Secretary's Blog 9th of October 2008

It has been pointed out to me, rather firmly, that if one starts to write a Secretary’s blog one has to keep doing it and not neglect it for 7 months! So, Mrs. Cathie Bryan, being suitably admonished here we go again!

Quite a lot of water has passed under the bridge since the last blog, with my soggy pen, may I mention that Mr. David Arnold, President of the American University in Cairo, spoke to a lively audience at SOAS on 25th March. The evening was chaired by our Vice Chairman, Dr. Ahmed El Mokadem, who is an old friend of Mr. Arnold. What added an extra flavour to an already interesting evening was the possibility of the British Egyptian Society hosting a meeting of the foreign universities in Cairo in the New Year with Dr. El Mokadem in the chair. That will take a lot of preliminary work.

We had an interesting Annual General Meeting on 21st May, chaired by Baroness Symons. At the meeting it was agreed that we should become a charity and so, now that summer (did anyone notice it? Don’t think it reached Croydon) is behind us we will be working on how to achieve this. It will mean that the Society will be run by trustees but with the help of an advisory committee. After the AGM Dr. John Jenkins, Director Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign Office, gave an informed and fascinating talk on The changing role of British Diplomacy in the Middle East.

Our Annual Dinner took place at the Royal Automobile Club on 26th June. Dr, Maged Farag’s talk on the Egyptian Monarchy was hindered by the lack of technical equipment. Dr. Yusuf Boutros Ghali, the Egyptian Finance Minister followed with an incise and informed talk without even a note.

We have had preliminary meetings with the British Museum on our joint conference on conservation in October next year. Discussions are taking place with our Egyptian partners.
However, before that we have Dr. Jean-Marcel Humbert’s talk on “Napoleon et Egypte” at the English Speaking Union on 30th October. This is such a major event for us as Dr. Humbert is the curator of the exhibition of the same name which has just opened at the Institut du Monde Arab in Paris. He is taking our December Paris visitors on a privately conducted tour; that is a coup.
Mid November we are contemplating one of our popular “Ali Baba Restaurant” evenings, organised in her immaculate way by Mrs. Gihad Moustafa. A flyer will be on its way shortly.
Our 1st “Sir Michael Weir Annual Lecture” is due to take place at the Institution of Civil Engineers at OneGeorgeStreet on 27th November and I have sent out flyers to members. The Rt. Hon. Lord Patten of Barnes OM PC will talk on “After the Crash”. Let us hope that it is indeed over by then!

Looking to next year we will be welcoming a new Egyptian Ambassador. Mr. Hatem Seif al-Nasr is due to take up his post early December, in succession to H.E. Mr. Gehad Madi, and we plan a reception to meet him in mid January 2009. Our Honorary President, Mr. Madi has taken a great interest in our activities during his 4 years here and the Executive Committee presented him with a Silver Salver as a thank you. I am hoping that my bad photograph of it, revealing my grandson’s fingers, will reach this site.

Our New Ideas Committee has a lot in the planning stage but that can wait until my next blog. Mrs. Bryan will make certain that it is less than 7 months next time.
May I add, as usual, that I do enjoy hearing from our members, or even from the people who read this! My e.mail is noelrands@compuserve.com so do write to me with your comments and also suggestions for future events.

Best regards
Noel Rands, Secretary
9th October 2008