Revolution For Kids

In 1974, the children’s publishing house Dar El Fata El Arabi was launched in Beirut. Over the next decade, Dar El Fata—staffed by artists, designers, and writers devoted to bringing attention to the Palestinian cause—produced some of the most visually striking and progressive children’s books in the region. Bidoun sat down with Mohieddin Ellabbad, one of the co-founders of the publishing house and its first and most influential art director, as well as Nawal Traboulsi, a leading expert on children’s literature and reading habits, who got her start as an amateur illustrator hand-picked by Ellabbad to work with him making books.

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City Noise

Noise study concluded in Cairo

Egyptians in this capital city say it is harder and harder to be heard and to have a voice, but they are not talking politics. Well, not only politics. What they are talking about, or rather yelling about, is noise, the incredible background noise of a city crammed with 18 million people, and millions of drivers who always have one hand on the horn and a rules-free way of thinking. It is literally like living day in and day out with a lawn mower running next to your head, according to scientists with the National Research Center. They spent five years studying noise levels across the city and concluded in a report issued this year that the average noise from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. is 85 decibels, a bit louder than a freight train 15 feet away, said Mustafa el Sayyid, an engineer who helped carry out the study.

A symposium on the technical aspects of the 2008 Africa Cup

A symposium on the technical aspects of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana was held in Cairo to evaluate what happened. The objective of the star-filled workshop was to review the 26th Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana and also identify key challenges in the pursuit of developing African football.

Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 1 - 7 May 2008 Issue No. 895

2008 AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS

Cairo, Egypt: A symposium on the technical aspects of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana was held in Cairo in May to evaluate what happened. The objective of the star-filled workshop was to review the 26th Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana and also identify key challenges in the pursuit of developing African football.

We investigate and report on the proceedings, the people, the debates, the interactions, behind the scenes, goals and final score outcomes as a way to reflect on the politricks and deep spectrum of emotions and affiliations that the “African game” generates.

Taxi

Khaled Al Khamissi

Khaled Al Khamissi's "Taxi" is a remarkable journey into the lives and labyrinths of this beast of burden that has become a best-selling modern masterpiece in the author's home country. "Taxi" brings together 58 fictional monologues with Cairo cabbies recreated from the author's own experience of traversing the city. The experience takes the reader on a roller-coaster of emotions as bumpy and noisy as the city's potholed and chaotic streets.Described as an urban sociology, an ethnography, a classic of oral history - and a work of poetry in motion - "Taxi" tells Herculean tales of the struggle for survival and dignity among Greater Cairo's 80,000 cab drivers.


Paperback, 216 pages, February 2008
Published by Aflame Books

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