Documenting Coptic heritage
The first phase of documenting and registering Coptic heritage, Robeir al-Faris writes, has started. The project is conducted by the Society of Conservation of Egyptian Heritage, headed by Maged al-Raheb, jointly with the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate.
According to Raheb, the first phase involves the documentation of the architecture of churches and monasteries, whether or not they are registered as antiquities, including all their contents such as metal works and textiles. It also involves the documentation of artistic elements such as ornamentation, inscriptions, manuscripts, and icons; as well as non-material heritage such as music, customs, traditions, and popular celebrations.
Professor of antiquities at Cairo University Lu’ai Mahmoud Saïd manages the project, and Tanta University’s head of Antiquities Department Hegagi Ibrahim is scientific supervisor.
Slower growth
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has affirmed its ‘BB/B’ foreign currency and ‘BBB-/A-3’ local currency sovereign credit ratings on Egypt. The outlook on the ratings is stable. As inflationary pressures ease, the sharp deterioration in external demand now poses the principal threat to Egypt’s creditworthiness. Standard & Poor’s expects economic growth to fall to around 5.5 per cent in fiscal 2009 and 4.4 per cent in fiscal 2010, from an average of seven per cent in the past three years, because of a slowdown in tourism, static workers’ remittances, and weakening demand for manufacturing exports. Egypt is, however, better placed to weather external shocks than it was before the Cabinet, installed in mid-2004, launched its programme of fiscal reform, banking sector consolidation and privatisation, and the central bank simultaneously embarked on an overhaul of monetary policy.
Dealing with the crisis
Tourism and aviation officials in Egypt have announced that hotels will be exempted from paying contributions to the tourism promotion authority and that fees paid by charter flights will be cut in order to help the tourism industry cope with the global financial crisis. The tourism industry, Egypt’s top hard currency earner, has started to feel the pinch of the global financial crisis, with hotel bookings down 30 per cent in January 2009 compared to the same month in 2008. Landing and take-off fees, and ground handling fees will be reduced for charter flights, and waived entirely for charter flights that make 11 trips in the span of three months. The tourism ministry will focus its advertisements on promoting Egypt as an affordable holiday destination.
Bird flu again
A new case of avian flu was last week confirmed when a two-year-old girl who lives outside Cairo tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus. The girl was admitted to a Cairo hospital for treatment and is currently in a stable condition. She is believed to have contracted the virus from domestic poultry kept at the family home. Since the first case was recorded in 2006, 52 people in Egypt have contracted the virus; 23 of them died.
Footballers fight hunger
Last Wednesday former European football stars including Italian striker Paolo Rossi and German forward Hans-Peter Mueller visited several projects run by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in Cairo. These included projects aimed at teaching women and children about animal raising, crop planting and pesticide-free farming. It is the group’s first major initiative since the Association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) launched its anti-hunger fundraising campaign last October; the funds raised will go to FAO’s Telefood campaign launched in 1997 to improve the livelihood of small-scale farmers. The delegation also included Portugal’s former star footballer Manuel Jose, the current coach of the Egyptian Ahli club. The number of hungry people worldwide has soared to 963 million amid the global financial downturn, FAO noted.