A few days ago, the opening ceremony was held of the two-day‚ "Cairo Meeting" in the Main Lecture Hall of Cairo University. Ministers, intellectuals, politicians and journalists from Egypt and Europe were there. This year's Cairo Meeting is the first of what will be an annual event featuring Egypt, its culture and civilisation. The event also featured some lectures and seminars by international famous professors, scientists and artists. The meeting came after UNESCO announced that the year 2010 is being celebrated as the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures. The Cairo Meeting is a parallel meeting to the Meeting of Rimini (in Italy), which has been held annually since 1980. Lasting one week in the second half of August‚ it is the world's largest summer festival of encounters, exhibitions, music and spectacle. Cairo Meeting was an initiative of an elite group of Egyptian intellectuals, who have been working as volunteers in preparation for this event. "The greatest difficulty encountered by this initiative was the ignorance of people regarding the Meeting of Rimini. It was not a surprise to us, since the media usually ignores this kind of cultural event to focus on other things, such as gay marriage or the sex scandals of politicians. This means that indirectly they convey the message that liberalism and democracy are nothing but moral decay," said Wael Farouq, a professor at the American University in Cairo and Vice-President of the Meeting, who presented the opening remarks late last month. He added, "The difference is the basis of knowledge and dialogue is one way to achieve it." The Meeting took place in several of the most important historical and cultural sites in Egypt, including the memorable hall of Cairo University (chosen by US President Barack Obama to give his speech to the Islamic world last year), the Cairo Opera House and the Citadel of Saladin. "Perhaps what best characterises these places is that they represent now, as in the past, a place of beauty for a meeting and dialogue with the other. Historically, in fact, over the past two centuries, they have symbolised the doors through which passed the winds of change and modernity, that then reached the whole Islamic world," said Farouq. Tahani el-Gibali, the Vice-President of the Supreme Constitutional Court and Chairperson of the Meeting, expressed her excitement at the diversity of the backgrounds and fields of expertise of the participants, who came together here with the excellent intention of initiating inter-cultural dialogue to foster acceptance and understanding of others. The screening of a short film on the Rimini Meeting followed, together with comments by Emilia Guarnieri, the President of the Meeting in Rimini Foundation. The Rimini Meeting is a pioneering experiment in cultural dialogue, which has been going on for the past 30 years and was the inspiration for this get-together. Abdel-Moati Bayoumi, an ex-Dean of Faculty of Islamic Theology, honoured as personality of the year Father Christian Van Nispen, a professor of philosophy and Islamic studies at the Coptic Catholic Seminary in Maadi, south of Cairo. At the opening ceremony, the participants were entertained by inspiring musicians of the religious singing group, Sama'a, from the Ghouri Dome, Centre for Creativity in Islamic Cairo. The second day of the Meeting featured a roundtable discussion entitled "The experience of the Rimini Meeting: 30 Years of Friendship, 30 Years of Knowledge". It was chaired by Hossam Mikawi, the President of the Tribunal of South Cairo and Emilia Guarnieri and also included the personal witness of an Egyptian volunteer at the Rimini Meeting. It featured as well a lecture titled "The Milky Way between Science, History and Art" with Marco Bersanelli, an Italian professor of astrophysics. An exhibition dedicated to the Milky Way was held in the Plastic Art Hall of the Cairo Opera House, entitled "What are these sparks?" "Although there are differences between people, cultures and tradition, the sky is the only thing that unifies them all. It is very vast, unreachable, mysterious and unique," said Bersanelli. "Almost all people believe that the sky is important for our existence," he added. Bersanelli's lecture was about the mind but the second lecture was about the heart. It was entitled "The heart is that nature, which pushes us to desire great things‚ given by Jean-François Thiry, a professor in the Department of Religious Sciences of Minsk, Belarus, Sir Magdi Yaacoub, a world-renowned cardiologist, and Saeed el- Wakeel, a professor at the American University in Cairo. The last talk of the day was presented by Ambrogio Pisoni, a professor at the Catholic University of Milan and Samir Gharib, the Chairman of the Egyptian National Organisation for Urban Harmony. Its theme was "Beauty, the Space for Dialogue among Cultures". An evening show in Italian, with the Shuber Trio was held at the end of the day at the Citadel of Saladin in Islamic Cairo. The Cairo Meeting raised the awareness that while every person has own difference he/she should be certain of having something to give. "No person is poor, everyone can give to others, because every human being is special," stated Wael Farouq, the AUC professor.
