The reason given for the relocation of Ramsis II statue from it’s place in Ramsis the second square in Cairo, makes us wonder if the Egyptian government is considering relocating the residents of the capital Cairo as well!
The government said it’s removing the statue from it’s place in Ramses the second square to save it from pollution!!
Friday, August 25, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
دراسة هندية تكشف وجود معدلات ضارة من المبيدات في المشروبات الغازية
كشفت دراسة أجراها مركز العلوم والبيئة الهندي عام 2006م عن وجود مستويات غير صحية من المبيدات في المشروبات الغازية
والدراسة أجريت على 57 عينة من مختلف العلامات التجارية للمشروبات الغازية من 25 مصنعا مختلفا لكوكا كولا وبيبسي كولا المنتشرة في 12 ولاية هندية
وكشفت الدراسة عن وجود بقايا مبيدات في كافة العينات التي فحصتها، حيث وجدت مزيجا من 3 إلى 5 أنواع مختلفة من المبيدات في كل العينات، بمعدل يفوق المعدلات التي يسمح بها مكتب المعايير الهندية بأربع وعشرين مرة، ومن المعروف أن هذه المبيدات تعد سموما مصغرة تؤثر على أجسامنا على المدى البعيد، على حد تعبير مدير المركز
وقد أوضحت الدراسة أن هذه المبيدات قد تكون مميتة إذا تم التعرض لها بكميات أكبر من المتعارف عليها كحدود مقبولة. ومن أمثلة المواد التي عثرت عليها الدراسة في المشروبات الغازية التي تم فحصها وبعض التأثيرات الصحية السلبية لها
Lindaine
يتم امتصاصها عبر القنوات التنفسية أو الهضمية أو عبر الجلد وتتراكم في خلايا الدهون. وهذه المادة تضر الكبد والكلى والجهازين العصبي والمناعي وتسبب تشوهات خلقية وسرطان وحتى الوفاة
DDT
ارتبطت بتطورات جنسية متغيرة وانخفاض في جودة المنى وزيادة خطر سرطان الثدي لدى النساء
Chlorpyrifos
Chlorpyrifos
التعرض لهذه المادة يؤثر على نمو خلايا المخ
Malathion
تسبب شذوذ في الحمض النووي مع كل الجرعات التي تم اختبارها
ورغم مسارعة الشركتين الأميركيتين العملاقتين بيبسي وكوكاكولا إلى التأكيد أن الخضروات والفاكهة التي نأكلها يوميا تحتوي على كميات مماثلة إن لم تكن أكبر من المواد المذكورة في الدراسة، فإن المركز يوضح أن القيمة الغذائية للخضروات والفواكه تجُّب المخاطر الناجمة عن وجود نسب من هذه المواد الضارة بها، في حين لا تتمتع المشروبات الغازية بأي قيمة عذائية تعوض الضرر الصحي الناجم عن المعدلات العالية للمبيدات التي تحتوي عليها هذه المشروبات
Saturday, August 19, 2006
The Lack of Personal Space
I have been out of Cairo for four years now, and when I went to the city this year, I felt as if I was in a cage!! From the pollution to the dirtiness to the crowding of the city, one thing caught my attention more than the other vast disasters that Cairo suffers from, was the lack of personal space.
I mean you can’t walk in the street without people hitting your shoulder as they walk, and this seems to be a very common behavior, that no one stops to apologize and it seems that no one asks for such an apology. It’s as if people have lost the feeling of the sacredness of their bodies and of other people’s bodies as well.
They allow themselves to push you to pass or knock on your shoulder to urge you to move faster.
The public transport is another nightmare. People are canned like sardines, sitting so close like intimate friends, and it seems that no body is disturbed by the fact that in order to reach the door when your bus stop comes, you have to touch at least 20 passengers!! And by “touch” I don’t mean a quick contact of shoulders, which is normal given the level of crowdedness, but that actually your whole body gets in touch with the queues of passengers as you struggle to reach the door before the bus moves again.
I know it has always been crowded in Cairo, especially in public transportation, but what astonishes me is that no body seems bothered with it!! They don’t even notice this.
And it’s not only your “skin” that is violated, it’s your ears and your nose too. I mean you are forced to know personal details about people sitting by your side in the underground for example, as every body is talking loudly with each other.
People are violating your personal space all the time by the very loud mobile ring tones, the overly loud cassette players, the deafening microphones in mosques transmitting the whole prayer procedures and especially the Friday ceremony,…etc.
I remember one of my professors at college saying that “personal space” is actually an original human right , and I just hope that people in streets of Cairo start recognizing and claiming this right.
