Egypt, July 15th 2010 - The Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA) held a press conference to announce the "Fawanees Ramadan Festival 2010" and the activities that will be held during the holy month of Ramadan in Egypt.
The press conference was attended Mr. Amr El Ezbi, the Chairman of the Egyptian Tourist Authority and representatives from the sponsors of the festival; The Ministry of Culture " Foreign Cultural Relations", The National Culture Center" Cairo Opera House, Egypt Air Company, Cairo International Airport Authority, Governorates of Cairo, Giza and Alexandria, Sawy Culture Wheel, The Cultural Resource, Egyptian Centre for Culture and Arts "Makan", Egyptian Hotels and travel agencies.
The aim of the "Fawanees Ramadan Festival 2010" will be to promote Arab tourism to Egypt and reflect the ambiance of Ramadan in the country. The ETA will be targeting visitors from The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Libya, the United Arab Emirates & Tunisia to attend the festival.
In the press conference, Mr. Amr El Ezbi, the Chairman of the Egyptian Tourist Authority revealed the schedule of activities that will be held across the country along with the parties that will be participating in the festival. Outlets like Egypt air "the official carrier for the festival" will be offering special benefits to its passengers flying to Egypt on this holy month and special decorations on board to reflect the Ramadan spirit .Travel agencies and hotels have launched special packages to the families planning to visit Egypt in the holly season. Endorsing the promotions ,a huge campaign will be launched in the Egyptian and Arab media that will include advertisements and editorials, televised ads on the Egyptian and Arabic channels, website promotions, as well as featuring "Celebrities' Recipe in Ramadan" in several mainstream Arabic magazines. The Egyptian Tourist Authority will also be arranging for media trips for media from the Arab countries to cover the "Fawanees Ramadan Festival 2010".
The festival will kick off from Cairo where a parade of feluccas decorated with Ramadan themes will sail from the Grand Hyatt Hotel up to Kasr El Nil Bridge. The festival will be announced by fireworks accompanied by a folkloric show on a floating boat followed by a Ramadan-themed event at the Citadel. A public festival will also be held in Alexandria & Port Ghalib on the second day of the Bairam Feast. Several institutes such as the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Alexandria and the Ministry of Culture are also working on making the festival successful to evoke the spirit of Ramadan through which will be organizing several cultural events.
On the other hand, Ramadan tents will be arranged in Jordan, Kuwait & Tunisia starting the second week of the Holy month for ten days, to reflect Ramadan in Egypt .The tents will offer oriental Egyptian food served especially in Ramadan, along with folkloric shows such as the Tannoura dance, religious and Sufi songs and other customary celebrations.
In light of "Egypt's Spirit in Ramadan", the Egyptian Tourist Authority, under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, will launch a series of festivities starting Ramadan of this year for four consecutive years.
-Ends-
About Egyptian Tourist Authority
The Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA) was established in March 1981 according to the Presidential decree NO.134 under the auspices of the Minister of Tourism, to promote the country as a world class tourist destination. The new authority was created to manage the outcomes of the increasing competition from various touristic destinations as a result of the great growth in the travel industry and as travel and tourism marketing became an indispensable tool to develop the sector.
For more information, please contact
Noha Habib or Hala Sarieddine or Mustafa Kawtharani,
Weber Shandwick MENA
Phone: + 971 4 321 0077
Fax: + 971 4 32 11 711,
Email: noha.habib@wsmena.com / hala.sarieddine@wsmena.com
mustafa.kawtharani@ws-mena.com
Riham Wahid
Egyptian Tourist Authority
Tel / Fax: 0020-2-248 28 994
Email: riham.wahid@egypt.travel
© Press Release 2010
Egypt gearing up for Ramadan
In Cairo, An End To The Cacophony Of Calls To Prayer by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
In Cairo, An End To The Cacophony Of Calls To Prayer
by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
August 5, 2010
There are few Islamic traditions in Cairo older than the ritual, five-times-a-day call to prayer. But as of next week, that call is undergoing a radical change.
