Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/298224
THIS WEEK Chris Agius, Parliamentary Secretary for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport, inaugurating 'Unfurl Sails" attended by Ms. Ayşe Sezgen Turkish Ambassador to Malta and Prof. Murat Arslan, Director of the Mediterranean Research Institute at Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 APRIL 2014 39 THIS WEEK WHEN Hani Shukrallah, one of Egypt's most respected journalists, was forced out of Al Ahram Online – Egypt's largest English language news website – by allies of the Mus- lim Brotherhood last year, he gave his typical firebrand response to the powers that be: "I have some- thing immeasurably more precious: my dignity and self-respect. What do you have?" It was not the first time that he found himself in this position. Un- der Mubarak's regime in 2005, when he was chief editor of Al Ahram Weekly, he was already dismissed after having written numerous ar- ticles criticising Egyptian politics and voicing his skepticism about promised reforms. Born in Cairo in 1950, Shukrallah was a Marxist student activist dur- ing the time of Anwar Sadat, but he was also critical of the dogmatic leftist thinking. Throughout his career as journalist and author, he has always stood up to speak truth to power. The author of Egypt, the Arabs and the World, will be the main guest at the Book Festival on Cam- pus on 30 April, where he will be in- terviewed by Maltese journalist and author Karl Schembri about his lat- est book, his experiences, the Arab Spring, and the future of Egypt. The event will kick off at 19:30. The event is being brought to you by the National Book Council and Għaqda tal-Malti (University of Malta) THE elevated status Malta has al- ways held because of its strategic lo- cation in the Mediterranean is most characterized in both the panels and drawings displayed in a colour- ful exhibition entitled Unfurl Sails: The Mediterranean and its Ships, currently on show at the Malta Mar- itime Museum in Vittoriosa. The importance of an exhibition such as Unfurl Sails is in providing an indication of the importance of the Mediterranean through history as a zone of contact and transmis- sion. It exposes how the Middle Sea, together with its ships and peoples, has played an enormously impor- tant role in human history as an in- terface of fascination and variation, as well as in influencing the rest of the world through various develop- ments over time within this relative- ly small region of the planet. The Exhibition was inaugurated last Thursday by Chris Agius, Par- liamentary Secretary for Research, Innovation, Youth and Sport, in the presence of Ms. Ayşe Sezgen, Turk- ish Ambassador to Malta, and Prof. Murat Arslan, Director of the Medi- terranean Civilisations Research Institute (MCRI) at Akdeniz Uni- versity. On display are 21 panels depicting the history of the Mediterranean, six panels with various ships types, eight scale models of ships including a model of a Bronze Age ship, two animations of the Mediterranean in Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, and 40 pen drawings of Mediterra- nean vessels and galley-sheds. The Mediterranean Civilisations Research Institute at Akdeniz Uni- versity (Turkey), organisers of the Unfurl Sails exhibition, plans to take these works on tour to other Mediterranean countries. Prof. Is- rafil Kurtcephe, Rector of Akdeniz University Antalya, supported the exhibition and Turkish Airlines sponsored this initiative by flying 700 kilos of exhibition material, panels, drawings and ship models from Antalya to Malta. Unfurl Sails: The Mediterranean and its Ships – will remain on dis- play up till 1 May 2014 Unfurl Sails links the geography and cultures of ships and shipping From skin to lungs: an analysis of the sources of disease MALTA Café Scientifique presents From Skin to Lungs: A tribute to Rita Levi-Montalcini, to be held at the Italian Cultural Institute on 28 April at 7.30pm. The skin acts as a first defense against the microbes and the chemi- cals found around us. It also acts as a barrier against the escape of water. A dysfunction in the skin would in- crease our exposure to disease. Dr Susanne Krauss Etschmann and Dr Sanja Kezic will be talking about the mutations found in our DNA that can lead to having (atopic) dermatitis, exploring the possible causes, includ- ing tobacco smoke and other air pol- lutants, as well as the Flaggirin gene, which reduces the effectiveness of the skin as a barrier and increases the risk for diseases such as eczema, food al- lergy and asthma. The event is supported by the European Commission in science and technology (COST), Professor Giuseppe Di Giovanni, Italian Cul- tural Institute, Italian Cultural Em- bassy and the Malta Physiological Society. For more information, visit http:// bit.ly/April28MCS. Malta Café Sci- entifique can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Malta. Cafe.Scientifique and online at http:// bit.ly/MCSCIweb Speaking truth to power Hani Shukrallah interviewed in Malta Hani Shukrallah