Cairo international Film Festival kicks off
Fifty-nine world nations represented by 150 movies, including 22 movies from nine Arab countries, will take part in the event. Egypt is participating with nine movies. The Spanish cinema is the guest of honor of this year’s CIFF. The nine Arab countries participating in the event are Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Bahrain in addition to host Egypt.
The festival honors four Egyptians; veterans actor Mahmoud Yassin, actress Boussy, Director of Photography Tarek el-Telemessany and set designer Nihad Bahgat. It also honors a number of Hollywood stars, including Kurt Russell, Denzel Washington, Charlize Theron, and Alicia Silverstone. US movie celebrities attending the festival include Director Stuwart Townsend, US actor Martin Henderson and British actress Julia Armond. Add to the star-studded list Susan Sarandon who won an Oscar for best actress in Dead Man Walking (1995), Goldie Hawn who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Cactus Flower (1969) and Mira Sorvino who won Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite (1995).
Egypt State Information Service
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Modern Egyptians living in the shadow of past greatness
“Can you believe our government can do nothing for us, and this thing that was built thousands of years ago is still helping me feed my family?”
Image by liber via Flickr
For citizens and foreigners alike, there is no escaping the truth that Egypt is inextricably linked in the public consciousness with pyramids, especially the Great Pyramids of Giza. Yet living in the shadow of past greatness is not always easy.
The pyramids are proof of Egypt’s endurance but these monuments to Egypt’s early ingenuity are also an ever-present symbol of faded glory. It is hard to escape comparisons between an Egypt that once led the world in almost everything and modern Egypt, where about 40 percent of the population lives on $2 a day.
The ubiquitous nature of antiquities has helped mold a collective consciousness, a national identity, that is uniquely Egyptian.
Egyptians, as a group, are extremely patient, though given the growing pressure of daily life, a bit less than they used to be. Their it-is-what-it-is attitude is often attributed to a strong religious faith and a conviction that all events are God’s will. Yet growing up and living amid so much history has something to do with that view, too; the abundant antiquities in everyday life are a constant reminder of one’s place in time.
These days, Egypt is rarely spoken of in a positive context. The education system is in crisis, and unemployment, traffic and pollution are all major problems. Top to bottom, the state seems to have seized up. When the historic Parliament building burned recently, firefighters bungled for hours before bringing the blaze under control. When a rock slide crushed a neighborhood, the authorities responded slowly, infuriating rather than rescuing. And at nearly every level, there is anxiety over who will rule when Mubarak is gone. The president, who is 80, refuses to clarify the issue of succession and seems out of touch with daily life in his country. His son Gamal Mubarak, who appears positioned to inherit the job, says that it is premature to discuss succession.
And there is ample evidence that Egypt itself can be expected to continue to endure. It may be down for the moment, but this country has survived the test of the time, a lot of time, where so many others have not.
Excerpted from an article by Michael Slackman for International Herald Tribune
A joyful encounter with the desert people of Egypt
Image by ©M o c c a . CHOCOLATA via Flickr
Forty-five tribes have populated Egypt’s deserts for millennia and yet their existence remains a mystery to the country’s urban masses. The Characters of Egypt Festival aims to showcase their ways of life. The aim of the festival is to provide a meeting opportunity for representatives of the various tribes that have inhabited different corners of Egypt’s deserts for thousands of years without previously encountering one another. Injy El-Kashef was there with his son Yassine.
“By the end of our stay Yassine and I were revived. I was purified from my urban burdens, and filled with the joy that only comes from experiencing genuine life. My son, whose expanding curiosity about the world we inhabit was satiated by the incredible amount of information he processed while having fun, has now learned about traditions, camel riding, fire- making, track reading, plants, astrology, and, most importantly in such speedily globalising times, about diversity. He has sung with the Nubians, eaten the Ababda’s food, heard the poetry of Sinai, balanced on the dancing poles of Siwa, jumped rope with the Farafraweya and prayed with the Bishariya for rain.”
Abdeit bism elli ala al alam rageeb
Ya khaleg al ensan min teenen rateeb
Wi khaleg al jannat l’eshhab al habib
Wi khalagt elli wogoudha nass wi hajar
Al khatawi elli megassemha al kareem
Wel hagawi besaheb al arsh al azeem
Wi a’oudhou berrahman min sharr al rajeem
Westakhert Allah wi naweit al safar
Min ard Sina elli biha esht wi radeit
Wi shebe’t fiha min al maaani wertaweit
Wi katabt beit al she’r yom enni naweit
Ajabel wojouh al nashama wabtesher
Ehna doyouf Allah fi Marsa Alam
Fiha rajal, fiha hayaa, fiha karam
Wi fiha osoud yeshhad lahom hebr al galam
Wi yeshhad lahom seif al maragel fil khatar
Wi magsoum li fi rehleti aaref naas
Min sobou’ al badeya khayr al jenas
Yengedou koll el maani bel ehsas
Wakhoss nasen tefham bebo’d al nazar
Wi taheyya lel sho’aar fi yom al sebagI begin, in the name of He who watches over the pen,
O Creator of man from damp clay
And Creator of Heaven for the Prophet’s companions
And Creator of that the men of which are fuel.
