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Amany's Friends
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Six Archetypes of Youth Change Makers
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Since the founding of TakingITGlobal in 1999, I have been incredibly inspired by my interactions with thousands of young change makers from all around the world. Through my Masters Research on youth-led action in an international context along with exposure to other studies and international conferences examining the role of today's generation of youth as change agents, I have gained an important observation. My observation is that I have seen the emergence of Six Archetypes of Youth Change Makers, which provide a glance at the roles young people are taking on in the process of creating change.
The Dreamer
The Dreamer is the driver behind new ideas. Dreamers are often the first to articulate a long-term vision for the future and think big. It is the sense of aspiration, optimism and imagination of dreamers that drive progress, innovation and change.
The Megaphone
The Megaphone is a vocal advocate for change. Megaphones are very focused on delivering the message and will campaign tirelessly and work hard to lobby for a message to be heard. They inspire action through their words and help to shift priorities on the agenda.
The Spark Plug
The Spark Plug is a catalyst and has a gift for networking and connecting people. The Spark Plug is able to foster collaborations and bring many different organizations and individuals together in dialogue, convincing diverse interest groups to come together for a common goal.
The Task Master
The Task Master is often behind the scenes making things happen and is sometimes the under-rated player within a group or organization. Often, it is the Task Master who literally keeps things together by turning ideas into manageable tasks with actionable timelines. Task Masters are practical, objective-oriented individuals.
The Sherpa
The Sherpa serves as a guide who provides mentorship, insight and training through peer education. Sherpas are natural educators with a strong interest in learning and sharing knowledge. Sherpas value hands on experiences and are able to draw upon the expertise and resources of those they encounter.
The Storyteller
The Storyteller is often the documenter of an organization and its projects, preparing short stories, interviews, blogs, webcasts newsletters and more. Storytellers become a vehicle for spreading inspiration and sharing of best practices through identifying patterns and strengthening movements through recognizing exceptional individuals.
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A Train of Dream
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We are proud to welcome you to Train of Dream’s station; a train drives you through a fantasy world of challenges and hopes.
You are entering a mysterious and fascinating world of dreams where the rules of obstacles do not apply.
Dream Trains carry you from where you are to where you want.
I am very happy to let you know that many worked very hard over years to produce a “Train of Dream” passing into the reality of action, where dreams come true :)
Dream Train ‘s engines move the hearts of men, and it will introduce the start of the next generation to dream anything you want to dream.
Thank you for taking your “Train of Dream”…The ONLY transport you will ever need for faith in your dreams, dreaming and creating dreams, dreams analysis and getting in action.
All Dream tools on “go go..get inspired, get involved and dream” are completely free for all dreamers (please contact Allah to support and help and enjoy downloading his teachings and update your mental and spiritual strength with love, passion and hardworking on your career and brain system, or use it within in your work product).
You can also use your dream loops and failures trials as educative and motivation backgrounds for your life, future, dream editing and “dream for other and with others” multimedia designs.
Easily browse the newest Dream Success Stories on “anyweb.site “ and “AnyTrueModel in RealLife”
Make your desktop more interesting with sharing your passion with friends and family and believe in God.
Finally here we are, our train is moving on. Now you are in no way, the final say in what YOUR dream
-----Amira--------
Wed, June 17 -09
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RSS – Let the WorldWideWeb come to you
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I won’t be exaggerating to say that RSS feed is the single most useful tool I’ve found on the internet after emails.
It must have caught your attention before, that little orange square you see on many web pages. It means that this publish updates frequently and that you can subscribe to follow these updates through automatically generated feed called RSS (which stands for Really Simple Syndication). You typically find this feature available on blogs and news websites, but there are a host of other stuff you can choose to follow.
 we feed icon
Using RSS feeds proves extremely uselful when there are numerous sites that you want to follow and it’s big consumption of time to go to each single site everytime you log onto the net. Instead, this tool aggregates all the new posts generated on all the pages you want to go to in one place.
There is a staggering list of ‘aggregators’ to help you with this. They fall into 3 categories. The most simple is using the web browser to compile all the feeds you want to subscribe to. All the new browsers have the ability to read web feeds (be it Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.). There are programs that you install on your desktop to read these feeds, which is almost the same as using your web browser.
The thirds set of aggregators are websites. Personally, I prefer this set because it doesn’t tie you to a certain computer. This means that you can access your list of web feeds from any place that has internet. My favourite is Google Reader (simply because Google has a very attractive package of tools). There, you insert the url of the website you want to follow its updates, and if it has RSS feed feature activiated Google Reader will detect it. You can arrange different feeds under specific folders.
 screenshot from my Google Reader
The RSS feed system has enabled me to maximally benefit from the time I spend online. There are various ways to determine how you want to benefit from the tool. Besides following news sites and blogs all in one place, I follow the twitter updates of some of the users. It’s also possible to subscribe to a search term on twitter. For instance, I follow the search term “ylvp” which is programme I attended last year. This way I can follow whatever tweet that has the term.
