Public transportation is not wildly popular in Saudi Arabia since fuel is so cheap and many households have private drivers to escort them from place to place, but the government is trying to shift public perception of this mode of movement by developing a brand new metro system. And Zaha Hadid has recently won a bid to design a futuristic new station in Riyadh.
Central Istanbul looks like a war zone as shells of burnt out vehicles simmer after a long day of confrontations between riot police and anti-government protestors at Taksim Square yesterday.
Jordanian craftswomen near the southern Dead Sea are creating unique market bags, placemats and quilts colored with naturally sourced dyes, then painted and embroidered. The project was built by a Canadian woman and artist living worlds away.
Online retailer Amazon grabbed headlines with their plan to build a biosphere inside transparent glass orbs which will house its Seattle – based workforce and a forest of plants. Interiors will feature “botanical zones” modeled on earth’s mountain ecologies.
Once the most powerful seat of learning in Egypt, Alexandria has some catching up to do when it comes to renewable energy. Which may be why the governor has entered into an agreement with a Catholic technical institute to bolster photovoltaic education and installations.
Marrakech Design is a Swedish design firm that has combined traditional Moroccan design with Scandinavian minimalism, and now the renowned architectural firm Claesson Koivisto Rune has joined the fray with three new tile designs that are bound to transform even the most dull home.
An “actress” performing at the Arab Cultural Center in Brussels ran up against the law for her odd public antics between shows. Belgian police demanded she be forcibly removed from the theater’s street-facing balcony where she’d been unwinding with a bucket of water and stack of fresh hay.
After trying the conventional methods of trying to heal a sick tiger with a persistant ear infection, animal therapists were called into the zoo try some alternative methods.
The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) in Abu Dhabi, which is affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has purchased a Fujifilm Dimatix DMP283 inkjet printer – the learning institute’s first step towards printing its very own solar cells!
Why have dolphins and other types of marine life almost disappeared from Israel’s shores? And why are projects such as deep water energy drilling and desalination threatening to make the eastern Mediterranean an area increasingly devoid of most marine life?
Turkey’s Taksim square protest flared up last week when police took drastic measures to clear activists from Gezi Park- slated for destruction to make way for yet another shopping center. But that’s not the only unsustainable project the government is pursuing in the name of economic growth. We list 5 of the major ones.
I’m no Pollyanna, but I usually maintain a healthy screen between my personal life and world events. Lately I’ve been reporting on the disturbing happenings in Turkey, and hanging out with people working with Jordan’s Syrian and Palestinian refugees. It’s been tough to keep a happy face. But research shows you will live longer if you are happier.
So today, crack of dawn, I took a walk to Amman’s Abdeli market, an enormous tented street sale where ten bucks can buy you a new wardrobe of mildly used designer clothes plus a week’s worth of fruit and veg. After an hour navigating narrow aisles between the overstuffed stalls, the takeaway is a clear and calm mind.
Got to thinking of other accessible and cheap ways to re-calibrate. Consider these ten free ideas:
1. Write down the simplest (legal and safe) things that give you pleasure. Then do them every week.
2. Get off your ass and move. Green Prophet’s already advised as to how hiking can mend a broken heart. Exercise enhances your state of mind by boosting brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. A simple walk can knock the edge off stress and put new spin on whatever’s bugging you.
3. Jump in cold water, or hop in a cool shower. It increases circulation, minimizes inflammation, and instantly invigorates. While you’re at it, sing a stupid song loudly. Wim Hof tells you to do it.
4. Turn off the TV (and computer, and tablet, and e-reader, and smartphone, and Instagram and Siri and Alexa). They’re hypnotics. You may smirk at the latest YouTube FAIL, or become emotional over horrible newscasts, but your body is immobile and your brain passive. Take frequent technology breaks, and do something else on this list
5. Enjoy nature. Kick off your shoes to touch the grass, sand, soil or water. Take up gardening, even if it’s just a bit of time nurturing apartment-grown herbs.
6. Be a tourist in your own town. Walk a different way to an old destination. Check out the shops you never entered. Go play on the kids’ swings, or read a newspaper in a park. We are creatures of habit, try on new ones.
7. Shut up for a change. Quiet your own mind and really listen, don’t just prepare your rebuttal.Talking less and listening more is bound to improve your communication skills. Listen when you’re alone, to birds, wind in the trees, the sounds of life beyond your ear-buds.
8. Take a nap. Babies all over the world endorse this as a primo way to quell crankiness.
9. Laugh more. Comedy is everywhere, look for the “laugh WITH you”, not “AT you” kind. Surround yourself with funny people. You can go back to YouTube but only if you watch brilliant classics like this.
10. Feel grateful, and express it.   No need to go all “Oprah”. Simply run through the stuff you are lucky to have in your life: health, friends, love, a decent haircut. Get in a habit of acknowledging what’s good in your own life. It’ll make a positive difference in how you handle everything else.
Citizens of the United Arab Emirates receive free healthcare and education, and enjoy subsidized water, electricity and fuel. Men can claim free land and no-interest building loans; couples get cash towards their wedding expenses. And next January, lucky residents in two Abu Dhabi neighborhoods will get high-tech trash bins.
Water scarcity combined with desertification makes for a scary combination in the Middle East, but The Sahara Forest Project (SFP) is pioneering a promising solution: greenhouses that use saltwater to grow food in the middle of the desert.
Thinking and living in tune with nature is a way of life that is best started as early as possible, which is why we think there ought to be more schools like The Green School in Kfar Saba, Israel.
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