I mean you can’t walk in the street without people hitting your shoulder as they walk, and this seems to be a very common behavior, that no one stops to apologize and it seems that no one asks for such an apology. It’s as if people have lost the feeling of the sacredness of their bodies and of other people’s bodies as well.
They allow themselves to push you to pass or knock on your shoulder to urge you to move faster.
The public transport is another nightmare. People are canned like sardines, sitting so close like intimate friends, and it seems that no body is disturbed by the fact that in order to reach the door when your bus stop comes, you have to touch at least 20 passengers!! And by “touch” I don’t mean a quick contact of shoulders, which is normal given the level of crowdedness, but that actually your whole body gets in touch with the queues of passengers as you struggle to reach the door before the bus moves again.
I know it has always been crowded in Cairo, especially in public transportation, but what astonishes me is that no body seems bothered with it!! They don’t even notice this.
And it’s not only your “skin” that is violated, it’s your ears and your nose too. I mean you are forced to know personal details about people sitting by your side in the underground for example, as every body is talking loudly with each other.
People are violating your personal space all the time by the very loud mobile ring tones, the overly loud cassette players, the deafening microphones in mosques transmitting the whole prayer procedures and especially the Friday ceremony,…etc.
I remember one of my professors at college saying that “personal space” is actually an original human right , and I just hope that people in streets of Cairo start recognizing and claiming this right.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Children and Media - part 1
The debate about whether a preschool child should be allowed to watch TV or not has been going on for ages. Some say absolutely No to TV at this young age, others are very enthusiastic about highlighting the vast benefits of TV exposure at the “formative years”, others choose an in between approach. I must say, I belong to the last group, and I’ll explain why.
It’s true that the first four years of the child’s life are the most important ones in shaping his mental, emotional and social skills. A parent’s role in this stage is providing the child with many chances to explore his world through interaction with his surroundings. Some people say that a child glued to the TV screen or computer monitor will deprive him from such chances.
From my point of view, guided by an adult, be it a parent, an older brother or sister, or a teacher, the software and TV programs can do help the child a lot in his “exploration mission”.
First the parent has to be engaged with his child, and not be lured to leave the kid staring at the screens, in order to get a few minutes of quietness to get delayed chores or duties done. On the contrary, the parent should share some of the time his child spends watching TV and guide him to make the most of his time in front of the silver screen.
The parent can enhance his child’s creativity by asking him questions like, what you think will happen next? Does the character in the show have special powers? Who is there family?...etc
Have you ever wondered why does your little child wants to hear the same story over and over again? Research has shown that children feel good about them selves when they hear/read a story that they know, they feel smart and happy. The parent can enhance his child’s self confidence by asking him questions about characters in his favorite TV show.
The parent can help the child learn new vocabularies, numbers, colors,…etc, while watching TV by asking questions like: what is that number? Do you know what color her dress is? What is he holding in his hands, is it a cup?
A parent can even use his child’s favorite TV show to enhance his motor skills! The parent can point to a character doing some physical activity and encourage his child to imitate it.
The child can learn about accepted and non desired behavior through TV, as the parent applause the desired behavior some character does or say that a certain act done by one of the show characters is bad and explain why to his child.
The parent can take the chance to teach the child cooperation, by giving him easy chores like covering the TV set after the end of the show for example.
Watching TV doesn’t have to be the child’s quiet time away from his parents. On the contrary, it can be a special time for both the parents and their kids. Also it shouldn’t substitute for physical activity. The parent should turn the TV off from time to time and take his child playing outdoors, making crafts, …etc.
As a rule, the TV SHOULD EXTEND NATURAL PLAY AND NOT SUBSTITUTE IT.
As for computer use in the preschool phase, I think it needs a new post.
It’s true that the first four years of the child’s life are the most important ones in shaping his mental, emotional and social skills. A parent’s role in this stage is providing the child with many chances to explore his world through interaction with his surroundings. Some people say that a child glued to the TV screen or computer monitor will deprive him from such chances.
From my point of view, guided by an adult, be it a parent, an older brother or sister, or a teacher, the software and TV programs can do help the child a lot in his “exploration mission”.
First the parent has to be engaged with his child, and not be lured to leave the kid staring at the screens, in order to get a few minutes of quietness to get delayed chores or duties done. On the contrary, the parent should share some of the time his child spends watching TV and guide him to make the most of his time in front of the silver screen.
The parent can enhance his child’s creativity by asking him questions like, what you think will happen next? Does the character in the show have special powers? Who is there family?...etc
Have you ever wondered why does your little child wants to hear the same story over and over again? Research has shown that children feel good about them selves when they hear/read a story that they know, they feel smart and happy. The parent can enhance his child’s self confidence by asking him questions about characters in his favorite TV show.