Steps are divined by the Provider,
And supplications are raised to the God of the Throne,
The Merciful is my shield against the Devil’s evil.
I prayed for Allah’s guidance intending on travel
From the land of Sinai whence my content living,
Where I have wandered and quenched my thirst.
I wrote these verses the day I sought
To meet the faces of brave men and rejoice.
We are Allah’s guests in Marsa Alam
Where we found manhood, grace and generosity,
Lions, to which attest the ink of our pens
And the chances of valor in menace;
I am destined to encounter on my travel
Lions among the Bedouins, finest of races,
Safeguarding values with their passion.
To the foresighted I dedicate my words,
And salute the poets on this day of match.The above lines are by Sinai’s tribesman Haj Hussein Eid, winner of the Characters of Egypt poetry award.
Extract from an article by Injy El-Kashef for Al-Ahram Weekly
A celebration of Egyptian tribal heritage, nature and cultural diversity
(Photo by Charles Domingue)
Despite the fact that approximately 300,000 people from 45 tribes lead a nomadic existence in Egypt, according to Founder of the EDPS Walid Ramadan, they are almost always forgotten. Marginalized and misperceived, these tribes continue to uphold and develop their unique value systems and traditions, formed in the unforgiving beauty of their desert environment.
The brainchild of Wadi Environmental Science Centre (WESC) and the Egyptian Desert Pioneers Society (EDPS) the “Characters of Egypt” festival (Oct. 29-31) is a three-day extravaganza celebrating the cultural heritage of tribes from seven desert areas of Egypt: Siwa and Farafra from the Western Desert, North and South Sinai, Nubia, and the Eastern and Southern Deserts which stretch from Marsa Allam to Alba Mountain.
Held in the pristine Fustat Wadi El Gemal National Park, 45 km south of Marsa Allam on the Red Sea, this first cultural event of its kind will showcase the diversity of fauna and flora in the area and the intricacy of tribal costumes and jewelry. Attendees will also learn how to shadow-read, navigate the desert and will participate with the tribesmen in a variety of activities including music, dance, poetry, sports, games, food tasting, a camel race, educational lectures on the tribes and the environment.
To learn more, visit www.charactersofegypt.com
Source: Daily News Egypt
Egyptian School of Fine Arts marks its first centenary with major art show
The show in the ornate gallery of the Arts Palace comprises 436 paintings and sculptures created by 218 modern Egyptian artists. Hanging on the walls are works by Salah Taher, Ramses Unan, Hussein Bikar, Gamal El-Segini, Beshara Farag and others who enriched Egypt’s arts movement during the 20th century.
The exhibition starts in the palace’s main court and continues upstairs to fill the second and third floors. Visitors are welcomed by the works of the first generation of artists representing the first graduates of the Faculty of Fine Arts, including Mahmoud Mokhtar, Youssef Kamel, Ahmed Sabri and Ragheb Ayyad. The works of the second and the third generations of artists that follow are displayed in chronological order.
The Egyptian School of Fine Arts opened its doors on 12 May 1908, thanks to the generosity of the aristocratic Prince Youssef Kamal. Three years later the first group of students graduated from the school, among them Mahmoud Mokhtar, Ragab Abbas and Mohamed Hassan. The school was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and was thus recognised as a national institute of higher education.
In those days all the instructors were French, and they encouraged students to travel to Paris for further study. Sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar was among the first group to travel. To his contemporaries Mokhtar was “the fruit of the arts”, with his work echoing the poise and grandeur of ancient Egypt, yet drawing on deceptively simple subjects such as women carrying water jars and rural figures such as the village headman or agricultural guards. Mokhtar brought his nationalist symbolism to a new level of achievement in his famous depiction of Nahdet Masr, “Egypt’s Renaissance”, which represents a woman and a sphinx. This statue now stands in Giza outside Cairo University, and many artists since have tried to emulate Mokhtar’s emotive yet restrained style.
Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref for Al-Ahram
Sony LittleBigPlanet game release delayed over Koran phrases
Entertainment company Sony has postponed the global release of a much-anticipated video game because of concerns that it may offend Muslims. Copies of LittleBigPlanet, expected to be a hit for the PlayStation 3 games console, are being recalled from shops worldwide after it emerged that a background music track contained two phrases from the Koran. Manzoor Moghal, of the Muslim Forum think-tank, explained that words from the Koran should not be set to music because the words are seen to have come directly from God.
