Falling in Love with Dr. Mahmoud Mohiuddin – Imad Eldin Hussein

At 3 pm on Thursday, July 11, I, accompanied by journalist Nashaat Al-Daihy, went to meet Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin in his office on the 11th floor of the IMF headquarters.
It would be unusual for us to come to Washington to cover the NATO summit and not see him, because in every sense of the word he is like the Egyptian mayor of Washington.
Dr. Mahmoud has multiple roles and assignments, covering a group of countries in the region, including Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, UAE, Lebanon, Somalia, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Kuwait and the Maldives, so you will find the flags of these countries at the entrance of his office.
He is also the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We know, of course, that he was a prominent investment minister in the government of Ahmed Nazif, who left the government to join the World Bank a few months before the January 25, 2011 revolution.
When you stroll into the conference room attached to his office in Washington, you immediately find yourself in the office of a great Egyptian intellectual.
The first thing that comes into view is the various pictures and paintings
The first sad photo of the artist Souad Hosni and her story. Dr. Mahmoud said that he was visiting Vietnam and the photo appeared on a website on the Internet, and he found it while wandering the streets of Hanoi. An artist was drawing on the street, so he gave it to him and he enlarged it. Interestingly, the artist’s work is sold for a very low price, while in Washington, a frame costs several times this price.
The second famous picture of a Nubian folk dance. When Dr. Mahmoud visited Aswan, he visited an old shop and found this painting, he talked to the owner and bought it for a small sum, but the frame also cost him more money, which shows that its value is often … more than the price, although the price varies from place to place.
A third image of the pyramid area, with the Sphinx almost buried in the sand.
The fourth photo of the Rababa players, Dr Mahmoud found this photo hanging in the house of his grandfather in Kayubia Kafshukr.
The fifth photo depicts Napoleon Bonaparte leaving Egypt with many Egyptian collections. This photo is, of course, a reminder of the many resources that Western colonialism plundered from occupied countries.
The sixth picture has beautiful Arabic writing saying: “Egypt in my heart.”
As for the last picture, behind the chair that Dr. Mahmoud Mohy El-Din was sitting in is a beautiful painting with the words “In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” written on it in very beautiful Arabic script.
Apart from other paintings representing the beauty of nature, these are the most prominent paintings I observed.
When you meet or talk with Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin about economics, you’ll find that he immerses you in a variety of cultural conversations.
I have known this man for many years and he is a true example of an Egyptian, Arab and international encyclopedic intellectual because he can talk to you in almost every field, for example, when he translated for the Egyptian Ministry of Education, he said, This is an important book on economics from the beginning of the last century, and there were two people who translated or Arabized it, the most important of whom were poets Hafez Ibrahim and Khalil Mutran.
He is an important author of many books, some of which were published by Dar Al-Shorouk, such as “In Progress … Chaos and Roads”. He also introduced and translated a very important book “Introduction to Europe … History” by John Hurst.
I think Dar Al-Shorouk will be working on a book project soon.
He loves art, so it is no surprise that he was elected a few days ago as a member of the International Academy of Arts and Sciences, an international forum for scientists, artists and researchers working on solutions to the pressing challenges facing humanity.
At the same time, he follows most of what happens in Egypt, and Naqash lacks only the biography of his country, Kafr Shukr, and all his travels and actions that began or ended there.
When you meet him in Kafr Shukr, he is an authentic Egyptian farmer, wearing a robe and talking to you about agriculture and its conditions; when you meet him in Washington, he is a distinguished international official and expert, talking to you about the most important things. Not to mention his experience in climate change. He was an Egyptian climate pioneer at the COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh last November.
He was very humble, had many connections and friends, and traveled a lot for work. He frequented cafes from Cairo to Washington.
Mahmoud Mohy El-Din is a very respected Egyptian and Arab model.