The parent can help the child learn new vocabularies, numbers, colors,…etc, while watching TV by asking questions like: what is that number? Do you know what color her dress is? What is he holding in his hands, is it a cup?
A parent can even use his child’s favorite TV show to enhance his motor skills! The parent can point to a character doing some physical activity and encourage his child to imitate it.
The child can learn about accepted and non desired behavior through TV, as the parent applause the desired behavior some character does or say that a certain act done by one of the show characters is bad and explain why to his child.
The parent can take the chance to teach the child cooperation, by giving him easy chores like covering the TV set after the end of the show for example.
Watching TV doesn’t have to be the child’s quiet time away from his parents. On the contrary, it can be a special time for both the parents and their kids. Also it shouldn’t substitute for physical activity. The parent should turn the TV off from time to time and take his child playing outdoors, making crafts, …etc.
As a rule, the TV SHOULD EXTEND NATURAL PLAY AND NOT SUBSTITUTE IT.
As for computer use in the preschool phase, I think it needs a new post.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
The Resistance Option
It has been 22 days since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, yet I couldn’t get myself to write about it until now.
Through the last 3 weeks I have been following the war minute by minute on Arabic news networks as well as western ones, and this time I just couldn’t talk anymore, as I saw devastation and death creeping through our beloved Lebanon, I felt that anything I say will be kind of (nidal magani) or a free struggle as some Egyptian activist had called it. What will anything I say do to the families of the victims? What will it say to the mother who lost her one day old daughter in an Israeli raid? she didn’t even have time to name her! How will my words deliver the much needed humanitarian aid to the devastated Lebanese villages?
On the day of the second Qana massacre, I was watching news as usual and I just couldn’t stop my tears as I saw a man carrying the body of a 10 or 12 year old girl from the wreck. I felt a chill when I saw the body of this little girl frozen on a certain position and I just couldn’t stop thinking of what was she doing in her last moments before she was hit by the Israeli rock that destroyed her home. How did she cope with the sounds of the fight around her? Was she alone when the raid started? Did she understand what was going on around her? What was she doing before the raid, perhaps holding her little doll and hiding afraid in a corner of the house?
Before that day I thought I have lost the ability to shed tears for an Arabic cause. I mean the news of death in Palestine and Iraq unfortunately turned into a “normal” fact of life. So may died in Iraq everyday that I wondered if there is any Iraqi left in the country yet.
When I saw this little girl, I felt furious because I am helpless, I mean what can I do, other than talk and donate money, as a young working mother of an 8 months old twin, to this girl and her pears?
As I tried to overcome the sad feelings that kept creeping on my soul I started to see some hope in the future.
The Hezbuallah’s withstanding against Israel is remarkable, and it exposes to the Arab people the lies of their regimes that are quick to remind us of the “great “ Israeli army that no one can beat, whenever someone talks about resisting Israel.
Hizbuallah’s stand gave the Arabs a card to play with in any negotiations with the Israeli side. It proved that Israel can be beaten and that the Israeli army may be more advanced than the Arab armies but it can’t stand a guerrilla war.
And that’s the reason behind the shameful statements of some so called “moderate” Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt that provided the Israeli aggression on Lebanon with legitimacy. Lebanon is being punished, as some Lebanese official phrased it, because it chose the “resistance” option. The option that the Arab regimes tried so hard to eliminate from our minds.
And now, many of the Arab youth that were born in the “peace” era and that thought of fighting Israel as an irrational and (antari) option are now realizing that “force” is the only language understood by Israel.
Isreal must understand that as long as it continues its aggression on Lebanon, it will be the only loser, there will be more and more Israeli deaths, a much stronger Hizbuallah and more and more convinced of the resistance option.
And if they think that continuing their atrocities in Lebanon will divide the Lebanese people and make them shift away from supporting Hizbuallah, it better think again. In his book “dying to win: the strategic logic of suicide terrorism”, author Robert Pape found that from the 38 Hizbuallah “Fida'een, as I call them”, that he identified their names and birth places and other personal data, only 8 were “Islamic fundamentalists”, 27 were from leftist political groups and 3 were Christians, including a female high school teacher with a college degree. And all were born in Lebanon.
