By Mohssen Arishie
Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel Hadi appealed to the public not to worry about what is perceived as the control of wealthy businessmen on the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.
Workers were worried after Nazif appointed businessmen Ð Hatem el-Gabali (Minister of Health), Rashid Mohamed Rashid (Minister of Trade and Industry), Mohamed Mansour (Minister of Transport) and Amin Abaza (Minister of Agriculture) Ð to his Cabinet.
Workers and their families were warned that these appointments were part of the government's bid to speed up privatisation and end the era of public enterprises.
Nazif's new Cabinet soon earned the epithet 'Enemy of the Poor'.
The dispute over the sale of the state-owned department store, Omar Effendi, to a Saudi investor increased workers' fears.
The government's integrity and transparency came under fire after Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin was accused of selling the store, which has 82 branches nationwide, very cheaply.
The government's spokesman and the minister involved strongly denied the allegations.
Last week, the Minister of Manpower sought to allay the public's fears over privatisation by denying that the wealthy community was pulling the government's strings.
"The government belongs to and is controlled by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which represents the majority of the Egyptian people," Abdel Hadi declared emphatically.
"The government is pursuing a policy that gives priority to the interests of the working classes," she added.
The minister said in her statement that the government had received instructions from President Hosni Mubarak to safeguard the welfare of low-income groups.
Abdel Hadi suggested that a misunderstanding or malice might be behind the allegations that cast doubt on the government's ability to help the poorer classes.
"In its first meeting, the Cabinet pledged," Abdel Hadi said, "to take every possible step to guarantee the welfare of the Egyptian citizen."
Before assuming office, Abdel Hadi had been a trade union member for decades. She left school 15 years old and her first job was in a factory. She later succeeded in establishing her reputation in international and regional labour organisations.
Abdel Hadi is the first female member of a trade union to be appointed in the Shura Council, the first female to have a place in the International Labour Organisation and the first woman to become Minister of Manpower in Egypt's modern history.
In an interview with the weekly magazine Sabah el-Kheir last week, Abdel Hadi said her ministry was planning a new arrangement to help employers and employees settle their differences related to privatisation. "We want to persuade both sides to continue dialogue and make compromises," she said.
"Workers should be more strongly committed to employers and the privatisation plan during a recession.
"No doubt, workers will receive tremendous benefits if the newly-privatised firm manages to turn itself around from a loss-maker into a profitable business.
"However, the employer should honour his commitments to his workers," she added, noting that her ministry would not allow employers to deny workers their rights.
Abdel Hadi ridiculed allegations that her ministry had secured 150 jobs for young people in farms in Israel.
She also denied that her ministry had arranged jobs for Israeli workers in Egypt.
The minister said confidently that she was fully aware that her male rivals were closely following her policies and how she would continue. She did not rule out the possibility that they might be expecting her to give up hope at any moment.
However, she affirmed: "I am used to being successful. I am determined to continue my success in my career."
"I work 16 hours a day. I feel satisfied and content when I help my colleagues."
filmmaker's celluloid salvos
Film director Ali Badrakhan harshly criticised the government for withdrawing support from the local cinema industry.
Badrakhan believed the government's outrageous move was
intended to quicken the flow of American movies into Egypt.
"But Egypt is not alone," Badrakhan said, "Many other countries are being turned into markets for American products."
The director, who has received three prestigious state awards, did not spare film festival officials from blame for the decline of Egyptian cinema regionally and internationally.
"National film festivals do not look into the problems of Egyptian cinema. As a result, films produced locally do not attract audiences overseas," Badrakhan said.
He regretted that Egypt's cultural, artistic and media prestige had lost its lustre outside the borders.
"Unlike film festivals at home, similar events in the Arab world, such as Dubai Film Festival, are well-organised and their agenda contain suggestions for analysing the development of the Arab film industry," he said.
He also slammed the Cinema Institute, saying that it was partly to blame for not helping talented and innovative filmmakers to make their mark in the Egyptian cinema industry.
Badrakhan said his appeal for a thorough re-assessment of the institute's curricula had fallen on deaf ears.
In an interview with the weekly magazine el-Musawwar, Badrakhan, 65, said he sympathised with his Egyptian contemporaries, saying that they had been ignored and denied support from anyone.
Describing his colleagues as "a real source of wealth", the director said that these people were the victims of unwise policies.
Badrakhan himself has not entered a studio for six years.
His last film, Desire, starred Nadia al-Gendi and Ilham Shahin.
The frustrated film director added that a script produced 18 years ago for the novel Living in Reality by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz had not yet roused the interest of cinema officials or the television production sector to finance the project.
Perhaps a report by a committee assigned to review the script had discouraged cultural officials and television from stepping forward to finance the project.
"It was ironic that members of this committee warned that th
e film would not attract fans."
Even so, Badrakhan's career and experience were recognised by film producers in other Arab countries.
He said he had received three offers from abroad.
"The first is in Yemen. The second film is about the Kurds. The third film will show the heroism of American peace activist Rachael Cori, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer."
On attempts by Arab and Egyptian film producers to make a film about the late actress Soad Hosni Ð also known as the 'Cinderella of Arabic Cinema' Ð Badrakhan accused them of exploiting her name and popularity.
"If these people are serious about their projects, they should contact [the actress' husband] Maher Awwad."
The film director firmly believes that an honest treatment of Soad Hosni's life would shed more light on a crucial chapter in Egypt's modern history.
'voice of the revolution'
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the death of the great lyricist Salah Jahin.
Jahin was an institution Ð songwriter, cartoonist and scriptwriter.
He was the author of the puppet show Leila Kabira (The Great Night).
