Committee for St Makarius’s
Pope Shenouda III will be visiting St Makarius monastery at Wadi Natrun in the Western Desert next week. His Holiness confirmed last Wednesday that he had received a memorandum from Anba Mikhail, archbishop of Assiut, requesting to be relieved of his responsibility as abbot of St Makarius monastery. The pope said he asked Anba Mikhail to stay on, but Anba Mikhail, who was abbot of St Makarius’s since 1946, said his decision was irrevocable. In a meeting with the monks of St Makarius monastery and several bishops, a committee of 10 monks was formed, headed by Fr Yoel al-Maqari, to run the monastery.
149 million Euros
The European Commission has made available a package worth 149 million Euros to Egypt to finance social, political and economic reform programmes. Some 20 million Euros, Mary Fikry writes, will be provided to reinforce the EC’s ongoing 120 million Euros education sector support programme aimed at improving the quality of and access to education, particularly for disadvantaged children, while improving cost effectiveness and financial sustainability. Another 80 million Euros will support reforms in the transport sector covering administrative, regulatory and legal issues in the land, rail and inland waterway sectors, while 29 million Euros will be used for the benefit of water and waste water services. Finally, 17 million Euros will go to support civil and political rights, woman and child rights and environmental rights, as well as three million Euros for good governance in public administration.
Animal ban
The import of cloven-foot animals and other related products from Egypt to the UAE has been banned by the country’s Ministry of Environment and Water. The ban is intended to prevent any possible spread of contagious and endemic diseases. A similar ban had been placed on products from the UK a few years ago but was later rescinded when the UK was pronounced by the World Organisation for Animal Health to be free of Foot and Mouth disease.
Coffin return
Egypt has made an official request to the United States for the return of a Pharoanic coffin smuggled out of the country 125 years ago. The wooden coffin is more than 3,000 years old and belonged to Pharaoh Ames of the 21st Dynasty, which ruled from 1081BC to 931BC. The ornately decorated coffin was seized by customs officials in Miami last month, when an American, who bought it from a dealer in Spain, was unable to provide sufficient paperwork to prove ownership. The Supreme Council of Antiquities has sent documents to authorities in Miami proving that the coffin was taken out of Egypt illegally in 1884.
Culture for oases
Last Sunday saw a convoy move from Cairo and head to the New Valley to offer its residents three days of cultural programmes. The convoy, which was organised by the Culture Ministry, carried some 150 artists, musicians, singers, and dancers to tour the out-of-the-way oases of the Western Desert, famously known as the New Valley.
50 years on saving Nubia
Last week Egypt celebrated 50 years since it send out a call to UNESCO to save the ancient monuments in Nubia that would have forever drowned under the waters saved by the Aswan High Dam. Through UNESCO efforts, an international team accomplished the engineering feat of sawing the monuments into smaller pieces, indexing them, and re-assembling them on higher ground. To mark the occasion a celebration, in which UNESCO joined, was held in Aswan. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni described the rescue of the monuments as “the biggest project of its kind in modern history”.