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Recycling Yourself When Green Projects Go Bust

Live long enough and we all know heartbreak, but what happens when a well-loved sustainable project walks away? Looking for day trips to explore modern Middle East architecture, I stumbled across Jordan’s The Aqaba House (TAH). This ambitious little house was the first modern home fully based on green building principles specific to its Aqaba location.  Oriented […]

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Medical Tourism Boom in Jordan and United Arab Emirates

Catch some healing sun with your operation? The Middle East’s healthcare industry is booming. Rising healthcare costs in the United States and increased waiting periods for specialized treatment in Europe are fueling rapid growth in the numbers of medical tourists pouring into the region. Medical tourism, the practice of crossing international borders to obtain healthcare, […]

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Shiazo’s Burn and Stink-free Hookah Hits the Streets

There’s a new hookah on the street and she leaves without a trace… on your lungs. Shiazo Steam Stone Shisha provides a new smoking experience that uses Pressure Injection Method (PIM) technology developed in Germany to deliver a burn and stink-free smoke that feels and tastes like the real thing. Recently introduced in the United Arab […]

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Floating With Spencer Tunick to Save the Dead Sea

A personal account of celebrating the Naked Sea event anniversary last Thursday night. In September of last year year Spencer Tunick came down to the Dead Sea and brought along with him throngs of reporters, environmentalists and 1500 people loaded on buses from around Israel who bared all in the hot sun in the name of […]

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The Lebanese Cedar Survival Passes Tipping Point?

The cedar tree, Lebanon’s national symbol , has been for centuries overused by various civilizations. Reforestation might not bring them back from the brink.  The Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus Libani, is an evergreen coniferous plant native to Lebanon, Syria and southern Turkey. Cedar forests once covered the entire Mount Lebanon chain but the cedar,an emblem […]

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Australia Kills Nearly 400 Camels From the Sky

Camels are a nomad’s best friend but a serious nuisance in Australia, where the environmental ministry recently culled nearly 400 of them en masse. Despite efforts from locals to raise awareness of the numerous benefits of camels, the government has long waged a campaign against feral camels that roam the country’s desert region. The South […]

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Bahrain’s Artifical Reef a Success After 16 Weeks

Only eight percent of our oceans are “shallow seas” (shallower than 100 feet), but these wildly diverse ecosystems harbor most of the world’s marine life.  Egypt, Israel, and Jordan (all connected to the Red Sea) and the Gulf states stand to lose enormous tourism revenue if their natural reefs continue to be destroyed by coastal development. Last […]

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Travelling Without Money to Istanbul’s Travel House

A place where you can stay for free in Istanbul, meet other travellers and exchange travel experiences? The Serbia Travel Club made their crazy idea reality, and Istanbul’s Travel House was open for everyone.  I paid them an overnight visit in Istanbul and rediscovered how enriching travelling can be. This summer, Serbia Travel Club established a […]