WATANI International
4 September 2011
Egypt-US partnership for antiquities preservation
Egypt and the United States have worked together for over 10 years to protect Egypt’s historic monuments from rising groundwater.
During a recent visit to Giza Pyramids, newly-arrived US Ambassador to Egypt Anne W. Patterson surveyed the work to protect the Sphinx. “Americans are proud to work in partnership with Egypt to protect these World Heritage Sites,” she remarked. “They are a part of Egypt’s proud history and draw tourists from all over the world.” Over the past few decades, many of Egypt’s Pharaonic monuments began to deteriorate at an accelerated rate as a result of problems related to rising groundwater. For over a decade, Egypt and the US have been working on large-scale engineering projects to protect monuments all over the country, including Giza, Old Cairo, East Luxor, and Luxor’s West Bank.
Memory maps
The Austrian cultural forum in Cairo is presenting “Memory Maps”, a unique Austrian-Egyptian art experience. Last week saw the beginning of preparations for an exceptional exhibition that will take place in the Palace of Arts in the Cairo Opera House grounds in Gezira, Cairo. Based on more than 1000 Vienna City maps the Egyptian artist Ashraf Ibrahim creates unique art works which impress not only by their number, but also by their diversity of symbols, patterns and colours. The exhibition will be inaugurated by the Egyptian Minister of Culture, Emad Abu-Ghazi and the Austrian Ambassador Thomas Nader on the 12th September. Memory Maps’ main sponsor is Mercedes Benz Egypt as well as the event Gold Sponsor Ibrachy & Dermarkar.
EU for better living
The European Union has approved the allocation of 100 million Euros for the achievement of a better standard of living for Egypt’s poor and more job opportunities for them. The funds will be used to finance projects for the gathering of garbage and recycling of solid waste, as well as for the establishment of solar energy in clinics, and the proper disposal of wastewater.
Egypt urges extradition of corrupt officials
Egypt has called for an international resolution to be adopted to force signatories of the United Nations Convention against Corruption to extradite people involved in corruption, said Muataz Salah Eddin, the head of the popular initiative for restoring Egypt’s funds. The Egyptian demand was floated at an international conference held recently in Vienna on combating corruption, Salah Eddin said. During the Vienna gathering, Cairo thanked states which have already showed readiness to assist Egypt in this regard after the January 25 Revolution.
Egyptian-Mexican cooperation, a new vision
Egypt and Mexico have agreed to outline a new vision for future economic cooperation. This came during a meeting between Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mahmoud Issa and Mexican Ambassador to Egypt Maria Carmen Onate. The meeting took up ways to boost bilateral trade and investment to be up to the level of political relations between Cairo and Mexico City. Mexican companies operating in Egypt are still working at full capacity, Issa said, explaining that the government is saving no effort to remove all obstacles facing Mexican investments in Egypt. Onate asserted her country##s commitment to offering all kinds of help to the Egyptian economy during the coming phase.
Nobel laureates
Microsoft Research Center in Cairo, headed by Dr Hussein Salama, delegated the Egyptian researcher Osama Khalil to attend the annual meeting of most prominent scientists who won the Noble Prize. The meeting was hosted by Germany, with Bill Gates attending.
Indian Sufi chants
On hand to participate in the fourth round of the international aural festival for religious chanting and Sufi music was the Indian band Qawwali. The band’s visit to Egypt was organised by the Egyptian Culture Ministry and the Maulana Azad centre, the Indian cultural centre in Cairo. The lead lady singer Chanchal Bharti and her seven-person male band which included singers and musicians, charmed audiences by performance of Sufiana Kalam and Qawwali, two distinctive type of religious Indian music that have been around for some 700 years now.
Visitors to the book fair
The Ramadan book fair, which ran for 21 days, came to a close last week. Some quarter of a million individuals visited the fair and enjoyed the cultural evening events including seminars and poetry recitals. Some books carried discounts that ran to 20-50 per cent of their original value. The fair, organised by the General Egyptian Book Organisation (GEBO), was held with the participation of 85 publishers from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.
GEBO chairman Ahmad Megahed extended his thanks to all who helped make the fair a success.