Echoes At the American University in Cairo's Photo Gallery is a group exhibition by 26 photographers from the gallery's archival collection. Entitled "Echoes: Photographs from the Collection", the exhibit is an overview of past shows from 1991 to the present. Participating photographers include Alaaeddin Abdel-Nabi, Farouk Aksoi, Robert Azzi, Walter Chappell, Reem El-Faisal, John Feeney, Shems Friedlander, Ara Gèler, Thomas Hartwell, Lehnert & Landrock, Enric Marti, Jaime Mota, Lucie Pavlovich, Nagla Samir, Randa Shaath, Alfred Stieglitz and John C Tordai, among others. ( see Listings p.20 ) photos: Ayman Barayez To celebrate 50 years since the founding of the Sound and Light Theatre at the Pyramids, the well-known pianist Omar Khairat gave a concert of his own compositions there, accompanied by harpist Manal Mohieddin. Among the audience were the Cairo Governor Abdel-Qawi Khalifa, the Deputy Foreign Minister Nahed El-Ashri, the film critic Ali Abu Shadi, the actor Hussein Fahmi and his wife actress Leqaa Swedan, and the head of Sound and Light Company Essam Abdel-Hadi. photo: Abdel-Hamid Eid The cast of the recently released film Bibo wi Beshir (Bibo and Beshir), written by Karim Fahmi and Hisham Maged and directed by Mariam Abu Ouf, gave a press conference at the headquarters of the production company: Assir Yassin, Ezzat Abu Ouf, Safiya El-Emari, Mohamed Mamdouh ; filmmaker Mohamed Khan was the guest of honour. Together with the executive producer of the film, the actress Boushra, the team was missing only Menna Shalabi, the female lead. El Sawy Culturewheel celebrated International Literacy Day with sponsorship from one of the leading mobile phone companies in Egypt. Present with the of director of El Sawy Culturewheel Mohamed El-Sawy was the popular preacher Amr Khaled, who gave a speech on the importance of education, announcing the timeline of the project, which aims to make 120,000 people literate in the first year of the programme, explaining how it relies on young volunteers. Amany Abul-Fadl has published her novel A Tunnel To Gaza: The Story of Two Sides of One City, a realistic work in English about the siege of the Gaza Strip and the suffering of both Palestinians and Egyptians as a result of it. Born in 1962, Abul-Fadl is an Egyptian writer who has published novels in both Arabic and English. She holds a PhD degree in American literature and works as a university lecturer; and her fiction often reflects human rights activities. Her first novel Birds of the South, written in English, reflected experience among the Muslim community in the United States before and after 9/11. A Tunnel To Gaza reflects her work as a volunteer with relief agencies during the 2008 war on Gaza known as "Operation Cast Lead". In a poll held by the MAD Talk Show page on Facebook, which specialises in talk shows, Al-Shaab Yoreed, hosted by Tony Khalifa, came first, taking 18 per cent some 7,000 votes. Lamis Gaber 's Dostor Ya Siady, by contrast, came last with only two votes -- though it was broadcast on the same channel, Al-Qahera Wal-Nas. On TV's Al Bernamig by Bassem Youssef was rated second with 13 per cent of the votes. The third place went to Mahmoud Saad 's Ya Misr Omy talk on Tahrir TV after gaining with 10 per cent, while Adel Hamouda 's All The President Men on CBC TV came fourth. Although the poll was dedicated to recorded talk shows addressing political and public issues, the fans of the page added more programmes such as the big media figure Yousri Foda 's Akhir Kalam On TV and Ramez Qalb Al-Asad presented by comedian Ramez Galal and on Al-Hayah TV. In this regard, Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, editor-in-chief of the MAD Talk Show page, confirmed that the last poll reflects an interest in tracking the attitudes of TV audiences to talk shows increasingly watched after the 25 January. He added that the poll started in late Ramadan to ensure that the majority of participants had deeply digested the programmes and were ready to build a considered viewpoint. On the other hand, the film critic Alaa Karkouti, director of MAD Solutions, announced his company's willingness to launch a website whose services will be integrated to the MAD Talk Show Facebook page. The Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Day took place in Cairo. The Information Minister Osama Heikal, the Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Hisham Kandil, the chairman of the Information Service, Ambassador Ismail Khairat, and the Indian Ambassador to Egypt R Swaminathan presided over the event, whose audience included many Egyptians trained in ITEC scheme courses in India. Launched in 1964 as an Indian partnership programme to address the needs of friendly developing countries including the human resources development, the ITEC Programme makes up an important component of India's economic relations with Egypt, offering training in over 250 courses in prestigious educational, technical and vocational institutes in India in a variety of fields ranging from information technology to management, vocational training, banking, finance and English. Some 300 Egyptians have attended various short-term training courses in the last few years under the ITEC and related programmes. The plan is to bring the total number of Egyptian trainees to 100 this year.
