Each unique piece is made of salvaged wood that would have been scrapped otherwise and fitted with Miyota’s state of the art timekeeping mechanism. They are splash-proof and svelte and contain nary a toxic, artificial chemical. Hit the jump to see a few images and to find out how to make one your own.

WEwood uses seven different kinds of wood as the source material for their bespoke natural watches, including Blackwood, Maple and Indian Rosewood. And their eco-ethos doesn’t end there.

When they opened a branch in Los Angeles, WEwood teamed up with American Forests – a tree-planting organization.

“With this happy pact, the goal is to help restore Mother Nature, one watch at a time, by planting a tree for every WeWOOD purchased,”  according to the company literature.

“In just the first three months, WEwood planted 5,000 trees with American Forests, and sets challenging targets for 2012 and beyond. Keeping forests healthy and happy keeps us healthy and happy, we like to keep our reminder on our wrist.”

Usually, products like these are much harder to come by in the Middle East and North Africa. There are a few cottage industries in Cairo, Luxor, Siwa and beyond that sell sustainable goods, but rarely with such a wholesome Florentine flair and finish. So it’s very exciting to find an Egyptian dealer.

That being said, quality like this doesn’t come cheap, so these watches are definitely aimed at a relatively affluent market. Whilst they’re not as grossly priced as a Rolex, they’re certainly not affordable for the average Cairene tomato vendor.

But don’t get us wrong. Genuinely sustainable products are more expensive because greater effort goes into their production, they aren’t mass manufactured and almost obsessive attention is paid to every detail. Frankly, anything that’s too cheap was probably made in China.

To purchase your own WEwood watch, send an email to: WeWOODEgypt@gmail.com

More Sustainable Goodness From Egypt:

Egypt May Survive Climate Change Thanks to AUC Students

KarmSolar Prize May Avail Off-Grid Solar Pump to Rural Egypt

Eco-Friendly Bakery Gives Historic Presidential Voters Free Pastries 

TBS has branches in Maadi, City View, Zamalek, Korba, Mohandessin, Nile Tower, Diplomats 3 and at the American University of Cairo and each one is putting their full weight behind Egypt’s historic moment.

It doesn’t matter where each vote goes; it only matters that Egyptians participate in the historic moment that they brought about through last year’s revolution and the ensuing battle to keep military powers in check. It has been a long and bloody road and many challenges lie ahead, but the two day elections so far have gone without any serious hitches.

There are 50 million eligible voters in Egypt. If every one of them casts a vote and claims their free baked goods, TBS will go bankrupt and the World Bank will have to bail them out. Ok, so maybe that’s unlikely to happen, but the store with sugary delights “so fresh it’s baked in front of you” does want to encourage the Egyptian people to actively engage in one of their proudest moments.

Voting in the first genuine presidential election in Egypt is as memorable to TBS as the first nobel prize awarded to Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz, who fearlessly criticized the status quo that has crippled the country for decades. And it is as proud as the moment women led a street demonstration in the 1919 revolution that eventually culminated in Egypt’s independence from Britain.

The “I Got Ink” campaign continues through the end of tomorrow, until the last man or woman has cast their vote on the second day of Egypt’s presidential elections.

So if you haven’t already dyed your finger, do it tomorrow, and get yourself a nice treat as a reward.

More Eco-Friendly Establishments in Egypt:

Interview With Egyptian Eco-Designer Nadia Nour

Ana Seco Teaches Her Grandmother’s Eco-Fashion Techniques

Egypt May Survive Climate Change Thanks to AUC Students

This is according to the 2012 Arab Youth Survey. Launched in 2008, the annual survey is conducted by research professionals from Penn Scheon Berland (PSB) who travel to villages and cities in order to interview 2,500 young Arab men and women in person. Here is a list of the top 10 concerns that emerged during these discussions.

