed the importance of struggling to achieve that very first independence after which Armenians kept their history and cultural heritage alive by crafting their present and their path towards the future, even after the fall of the Soviet Union that led to Armenia's second independence in 1991. The celebrations continued with the performance of “Dzaghgasdan” children's choir who presented a bouquet of Armenian patriotic songs led by their conductor Kohar Ghazelian. Eleven-year-old Mané Sayian successfully performed Arunod Trosh (About the National Flag) song.
♣ The 16th Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentary and Short Films (4-9 June), headed by Kamal Abdel-Aziz, started its activities this week. Sixty-nine films are participating from all over the world, among which are five significant Egyptian films: Jews of Egypt directed by Amir Ramses, Mohamed Survives the Water directed by Safaa Fathi, From Queens to Cairo directed by Sherif Sadek, Behind the Mirror directed by Mohamed Mamdouh Habachi and Abu Dagher. This is not to mention A Deep Long Breath and Those Girls by Tahani Rashed, and Fire by Gian Vittorio Baldi in the Tribute Screening section.
♥ A grand celebration marked the 45th anniversary of the National Cancer Institute in Egypt. It commenced with the screening of a documentary showing the achievements of the institute, during which evening a number of veteran physicians were honoured. Minister of Scientific Research Nadia Zakhari, President of Cairo University Hossam Kamel and actress Fardous Abdel-Hamid were present. Amr Selim and his troupe gave a piano recital.
ª To commemorate the National Day of Georgia, Ambassador of Georgia to Egypt Archil Dzuliashvili held a reception party at the Giza Four Seasons Hotel where he delivered a speech saying, “We are proud to celebrate regaining our liberty and statehood. Here, I would like to talk about the history of Independence Day. Ninety-five years ago, on 26 May 1918, Georgia declared its independence after the collapse of the Russian empire, but this lasted only three years. In February 1921 Georgia was attacked again and occupied, this time by the Red Army. We were forced to become part of the Soviet empire. “In 1991 Georgia restored its independence. During the years of independence Georgia passed through chaos, destruction, civil war, foreign invasion and the occupation of parts of our land. Twenty per cent of our territory is still occupied and we have more than 500,000 IDPs and refugees who can't go back to their homes. But, in spite of all that, we managed to demonstrate our firm intention to develop our country. In a short period, Georgia created a solid base for sustainable development and managed to transform itself from almost a failed state into one of the most non-corrupt and transparent countries in the world.” Present were many diplomats, including the ambassadors of Tunisia, Palestine, China, Ecuador, Armenia, Cyprus and Sri Lanka.