No longer will the melodic call, the azan, be delivered by a sea of voices from minarets across the sprawling Egyptian capital.
Responding to criticisms that the current uncoordinated delivery lacks dignity, the government's Ministry of Religious Endowment has announced plans to broadcast a single Islamic call to prayer from a downtown Cairo studio.
That call will be transmitted through special receivers to thousands of mosques registered with the government. The mosques, in turn, are required to stop using their own callers, or muezzinine, and instead use the new call.
The hope is to bring uniformity to a ritual that some say is out of control.
"One voice will seem empty."
- Cairo resident Aya Hassan
"It's chaos, chaos," says Abdul Munam Suroji, during a visit to a hilltop park in the capital where he listened to the call. The 54-year-old Syrian tourist says the azan in Damascus sounds much better because it is a uniform call.
Egyptian officials say they have selected 30 of the best muezzinine from among the thousands in the city to take turns delivering the call to prayer starting on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan next week. The new call will be heard in a single district of Cairo, but will gradually be introduced throughout the capital and eventually to all of the 106,000 official mosques across Egypt.
Many religious scholars, including Mohamed el Shahat el Gindy, who heads the Islamic law department at Helwan University, support the decision. El Gindy said the current call is "against the spirit of azan."
Also, he added, the verses sung may differ from mosque to mosque, thereby confusing worshippers.
New Policy Meets Resistance
But muezzinine like Ehab Mohammad, who will no longer be allowed to deliver the call, are not happy about being silenced, even though he and others will continue to receive their monthly salary of roughly $55 a month.
His friend, Mohammad Fawzi, who delivers the call to prayer at a mosque down the street, says it is not just a job. He believes being a muezzin gives him and others a leg up in the next life.
"The prophet says those who lead the [call to] prayer have the longest necks and will stand the tallest on judgment day," Fawzi says. "So of course I'm against them denying us the azan."
Cairo resident Aya Hassan, a 20-year-old pharmacy student, is displeased about the ministry's plan.
"All the different voices make you feel like everyone is kneeling and praying to Allah at the same time," she says. "One voice will seem empty."
Hassan worries that residents in the city's many squatter neighborhoods could end up unaware of when to pray if their unofficial mosques are not given transmitters.
Others say the call to prayer is a religious matter and the government shouldn't be involved in changing it.
But for the religion ministry, the matter is no longer open to discussion.
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128976431
Freediver smashes British depth record
13 July 2010
Briton Dave King has extended, by a substantial margin, his own national record in freediving's Constant Weight category.
Diving off Dahab in Egypt on 12 July, King reached 91m in what is arguably the sport's most athletically demanding open-water category.
The dive beat by 11m the British record King set at the 2008 world championships in Sharm El Sheikh. It was his sixth national record.
In Constant Weight, the diver fins down and back up the dive line, carrying any chosen weight throughout the dive.
King used the de rigueur monofin and was submerged in Dahab’s Blue Hole for 2min 32sec.
The dive, organised by Freedive Dahab, was observed and ratified by judges from AIDA (International Association for the Development of Apnea).
King was thrilled with the result, having been out of competitive freediving for the past two years.
His last deep dive had been to 70m in November last year, while training with SaltFree at the National Diving and Activity Centre in Chepstow.
Since then, training had amounted to just a few more days with SaltFree before going out to Egypt this month, where he practiced for a week with Dahab-based instructor Brian Crossland, of Blue Ocean Freedivers.
“I now aim to dive beyond 100m, which has been achieved by only fourteen divers in the world,” said King after the dive.
He was confident at the prospect, having found the 91m dive “easy, really quick and with air to spare at the bottom”.
King’s new national record tallies with world record depths of seven to eight years ago. Venezuelan Carlos Coste dived to 90m in March 2002, Czech Martin Stepanek to 93m in May 2003.
The Constant Weight world record now stands at 124m. It was set by Austrian Herbert Nitsch in April this year, at the Suunto Dive-off competition in the Bahamas.
Source: http://www.divernet.com/home_diving_news/538747/freediver_smashes_british_depth_record.html
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