A conversation I had with one of my Lebanese colleagues only confirms these findings. My friend only came from Lebanon some week ago and as we drove to work together I was cautious not to express my support for Hizbuallah, after all I am sitting in the comfort of my home with my family, while she had to escape the Israeli raids and risk her life by traveling in a car to Damascus to reach her work. But to my surprise she started by saying... If Isreal think that she will make us turn against Hizbuallah by what she is doing, then she is wrong. She continues… and what did Hizbuallah do to provoke this Israeli response? It captured 2 Israeli soldiers, what about our prisoners, that amount to thousands, in the Israeli jails? They have the right to destroy a whole country to get back their two prisoners and we don’t have the right to try and free ours?
She also said that after all, Hizbuallah is moral in its response to the Israeli aggression and that she admires that…… by the way, my friend isn’t a shi’a as some must have speculated, she is a young Christian Lebanese.
Through the last 3 weeks I have been following the war minute by minute on Arabic news networks as well as western ones, and this time I just couldn’t talk anymore, as I saw devastation and death creeping through our beloved Lebanon, I felt that anything I say will be kind of (nidal magani) or a free struggle as some Egyptian activist had called it. What will anything I say do to the families of the victims? What will it say to the mother who lost her one day old daughter in an Israeli raid? she didn’t even have time to name her! How will my words deliver the much needed humanitarian aid to the devastated Lebanese villages?
On the day of the second Qana massacre, I was watching news as usual and I just couldn’t stop my tears as I saw a man carrying the body of a 10 or 12 year old girl from the wreck. I felt a chill when I saw the body of this little girl frozen on a certain position and I just couldn’t stop thinking of what was she doing in her last moments before she was hit by the Israeli rock that destroyed her home. How did she cope with the sounds of the fight around her? Was she alone when the raid started? Did she understand what was going on around her? What was she doing before the raid, perhaps holding her little doll and hiding afraid in a corner of the house?
Before that day I thought I have lost the ability to shed tears for an Arabic cause. I mean the news of death in Palestine and Iraq unfortunately turned into a “normal” fact of life. So may died in Iraq everyday that I wondered if there is any Iraqi left in the country yet.
When I saw this little girl, I felt furious because I am helpless, I mean what can I do, other than talk and donate money, as a young working mother of an 8 months old twin, to this girl and her pears?
As I tried to overcome the sad feelings that kept creeping on my soul I started to see some hope in the future.
The Hezbuallah’s withstanding against Israel is remarkable, and it exposes to the Arab people the lies of their regimes that are quick to remind us of the “great “ Israeli army that no one can beat, whenever someone talks about resisting Israel.
Hizbuallah’s stand gave the Arabs a card to play with in any negotiations with the Israeli side. It proved that Israel can be beaten and that the Israeli army may be more advanced than the Arab armies but it can’t stand a guerrilla war.
And that’s the reason behind the shameful statements of some so called “moderate” Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt that provided the Israeli aggression on Lebanon with legitimacy. Lebanon is being punished, as some Lebanese official phrased it, because it chose the “resistance” option. The option that the Arab regimes tried so hard to eliminate from our minds.
And now, many of the Arab youth that were born in the “peace” era and that thought of fighting Israel as an irrational and (antari) option are now realizing that “force” is the only language understood by Israel.
Isreal must understand that as long as it continues its aggression on Lebanon, it will be the only loser, there will be more and more Israeli deaths, a much stronger Hizbuallah and more and more convinced of the resistance option.
And if they think that continuing their atrocities in Lebanon will divide the Lebanese people and make them shift away from supporting Hizbuallah, it better think again. In his book “dying to win: the strategic logic of suicide terrorism”, author Robert Pape found that from the 38 Hizbuallah “Fida'een, as I call them”, that he identified their names and birth places and other personal data, only 8 were “Islamic fundamentalists”, 27 were from leftist political groups and 3 were Christians, including a female high school teacher with a college degree. And all were born in Lebanon.
A conversation I had with one of my Lebanese colleagues only confirms these findings. My friend only came from Lebanon some week ago and as we drove to work together I was cautious not to express my support for Hizbuallah, after all I am sitting in the comfort of my home with my family, while she had to escape the Israeli raids and risk her life by traveling in a car to Damascus to reach her work. But to my surprise she started by saying... If Isreal think that she will make us turn against Hizbuallah by what she is doing, then she is wrong. She continues… and what did Hizbuallah do to provoke this Israeli response? It captured 2 Israeli soldiers, what about our prisoners, that amount to thousands, in the Israeli jails? They have the right to destroy a whole country to get back their two prisoners and we don’t have the right to try and free ours?
She also said that after all, Hizbuallah is moral in its response to the Israeli aggression and that she admires that…… by the way, my friend isn’t a shi’a as some must have speculated, she is a young Christian Lebanese.
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