The American Embassy in Cairo, in cooperation with the Voice of America (VOA), has produced a compilation of recordings from the archives of the VOA Arabic service. The three CD collection is entitled Bainee wa Bainak or “Between You and Me”. US Ambassador Francis J Ricciardone introduced the collection saying, “We chose the name Bainee wa Bainak because ultimately relations between Egypt and America are between people. Our cultures bring us together.”
Bainee wa Bainak features interviews in classical Arabic with Egyptian icons from literature, music, and theater and film. The CDs will be made available to Egyptian libraries, universities and cultural institutions for research and instruction. It represents a sample from the more than 1600 hours of recordings broadcast and archived by the VOA’s Arabic Service. The American Embassy in Cairo and VOA are exploring ways to share the entire VOA Arabic treasury with the public.
VOA Director Dan Austin stated: “We are thrilled to be able to share these gems from VOA’s 55 years of Arabic-language broadcasting into Egypt and the entire region. These interviews shine light on the rich cultural history of Egypt, and now this treasure will be available for scholars from throughout the Middle East and indeed the world.”
Audio files and transcripts of the Bainee wa Bainak collection are available at the US Embassy Cairo website.
(Source: Voice of America/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)