Advocates of vegetarianism often point out the detrimental effects of raising livestock on the environment.  One frequently cited study is the  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, showing that livestock production is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport. But even the most devout vegetarians are likely to avail themselves of drugs and bio-materials  that owe their origins to animal subjects.

Is there a way to replace the role animals play in the bio-pharmaceutical industry where they are used for testing new drugs? And what about the use of pig and cow tissues for the  repair of defective human organs?An alternative to animal drug testing is the use of computer modeling that simulates  how novel drugs will impact on diseases. One specialist in this area, Ramat-Gan-based Optimata, is  conducting virtual trials of cancer drug candidates on behalf of  Teva Pharmaceuticals and other major pharmaceutical companies.

Now, another Israeli company, CollPlant, has found a way to replace  animal sources for the production of collagen,  a major bio-material used in the medical device industry. The Rehovot-based company has invented a way to generate human collagen in tobacco plants.

Collagen,  a protein that forms much of the skin, ligament and bone tissues in the body, is used in more than 1,000 medical therapies, including bone grafts, shoulder operations,  and heart valve repair.

Until now, pigs or cows, have been the major sources of therapeutic collagen.   These livestock sources, along with another source –  human cadavers –  constitute serious safety risks, as undetected diseases can spread from the animal or human donor.

CollPlant’s green technology, enables a readily-accessible supply of  collagen that is free from all of the safety and environmental problems associated with livestock. The company uses  genetic engineering to endow the tobacco plants with  the genes that produce human collagen; after the plants reach maturity, the collagen is extracted.

The company has been careful to grow the transgenic plants in a protected way. The plants are cultivated in isolated greenhouses in northern Israel; and the choice of tobacco as a plant carrier is not coincidental: tobacco is not part of the food chain.

Not only is CollPlant’s collagen safer, it also turns out to be  superior to animal collagen, as it offers uniform properties and enhanced qualities.

Consequently, two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and Edwards, recently entered into co-development deals with CollPlant for the development of innovative collagen therapies; Pfizer in the orthopedics field, Edwards for cardio products.

The financial public has also shown interest in the company’s business prospects and CollPlant last year began to trade on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE:CLPT).  Investors who have forsaken the tobacco industry may consider coming back to a tobacco-linked investment; only this time to a company that raises tobacco plants that save lives – and — protects the environment.

This guest post is written by Bernard Dichek, the editor of BioIsrael

Perhaps in the west we still retain some false sense of culpability for the discovery of nuclear fission. Maybe the very name Fukushima has resonances with that of Hiroshima – invoking memories of horrors that for most of us are well before living memory. Something has to explain the irrational, overhyped, disinformation that has pervaded much of the western media since Japan’s cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami triggered the crisis in a clump of that nation’s nuclear reactors.

Disinformation exemplified by the headline used in the Green Prophet last week “Japan Nuclear Meltdown Will Seriously Affect World Environment”. The hysterical headlines abounded in the western press, and even that premier of news agencies, the BBC, included as part of its World Service news coverage the strained tones of a Japanese woman who had decided to leave Tokyo because of a (negligible) rise in radiation in that city, adding “the radiation levels should be zero”. What listener could fail to agree with that? Except that we are all exposed to natural radiation, with over 97 percent originating in the rocks of the earth or in outer space, nothing to do with the meddling of man. Levels of radiation are never zero.

The media was filled with myth and half truths, made more credible by the absurd decision of several world leaders to announce they were going to abandon their programs to develop nuclear reactors. Politicians doing what politicians do best – pandering to ignorance.

But rather than dissect these articles, separating fact from fiction phrase by phrase, let me present a different scenario:

Tainted spinach equals a CAT scan

Japan having suffered a massive earthquake and a cataclysmic tsunami was faced with a total failure of a cascade of security procedures in a group of nuclear reactors. But far from the result being a massive humanitarian disaster the reactors have been brought under control, about five lives have been lost and minimal levels of radioactivity have been released. (Please note that the levels recently reported in spinach and milk are extremely low. Experts in the US and Japan have both ruled out that these pose any threat to health, noting that the level of radioactivity found in the spinach would, if eaten for a year, equal the radiation received in a single CAT scan).

It should also be remembered that these are reactors built about 40 years ago and safety features have considerably improved since then. By any risk assessment relating to loss of life this has not been a catastrophe.

But reflect for a moment on the number killed each year in Japan from industrial accidents, over 1000 – none of them relating to nuclear power. In fact over three hundred are in the construction industry alone. These are typical figures which can be found in any industrial nation. It would be nonsense to decide to curtail construction based on these statistics.

For a truly terrifying story of suffering and loss consider the world’s worst industrial disaster: in 1984 at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal in India. It claimed more than 10 000 lives. There has of course been no outcry against the manufacture of chemicals. We believe, as indeed we should, that lessons are learned from accidents and that improvements in safety procedures can then be instituted.

Japan, and the rest of the world, should move towards decommissioning old reactors and updating safety procedures. Something the level-headed Japanese with their amazing commitment to survival will no doubt move towards.

