photos: Ghada Abd El-Kader Under the auspices of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, Minister of Social Affairs Ali El-Moselhi who did the honours in person -- presided over the annual charity market of the Women's Health Improvement Association (WHIA), whose president, Sawsan Atteya, was proud to announce that the embassies represented included Syria, Libya, Amman, Libya, Palestine, China, India and Sudan. Each country brings along its products, its culture and traditions -- shopping heaven, let me assure you. Presided by the agricultural counsellor of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Cairo Herman van Wissen, the Dutch Culinary Festival watered mouths and cooled hearts at the Nile Hilton. None other than my good colleague Ghada Abd El-Kader who got to sample the delights on offer, having attended a press conference and gala featuring Dutch Ambassador Tjeerd de Zwaan, General Manager of Nile Hilton Jean-Pierre Mainardi, famous Dutch TV Master Chef Rudolph Van Veen and Pastry Chef Jan Willem Jansen. All were delighted to be in Egypt, they said -- a huge market for foodstuffs which must accommodate international cuisines, the better to benefit its economy as much as its connoisseurs. The festival was a good start, bringing together some 300 figures and the city's most prestigious hotels and bars. The 56th anniversary of the European Union National Day saw Klaus Ebermann, head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Egypt, hosting Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali, Minister of Education Yousri El-Gamal, Minister of Higher Education Hani Helal, Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza, Governor of Qaloubiya Adli Hussein and Presidential Advisor Osama El-Baz at his lush residence in Zamalek -- some of my loveliest friends. photo: Ayman Barayez Nothing like an evening with our friends the Lebanese, dears. Under the auspices of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, the Egyptian-Lebanese Friendship Association, headed by my lovely friend brigadier Mounir Thabet, held a charity party to establish a community centre for children with special needs in the neighbourhood of Zeinhom. Held at the Main Hall of the Cairo Opera, dears, the delightful party featured two drop-dead-gorgeous singer friends, the Tunisian Saber El-Rubai and the Egyptian Ghada Ragab as well as such invaluable friends as our beautiful Tunisian Ambassador Al-Shazli Al-Nafati, Chairman of the Board of Al-Ahram Salah El-Ghamri, general co-ordinator of Egyptian-Libyan relations Ahmed Qazaf Al-Dam and Chairman of the Egyptian-Lebanese Friendship Association Bel-Hassan Al-Taraboulsi. From whence to the American University in Cairo, beauties, where the Political Science Department held a seminar on women and development -- with a special focus on democracy. The venue was the inappropriately named but incredibly accommodating Blue Room, and speakers included the inimitable Nawal El-Saadawi -- feminist novelist, physician and sociologue -- and head of the Ibn Khaldun Centre Saadeddin Ibrahim, as well as chairman of the Association for the Advancement of Education (AAE) and veteran political activist Mona Makram Ebeid. And all things considered, honey bunnies, you can be sure our "capitalist patriarchal system" got the bashing that it deserves. Plenty of music was there to be had at the memorial of the late great, singer-composer Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, what with my good friend conductor Selim Sahab 's National Arab Music Ensemble taking to the Manesterly Palace -- the work of the Cultural Development Fund. They played songs Abdel-Wahab had himself performed and others he wrote for the great Umm Kulthoum, with breathtaking solos by Inas, Reem Kamal and Ghada Adam. Congratulations, dears! Nihal Khidr and Ireini Fayek -- both students of mass communication at the Modern Sciences and Arts University (MSA) -- were among the five finalists of the Iba'a Media Competition, held in Dubai Media City in April 2006. Likewise architecture students at Cairo's Faculty of Engineering won the Third National Conference in February 2006, while accounting students at the Faculty of Management Sciences came second in the fourth Accounting Link Auditing Simulation held by Pricewater Coopers at AUC in May 2006. photo: Ayman Barayez A seminar on tourism, dears, and what a beautiful occasion to catch up -- not only with my very good friend Motaz Raslan, chairman of CanadaEgypt Business Council (CEBC), under whose auspices the event was held, but with our dashing Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah too. Which is not to mention my very good friends Minister of State for Administrative Development of Egypt Ahmed Darwish, Minister of Social Affairs Ali El-Moselhi and Egyptian Minister of Education Yousri El-Gamal, Secretary-General of the CEBC Mina Morcos Guirguis and Canadian Ambassador to Egypt Philippe Mackinnon. It all took place at one of my favourite venues, too: the Nile Hilton's Alf Leila Ballroom. Garranah spoke of South Sinai projects and plans to eliminate the effects of the recent Dahab terrorist attack. The Paris-Sorbonne University-Abu Dhabi was at the centre of yet another delightful evening at the Four Seasons Hotel to promote the opening of the first French-language university in the Middle East. The Paris-Sorbonne University, of which this is a branch, is the only university in France to specialise in the humanities, offering the broadest range of courses in art, language and society. The Abu Dhabi campus will retain its parent institution's republican tradition; enrollment will be open to all students regardless of nationality, gender or religion, and graduates will earn the Paris-Sorbonne's Licence. None of which could equal the sheer joy of a new announcement made by UNICEF and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) -- targeting print journalists as well as TV and radio producers working on such issues as child labour, AIDS and tolerance across difference, and with adolescents and older children among the jurists. Representing the NCCM and UNICEF, respectively, my good friends Moushira Khattab and Erma Manoncourt agreed that the awards were consistent with global efforts to push children higher up on national agendas. Entries, to be submitted no later than 31 October 2006, will be short-listed by an NCCM-UNICEF joint panel, then sent onto the competition jury; winners will participate in the 5th World Summit on Media for Children, to be held in South Africa in March 2007.
