As August draws to its close, and we pack up our beach homes and head back to the city, so too is a stream of diplomats -- who are ending their term and heading home. The English-Egyptian Cooperation Council, presided over by Ibrahim Kamel, organised a lunch in honour of the Spanish Ambassador to Cairo Pedro Lopez, on the occasion of the termination to his service in Egypt. In the presence of the council's Secretary-General Ihab Sorour and other members, Lopez discussed with members of the council topics such as the expected October visit of President Hosni Mubarak to Spain, as well as the visit in April 2005 of a council delegation to Madrid and other European capitals. Not quite a joyous farewell meal, but certainly diplomatically productive! The hotel sphere this season has certainly been bustling with activity. The InterContinental in Heliopolis recently hosted the newly named Minister of Tourism Ahmed El-Maghrabi, new Cairo Governor Abdel-Azim Wazir and Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, where they were welcomed by General Manager of InterContinental Heliopolis Thomas Hilberath and Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Sharbatly, owner of CityStars; a project which includes different components: the InterContinental Heliopolis, Holiday Inn Heliopolis and Stars hotels. El- Maghrabi was apparently impressed by the entities under his umbrella. The event was certainly spectacular -- Japanese drummers in Alexandria. And on the occasion of the group performance held at Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria, the handing-over ceremony of lighting and sound equipment took place. The equipment was purchased by a Japanese cultural grant aid amounting to 49 million yen (approximately LE2.9 million). Egypt has been a beneficiary of this generous Japanese type of grant aid for the last 25 years. Originally Japan granted sound equipment to the theatre through the same scheme in 1981. Today's equipment will enable the theatre to upgrade the theatre's overall capabilities, as well as enabling the installation of additional lighting equipment. It is expected that this project will encourage cultural and educational activities in Egypt. The Japanese drummers will most certainly be invited back for all of you who missed them. They say that it never rains but it pours. Perhaps this is not quite pouring, but it is certainly more than the usual trickle; more news in the circle of Japanese- Egyptian cooperation! This month Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan Hiroyasu Kobayashi signed two grant contracts with two NGOs namely: El-Salam Association for Social Care (SASC) and the Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ERCS). The first contract, signed by Chairman of the SASC Rahby Fathy, entailed the Embassy of Japan extending a grant amounting to $81,880 to the SASC for the provision of school desks and chairs in Assiut. It is certainly a worthy cause: The SASC was established in October 2000 to serve 75 villages in Assiut Governorate. With an aim to improve living conditions in these villages, they provide a wide range of activities including developing local communities, protection and services for children and mothers, care for people with special needs, environmental awareness and vocational training. The second contract was signed by Secretary- General of the ERCS Mamdouh Gabr. The grant ($39,356) was extended in the aim of improving the Rehabilitation Centre. The ERCS was established in 1912 with an aim to sustain health and socioeconomic development of the community, in particular that of women, children, youth, elderly and the handicapped. The media remains a hot topic this year -- increasingly so in fact. The workshop held at the Stella Di Mare Resort in Ain Al-Sukhna was not quite Michael Moore material, but it was certainly worthy of debate. The workshop, "Media Coverage and Human Rights Issues", was organised by the Arabic Internews Network headed by Said Darwish, and the Arab Centre for Legal, Auditing, Economic Consolling and Vocational Training headed by Ahmed Abdel-Hafiz. About 40 journalists from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and other Arab countries gathered for four days to exchange and discuss journalistic experiences related to the media coverage and human rights issues in their respective countries. Among the issues tackled were: the international agreements on protecting press freedom; the duties of journalists covering stories in conflicting areas during war time; the status of press freedom and legal restrictions on press freedom in Egypt and the other Arabic countries; journalistic coverage of the parliamentary elections, media coverage of the crimes and accidents. Among the lecturers were Bahieddin Hassan, head of Cairo Centre for Human Rights Studies, and Hafez Abu Seida, head of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights. On the culminating day of the stimulating debate, a round table was held to discuss a paper written by Abdel-Hafiz entitled, "A comparative study between the status of the press in Egypt during the 1960s and today." Well, dear readers, it is most unfortunate that the writer discovered in concluding that press freedom in the 1960s was certainly more prominent, and that those in the old days enjoyed a state of journalistic freedom of expression far greater than that of today. Another interesting paper submitted was that by Amr Hashem Rabie, an expert at the Al-Ahram Political and Strategic Studies Centre, on Egyptian press and the honest, free parliamentary election. Perhaps the conclusion of that paper best remains something for readers to take free reign in imagining.