Surely an example to us all.

Susan Goodman is a physics graduate of Oxford University. A science journalist and writer, she is committed to increasing scientific awareness among non-scientists. She now lives in Jerusalem and teaches academic reading and writing to science students at the Hebrew University and Jerusalem College of Engineering. She is also working towards a doctorate which examines different ways of promoting scientific awareness among young people.

Image via ssoosay

Reared in California by Israeli parents, and married to an Italian wife, Yoav Banin speaks to his two young sons in Hebrew while raising them in Rome. This 38-year-old trilingual Silicon Valley veteran is co-founder and chief executive officer of Solergy, founded in 2007 to create and manufacture advanced concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology. Using optics to focus sunlight over 500 times onto special photovoltaic cells, CPV increases solar energy conversion efficiency while reducing the amount of expensive materials that often hamper the practicality of this field.

Solergy is headquartered in California, but Banin is stationed at the company’s research-and-development facility in Rome. His partner Giovanni Lanzara, an engineering professor and entrepreneur from Italy, previously founded Invision, the company best known for its airport luggage scanners. Banin had met Lanzara in California and intrigued the academic entrepreneur with his solar energy business ideas.

“I was excited to have the opportunity to collaborate with someone who has a proven track record in building successful companies based on highly sophisticated technology,” Banin says. Lanzara suggested setting up their R&d center in Italy to take advantage of its technical expertise and rapidly growing solar energy market.

Though he resided in Israel for only six years – from the time he joined the paratroop brigade at 21 to the time he returned to Silicon Valley – Banin spent childhood summers in Israel and was active as a youth in the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Israel Scouts. After completing his university studies, he fulfilled a longstanding desire to live in Israel.

After the military, he stayed to work for a few years. “Those years in Israel were fantastic,” he said. “I enjoyed being immersed in a young, vibrant place where I had friends and family nearby, together with a dynamic, innovative high-tech industry.” Toward the end of 1999, he explored South America before seeking his fortune in Silicon Valley.

Whereas his father first earned a master’s degree in physics and then left Israel to get a doctorate in computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, the younger Banin earned his undergraduate degree in applied mathematics at Berkeley and later switched to material science. “I went in the opposite direction,” he said with a laugh.

Banin was behind the first monitoring and troubleshooting products for the emerging voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) telephony market at Radcom. As director of products at Mercury Interactive (later sold to Hewlett Packard for $4.5 billion), he invented and launched enterprise software products that generated over $50 million in revenue within three years.

At that point, he was ready to move on. “I had always had a tendency to stay at the forefront of initiatives,” he said. “I noticed that in software the pace of innovation was slowing down. Infected by the ‘Silicon Valley entrepreneurial bug,’ I was determined to start my own company, and renewable energy seemed like the next big thing.”

Needing relevant technical background, he left the security of Mercury in 2004 to earn a master’s degree in material science at Stanford University. Around the same time, he married a native Italian physics professor at UC Berkeley. Two years later, he met Lanzara while investigating business opportunities.

To harvest sunlight and convert it into electricity and heat in a cutting-edge fashion, Solergy’s founders paired the strengths of the United States and Italy in the multidisciplinary CPV field: semiconductor materials, software and electronics from the North American side and sophisticated mechanics, structural design, thermodynamics and optics from the European side. There’s a third continent involved too, in the form of principal investor Videocon in India.

A consumer electronics and energy giant, Videocon gave Solergy access to facilities that once manufactured conventional television sets. These factories, appropriately renovated, are optimal for achieving high-volume, low-cost production of CPV systems at a price point competitive with fossil fuels.

The partnership with Videocon also provides Solergy with a direct channel to the Indian market, which is heavily investing in solar energy infrastructure.

Solergy had its formal worldwide debut in mid-November at the EnerSolar+ trade show in Milan, and reported “tremendous interest.” The company’s launch kicked off simultaneously with a press conference in Milan, an unveiling of its website, and an international media campaign.

Nurturing a new business and two active preschoolers doesn’t leave Banin much time for playing his jazz trumpet, an interest he developed at Berkeley. But living in Rome suits him fine. “There is a lot of similarity between Israelis and Italians in attitude and mentality,” he said. He expressed his hope that someday he will be successful in taking his CPV technology to Israel, and help the country achieve energy independence based on clean, renewable sources.

(This post is written by Abigail Klein)

The holidays are over and winter has finally set in. What better opportunity to sink into a cozy couch and catch up on your reading? Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to help improve the environment in the Middle East, start a green business, or cooking blog? Here are some resources to help you start the revolution.

Do you know intuitively that biodiversity is important, but don’t have the details to back up your argument?

Are you unclear why fossil fuel discoveries, such as the Leviathan gas field in Israel, are nothing to throw a party over?

Starting with Hot, Flat and Crowded, a great eco starter book, and continuing with French adventures and some cooking tips, our list will help you understand the science behind the rhetoric while simultaneously offering a glimpse into a saner way forward.

