Nevine El-Aref provides a rundown of this year's State Award winners The winners of State Awards in science, the arts, literature and social science were announced this week. There are four classes of awards -- the Mubarak Award (LE400,000); the State Merit (LE200,000); State Distinction Awards (LE100,000) and Incentive Awards (LE50,000). On Sunday and Monday the executive boards of the Academy of Science (AS) and the Supreme Council of Culture (SCC) gathered to vote for candidates. After four heated rounds the names of 86 veteran scholars and artists emerged as winners, 47 in science and 39 in the arts, literature and social science. Eleven Incentive Awards were withheld because no one candidate received the required number of votes. One Distinction Award was also withheld after two final candidates received an equal number of jury votes. The Mubarak Award, the most prestigious of all, saw the fiercest competition. Psychiatrist Ahmed Okasha won the prize for science and scientific research, Mustafa El-Feki, recently appointed to the Shura Council, won the sociological studies award, poet Abdel-Rahman El-Abnoudi won for the literature and caricaturist Mustafa Hussein for the arts. Eighteen State Merit Awards were handed out, nine in science -- including Rashiqa El-Ridi, a professor at Cairo University -- and nine in arts, literature and sociological studies. Among the latter recipients were theatre directors Ahmed Zaki and Samir El-Asfuri, former minister of Waqf (religious endowments) Mohamed Mahgoub, and professor of urban planning at the University of Alexandria Mohsen Zahran. Al-Ahram writer Mustafa El-Damarani, theatre director Khaled Galal and Ain Shams University professor and former director-general of the Cairo Museum Mamdouh El-Damati were among the six winners of the Distinction Awards. Fatma Ali, a critic on Al-Akhbar newspaper, won one of the 21 Incentive Awards. This year's voting system was changed, with successful candidates requiring the votes of half of all SCC members plus one after the fourth round. Writer and SCC member Salah Eissa suggested to provide to all journalists and media people the opportunity to attend such rounds and voting in an attempt to show to them that the awards are given by a decent and adequate council to those who deserve them and not given haphazardly by a group of officials. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, the head of the SCC, defended the selection process. "These are not Farouk Hosni's awards as some people seem to insinuate," he said. "Casting aspersions on the awards is an attempt to undermine both their prestige and the important role played by the SCC." Gaballah Ali Gaballah, a former secretary- general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, called for legislative intervention to fix an age limit for winners of the Distinction Awards, while Gaber Asfour, former SCC secretary-general, suggested a revision of assessment committees which "withheld names of people who deserve a prize". Gamal El-Ghitani, the editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al-Adab, suggested the SCC be given an opportunity to put forward a greater range of candidates, a suggestion Hosni rejected because it would require legal changes.
