Dear Sir, In regards to your articles on bird flu ["Bird Flu claims another victim , Dec. 26], there is a new peer-reviewed editorial out on bird flu with an interesting slant that your paper might want to cover done by physician/researcher Dr Lawrence Broxmeyer, entitled Bird flu, influenza and 1918: The case for mutant Avian tuberculosis . Find it at: Http://medamericaresearch.org Vito Mauceri, USAVia email Dear Sir, The Cairo International Biennale, established in 1989, is the largest international visual-arts exhibition in the Arab world. The Biennale attracts significant participation from Europe, Asia and Latin America, and presents the leading artists and trends in artistic production in the Arab and Muslim world. In 2003, some 75,000 visitors viewed the exhibition, which took place at the Palace of Fine Arts and the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art. The inauguration of the 10th Cairo International Biennale was held on Dec. 12, 2006 in Cairo. Egyptian Artist George Ibrahim Fikry won the first prize. The other successive four prizes went to artists from Oman, Syria, Jordan and Mexico. Contribution from Fikry's Les Icons De La Narration (Narration Icons), video animation and painting, is based on the formulation of expressive and folkloric drawings. Icons of regional characteristics express contemporary variables in Egyptian society through dynamic drawings, semiotic symbols and signs, and mystic and ritual signs. They employ Islamic, folkloric iconic and cultural depth. They utilize expressive means and different materials such as inks, crayons and pastel together with the use of medicine to animate the drawings according to the scenario of life and iconic rituals that represent the contemporary scene of human and interactive relation between people s culture, beliefs, lives and future. Digital sound sources are also used to formulate comprehensive vision and formation of the project s expressive narration. This project is associated with the variables on the African scene, and hence its link with the Egyptian scene and its involvement with other African cultures. Religious rituals differ from one culture to another. They are expressed according to the peculiarity of the contemporary situation and its several variables including the effect of customs, traditions, spiritual, philosophical and mystic aspects in Egyptian folklore, as a contemporary regional and international scene with plenty of different sources in folkloric and regional cultures. This context is linked through the use of expressive media to bring the contemporary African situation into focus. George Fikry, ZamalekVia email