1. Fair Pay and Home Ownership: The survey found that young men and women are worried about having the resources to own their own home and to receive a fair wage. This is a valid concern. While we were in Tunisia, one of two new countries added to the survey’s scope, we met educated journalists who were living in hovels because their wages are so poor.
2. High Cost of Living: It comes as no surprise that Arab youth are finding it difficult to establish a decent quality of life when the cost of living is steadily increasing. Who can forget that the Arab Spring uprisings were largely spurred by the high cost of food or that energy and water prices are growing prohibitively high.
3. Lack of Democracy and Civil Unrest are Biggest Obstacles: Egypt is a sterling example of how corruption and civil unrest have interrupted the smooth operation of daily life, and young people told researchers that these two things are the greatest perceived obstacles to achieving their goals.
4. The Arab Spring is a Positive Development: This is interesting. Even though the nooks and crannies of the Arab Spring uprisings have not been worked out, most youth perceive it to be a positive development. (On a side note, check out this fascinating new novel Kapow! that traces the uprisings in visually-groundbreaking format.)
5. Increased Trust in Government but Corruption Abounds: While Arab youth are tentatively more willing to put trust in their government, they also very concerned about continued corruption. Let’s hope that the government organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector who avail themselves of these insights are paying attention.
6. The Arab Spring Won’t Spread: This will be a sigh of relief for governments in the Arab world! Most people believe that the uprisings have come to an end and that they are very unlikely to spread. But if they do well up again, Morocco, Jordan and Algeria are the countries most likely to be affected next.
7. Modern Society Challenges Traditional Values: While most young people appreciate the value of their longstanding traditions, the survey found that many also believe that they need to evolve with changing times. This need not be a cause for alarm, but some nations (like Saudi) are likely to crack down on any perceived threats to the old order.
8. Aspire to be like the UAE: The United Arab Emirates has a longstanding policy of social inclusion and are leading the charge to enact massive environmental changes, so it comes as no surprise that this is the nation to which young men and women throughout the Gulf, Levant and North Africa look for inspiration. The survey found that most people – if they could – would live in one of the seven Emirates ahead of any other Arab country.
9. France is the Most Admired Foreign Country: This is intriguing. Of all foreign countries, France, which recently elected a socialist President, is the one that most young people in the Arab world admire. Rising powers China and India, which couldn’t be more different than France in terms of its environmental, political and social identity, fall close behind.
10. TV-watching is Diminishing and News Consumption is on the Rise: This is an enormous relief. Television-watching zombies are being replaced by news-hungry civilians who increasingly look to the internet for their daily bits of information.

Visit ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey 2012 to learn more about the methodology employed to achieve these findings and to consider their implications more fully. The youth are the future. We should take their concerns seriously.

::Arab Youth Survey

More on Young Arabs:
Arab School Scoops a Coveted Israeli Green Globe Award
eZra3 Remote Farming is Like Farmville but Real
The Bedouins Convert Ill-Begotten Tunisian Mansion into a Skate Park

Image credit: Young Arab Man, Shutterstock

Qatar is the latest of the oil-rich Middle East/North African (MENA) nations to make bold solar plans to trap a world-record insolation to supply energy for its rapidly growing economy – one that bolted an incredible 20 percent last year.

This week a senior official of Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC) announced the replacement of over 10 percent of its conventional forms of energy used to produce electricity and water with solar power by 2018.

With an incredible daily supply of 16 hours of solar insolation, Qatar has the chance to build a solar-based electricity supply which is far more efficient than any other part of the world.

“Countries that have opted and developed solar energy have benefited a lot. Presently we are planning to replace 10 percent of total energy used for electricity generation and water desalination with solar power by 2018″, General Manager of QEWC Fahad Hamad Al Mohannadi told a news conference attended by the Federation of Arab News Agencies.

He added that the future is full of challenges as we will require more and more energy in the years to come; so with the passage of time as a result of scientific advancement and availability of cost effective technologies, solar power will provide a viable alternative source of energy.

