Al-Ahram Weekly - Limelight

A rose by another name

With apologies to the Bard, names are not meaningless. Names do matter. If the “rose” had another flower ...

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A rose by another name

‘A tale told by an idiot’

A peak of national noise marked by exploding fireworks, marching bands, and political speeches, custom-designed to project ...

All eyes on the ball

What is it about football that has half our planet reeling? It is no more than a spherical rubber ball, an inanimate object ...

Colour me purple

The Greeks called it the “land of the purple”. As early as the eighth Century BC, phoinix or purple was referred ...

Have you seen any aliens yet?

“Where is everybody,” asked Enrico Fermi, Italian-American Nobel Prize physicist in 1950. Fermi was talking with ...

Hail Mary is amazing

Like soft rain falling on a thirsty soul, there comes May, defying all winters and all wars. The scent of lilies and roses ...

Hear the sound of silence

In a world filled with ugly sights and sounds we first see events before we hear them. Light travels faster than sound ...

Beginnings and endings

Why is Christmas so appealing to a world that is predominantly non-Christian? As of 13 December, the world population ...

Comedy of errors and terrors

When the world stops making sense, laughter is the ultimate sanctuary. Even in the darkest of times, when danger is inevitable, ...

Where are the songs of spring?

As we sailed through the new year in the midst of brutal crimes and illegal wars and bloodshed, we realise spring is ...

limelight: Lust for war

How kind-natured and generous are the American people, yet they can never find peace. A source of pride in “American ...

War or peace

As time rushes forward, each new year passes faster than the previous ones. When has January slipped to February, leaving ...

Consider the cradle

Classicists of the 18th and 19th centuries European Enlightenment, were inspired by intellectual ideas and the democratic ...

Some dare, some care

How a mighty empire can be deliberately concealed, destined to remain underground, undisclosed, and unknown. In fact, ...