Neom, a bombastic collection of futuristic cities and resorts, has flopped as Saudi oil prices roll back reality. The Saudi plan of hosting the 2029 Asian games to be held at Trojena, a ski report in the desert, has been cancelled.
A large sperm whale has washed ashore on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, marking only the eighth documented case of its kind along the country’s Mediterranean coast since monitoring began.
For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.
Neom, a bombastic collection of futuristic cities and resorts, has flopped as Saudi oil prices roll back reality. The Saudi plan of hosting the 2029 Asian games to be held at Trojena, a ski report in the desert, has been cancelled.
A large sperm whale has washed ashore on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, marking only the eighth documented case of its kind along the country’s Mediterranean coast since monitoring began.
For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.
Neom, a bombastic collection of futuristic cities and resorts, has flopped as Saudi oil prices roll back reality. The Saudi plan of hosting the 2029 Asian games to be held at Trojena, a ski report in the desert, has been cancelled.
A large sperm whale has washed ashore on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, marking only the eighth documented case of its kind along the country’s Mediterranean coast since monitoring began.
For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.
Neom, a bombastic collection of futuristic cities and resorts, has flopped as Saudi oil prices roll back reality. The Saudi plan of hosting the 2029 Asian games to be held at Trojena, a ski report in the desert, has been cancelled.
A large sperm whale has washed ashore on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, marking only the eighth documented case of its kind along the country’s Mediterranean coast since monitoring began.
For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.
Neom, a bombastic collection of futuristic cities and resorts, has flopped as Saudi oil prices roll back reality. The Saudi plan of hosting the 2029 Asian games to be held at Trojena, a ski report in the desert, has been cancelled.
A large sperm whale has washed ashore on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, marking only the eighth documented case of its kind along the country’s Mediterranean coast since monitoring began.
For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.
Neom, a bombastic collection of futuristic cities and resorts, has flopped as Saudi oil prices roll back reality. The Saudi plan of hosting the 2029 Asian games to be held at Trojena, a ski report in the desert, has been cancelled.
A large sperm whale has washed ashore on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, marking only the eighth documented case of its kind along the country’s Mediterranean coast since monitoring began.
For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.
Neom, a bombastic collection of futuristic cities and resorts, has flopped as Saudi oil prices roll back reality. The Saudi plan of hosting the 2029 Asian games to be held at Trojena, a ski report in the desert, has been cancelled.
A large sperm whale has washed ashore on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, marking only the eighth documented case of its kind along the country’s Mediterranean coast since monitoring began.
For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.
Neom, a bombastic collection of futuristic cities and resorts, has flopped as Saudi oil prices roll back reality. The Saudi plan of hosting the 2029 Asian games to be held at Trojena, a ski report in the desert, has been cancelled.
A large sperm whale has washed ashore on Zikim Beach in southern Israel, marking only the eighth documented case of its kind along the country’s Mediterranean coast since monitoring began.
For millennia, the Middle East's water crisis seemed an immutable fact of geography — a region defined as much by what it lacked as by what lay beneath its sands. Today, a convergence of plummeting solar costs, advancing membrane technology, and hard-won engineering expertise is rewriting that story.
If you think renewable energies will become an increasingly cheaper alternative to petrol – think again now that there’s peak minerals.
As the world moves toward greater use of zero- carbon energy sources, the supply of certain key metals needed for such clean-energy technologies may dry up, inflating per unit costs and driving the renewable energy market out of business. We’ve talked about peak phosphorus for food; now consider that rare earth metals like neodymium which are used in magnets to help drive wind energy turbines, and dysprosium needed for electric car performance are becoming less available on the planet.
Hey’Ya: Arab Women in Sport: Sisters Brigitte and Marian Lacombe celebrate Arab female athletes at London’s Sotheby’s Gallery.
Last December, Qatar Museums Authority commissioned Brigitte Lacombe, a French photographer known mainly for her work with the film industry, to snap over 70 sportswomen from 20 Arab countries – some with Olympic potential. The project was the brainchild of Sheika Mayassa Al Thani, chair of the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA), and also the 29-year-old daughter of the emir of Qatar. It’s a great way to encourage more Arab women to turn to sport, and to help draw light on Muslim societies that require headscarves in sport.
The series, Hey’Ya: Arab Women in Sport, uses videography by Marian Lacombe and portraiture by Brigitte to depict the powerful feelings provoked by sport. It’s a limited showing from July 25 to August 11, but will undergo continued continued development. Admission is free.
With more than $20 billion worth of renewable energy projects currently being developed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the upcoming Mena Renewable Energy conference in Dubai will look at boosting investment in this sector.
In addition to issues affecting Muslim athletes, there were also ones involving Jewish athletes being able to compete on the first two days of the 17 day competition, due to those days being the Sabbath and the fast day of the Ninth of Av. which occurred on Sunday, July 29, commemorates some of the darkest moments in Jewish history.