QEWC is serious about local solar power production. It has just signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate with Qatar-based Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec) to advance solar power in the region.

Last December QSTec was awarded the New Economy Magazine’s Clean Tech and New Energy Award for Best Joint Venture (Middle East/Africa). Its $1 billion polysilicon manufacturing plant, located in Ras Laffan Industrial City, will initially produce 8,000 metric tonnes of polysilicon in 2013.

Polysilicon is the raw material for solar panel production, and it is refined from sand in a complex high tech processing facility. The company acquired the advanced second generation technology for solar grade polysilicon production from Centrotherm Photovoltaics of Germany.

QSTec has signed a memorandum of understanding to assist QEWC in helping it meet the goal to supply 10 percent of the kingdom’s energy demand from solar, although it is not clear from the press release just how the two will make solar panels from the polysilicon, since neither are in the solar panel manufacturing business.

But German solar energy module manufacturer SolarWorld holds a one third stake in QSTec and no doubt expects to source polysilicon for its German solar module manufacturing from the deal.

But like Saudi Arabia, which recently startled the world with an unprecedented and extraordinarily ambitious solar goal, Qatar seems to hope to handle the production and manufacturing side of the goal at home. Saudi Arabia too has begun the refining of polysilicon from its abundant sands.

For both countries, polysilicon manufacturing is a brand new industry. The resolve with which these two sand-and-sun-rich middle eastern countries have embraced the new industry bodes very well for a clean energy future.

Read more on solar Middle East:

Interview: SolarReserve For the MENA Region?
Saudis Could Export Solar for the Next Twenty Centuries
Solar to Light Our Nights Gets Hotter

Image: douglas knight /Shutterstock

Gripped by a longstanding love affair with the region, visual artist Aili Schmeltz spent last summer in the Ibrahimpasa village documenting the homes of more than a dozen cave dwellers. She collected hours of audio footage and thousands of images, four of which she has shared with us. Within the next year, she hopes to arrange her work in a book that will help save this priceless heritage.

“My fascination with Cappadocia began as a freshman in college when I stumbled upon a book about vernacular architecture entitled Prodigious Buildersby Bernard Rudofsky,” Schmeltz told us in an email interview. “The book introduced me to the cave dwellings of Cappadocia that have captivated and mesmerized me ever since,” she adds.

Despite its harsh environment, the Cappadocia cave dwellers have been eking out a modest living for millennia.

“The area is most famous for its occupation of Christian settlers who fled to the area to escape persecution from the Romans,” according to Schmeizt. The occupants were entirely self-sufficient and developed an intricate network of living and storage spaces with protective, sealed entrances.

After raising funds through the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform, Schmeltz eventually managed to visit 13 personal dwellings, 20 historical cave sites (including a vast underground city) and a series of recently-modernized spaces that have never been inhabited.

“The project would not have been possible without the help of Mehmet Bozlak, a native of the area who runs Bozlak Travel in Göreme,” says Schmeltz.” He served as translator, friend, tour guide, historian and bridge into a culture and people inaccessible to a Western woman such as myself.”

While the project essentially went as planned and the LA-based artist was able to collect more footage than she needed for the next phase of the Lives in Cappadocia project, she says that she came away with so much more than she could have hoped – largely thanks to the spirit of the local people.

“The interiors of the homes were very colorful, many covered in layers of beautiful rugs and tapestries, not at all what I imagined a cave dwelling to look like inside.T he stories that were told about the histories of the homes too were very interesting, many of family histories and local legends, the history of the area was and continues to be complex.. if only those rocks could talk!”

In addition to satiating her own curiosity, Schmeltz hopes that her upcoming book, prints, drawings, writings and digital collages will contribute to a greater preservation initiative she says is needed to preserve a fading cultural and social heritage.

“I feel strongly that this project has lasting importance and contribution to not only the field of art, but also to wide stretching studies of culture, history, and sociology. The cave dwellers of Cappadocia are rapidly disappearing, while the tourism industry is expanding at a rapid pace, displacing families that have lived in these caves for hundreds of years,” she writes.

