Towering art Sculptor Essam Darwish, whose new creation has lately been mounted at Mohandessin's Lebanon Square, believes that "architecture is the mother of all arts". To be officially inaugurated in the coming days, Darwish's masterpiece is inspired by a tower, akin to most of his pieces. Darwish has participated in the earlier rounds of Emaar Sculpture Symposium in Dubai among 40 international sculptors, winning the second prize for his marble and stainless steel work entitled "Together". He also won the competition organised for modelling a six-metre bronze statue of late veteran footballer, Saleh Selim, which is currently located at Al-Ahly Club. photo: Sherif Mahmoud Under the auspices of Culture Minister Farouk Hosni and in the presence of Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab, National Translation Centre head Gaber Asfour and Cairo University President Ali Abdel-Rahman, head of the Yamani Charitable Cultural Foundation, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, distributed prizes for the ninth round of Mekka Poet Mohamed Hassan Feqi Competition at the Semiramis InterContinental Hotel. The awards, valued at $20,000 each, were given to poet Ahmed Ghorab in the field of poetry and Hammed Abu Ahmed in the field of poetry criticism. On the sidelines of the ceremony, the Yamani foundation, in cooperation with Cairo University, which is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year, organised a panel discussion titled, "Baghdad in Arab Poetry". The panel featured a galaxy of poets and poetry critics from Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. At Alexandria Creativity Centre, "The Magic of Nature" exhibition showcasing 65 multi-media paintings by Al-Ahram art critic, Nagwa El-Ashri, was inaugurated by Dean of the Alexandria Faculty of Fine Arts Mahmoud Enayat. A bevy of artists attended the opening event, including professor of graphics Farouk Shehata, head of the Alexandria Fine Arts Museum Mustafa Abdel-Wahab and calligrapher Said Abdel-Qader. The Canadian capital Ottowa witnessed last week a number of official and private honorary parties held to bid farewell to Egyptian Ambassador to Canada Mahmoud El-Said who is ending his post this month. At a number of parties held by Arab and African ambassadors for the departing Egyptian ambassador, which were attended by members of the Egyptian Embassy and senior Canadian officials, El-Said was praised for his efforts to strengthen ties between Egypt and Canada. During his post, five Egyptian ministers visited Canada, in addition to three business delegations, which resulted in a boost of Canadian investments in Egypt that has currently reached $2 billion. photos: Ayman Barayez To commemorate the third anniversary of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri, a celebration was held at the Sheraton Hotel attended by, among many others, Lebanese Minister of Communications Marwan Hamada, NDP's Secretary for Media Affairs Alieddin Hilal, Lebanese Ambassador to Egypt Khaled Ziyada and Christen Al-Hajj, wife of assassinated Brigadier François Al-Hajj, head of operations of the Lebanese army. During a major cultural evening attended by a host of intellectuals, businessmen and literati, Al-Shorouq Publishing House celebrated the release of the encyclopaedic book, The Chinese Art, by veteran author Tharwat Okasha, which is the second part of the Far East Arts Trilogy. On this occasion, Chairman of Al-Shorouq Publishing House and head of the Arab Publishers Union Ibrahim El-Moallem expressed his pride in the publishing house's success in accomplishing this momentous work, as this encyclopaedic book is considered a treasure that is on par with the best international books in the field. During the event, novelists Khairy Shalabi, Gamal El-Gheitani, writers Ne'am El-Baz, Maha Abdel-Fattah, Salah Montasser and Nadia Saleh highlighted the importance of Okasha 's entire oeuvre and the role it plays in enriching Arab culture and providing exposure to the civilisations and cultures of the outside world. Among the other luminaries who were present were script writer Mahfouz Abdel-Rahman, novelist Mohamed El-Makhzangi, and veteran writers Mounir Amer, Helmi El-Namnam and Abdel-Azim Hammad. With a book signing event last week, Diwan Bookstore celebrated the launch of a new novel, Ghorfet Al-Enaya Al-Morakazah (The Intensive Care Unit) by Ezzedine Choukri. Printed earlier in the year by Dar Sharqiyat, the 217-page book is a literary attempt by the author to dissect political changes that have altered the dynamics of Egyptian society in the post-October War decades. Through the story's close- ups of the lives of three men and a woman who are in varied social echelons and subscribe to different religious beliefs, but who all attended university in the early 1970s, Choukri offers his readers a highly emotional and certainly critical review of the fate and choices of an entire society. He also reflects on the common thread that that links these four character: the slow decay that Egypt has been witnessing - with the war and its fate being part of it. In Ghorfet Al-Enaya Al-Morakazah , the charchters are at once the victims and authors of their own destiny. Choukri is a diplomat by profession and a novelist by vocation. His two earlier novels, Maqtal Fakheredine (The killing of Fakheredine) and Asfar Al-Faraeine (Sojourns of the Pharaohs) were printed respectively in 1992 and 1999. Al-Ahram Weekly's dear friend Mona Makram Ebeid, former MP and distinguished lecturer of political science at AUC, has been officially invited by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Sir Donald Tsang, to visit his country. Tsang is an old friend and colleague of Ebeid 's, as they both graduated in the same year from Howard University in the early 1980s. She will be meeting senior government officials, as well as senior executives in the private sector, and will give a couple of lectures on the Middle East peace process and the role of Egypt. Indian Ambassador to Egypt A Gopinathan delivered a lecture at the Egyptian Council for Foreign Relations titled "India and the Prospects for Strengthening India-Egypt Relations". It was attended by the council's chairman, Ambassador Abdel-Raouf El-Reedy, in addition to ambassadors Mohamed Shaker, El-Sayed Shalabi, Ahmed Haggag and Abdel-Aziz El-Egeizi. Media figure Nadia Saleh and Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs board members were also there. Congratulations! Aspiring poet Haytham Dabour has recently published his latest collection of poems entitled Boukra, Mesh Mohem, Essaa Kam (Tomorrow, It Doesn't Matter, What Time Is It?).