But these types of issues have always been around and have affected athletes in other types of sporting competitions as well. With the International Olympic Committee making great strides to emphasize the meaning of the games within the framework of global community and pure athletic competition, we might take some time to dwell on the games themselves within the framework of whether gigantic sporting events like the Olympiad are contributing anything towards helping make the world environment a better for humanity.
Jordanians can pick each other out by sight and last-name analysis, as accurate as DNA testing.
Six million “Jordanians” are a quilt sewn from disparate ethnicities and cultures, co-existing in peace while retaining the essence of their origins. This tiny nation divides itself up into groups and sub-groups and tribes and families. Jordan hosts one of the largest (by percentage of total population) immigrant communities in the world: more than 40 percent of its residents were born in other countries. Its Arab population consists mostly of Jordanians, Iraqis and Palestinians. Regional instability brings a steady flow of Egyptians, Libyans, Lebanese and Syrians.
Non-Arabs pour in too. There are Turkmans, Chechens, Circassians and Romanis. Half a million Assyrian Christians rolled in during the Iraq War. And then there are migrant workers, Southeast Asians who saturate the local domestic and construction workforce.
But these are the easy lines of division. It’s the heightened attentiveness of “true” Jordanians to the micro-populations within their own society that I find fascinating. How to explain this uber-sensitivity to “tribe” in modern, internationally-savvy Amman? I’ll make an unscientific stab at answering my own question: the best camo tent?
I think it comes from the Bedouin.
Let’s say that “true” Jordanians are the people actually born here. With parents and grandparents and great-grandparents who were also Jordan-hatched. They self-categorize as Palestinian Jordanians, and Gulf Jordanians, and Bedouin Jordanians, to name three.
These distinctions are mostly lost on me. I can’t see the subtle changes in dress or food; I’m deaf to accents since I don’t speak Arabic. The only sub-sect that stands out to me is the Bedouin, and only those still embracing a semi-nomadic life.
Their tents line the hills ringing Amman; they graze their animals in the damndest places. Local friends test me to see if I can tell a gypsy compound from Bedouin: I’m “right” half the time, but I don’t think they’re too sure themselves (although most boast Bedouin heritage, I think it’s the Middle East version of America’s “I’m part Cherokee”.).
On my fifth run to Petra, I outed myself as a tourist and bought a copy of Married to a Bedouin, by Marguerite van Geldermalsen, a New Zealander who met and married a Bedouin souvenir-seller from Petra in 1978. They made their home in a 2,000-year-old cave. She converted to Islam, learned Arabic, and gave birth to three children. She was living the Bedouin dream, and I hoped her book would let me see inside her tent. I wasn’t disappointed.
Poking around to learn more about these remarkable people, I came across a short documentary film featuring Bedouin children living in Bekaa, Lebanon. As the kids share their daily routines, their play and work, their hopes and dreams, a tiny flap in the tent is lifted. It’s an amazing piece.
Passing daily by the Bedouin tent camps, making occasional roadside stops to buy tomatoes and strawberries, I never really thought about their lifestyle. It opened my eyes and motivated me to learn more.
The Bedouin defer to a hierarchy of allegiance based on kinship
Loyalty to nuclear family, or bayt, is primary, with a family typically consisting of a married couple, their children, and perhaps adult siblings or grandparents.
Extended family comes next (Cousin Ahmed, Uncle Ali), and this grouping spans generations. Then there’s the tribe (the Al Howaitat is one of Jordan’s largest) led by a Sheik, who mediates between tribe and outsiders. There’s power in tribe: Bedouin in Mafraq effectively blocked Jordan’s nuclear ambitions in that province; another tribe is causing headaches to the Disi Waterline project.
Groups can also be connected by their herd type. Although family is key, tribes are fluid, absorbing new members as they roam.
This framework delineates how the Bedouin settle disputes, maintain justice, and cooperate on common interests. They are fiercely independent and obey strong codes of honor, underpinned by traditional justice systems.
In the mid-nineteenth century, large numbers of Bedouin across Midwest Asia started to leave their traditional, nomadic life to settle into cities. Aspects of climate change, like severe drought, forced many to abandon herding. Rapid urbanization throughout the Middle East offers an increased standard of living that could be supported with conventional, and available, jobs.
There’s a lot of information out there about the Bedouin. Join me in learning more about them before these remarkable people are completely absorbed into the global soup.
A hybrid energy source comprised of solar energy and magnets fuel this futuristic car.
Fuel-guzzling, monochromatic sedans will be a thing of the past if Mohammad Ghezel can sell his latest concept. About the only aspect of the future we dare to think deeply about given climate change, population growth and shrinking natural resources, BioThink vehicles mimic the movement and structure of certain insects.