The World Heritage Site website claims that “although the area has been extensively used and modified by man for centuries the resulting landscape is one of harmony and consideration of the intrinsic values of the natural landforms.” But development has challenged this tradition – a theme that is at the very crux of her creative exploration during Schmeltz’s enlightened sojourn.

“This project is unique to these people and place, this hasn’t been done before,” writes the artist. “It will resonate as both an art piece and a document of a time that is quickly passing.”

all images via Aili Schmeltz

More on Caves and Cappadocia:
The Epitome of Sustainable Architecture: 700 Year Old Iranian Cave Homes
Selçuklu Evi Ecoish Boutique Hotel in Turkey 
Stay Cool in Turkey’s 5 Star Underground Yunak Evleri Hotel

Israeli cleantech has long been present in the American market. Companies like Ormat have been developing geothermal resources in the US for decades. Now Israeli companies may be getting support to expand to developing countries as well. A senior official from the International Finance Corp (IFC)–a member of the World Bank, with a portfolio of $12 billion, which actively supports investment in developing countries–said the group was looking to invest tens of millions in Israeli cleantech companies that could expand operations to developing countries, Reuters reported on May 17.

The World Bank generally invests in the companies of developed countries, with the agreement that the money will be used in “emerging markets,” Ruzgar Barisik, a senior IFC investment officer, told Reuters. Since 1974, the IFC has invested nearly $200 million in 18 Israeli developments in 14 countries. Some of those commitments include supporting a Home Center in Russia (a Home Depot like store), supporting the expansion of engineering firm Ashtrom’s in Jamaica’s Sangster International Airport and a 24 MW geothermal plant of Ormat‘s in Guatemala.

In recent years, IFC has been investing more in cleantech around the world, but primarily in India and China where industrial and commercian growth has outpaced progress of green technology. Since 1999, the World Bank has launched 10 Kyoto funds (to purchase carcon credits) and facilities capitalized at just over $2 billion, as well as five post-2012 carbon initiatives for which the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region has been a beneficiary. In terms of cleantech, the World Bank approved a loan of $1.2 billion Egyptian pounds in August 2010 to develop wind power in Egypt.

But this is the first major push for investment in Israeli companies for development in other regions.

“The segments we see most opportunities in are in technologies that relate to water – desalination, irrigation, waste and agricultural technologies,” said Barisik, who leads the IFC’s cleantech investments in Europe, Middle East and North Africa. “We are actively looking for (Israeli) businesses we can invest in.”

“Within the next 12 to 18 months we should have committed another $65 million across all sectors which includes cleantech and agricultural technologies,” he said, adding the number could be even larger. “Israeli companies are so strong … in developing new technologies.”

Image of wind in eye from Shutterstock

It’s easy to look down on the lowly backpackers when you are a country looking to earn lots of income from tourism. Many Middle Eastern countries rely seriously on tourism for bolstering the local economies, like Egypt, Morocco, Turkey and even Israel. When tourism drops, people feel it. So popular is tourism to iconic sites like the Nile River and the pyramids, or the Old City of Jerusalem that luxury vacations and hotels spring up all around these markets to reel in the Big Fish: you know the rich tourists who spend a week and $300 and per night on a hotel room. Bargain travellers, you know who they are: they look for deals on last minute flights, search online sites like Agoda religiously looking for the best hotel deal, and when they arrive at their destination tend to stay at cheaper hotels and hostels, sometimes working in reception, even washing dishes to subsidize their “rent”.

Tourism ministries haven’t been too keen to focus on these kinds of travelling “parasites” who try to live on dollars a day. Because, you  know, the Big Fish bring in more money –– or so it would seem. Our friends over at the Fauzi Azar Inn in Nazareth just sent us an illuminating article based on research that will surprise you about the economic impact of budget travellers.