Hot, Flat and Crowded by
Thomas L. Friedman

http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/01/11/16033/friedman-hot-flat-crowded/

Start your winter right by getting to know why we need to go green and the advantages of the green revolution. The need for a green revolution is presented through the lenses of business, science, homeland security, and macro-economic stand points. The book addresses the major environmental challenges we are facing today such as energy, poverty, climate change, and loss of biodiversity and proposes ways for world leaders, the planet, and the world to help abate these crises.

Read the Green Prophet review for Hot, Flat and Crowded here

Strategy for Sustainability by
Adam Werbach

Werbach discusses the roles of national corporations and their effect on the environment and the global economy. He uses his “Seven Tenets of a Strategy for Sustainability” to describe the role and consequences of a world with limited resources. He emphasizes the power of modern day cooperation and their need to part of the solution when dealing with the global environmental crises we are approaching.

Read the Green Prophet review for Strategy for Sustainability here

The Final Call With A Questioning Eye
by Leo Hickman

Hickman discusses the effects of tourism on the world’s resources and its effect on local communities and ecology. He balances facts and figures with personal observations and behind-the-scene interviews with bartenders, prostitutes, cruise captains, local people, industry leaders and public officials. Exploring the rights and responsibilities of all concerned, he highlights the socio-economic factors at play in countries aspiring to develop and gain wealth; the increasing uptake of opportunities for tourists; and globalization.

Read the review on Final Call With a Questioning Eye here

Mama Nazima’s Jewish-Iraqi Cuisine
by Rivka Goldman

Come read 100 old-fashioned recipes that evolved out of the centennial Jewish presence in Iraq, plus a synopsis of Jewish history there. Around the recipes are comments and traditional Arab proverbs revealing glimpses of the old Jewish-Iraqi culture. Another is the author’s memories of her mother, to whom she dedicated the book; and a third, Iraqi anti-Semitic persecution culminating in a pogrom in 1941, and the community’s exit from their ancient home in 1950.The recipes themselves are appetizing and easy to follow. The author lays great claim on the nutritional benefits of the food, which is easy enough considering that almost every recipe includes fresh vegetables.

Read the review on Mama Nazima’s Jewish-Iraqi Cuisine here

French Lessons
by Peter Mayle

Mayle describes the travels of a British ex-pat who left Provence to get a better taste of food festivals in other regions. He samples all of the delicacies of the region and experiences a wine tasting that goes on all afternoon and needs “a medicinal bottle of champagne” to cure the resulting hangover. Other adventures include a truffle auction that kicks off at early Mass. A marathon where sweating, cross-dressing runners wait for each other to catch up. And hilariously, the proper etiquette involved in kissing a fellow Frenchman.

Read the review on French Lessons here

Deep Economy
by Bill McKibben

Deep Economy advocates for less economic growth. The central theme is that what we need is Better rather than More. Author Bill McKibben believes, as do a growing number of economists, that we have to choose between one and the other. He writes, “…growth is no longer making most people wealthier, but instead generating inequality and insecurity.”

Read the review on Deep Economy here

Finitude
by Hamish MacDonald

The dystopian future MacDonald writes about in this novel could happen anywhere on Earth, and therefore serves as a potent wake-up call about global warming. On one level, it’s a fun read, and on another, it’s what the future may very well look like.

Read Green Prophet’s review on Finitude here

More green book reviews:

The Good Life, by Leo Hickman

Precycle, by Paul Peacock

Animals in Islamic Tradition and Muslim Culture, by Richard Foltz

(This list was complied by Green Prophet intern Dorothy Etra)

I was skimming through one of the main books dealing with detailing the Jewish mitzvas (commandments), and was really surprised to feel like I was actually reading a Feng Shui guide. Some of you might say: “Oy, those religious people are at it again. But I’m not going to create an ideology of living one’s life according to the Torah, and I also promise not to try to sneak in a sermon recommending a return to the lifestyle of the period before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.

My intention is to share an “enlightening” experience that I had when reading a chapter of the book, The Abbreviated Shulchan Aruch, a Jewish code of law book. I found an incredible parallel between what was written there, and what I’ve read about the Chinese practice of Feng Shui.

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese method for organizing objects and structures in order to achieve harmony with nature – a method from the Taoist religion. Traditional Feng Shui was developed in China to synchronize one’s home and environment with the energy structures and systems of the universe.

The Shulchan Aruch is a very dense book that details all of the behavior and actions of a Jewish person in a variety of situations, from the date of his or her birth (and even beforehand) until the date of his or her death (and even, you guessed correctly, afterwards).

The book is a condensation of Jewish halakha (Jewish religious law) – the same laws of halakha that, according to Jewish understanding, were orally transmitted by God to Moses on Mount Sinai thousands of years ago, after the exodus from Egypt and before entry into the promised land.

In other words, everything that happens in between the two aforementioned events between the person and others, in their environment, and concerning the property and property of others; and between a person and their creator, the mitzvahs they should do, and celebratory events and prayers –– is written in the book.

