By Zahi Hawass Many foreigners who live in Egypt become "Egyptianised", working with us to make our country and our shared world a better place. I still remember Austria's Ambassador Count Ferdinand von Trautmansdorff, who lived with us for four years. He loved and respected us, and we in turn loved him. Before he left, Egyptians from all walks of life stopped by to say good-bye. Another wonderful man is the present German ambassador, Martin Kobler, who recently arrived in Egypt. I was invited to a party at his residence, and I could see right away that Egypt would love him, not because his wife is Egyptian, as indeed she is, but because of his sincerity and love and respect for Egyptians. The French ambassador, Jean-Claude Cousseran, is also a remarkable man. People take an instant liking to him because of his modesty and his efforts to improve the relationship between France and Egypt. I recently travelled to the United States to give a series of lectures (including one at the White House), and was subjected to detention and interrogation on my arrival at the airport in Washington DC. David Welsh, the US ambassador to Egypt, heard about my treatment at the hands of the customs officers at Dulles Airport and immediately called me from Egypt to apologise personally. Egypt is always generous with its friends. This is especially true in the field of Egyptology, where we work so often and so effectively with foreign scholars. More than 300 foreign expeditions are currently excavating in Egypt, and we encourage them because we believe, as President Mubarak frequently says, that the civilisation of the Ancient Egyptians belongs to everyone, and that we modern Egyptians are only the guardians of our monuments. We happily host the many foreign colleagues who visit us or live among us. There are, however, some people who come to our country only to stay apart from us, people who treat us with disrespect and a lack of courtesy. When they leave no one even remembers their names. I met one of these recently, and I hope that his name too will be forgotten, rather than written in the annals of infamy. Our relationship with Italy has always been strong. The first expedition arrived from Italy 100 years ago under Schiaparelli. This scientific project was followed by many others. More than 15 Italian expeditions are currently working here in Egypt, among them missions from the universities of Naples, Rome, Florence, and the Turin Museum. We are currently celebrating 100 years of cooperation between our two countries. We have given the Italian Cultural Centre all the help they have asked for, even moving the objects from our Hidden Treasures exhibition, mounted to mark the centennial of the Egyptian Museum, in order to make our beautiful new basement gallery available for a special exhibit featuring artefacts discovered by Italian expeditions. The event was held at 7pm, and I arrived in the conference room 10 minutes late because I was addressing the journalists who had stopped me on the way in, telling them about the wonderful relationship we enjoyed with the Italians. When I reached the conference room, instead of receiving the warm welcome I was expecting, I was greeted by a voice raised in rage. I was accused in front of the audience of keeping everyone waiting. I was shocked by this reception, but refrained from responding. Instead of leaving the gathering or yelling back, I chose to stay and proceed with my speech out of respect for the audience. We Egyptians are proud of our country, and do not take kindly to being attacked. We do not allow others to insult us, and will always defend ourselves from the sort of distasteful and disrespectful display to which I was subjected on Monday of last week. I hope that everyone, Egyptian, Italian and others, will support me in condemning such behaviour and refuse, as I do, to allow a single individual to damage the wonderful relationship that our two countries have enjoyed for so long.
