Davos namedropping
DAVOS: Let me start by saying sorry. There is no way to get through this blog without a dose of shameless namedropping. How else can I tell you what the…
Financial crisis gives retail brokers a boost – relatively
CAIRO: The financial crisis hit Egyptian brokerages hard last year - but some much harder than others. Foreign flight was the story of the year, as investors exited in droves…
Clowns cross borders for creative collaboration
In various locations from Sayeda Zeinab to Helwan, youth are gathering to watch a most peculiar performance - a group of four French and three Egyptian performers, all with red…
A life in flames
English novelist and cultural historian Marina Warner says she has been dealt a "rather weird hand in terms of personal circumstances, a fact that she has put to good use…
Pink suitcases, flowerpots turn heads at book fair
While strolling down the jam-packed avenues of the Cairo International Book Fair, a team of oddly dressed foreign-looking men and women can be seen mingling and talking with the baffled…
Analyzing magic with Booker Prize winner Ben Okri
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley once famously said. But what magic do words possess to bestow order to a chaotic world?…
The real Che Guevara
PARIS: Hollywood history is often nonsensical, but filmmakers usually have the good sense not to whitewash killers and sadists. Steven Soderbergh's new film about Che Guevara, however, does that, and…
AN ISRAELI VIEW : One entity or two
The ramifications of the Gaza war for Israeli politics do not appear to be profound. In contrast, they could be very significant for Palestinian politics, and this in turn could…
A PALESTINIAN VIEW: Dramatic consequences an opportunity for US administration
As predicted, the three-week long Israeli war on Gaza ended with only one definite result: an eventual renewal of the previous six-month ceasefire for another year, give or take. Other…
Random settlers crowd out legal residents of Sharm's El-Rowaisat
SHARM El-SHEIKH: Essam Gamil, who has been operating a diving center in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for 15 years, is now ready to sell off his house,…