The son of a judge, Jahin rebelled against the family's wish to see him follow in his father's footsteps and decided to work as a cartoonist for a daily newspaper after he obtained his Thanawiya Amma (Certificate of General Secondary Education).
However, Jahin's talent came to the fore after the Egyptian Revolution in 1952 when the monarchy was ousted.
Keeping his finger on the pulse of the nation, Jahin composed many of the best-known patriotic songs, which helped rally the masses around the revolutionary army officers.
He took his cues from pro-revolution slogans chanted in the streets.
Jahin's songs are widely believed to have given the nation a vivid expression of its aspirations and prospects under the Revolution and his songs earned the legendary Abdel Halim Hafez immense popularity as the Singer of the Revolution.
Egypt's national day is celebrated with recordings of the songs composed by Jahin and performed by Abdel H
alim.
"Jahin's songs and lyrics express the ambitions of the Egyptian nation in particular and the Arab world in general," said one film critic.
"He was so talented that he could compose a song in minutes," he added.
The turning point in Jahin's career came when he met composer Sayed Mekawy.
Since their first meeting, they were almost inseparable.
Their cooperation produced immortal songs, which are still chart-toppers today.
As he basked in the popularity of the entertainment community, Jahin scored equal success in the press.
His cartoons were published in the daily Al-Ahram and he contributed drawings to Sabah el-Kheir weekly magazine.
Jahin reached the height of success when he was appointed the magazine's chief editor, leading a battalion of heavyweight political writers, analysts and cartoonists.
Like millions of Egyptians, Jahin was devastated after the 1967 defeat. He withdrew into himself for some time before his friends tried to persuade him to help rid the nation of the trauma of defeat. However, he was unable to help the nation to recover from its depression.
But Jahin abandoned writing patriotic songs as he was said to have lost confidence in everything.
He once admitted that the defeat rocked his life and beliefs.
"The defeat killed ideas of my national songs," he once said.
Unable to continue, Jahin shifted his interest to philosophical and spiritual writings laden with deep pessimism.
Until his death, Jahin published six volumes of poetry Ð a philosophical monologue in quatrains.
He desperately struggled to overcome his trauma until he died in 1986. Surprisingly, one of his closest friends and devoted students, actress Soad Hosni, is said to have suffered from acute depression and committed suicide in London a few years ago.
Hosni admitted that she felt a deep sense of loss after the death of her mentor Jahin.
"The candle that lit my life for many years was extinguished," she said.
Zarqawi: suicide bombers, strategy and fervour
A unique video of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is an att
empt by Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq to show he has a long-term strategy to challenge the government that is not based only on suicide bombers, Arab security analysts say.
The video, posted on the Internet, was the first known tape to show an unmasked Zarqawi delivering an extended rallying address of the kind used by Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Not by chance, the video appeared on Tuesday at just about the same time as Prime Minister-designate
Nuri al-Maliki went on state television to urge Iraqis to unite against terrorism.
"It is one thing to set off bombs as the new government is being formed and another to illustrate that you have a strategy to topple it," said Joost Hiltermann, project director for the International Crisis Group think-tank.
"The message is Zarqawi will overthrow the political process."
The 34-minute video showed Zarqawi as both an operational figure, poring over maps, receiving battle reports and firing long bursts from an automatic weapon, and as a strategic leader.
Iraqi analyst Mustafa Alani said Zarqawi sees the new government as a threat to the insurgency, potentially weakening it by drawing resistance members into the political process.
"His organisation is going to be under pressure. He's anticipating a huge challenge, not from the Americans but inside Iraq," Alani said.
"This is a clear message to the Arab Sunni community, or a certain part of it, which is the resistance movement: don't be part of this process," he added. "He is warning: you will be the enemy and we will slaughter you."
The video contradicted the assessment of Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabor, who has said Zarqawi was a spent force.
"Zarqawi wanted to show that he is still very much alive and active," said Wamidh Nadhmi, a political scientist at Baghdad University. "A new government is being formed and he is telling them that he can freely walk around Iraq and meet his men."
"The message from Zarqawi to the Iraqi government is: do not start rejoicing. We will keep attacking you and we will make your life very d
ifficult," said Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of a London Arabic newspaper, who has interviewed Osama bin Laden.
Zarqawi seemed to be digging in for a protracted battle with more than 132,000 US troops training Iraqi forces to take over security so they can head home.
"America has realised today that its tanks, armies and Shi'ite agents will not be able to end the battle with the mujahideen," said Zarqawi.
It was the first known video of the Jordanian since a suspected appearance, masked, during the filmed beheading of American civilian hostage Nick Berg two years ago.
Maliki, from Iraq's majority Shi'ite community, has four weeks to form a government of national unity including minority Kurds and Sunnis Ñ widely seen as the most effective way to halt sectarian violence.
Maliki is a prime target for Zarqawi, who US and Iraqi officials say orders suicide bombers from across the Arab world to blow themselves up in spectacular attacks in a bid to draw Iraq's 60 per cent majority Shi'ites into a sectarian civil war.
Iraqi and American leaders are banking on the political process that is likely to bring Maliki to power after four months of wrangling to lure Sunni insurgents into democracy. But there have never been any illusions that strategy could work with Zarqawi's followers, believed to be mainly young Iraqis.
"Today, you are trying with all means to assemble people who differ among themselves ... and apostates to form a government to save you from your critical situation," said Zarqawi, who was clad in black and a green vest with an assault rifle by his side.
Atwan said he sensed that Zarqawi was worried he was losing appeal among Sunnis, the community from which the insurgency derives its strength, because they have joined the political process, gaining a fifth of the seats in parliament.
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