According to a new book Tourism for Development by Regina Scheyvens, luxury-tourism actually relies on foreign rather than local products, foreign skills like language over local skills and knowledge. The overall effect is that budget travellers actually benefit more the local economies, and tend to interact with local services like public transportation. And contrary to the notion that luxury tourism will trickle down to the locals who need it, the income tends to stay focused in developed locations, and does not go “off the beaten path” as it were, writes Nicole, a regular guest at the Fauzi Azar Inn.

Nicole writes: “Instead of luxury tourism, countries might actually benefit more from budget tourism. As a consequence, many governments are turning to backpackers, budget travellers on an extended and/or work holiday, as an important engine of economic growth and pro-poor economic development. Although most of the research considering the economic benefits of backpacking and budget tourism is on Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa, the research also highlights some important facts for Israel.”

Plain and simple: budget and backpacking travellers tend to stay longer, and spend money taking care of their daily needs. They also tend to give back more to society by getting involved in volunteer programs.

As for tourism, the implications of this book could also be important for other Middle Eastern countries like Egypt trying to recover from the Arab Spring. It is more likely that the brave backpackers will venture back to seemingly dangerous tourist sites before the more skittish luxury travellers rush in.

In Scheyvens’ book she refers to an Australian survey which found that the average Aussie backpacker will spend $2,667 on a holiday compared to an average non-backpacking tourist. That’s twice as much money! And you thought budget travellers were not really giving back to the tourism industry.

This research, although dated, does need to be updated with current tourism expectations and models used by Levant and North African countries.

A third point summed up by Nicole is that those “cheap” budget travellers actually use less resources. They tread lighter on the planet. She writes: ”For example, backpackers often swim in public beaches and take shorter water showers, while luxury tourist demand hot baths and large swimming pools within their hotel complex. The demands of luxury tourism can put significant strain on water resource management and cause other long-term environmental concerns. Budget tourism, by contrast, is much more likely to demand resources in ways that are sustainable.”

Read the full article here if you are in the tourism business. And if you are a luxury traveller, don’t snub those who’ll wash dishes for a night’s stay. These travellers not only tread lighter on the planet, they might just actually be having more fun.

I’ve often thought about the inverse relationship between the cost of a hotel/hostel versus my enjoyment level. The level of fun shoots up insanely high on the very low end of the cost axis. Some of the best travelling memories of my life were staying in the Arab market in the Old City of Jerusalem with my friend Cara. It cost us $3 a night to stay in one of the 50 beds on the roof. Okay, the bed bugs weren’t so much fun, but the friends and weirdos we met couldn’t be bought for $300 a night.

At the end of our stay there, Cara ended up with a Swedish boyfriend, and I a new country that would become my home for the better part of the year.

Image of cute backpacker from Shutterstock

As noted in this month’s seasonal produce feature, purslane is popping up everywhere. Like dandelion greens in the US, this edible weed has recently become fashionable, appearing at upmarket greengrocers and anyplace with a claim to “organic.” As with expensive dandelion greens, smile and pass it by. Keep your eyes open – you’ll see purslane sprouting, wild and free, in a nearby empty lot or even a neglected windowbox.

Purslane makes a tremendous number of tiny black seeds that escape their pods easily, and it grows whichever way the wind blows.

Which is a good thing for us. Succulent, with a mild lemony/salty taste, purslane stems and leaves fit nicely into any salad, substitute for lettuce in sandwiches, and add superfood nutrition to stir-fries and soups. Verdolaga con queso, the traditional Mexican purslane dish, adapts perfectly to the Middle Eastern palate with a few crafty adjustments.

Choose tender new growth for this dish. Tough older stems may be set aside for pickling or for adding to soup.