The Shulchan Aruch is one of the few halakha books that is accepted by all streams of Judaism, and that has been true from the time it was published until today.Written in Safed by Rabbi Joseph Karo, it was first published during the 16th century in Venice.

Coincidentally, I was in Safed a few days ago and wanted to visit Rabbi Joseph Karo’s synagogue (which still exists). The guard opened a crack in the door and told me in a combination of English (with a strange accent) and hand gestures that he was going to eat and that now was not a good time for him to let me in. I guess that’s what happens when you’re transformed from a human being into a monument – you’re equipped with a guard and everything may not turn out exactly as you had planned.

How to light your room

With regards to room lighting, Feng Shui treats this matter in great detail, especially the angles of sunlight and the direction and placement of windows in rooms.

The Shulchan Aruch addresses the lighting of a residence and says that: “ If possible, do not dwell in an open place on the northern or eastern sides during the summer…

“When the sun radiates light on a place that is then reflected into the room, this light damages the eyes and therefore beware of dwelling in a house where all the windows are on the northern side.”

Later on the Shulchan Aruch recommends avoiding reflected light, even if the windows in the house are on the east, south, or west sides.

Bed orientation

According to Feng Shui theory, the combination of various energy centers in our home determines our fortune. The bedroom is one of those important centers.

According to this Chinese theory, with regards to the orientation of the bed, each person has four good luck and bad luck directions – the bed should be oriented so that it faces the good luck direction.

The Shulchan Aruch also discusses the issue of bed orientation as an important factor in a person’s condition (the origin already appeared in the Gemara Masechet Brachot, page ‘Hey’).

The book instructs placing the bed so that the head points north and the feet point south. That is the full direction according to the Shulchan Aruch.

Compared with the Chinese, we Jews apparently always complicate things a bit: As in the joke that we made up about ourselves that says that for every two Jews there are three opinions, the Kabbalah says that one should indeed sleep in a bed with a north-south orientation but the explanation is completely different.

The Kabbalah agrees that one should sleep on a bed oriented from north to south, but that the body should lay perpendicular to the bed so that the northern side is on the right of the body and the southern side is on the left.

In other words, one should lay with his/her head pointing east and feet pointing west.

In any event, we can conclude that both of the aforementioned opinions agree that the head should not be pointing south or west.

Under the bed

The Chinese theory recommends that the empty space beneath a bed should remain empty and not be used for storage. According to Feng Shui, chaos beneath a bed damages something that is parallel to the subconscious.

The Shulchan Aruch does not contain concepts such as the subconscious, but refers to good spirits or bad spirits.
With regards to the space beneath the bed, the book writes that during sleep no food or drink items should be placed beneath the bed, even if they are covered, because they are associated with bad spirits.

Other things that I saw in the Shulchan Aruch that sounded like Feng Shui:

A person will always strive to dwell in a place where the air is clear and clean, in a high altitude and in a wide building.

It is good to clean the house often with good scents and helpful smokes.

A person should be careful not to heat his/her house excessively during the winter, as is the habit of thoughtless people.

This made me wonder about the origins of the Jewish/Chinese connection: The first time Jews arrived from the Middle East to China was, was the 8th or maybe the 7th century by earliest accounts.

Feng Shui theory has been in existence for thousands of years and the events at Mount Sinai also took place a few thousand years ago, so when did the positions of these two ancient cultures start to correspond?

I always suspected that if some worldwide consent or coordination were ever to take place, it would begin with preserving nature and not with political and economic interests, which usually lead to factions. Does nature grant us as a gift alongside the resources that we are blessed with the start of the formula for building world peace?

- Yisrael Borochov - Musician, creator, and producer

Image via cirque-du-pablo

The United Arab Emirates has one of the largest carbon footprints in the world. Not surprising considering the small country has an indoor ski hill in the middle of the desert and a number of other Las Vegas-esque attractions (like the IceLand waterpark), but the government has said enough. A new high-tech plan was announced on Sunday that could see the UAE’s daily electric power consumption reduced by 30 percent, the government said.

According to Gulf News, 70 percent of an estimated 56.6 terrawatts of power used in the gulf emirates is used for cooling and lighting. This, when coupled with water usage, makes the UAE a leader in carbon emissions.

Minister of Environment and Water Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahd joined with mobile operator Etisalat and Pacific Control Systems at Dubai’s annual Gitex Technology Week to unveil Emirates Energy Star, a program that “monitors energy use in buildings in real-time via telecom infrastructure from a command center in Dubai.”

Bin Fahd said the launch of the program “was a big step toward a greener tomorrow for the UAE.”

“This is a big advancement and will help reduce our carbon footprint,” Bin Fahd told Gulf News in an exclusive interview. “Technology is a very big tool to make this project work. It’s another big day, a good day for the environment in the UAE.”

However, despite the nice overtures, others are not convinced. Ahmed bin Hamza, an environmental expert and former government consultant, told Bikya Masr via telephone that at this point, “it is simply lip service to the world that the UAE is looking to get better.”

