Secretary’s Blog 28th November 2011

It’s very difficult to keep up to date with events happening in Egypt. I visited Cairo in October with members of our Education Conference sub-committee, led by our Vice Chairman, Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna. The conference, which is scheduled to take place on 18th and 19th September 2012 at SOAS with a video link to Cairo University, received enthusiastic support in Cairo from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Further Education as well as the British Ambassador, the British Council and various companies. In a developing world little is more important than education (we need to feed the mind as well as the stomach). During our visit there was a lull after the awful killings of Coptic peaceful demonstrators but as I write Tahrir Square is still in turmoil (it wasn’t during our visit) with elections on everyone’s mind.
Anyway, back to events in the UK. Karima Khalil (who was interviewed by Anthony Sattin) spoke to a full house at Leighton House on 22nd November as part of their Nour Festival. The photographs from her book “Messages from Tahrir” were both illuminating and harrowing. We were honoured to sponsor this fascinating evening and hope to take part in next year’s festival. Slightly further away I was privileged to attend a private view of the opening of the new Egyptian Galleries at the Ashmolean Museum. These are quite stunning and I intend to organise a visit to view then next Easter when the weather is escaped from the chill of winter.
On 12th December, Sir Derek Plumbly has agreed to give the 4th Sir Michael Weir Annual Lecture and this will be sponsored by BEPAC. Sir Derek was British Ambassador to Cairo at the time of our Conference in 2006 and launched our book on the conference at the British Embassy in November 2007, just before he stepped down. Since then he has been working in the Sudan up to the partition of the country. Few have a better knowledge of the Middle East that Sir Derek and I urge you to attend what promises to be a fascinating evening.
Seasonal greetings and wishes are never more relevant than this year’s. Egypt is the cornerstone of the Middle East with a civilisation which dwarfs everyone elses. Egypt was sophisticated when we in Britain were running around in animal skins and blue woad. There cannot be anyone that doesn’t wish our beloved Egypt a peaceful end to the new year and hope that 2012 heralds the start of a happy and democratic future.