The international festival for drums and heritage art in Banha closed on Sunday with a show by the Toshka group named “Long Live Egypt”. The festival was organised by the Ministry of Culture. An award for the gifted It was no easy job for the jury to choose the winning handful out of some 260 articles submitted to the 2015 Mustafa and Ali Amin Award for Journalism, widely regarded as the highest professional award in Egypt, not only for its value, but for its objective criteria for selection. Veteran writer and former press syndicate head Makram Mohamed Ahmed won the award of the person of the year, while diplomat Mustafa Al-Fiki, caricaturist Abdel-Aziz Tag and writer Mohamed Al-Ezabi were selected. The celebration was held on Sunday and attended by high-level officials, writers and journalists. The award of allegiance, usually given to an Al-Akhbar journalist, was awarded this year to journalist Sherif Khafagi for his efforts in issuing Al-Akhbar. The award was established in 1986, relying on a deposit from Prince Talal bin Abdel-Aziz, the interests on which have gone to funding it. The award takes its name from veteran twin brother journalists Mustafa and Ali Amin, who established Akhbar Al-Youm and are regarded as the fathers of the Arab press. “I cannot accept the diplomatic statements issued after repeated violations by policemen. A few days ago a victim fell to a policeman in Al-Darb Al-Ahmar, and then we heard about the police attack on doctors in Al-Matariya Hospital. This week we were surprised by a policeman killing a tea vendor and, 24 hours later, we heard about another policeman shooting a driver in Hadayek Al-Kobba. While we appreciate the sacrifices of policemen who stay up at night to protect citizens, we cannot accept any violations from them.” Mohamed Lotfi, Akhbar Al-Youm 25 April protests “Sinai liberation started 34 years ago. From that day until last year, we used to celebrate that day with pride and unanimity. This year, we become two belligerent groups because of Tiran and Sanafir. Those who protested against giving up the two islands have the spirit of the authentic fellah who refuses to give up any part of their land. But those who introduced that file to the people lacked the political experience and shrewdness in terms of timing and disclosure. As a result, they divided the people to a group for and another against giving up the two islands.” Suleiman Gouda, Al-Masry Al-Youm
“The genuine protester is the one who carefully considers the repercussions of his protest. If a protester wants to act according to high revolutionary ambitions, he has to remember Lenin's statement that, without a revolutionary theory, there is no revolutionary move. So, if he finds out that the outcome of a protest is not in the interest of his revolution, he should postpone it to a more suitable time.” Ahmed Abdel-Tawab, Al-Ahram
“The real aim of calls for protests on 25 April and similar calls is to spread disorder and to topple any system that prevents foreign funding from flowing to human rights association. The fact that the number human rights and civil society organisations jumped from 27,000 before the revolution to more than 47,000 after the revolution proves my point.” Dandarawi Al-Hawari, Al-Youm Al-Sabei Decades of cooperation “The UAE's support for Egypt, especially after the 30 June Revolution, is clear. It was one of the first states that backed the revolution and gave Egypt financial support to the value of $3 billion. It carried on its support for the Egyptian economy by singing various economic cooperation agreements and providing Cairo with fuel. It also took part in various development projects including building 100 schools and more than 50,000 housing units. All hail to the UAE and its leaders for their support for Egypt.” Adel Al-Sanhouri, Al-Youm Al-Sabei An ongoing crisis “The US dollar continued on its crazy jumps. I personally used to think that the reason for that is the speculations of currency traders or importing unnecessary goods. But the main reason for that crisis is that we produce less than our consumption needs and we import more than we export. Unless we resolve that problem, the dollar issue will last.” Emadeddin Hussein, Al-Shorouk Egyptian Essence: 20% of Egyptians are asthmatic “Food, dust and pollution are the main causes of asthma from which some 20 per cent of Egyptian children suffer, according to the 12th International Conference for Allergies and Immunity among children.” Al-Ahram Facebook “Why did Saudi Arabia never dare to hint that the two islands are Saudi under Nasser? Tiran is 100 per cent Egyptian according to the line that divides the distance between the Egyptian shore in Sinai and the Saudi borders. There are more border scandals that are still behind the curtains.” Mohamed Khalil Ibrahim “We belong to the Nasser generation and we fought in the 1967 and the 1973 wars, but we never heard that Tiran and Sanafir were Egyptian. All that I remember is that the president closed the Strait of Bab Al-Mandeb in the face of Israeli navigation then. If President Al-Sisi did not take part in these wars, where are those who did? Some of them are still alive. Their testimony should settle the issue.” Hussein Hussein Al-Fatarani Twitter amira el fekki @afekki Now — #Egypt's #Sisi suddenly shifts public speech about #Sinai Liberation Day to ordering government to solve price hikes crisis. Jenna Le Bras @JennaLBs #Egypt's Interior Ministry files charges against Reuters claiming its #Cairo bureau chief is “intentionally publishing misinformation to disturb public peace, spread rumours, and distort #Egypt's reputation, after publishing a report using anonymous sources. Hani Shukrallah @HaniShukrallah #Egypt PM tells Parliament: We don't have luxury of choosing between corruption & reform, success or failure” — our age of weirdness.