Scrambled Eggs with Purslane and Feta Cheese

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cups rinsed, chopped, tender purslane – stems, leaves, and flowers if any

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large tomato, chopped coarsely

chopped fresh hot pepper to taste

1/2 cup feta cheese, cubed

4 eggs, lightly beaten

salt and black pepper

2 pita breads, halved

Sauté the onion in the olive till golden. Add the minced garlic; stir 1 minute. Stir in the chopped tomato and chili. Cook 5 minutes over medium heat or until the tomatoes soften.

Have ready your beaten eggs, but add feta cheese to the pan first. Stir it in to distribute, then add the eggs. Scramble the eggs loosely in the vegetable/cheese mixture. Season to taste.

Spoon into the pockets of warm pitas that have been cut in half.

Enjoy!

More about superfoods both wild and cultivated on Green Prophet:

Five Edible Plants You Can Pick Yourself

Make Your Own Sauerkraut

Herbel, Moroccan Wheat Soup

Photo of windowbox purslane by Miriam Kresh.

Miriam also blogs at Israeli Kitchen.

Nor is it linear, and it is this notion that informs Kapow! – a fast and frantic novel  by Adam Thirlwell. Tracing twitter accounts, citizen anecdotes and other news sources during the Arab Spring uprisings, a London-based character attempts to put the events in perspective. As the narrative becomes more confused, so does the text, which takes on an unconventional visual form.

The book, according to the publishers Visual Editions, is “Set in the thick of the Arab Spring, [and] guided by the high-speed monologue of an unnamed narrator — over-doped, over-caffeinated, overweight — trying to make sense of this history in real time.”

Thirlwell corresponded with the book’s designer Firth Kerr before he even began to write the novel. They come up with a design that incorporates accordion-styled foldouts that permit 12 inch long blocks of text and unusual visual representations of the conceptual and narrative madness, including wild digressions, paragraphs flipped on their side and short blocks of text in corners.

“A clever, funny, and bitingly critical cultural commentary, it uses spinning digressions to tell the stories of a group of interconnected characters in London and Egypt, each transformed by the idea of revolution,” says Visual Editions, who add that “Kapow! asks readers to open and unfold pages, to follow text leaking in and out of paragraphs, while progressively becoming part of and lost within the narrator’s giddy digressions.”

Although such a reading experience may seem like desperately unrelaxing, Creative Review claims that it is actually easier to digest than it sounds. Fastco Design, meanwhile, claims that this may be the very first novel to accurately depict how we process information in the digital age.

To experience the Arab Spring uprisings again, but differently, please visit Visual Editions to purchase your very own copy of Kapow! 

More on Lifestyle, Culture and the Arab Spring:

The Origin of Earth Day and Greening the Arab Spring

Arab Spring Female Activist Wins Nobel Peace Prize 

#Occupy Climate Change: The Arab Spring and Wall St. Occupy Movement

This past weekend Yael Stav offered tours of her home and vertical garden as part of the “Houses From Within” Batim Mibifnim exhibition in Tel Aviv. Some of the garden was built using recycled materials and compost from her children’s eco-friendly diapers.

Jerusalem Bird Observatory Brown Roof – Local Flora no Irrigation by Rov-Noy, image via the World Green Infrastructure Network

Stav is currently completing her doctoral thesis on the environmental benefits of vertical greenery, which professor of public health at Columbia University Dickson Despommier proposed in 2009 as a perfect fit for the Middle East. (Stephen Colbert asks Dickson Despommier about vertical farming video).

Stav’s research shows that growing plants on a buildings roof and walls can save over 20 percent of the energy used to cool the building.

“The vertical greenery can enable the whole family in the city to grow a variety of plants, including assorted vegetables and herbs,” she says to Haaretz newspaper, pointing to tomatoes curling down from one of the holders hanging from the fence. “You can do this in any building and use a variety of materials.”

The annual ‘Houses From Within’ event also included tours of local community gardens and environmental academic centers in Tel Aviv. The city is at the heart of Israel’s environmental movement, and every year there are new citizen-lead developments to celebrate.

:: Houses from Within

Image via Haaretz