Sony says it apologizes for any offense caused, and that a modified version is due to be released next month.
In June 2007, Sony apologized to the Church of England after setting scenes in a violent video game inside Manchester Cathedral. On that occasion the game was not withdrawn.
LittleBigPlanet, created by Guildford-based developer Media Molecule, has been described as a game about making games. It lets gamers build their own playground levels and then swap them with other players over the PlayStation Network.
Exhibition: BYZANTIUM 330-1453 at the Royal Academy of Arts
From 25 October 2008 – 22 March 2009, the Royal Academy of Arts will host a ground-breaking exhibition devoted to Byzantium. Highlighting the splendours of the Byzantine Empire, the exhibition will comprise around 300 objects including icons, detached wall paintings, micro-mosaics, ivories, enamels plus gold and silver metalwork. Some of the works have never been displayed in public before. Byzantium 330–1453 will include great works from the San Marco Treasury in Venice and rare items from collections across Europe, the USA, Russia, Ukraine and Egypt.
The exhibition begins with the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and concludes with the capture of the city by the Ottoman forces of Mehmed II in 1453. This will be the first major exhibition on Byzantine Art in the United Kingdom for 50 years.
This epic exhibition has been made possible through a collaboration between the Royal Academy of Arts and the Benaki Museum, Athens.
A traveler’s thoughts on Egypt Sinai Desert
I had come to Egypt to visit St Catherine’s on the Sinai peninsula, which has kept its sacred traditions unbroken since the early 6th century, when the great builder Justinian constructed it from huge hunks of granite around a chapel marking the spot where Moses had seen the burning bush.
Here, in preparation for the magnificent Byzantium exhibition, which opens at the Royal Academy next week, I passed two days like a lizard in a rocky desert fissure. I gazed at the earliest surviving icon image of Christ’s face, pored over manuscripts in the world’s oldest Christian library, and attended dawn service in the Greek Orthodox basilica.
As the first grey light of morning leaked into the arid Sinai Valley, it spread its shimmer of divine glory across gilded mosaics.
It’s far more rewarding to treat a cultural tour like a pilgrimage, to focus on one period, or even one single artwork. If you don’t know where you are going, you might not get there, as someone once put it.
Excerpted from an article by
American Muslims Shifting Ramadan Focus From Food to Community
The ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is the time when Muslims believe the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Islam calls for Muslims to abstain from food, drink and sex from dawn to dusk, sharpen their self-discipline and focus on becoming closer to God. Traditionally observed daily with big family or neighborhood meals after sunset, some in smaller Muslim communities are celebrating the holiday just a few times a week. Others, particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, have used the holiday for activism, organizing iftars around Islam-related films or lectures or interfaith events. These changes represent soul-searching by some Muslims about how to create an American Islam, a trend pushed in particular by progressive Muslims seeking gender equity and more engagement with other faiths.
Ramadan remains important to American Muslims, the majority of whom were born outside the country. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars, or foundations, of Islam and is “very important” to more than three-quarters of American Muslims, according to a Pew Research Center poll released last year.
Female genital mutilation common in Egypt despite ban
Six years after female genital mutilation was banned in Egypt, the practice still persists, according to Mohamed Bedaiwy of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio, who interviewed 3730 Egyptian girls aged 10 to 14 and found out that eighty five per cent of the girls had been subjected to FGM, almost two-thirds of them by non-medical personnel.
“Female genital cutting is a deep-rooted practice in Egyptian culture, and it will take more than a law to change it,” says Bedaiwy.
His colleagues in Egypt also interviewed the girls’ parents, who said they disobeyed the law to comply with religious and traditional beliefs and curb the sexual drive of their daughters.
The only way to eradicate female genital mutilation in Egypt is for entire communities to agree on abandoning this brutal practice, so that no particular girl or family is singled out. This collective decision can be achieved through counseling parents and religious leaders, according to Paul Van Look of the World Health Organization.
Polish screenwriter seeks religion, better life in Egypt
“There are no drug addicts in Egyptian schools, no problems with drunkenness, no crime on the streets. Life revolves around the family.”
These and his conversion to Islam after a trip to the Middle East in 2000 are the reasons behind Polish screenwriter Piotr Kalwas’ recent move to Alexandria, Egypt, along with his wife and 5 year old son.
Kalwas is well known in his homeland for a popular late 1990s TV show, The World According to the Kiepskis, about a dysfunctional family amid unemployment, alcohol and laziness.
“Our culture is based increasingly on materialism. But a person’s positive traits come from a spiritual culture.”
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By N2H