He argued that what is needed is actual implementation of these sort of efforts to create a new perspective that is based on reduction “rather than band-aiding things.”

One of the solutions he believes would be vital to the Emirates success on green initiatives would be to force new construction to fit what he called “eco-effective practices that do more than reduce, they create a new method of thinking that could see the country move to the top of the green revolution.”

But it’s not happening now, he said. Bin Hamza added that Dubai is the main culprit, with their manmade islands and spectacular attractions. “This in-your-face grandioso has to end and we have to build great buildings with cool things, but while maintaining the goal of being environmentally sustainable.”

This is the crux of the matter, officials and experts say. According to government statistics, some 70 percent of power output goes to buildings, making it difficult to put pressure on people to change their daily routine.

“We can’t because they aren’t the problem. The problem is the construction itself,” said William Evans, a British executive at a top Dubai corporation. “It is extremely hot here and if we are going to reduce our carbon footprint there has to be solutions we are not seeing.”

Read through Green Prophet’s United Arab Emirates section (here) for more green news on the UAE

(Reprinted from Bikya Masr)
Image via wheatfields

People often associate the Middle East with oil. But in the region’s cities, villages and farms, access to a different resource is becoming rather problematic: water. Addressing this issue can not only ensure a sustainable future, but will also help create conditions for lasting peace.

There is a shortage of water in the region. At the same time, industrial and municipal waste flowing through the Hebron-Besor river basin, which flows from the West Bank through the Negev region in southern Israel and to the Mediterranean, has damaged surroundings and posed serious health hazards to residents in the area, exacerbating current political tensions. Until recently, for example, an ongoing sewage spill from an Israeli West Bank settlement resulted in the contamination of the environment and agricultural fields of an adjacent Palestinian village.

Mineral extraction

The Jordan River once carried an average of 1.3 billion cubic meters of fresh water to the Dead Sea annually. Today this figure has been reduced to just 20 to 30 million cubic meters per year due to the diversion of 98 per cent of the river’s flow by Israel, Jordan and Syria for agricultural and domestic use. The lack of water coming into the Dead Sea is the largest cause of its rapid disappearance, in addition to extensive mineral extraction.

These examples of water pollution and loss of resources are just one aspect of the Middle East water crisis. Further compounding the problems, decision-makers at national and regional levels continue to show a lack of proper management and planning for the region’s essential water sources: the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and coastal and mountain aquifers. And the Arab-Israeli conflict often stands in the way of implementing suitable solutions to manage the shared water.

The region needs to address environmental problems, but also the longer-standing conflicts that impede resolving water issues.

FoEME generates eco-peace

EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) was founded in 1994 as a group called EcoPeace and today has grown into a unique regional organisation of Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian environmentalists. It has successfully established cross-border cooperative efforts to raise awareness and address degradation of shared environmental heritage, while creating mutual understanding and trust.

FoEME’s Good Water Neighbors (GWN) project is one example of a programme that generates cooperation. GWN pairs neighbouring communities across the Israeli-Jordanian border, partnering Israeli and Palestinian or Israeli and Jordanian communities with shared water sources to tackle water scarcity and pollution. This interaction allows neighbouring communities to unite for ecological rehabilitation, demonstrating the importance and success of trans-boundary environmental management.

For instance, from 2007 to 2009 the partnering communities of Tsur Hadassah in Israel and Wadi Fukin in Palestine successfully petitioned, campaigned and threatened legal action against the Israeli Ministry of Defense to stop the separation barrier from being built between their communities on the grounds that the damage to their shared water resource would be irreversible. They have undertaken other projects together as well, such as promoting agricultural produce from Wadi Fukin in Jerusalem via a co-op owned by a Tsur Hadassah resident and organising exchange visits between Israeli and Palestinian kindergartens and children’s groups in an effort to counter mistrust and prejudices at an early age; and they are in the midst of planning a park situated between their communities.

Cross-border coordination

Most recently, FoEME has been calling for cross-border coordination between Israel, Palestine and Jordan to ensure the sustainable development of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea even though the World Bank has been conducting an ongoing study of a potential Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conduit to replenish water in the Dead Sea. This project, however, could pose major risks to the sensitive environment of the Dead Sea and change its unique mineral composition. FoEME is also calling for the rehabilitation of the Lower Jordan River, the Dead Sea’s natural tributary.

FoEME also organised an event called “Big Jump into the Lower Jordan River” to call attention to the environmental situation of the Lower Jordan River. Mayors, municipal representatives and youth from Israel, Palestine and Jordan took a symbolic jump for the common goal of rehabilitating the river. It is evident that poor water management will continue to threaten the livelihoods of people and the environment in the region unless drastic action is taken to replenish shared ecosystems through a trans-boundary approach.

But as FoEME’s programmes and research show, cross border cooperation can be the pathway to ecological sustainability – and perhaps to peace.

