The media shed light on this week's limited cabinet reshuffle that saw the advent of four new ministers of local development, culture, tourism and the public business sector. The editorial of the daily Al-Ahram wrote that every now and then we need to change faces in order to pump new blood and achieve more. In that context, it added, came the limited government reshuffle “Without doubt, the most important issues before the government at present are local development and tourism. Besides, the culture portfolio is one of the most challenging due to the dire need to change some of the wrong concepts that control the minds of our youth nowadays. Black terrorism makes use of these concepts to influence youth,” the edit said. Akram Al-Qassas said the most important aspect of the reshuffle was that Sherif Ismail remained as prime minister. Ismail headed the government at the most dangerous phase during which he took some of the most painful economic decisions like the pound flotation and the redistribution of subsidies. In his article in the daily Al-Youm Al-Sabei Al-Qassas noted the selection of two women to head the ministries of culture and tourism, in addition to four female ministers already in government. Women now occupy 20 per cent of the major ministries for the first time. The Ministry of Culture, Al-Qassas wrote, presents one of the pillars of development and progress as it is directly related to the management of minds. The ministry, Al-Qassas elaborated, has recently become a bureaucratic body not performing any cultural activities. “The selection of Inas Abdel- Dayyem is a step because she proved during her management of the Opera House her efficiency and established good relations with men of culture,” he wrote. She is likely to grant freedom and support various cultural fields including cinema and pull culture out of its present state of stagnation, he added. The Ministry of Tourism is probably suffering from the absence of a vision in a country where tourism should be a far better source of income than the present situation, Al-Qassas concluded. Former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser was remembered this week on the centenary of his birth. Amr Shobki questioned why we celebrate Nasser's centenary. He wrote that we remember his principles and beliefs that he defended. “He is like any other leader. He presented to the world a political and intellectual project and entered various battles. He won some of them like that of the 1956 war and lost others like 1967,” Shobki wrote in the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. He noted that Nasser's principles were genuine. He did not deny Sudan the right to independence from Egypt at a time when he was struggling to free his country and other Third World states from occupation. He did not impose unity on Syria by force because he believed that unity is a popular choice, Shobki added. Thus, he accepted a coup against unity in order to avoid a battle between Egypt and Syria. “He was the first to define revolution as the science of changing society.” By Anwar, Al-Masry Al-Youm Reaction to the reshuffle
