Challenging new art exhibition at Palace of Arts, Opera House Grounds

I met up with someone yesterday and we popped in to the Palace of Arts (she was leaving Egypt today to go back to her country) and I just wanted to give her a taster.

They have a new exhibition there and it is NOT pretty! Its art at its most disturbing.

If you want art that's challenging its an absolute MUST! (Those who joined me in a visit in October - this is 100% totally different!)

Its absolutely free to visit - get off at Opera metro station, find the entrance to the Opera House grounds - the Palace of Arts is just over the grass from the Museum of Modern Art. It opens 530pm (I think its open during the day as well at some point but don't know the times).

War and Hate

The current war being raged on Gaza is affecting many of us here in Egypt. I have decided not to discuss the rights and wrongs of this war on this blog as there are many other blogs and forums around the net doing this - and indeed I have made some posts on some forums giving my opinions.

Egypt is receiving civilian casualties from Palestine into a number of its hospitals and a lot of people are visiting the casualties to take them the necessities of life in hospital such as clothing, toiletries and so forth needed as they have come only with the clothes on their back.

A group of women (mixed foreigners - British, American, Pakistani, Scandinavian, Iranian) I know visited the Sheik Zayed Hospital near 6th October today and talked with some of the Palestinian casualties. You can read about their visit and link to some of the photographs they took of casualties (posted with the permission of the relatives) here on this link: EgyptSearch- topic about visit to SZ Hospital

Update (20/1/09) This story has now made it into The Times: Report about the Sheik Zayed casualites brought to world attention by the group of women that visited there


Update - report from CNN iReport on the casualties in Sheik Zayed Hospital:

What you don't know..

I just want to make it clear that my belief is that this is about the affects of war on REAL PEOPLE, not a blame game. I don't have a link to any equivalent information on the impact of rocket attacks on individuals in Israel and if someone sends me one I will be happy to consider linking it through.

I am absolutely not in the game of saying 'your dead child/wife/husband/mother/father is worth more/less than our dead child/wife/husband/mother/father. Both sides should stop using violence to justify their positions. Each life lost will affect the lives of those around them the same - it is a personal impact. Counting numbers is irrelevant.

How to deal with hate at a time like this?

When is it ok to hate?

There's a 10 step programme towards the end of this link about letting go of hate. It starts from the assumption that you WANT to stop hating.