* Mira Edelstein is Resource Development and Foreign Media Officer at EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East, which was recently awarded the Euro-Med Award for Dialogue between Cultures as a recognition of its work promoting intercultural dialogue. For more information about FoEME, please visit www.foeme.org.

This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews)

More on water in the Middle East:

Nile Water Kills 17,000 Egyptian Children Each Year

Syria’s Dustbowl Attributed To Wasted Water

Saudi Arabia’s Desalination Market A $50 Billion Opportunity

image via saranv

This is the second in a two-part series about the Suraya Foundation. In the first (which you can read here) we described how Mr. Shahnawaz started the Suraya Foundation in the United Arab Emirates after the death of his sister in an undisputed and possibly reckless driving incident.

In this second part, Mr. Shahnawaz describes his methodology for changing the cultural attitudes that wreck havoc on the roads.

In the Arab world, though particularly in the Gulf region, reckless driving accounts for a devastating string of traffic accidents and attendant fatalities. We reported that Iran has the highest rate of traffic fatalities, though Saudi Arabia also has a very serious traffic problem. Mr. Shahnawaz believes that a campaign that combines both an emotional and logical appeal is the most effective way to sway the public.

Emotional logic

TV advertisements by commercial companies increase the desirability of their product by tracking the performance of the campaign via sales and surveys. Similarly, road safety advertisements or public service announcements have to compel the listeners emotionally in order to drive them to action.

Most of the previous campaigns did not work because they were too logical: “Many people die due to accidents and reckless driving, please drive safely & put on seat belts. A message from government of ….”

Compare this our proposed advertisement where a person is talking to his wife and children on his cell phone while driving, hurrying to his office, and then suddenly gets into an accident (crashing sound and ambulance sirens); as he is dying, he wonders who is going to take care of his children and whether he is going to make out of this danger. Too late, he regrets his driving habits and then passes away (heart beat fades out). After than an announcer says “35 people die every day in Gulf due to reckless driving. Are you reckless?”

We believe this latter approach first grabs the listener emotionally, and then logically compels them to action by describing the gravity of the problem.

To compare logical mind and emotional mind, the best analogy was provided by Jonathan Haidt in his famous book “The Happiness Hypothesis.” He compares logical mind to the Rider and emotional mind to the Elephant.

If the message is merely logical and not emotionally compelling the Rider may be able to push the Elephant in his stated direction for some time, but then will be worn out as the emotional side or the Elephant does not want to go in the direction of the Rider.

Similarly, plain emotional messages without logic (a direction or action plan) may die out quickly. Consequently, a complete message which caters to the logical sense and the emotional sense must be made in order to drive listeners to action.

SUCCESS

We studied many successful case studies of various mass campaigns mainly from West. One of the books I am very grateful for is “Made to Stick,” by Dan and Heath Chip, whose SUCCESS principles helped me to design the proposed radio ad. The authors blessed our campaign by sending their autographed new book “Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard.” Their SUCCESS principle is the checklist for our proposed campaign.

Here is an example of how media was used to change behaviors of people. In the 1980s the state of Texas faced a huge littering problem, spending at least $25 million per year for clean up, with costs rising 15 percent annually.

Standard messages like “Please don’t litter” didn’t work. Texas authorities hired an advertiser Dan Syrek, who figured out mostly macho-looking males – to whom saying “please” would fall on deaf ears – were the biggest culprits.

Penalizing them by imposing hefty fines did not work as they were already anti-authority. So Dan figured out the best way to convince them was to use people they look up to or people like them. Based on the research, the department of Texas approved a campaign built around the slogan “Don’t mess with Texas.” Here is the video. The campaign is credited with reducing litter on Texas highways 72% between 1986 and 1990.

Similarly there are many road campaigns in the West which have been successful in adopting safe driving methods. There is the !Think campaign in UK which has been very successful in educating people about the dangers of unsafe driving though media.

How can an individual initiate change in their local community?

One of my favorite quotes comes from George Bernard Shaw:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

There are many examples of change made by individuals like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Mother Teresa, people who emotionally compelled the masses to give up the status quo and made them believe in change. They demonstrated that there is another way to improve lives; they took the LEAD to  show the way. That is how the names of such LEAD-ers have been immortalized.

Leaders see the problem and make the people aware emotionally and logically about the extent of the problem, and make them aware of the dangers if they don’t take any action, and then LEAD them to change. In today’s world with internet technology and the advancement of social media, thought leaders who are connected to many people or are respected can easily gain momentum and recognition of their campaign.

Are there any laws to protect pedestrians and cyclists on the road? If not, is your foundation working to change that? How?

According to HAAD more than 60% of the road death causalities were pedestrians. Most of the “seat belt campaigns” and government laws do not have laws explicitly protecting pedestrians though in case of death, the driver has to pay compensation irrespective if it was the pedestrian’s mistake. These are post accident measures which seemed to have been unsuccessful in the Gulf (in Oman there has been an increase in compensation fines that did not decrease the number of accidents).

Our campaign is trying to compel the drivers to adopt safe driving methods and prevent reckless driving instead.