Looking ahead to over-populated mega-cities in a world of higher temperatures and mandatory carbon cuts, the Iranian designer conceived two different kinds of narrow, self-sufficient 2-seaters that use up less space than conventional vehicles and produce zero carbon emissions.
Last Saturday, ten chefs from Jordan cooked up the world’s largest falafel.
Jordan joined the Guinness Book of World Records this week for the world’s biggest falafel. The super culinary feat was witnessed by a Guinness official who confirmed the falafel as “the world’s largest”. Fame was fleeting for the phenomenal falafel, weighing in at 74.75kg, which was later eaten as an appetizer by some of the 600 people attending a special iftar banquet.
8th annual Health, Safety and Environment Forum in Energy happens in Doha from October 8 -10
Accidents associated with oil and gas operations endanger human life, damage adjacent communities and threaten the environment. The shockwaves of these accidents affect the business involved and its workers, and extend far beyond. Millions of dollars are spent annually on restoration.
Most of these incidents can be chalked up to complacence. Many could be avoided by changing industry practices and applying stringent regulations. But repetitive tragedies demonstrate that the energy sector hasn’t fully absorbed past lessons. A summit in Qatar aims to mitigate these risks for oil-producing nations.
A classic and common piece of Americana holds links to a misunderstood culture.
I found a bag of small yarn balls. I’d left it long ago at a friend’s house in New Jersey: my Amman-bound suitcase was fatter than the airline allowed. That bag was big, but the skeins of wool no larger than my grandma’s meatballs. Name a color, it was in there. I’m incapable of tossing the leftovers from a knitting project, but what to do with the pretty dregs?
I took the bag to my mom’s knitting group, where a woman suggested something shocking: crochet the bits into an afghan. Rabid knitters rarely pick up crochet hooks: we don’t like to play for the other team.
Soaring temperatures and low precipitation could not occur at a worse time for many farmers in the United States, and around the world. Intensifying drought conditions are affecting corn and soybean crops throughout the Midwest, raising grain prices as well as concerns about future food prices.
The US Drought Monitor reports that 88 percent of this year’s corn crop and 77 percent of the soybean crop are now affected by the most severe drought since 1988. In response the Worldwatch Institute launched a 12 step guide to combatting drought and desertification. These tips can be used by policy makers around the world and in dry climates in the Middle East. Read on for the list.
The relationship between Qatar and the UK keeps getting cozier – at least in the realm of architecture. First The Shard, which is owned almost completely by Qatar, was recently unveiled in London, and now the country’s first experimental eco-villa will be designed by a UK-based firm.
Curtailed by the recession in their home country, LSI Architects spent two years pitching their firm’s talents in sustainable architecture in the emirate. This effort that finally earned them the opportunity to submit a proposal to the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) for an innovative, renewably-powered villa.
Now the talented photographer has sent a new series of images depicting the traditional builders of Siwa. Tucked away in the northwest corner of Egypt, this oasis just 100 km from the border of Libya has a long tradition of building with kerchief, an affordable and widely accessible material composed of sun-dried salt, mud and sand. Although neglected for some years, this construction style has made a resurgence of late, and Giusi captured its essence on film.
It’s hard to convince a sushi lover that the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna doesn’t exist for them alone. I know this because I used to eat the robust pink flesh with abandon in my pre-vegetarian days. And if the wasabi didn’t make my eyes tear up, there wasn’t enough of it mixed in with my heart-exploding sodium-drenched soy sauce.
Knowing what I do now about this endangered species’ near-certain extinction and its enormous importance as an apex predator, I can’t eat it anymore, though I do occasionally pine for the good old days of sushi buffets. Now it seems like there’s hope for the species after all – and it lies in Israel.
We have often written about the land mines that riddle Egypt’s desert. Originally planted during World War II by both Axis and Allied forces, these insidious weapons of war have since drifted from their original location, posing tremendous risk to local people.
Egyptian researchers strive to find safe methods to clear explosive mine fields and an Afghani designer built a bamboo minesweeper modeled after a childhood toy to keep his own people safe. But the desert is so remote and so vast that putting the scale of the problem into perspective can be challenging. These images by Andrew Youngson collected in a series called “The Devil’s Garden” do just that.
Early morning on a Saturday in May I headed out on my routine weekend nature trip into the desert. My visit was to a desert area in Sharjah that is approximately 25 kilometers away from Sharjah City and is an area I have been frequenting now for a few years. My trip goals were two-fold: to enjoy a long desert hike and hopefully burn some fat and to document any interesting plants and animals I might see encountered. I must happily admit that I achieved both goals…read on about what I found.
Hey’Ya: Arab Women in Sport: Sisters Brigitte and Marian Lacombe celebrate Arab female athletes at London’s Sotheby’s Gallery.
