WATANI International
13 June 2010
Not Egyptian
The Supreme Administrative Court has issued a final ruling to strip Egyptian men married to Israeli women, and their children, of Egyptian citizenship. The court said the Cabinet must take the necessary steps to implement the ruling, while considering each case individually, and that the ruling does not apply to Egyptian men married to Arab Israeli women. The judge claimed the ruling took into account the national security of Egypt, to prevent the creation of a generation that would be disloyal to Egypt and the Arab World, and that children of such marriages should not be allowed to perform Egyptian military service. The number of Egyptian men married to Israeli women is thought to be around 30,000, with only 10 per cent of them married to Arab Israeli women.
Small exchange
Earlier this month a new bourse was launched to trade in shares of small and medium-sized enterprises. “The Nile Bourse was launched on Thursday 3 June and started operating at 11:00am for one hour,” Maged Shawki, chairman of the Egyptian Stock Exchange, said. The bourse, known as the Nile Stock Exchange, is the first of its kind in Egypt, Shawki said. Trading started with 10 listed companies with a capital below EGP20 million Egyptian pounds (USD3.6 million). Small and medium-sized enterprises with registered capital of less than one million Egyptian pounds account for 70 per cent of all enterprises in the country.
E-media
The French centre for culture and cooperation in Cairo has organised a round of three conferences on the electronic media in France and Egypt. They tackled electronic publishing in both countries and the major changes in the role of press photography, as well as the effect of social networking on the dissemination of information.
Participating in the round were François Bone, one of the founders of the electronic paper Mediapart; Saïd Shueib, managing editor of the Egyptian news site al-Youm al-Sabie, and graphic designer François Rappo.
… and science
France and Egypt recently signed two agreements to boost scientific research. The first was between the Institut Gustave Roussy in France and Egypt’s Ain Shams University to conduct tumour research. The Cultural Office of the Egyptian Embassy in Paris and the Ecole Supérieure d##Interprètes et de Traducteurs (ESIT) signed another agreement to exchange information and upgrade research and education programmes.
Italy Day
The Italian Embassy in Cairo celebrated Italy’s national day on 2 June. On that day in 1946 the Italians voted in a public referendum for the republic, and Italy became a republic after 85 years of the rules of monarchs.
The embassy organised several cultural events to mark the national day. An exhibition of contemporary Italian painting was held at the Mahmoud Khalil museum in Giza, under the title “Under Italian Eyes”. Another exhibition for photographs marking “140 years of the Suez Canal (1869 – 2009) … the Italian Contribution” was held at the Italian Cultural Institute; it included in addition an exhibit of the books printed and translated by the joint effort of the Italian Embassy in Cairo and the Italian Cultural Institute. A third exhibition was held for photographs of “Obelisks in Rome” by the Italian photographer Puerto Carmen
Next Wednesday (16 June), a piano recital by Gianfranco Pappalardo will be held at the theatre of the Italian Cultural Institute.