What kind of educational policies can be made over the long run to change attitudes and behavior?

We are first planning to spread awareness of the extent of the problem in the Gulf through graphic ads.

We released our first information graphic on Suraya’s birthday, July 19, 2010 (“What is Killing in the Gulf?”). We are also providing and disseminating awareness via social media (Facebook , Twitter, LinkedIn & our Website), newspapers, radios, and by speaking to groups. Our final project is a radio ad:  the script is ready to be disseminated to various radio stations.

After approximately six months, we will distribute a survey to determine if people listened to the message, and whether they have adopted save driving methods as a result. Any campaign must be measured to assess its effectiveness, and we believe the survey is one of the best methods to do so.

We are looking for volunteers for researching and collating data, graphic artists to make help make ads, and most importantly radio artists (vocals and studio) who will help develop our advertisements in Arabic, Hindi and English. Interested volunteers may go to the volunteer page and sign up. At the moment we are assessing the costs if radio people decide to charge, and may collect funds for it in future.

We cannot afford to live with the status quo and allow the body bags to accumulate; we have to try to a find solution to stem the road epidemic and prevent reckless drivers from reckless driving.

:: Mr. Mohd Shanawaz

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Just yesterday we posted a report that Iran has the highest rate of traffic fatalities, though that country competes with Saudi Arabia for the same dubious distinction. This was said to result in part from “cultural attitudes.” Those attitudes are being taken to task by Mohd Shahnawaz.

An engineer and entrepreneur by profession Mr. Shahnawaz started the Suraya Foundation in the United Arab Emirates after the death of his sister in an undisputed and possibly reckless driving incident.

Named after Mohd’s sister, Suraya is a road safety organization that aims to change attitudes of reckless drivers throughout the Middle East by spreading education about dangerous driving via the media. Here’s his story:Suraya

It all started when my sister named Suraya, an aspiring fashion designer, was on her way to her last day of university. She hurriedly left on the morning with her friend Aysha to the university. Two hours later, around noon we received a call from the hospital and rushed to find her extremely distressed. She was murmuring, “What happened to me?” and the doctor yelled, “Keep your hands down.” The nurses of the hospital seemed amateurish and the doctor had no clue how to deal with her trauma. Aysha had hip and leg damages.

Doctors mentioned my sister had internal bleeding and took her to ICU. Expert doctors were called and I saw them entering the room with an encyclopedia. Two hours later I saw a surgeon coming out and I asked him how she was doing. He asked if I was her brother then lackadaisically said she will not survive, and then walked away. An hour later she lost a lot of blood and what we feared the most happened: she passed away on March 17, 2009 at 3:54 p.m.

Suicide?

The police tried to make me sign a form to release the guy who was of French origin from the police station. The account of how the accident took place was changed three times and the police then found it easier to blame my dead sister. They claimed that she bizarrely changed lanes from the left high-speed lane to the right lane, hitting the tree, and that the French guy hit her from the rear.

The evidence showed her car’s rear end was completely intact and there wasn’t any damage. Aysha, who survived, said she couldn’t recall anything. The court did not analyze the evidence and depended solely on the witness account, giving even though they were suffering from amnesia. The court then ruled that since my sister committed suicide, there would be no compensation. The French guy was released.

The blame game

The incident showed the “blame game” of society: not taking responsibility, or figuring out the problem and then finding a way to solve the problem. If you pick up the newspaper and read the account of road accidents, you will find 95% discussion about the problem and 5% or less talk about possible solutions. This is what led me to start this organization to help solve the problem the whole Gulf Region is suffering from: Bad Driving Habits.

After my sister’s death I temporarily stopped reading the newspapers as I had a déjà vu moment whenever I read about accidents. The last straw came when three little Emirati children were killed in a horrific accident and their nanny was knocked out in a coma. I was frustrated and told my friend about how nobody is trying to find the solution and implement it. I told him maybe one day I would do it. He assured me no time was right and the sooner I began, more lives could be saved if the solution worked. So this April after campaigning to close down the u-turns I moved my efforts to concentrate on solving the road accident epidemic in the Gulf Region.

Principles of the Suraya Foundation

I divided the foundation into 5 steps:

1. Problem assessment – Is there a trend of the road accident problem?

I found there was a trend not only in the UAE but the Gulf Region overall had similar problems. Saudi Arabia fares the worst. In 2009, 7,000 people in the region died due to road accidents (not counting the accident related deaths that occur later in hospitals) compared to 4,497 deaths from terrorism related deaths in Iraq.  According to the World Health Organization, UAE residents are 7 times more likely to die in UAE compared to UK from a road accident. Throughout the Gulf  –– from Oman to Qatar –– everyone is suffering from this problem.

2. What’s the extent of the problem?

The situation is very bad that when around 12,000 out of 38 million people die every year due to accidents in the Gulf. That converts to around 35 people dying due to road accidents every day.

3. What are the main causes of road accidents in UAE or Gulf?

I researched the causes in the newspaper, white papers of safety organizations, and the website of HAAD (the Abu Dhabi Health Authority Department) and found most of the accidents were caused due to recklessness like over speeding, tailgating, the use of cell phones etc. These can all be addressed if certain preventive measures are taken. There are many reckless drivers on the roads and the government is trying to solve it by installing cameras, which may work as a deterrent but won’t solve the problem. The only way to solve the problem is to go to its core: change the attitude of drivers. Instilling responsibility and changing attitudes is what we do.

4. What are the present and past solutions of the government and NGOs?

There were many campaigns on radio and TV to tackle the problem. For example, the Abu Dhabi government created the “Stay Alert and Stay Alive” campaign after those three little Emirati children were killed; and Volvo broadcast their “All those left behind” campaign among others. But there were some problems with the campaigns. Even though they may have created some impact, their reach was small compared to percentage of the population.

A mass campaign, where safety ads are aired on radio and TV, and graphic ads are adopted will make a bigger impact. Plus it is necessary to assess whether the campaign is working. So far, this has been missing from current campaigns. Lastly, and most importantly, they focused on post-crash issues like putting on seat belts, implementing a point system, and increasing speeding fines. Instead, in our opinion, they should focus more on changing driver attitudes.

5.  Possible solutions?

Though the previous campaigns may have had positive effects, they focused on post-crash education. Our foundation wants to prevent crashes altogether. If you look at the causes of all the accidents in the Gulf, most of them are due to preventable reckless driving. So, how do we change the behavior of drivers? By reaching them via radio and TV and other media while at the same time applying social pressures, such as naming and shaming those who are consistently reckless.

Tomorrow we will bring you Part II of this campaign report. In it Mr. Shahnawaz describes his  methodology. Rather than rely on solely on logic, he argues that both emotional and logical appeals must be made in order to sway a difficult public. Please check back tomorrow. And feel free to contact us for further information.

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JERUSALEM – Every few years, the idea of establishing one state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea rises and falls like a phoenix; a dream of a state where both Palestinians and Israelis live in peace with no borders, no barriers, cultural autonomy and equal citizenship for all.

In the 1940′s this idea was endorsed by leftist Jewish circles; in the 1980′s the PLO called for the establishment of a secular democratic state on the entire land, in the 1990′s it was championed by Palestinian intellectuals who had given up on the two-state solution and most recently this same idea has been articulated with some nuances by people on the right of the Israeli political map like former Defence Minister Moshe Arens.Creative solutions

The stagnated “peace process” and despair over the prolonged conflict challenge us all to think of other creative solutions. It is easy to dismiss off-hand the likelihood that after a hundred years of brutal and bloody conflict the two peoples could live together and collaborate within the same political structure. Palestinians longing for independence and sovereignty is understandable as is the desire by Jews to preserve self-determination as a nation in the framework of the state of Israel.

But – even if they reach an agreement on partition and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank – this would not be the end of the conflict. Severe problems like the settlements, Gaza, equal rights for the Palestinian citizens in the Jewish state would still remain to be solved. So despite its low feasibility at present, one should explore in depth the idea of the one state in all its aspects. Even if the one state solution is not realised soon, important elements of this idea could be incorporated into any future agreement on two states, particularly those which address the abovementioned problems.

Environment and water

One such element that can best be addressed within a joint framework is the critical issue of environment and water. Environment and sustainability are becoming central in the global discourse on the fate of humanity. It’s time we looked more seriously at our land in this regard. The fact that water sources in the country are drying up poses a big threat to all its residents, regardless of nationality, religion, age or gender.

Environmental dangers threaten both peoples equally. The mutual effect of contamination and other cross-border hazards demands close coordination and joint management between all responsible bodies.

Effective utilisation of natural resources, their fair and equal allocation and the development of alternative sources of energy, food, and drink, are all vital and urgent needs that can be addressed professionally and efficiently only within a joint framework, which would be either one state or in its absence at the very least, a shared framework set up between the two sides engaged in excellently coordinated and mutually beneficial relations.

One of the major advantages of dealing with the environment first is that it forces the parties to ignore political boundaries and put aside historical disagreements. An additional advantage is the necessity for long-term planning as opposed to the kind of ad-hoc achievements demanded by politicians. As a result, environmental issues create bridges and links between opposing sides, serve as a way to build trust, while depoliticising the conflict and decreasing its intensity.

The environmental platform

I would like to argue here that those who believe in the one state solution should explore the possibility of using the environment as a platform to promote such a plan. The urgent need for preserving the environment across the country and developing water sources could yield an unpredictable by-product – the realisation and recognition that the framework of one state, is a necessity for sustaining this land, saving its limited resources and securing the future of its inhabitants in the long term.

But in the short term, and even before any political agreement is reached, it is urgently necessary to set up a joint body that will oversee the environmental situation and work on immediate solutions to cope with the dilemmas and challenges it poses.

Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar is the head of the Forum on Environment and Regional Sustainability at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. This article represents her personal opinion only. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews)

:: image by Tafline Laylin

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