Some sites publish a huge number of posts everyday(like the Huffington Post), and sometimes not all of the updates are of concern . For instance, I don’t care to follow all the articles from the Independent Newspaper - I only want to follow the articles written by Robert Fisk, and it’s possible to do so. Also possible it is to follow a specific blog post for the replies/comments on the page. If you are familiar with the notion of Social Bookmarking, you can find use in following the new bookmarks saved by some users or follow the new bookmarks filed under certain tags.
There are many different ways you can use web feeds, and I’m not sure if the examples I mentioned are useful. However, I’m sure it’s a valuable tool but it’s each one job to determine how to get the benefit.

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Canada in the news
About this category: Peace & Conflict
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I came across these 2 posts on one of the blogs I follow. It's a lamentable fact that Canada is very biases when it comes to Middle East Politics..
How Those Who Kill Can Enter Canada While Those Who Save Lives Are Barred
By Joshua Blakeney
World renowned, award winning journalist John Pilger commented on George Galloway's autobiography: "Galloway's work has saved countless lives, particularly in Iraq". This is an accurate statement about the record of the five-times elected British MP who was described by Canadian Minister for Immigration Jason Kenny as "a threat to Canada's security" and subsequently banned from entering Canada during March of this year. Juxtaposing the blood-soaked records of George W Bush and Bill Clinton - especially in relation to Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Somalia and elsewhere - with the unimpeachable record of George Galloway MP, the patent rudderless and deceptive nature of the current Canadian government and its media accomplices becomes transparent. The Canadian government evidently embraces the inane ethos: "if your going to kill, make sure you kill millions." In other words, the tin pot tyrants like the Taliban and Saddam Hussein are to be demonized, subjected to show trials and marketed as a ‘threat', while those who massacre and torture millions like Bush, Clinton, Rice and Cheney are to be venerated, ingratiated and granted VIP treatment if they choose to come to Canada at any time during their lucrative speaking tours.
The Canadian parliament in its history has never stood in such public execration as it does contemporarily for both its tacit and overt support for some of the worst mass murderers ever to afflict humanity. War criminals emanating from Canada's behemoth southern neighbour are apparently welcome to spread their malicious propaganda, leaving with a hansom speaker's fee, all for the pleasure of the wealthy few who can afford the ticket to enter the Gestapo protected venues. In the past eight weeks there have been visits by George W Bush to Calgary (hosted by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce), Condoleezza Rice to Calgary (hosted by the so called U of C School of Public Policy) and imminently George W Bush and Bill Clinton plan to descend upon Canada again, as if it were merely the fifty-first state of the U.S.A, rather than a sovereign country with its own laws and international obligations.
If Canada is indeed still a sovereign country certainly many of us are finding the boundaries opaque at best.
The most criminal and supine of all - and to whom we must channel a large portion of our anger and contempt - are the ‘mainstream' media who invariably negate their duty and responsibility to expose the tyrants' records and to educate the public on the democratically enshrined laws which the current minority government are perpetually glossing over (unless it serves them to do otherwise as was the case with the erudite George Galloway MP in March). The supine, docility of the press has allowed radical extremists such as Bush and Clinton to appear as misunderstood, sophisticated statesmen who had to make ‘difficult decisions' in a ‘dangerous world', whilst peace activists like George Galloway MP are unanimously demonized, traduced and portrayed as a ‘threat to Canadian security.' The Globe and Mail have printed (on a daily basis) a half-page advertisement for the Bush-Clinton visit boasting their affiliation with the event alongside the infamous Bennett Jones legal firm and many other collaborationist conglomerates who seek to make Canada a safe-haven for self-confessed torturers and war criminals. Contrastingly George Galloway MP, who was banned from entering Canada because he delivered wheel chairs, medicine and much needed food supplies to the starving captives of the Gaza ghetto, was described by the National Post's Jonathan Kay as: "Anti-Israel, Anti-American, pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah", all of which are untrue as is evidenced by Galloway's own statements in parliament and in his biweekly radio show in which he confutes such chimeras regularly. Galloway doesn't support Hamas he supports Al-Fatah. Galloway recognizes Israel's right to exist and is widely respected by many Jewish groups throughout the world. As for Hezbollah, Galloway simply expounds the truism that the political force is widely supported by the Lebanese people and that Lebanese democracy should be respected not undermined. He equally promotes bringing home the troops from the illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq so that the young U.S. soldiers could be home and safe rather than at war and in danger. How ‘anti-American' is that? Perhaps Jonathan Kay's warped definition of being pro-American equates to supporting the inept, draft-dodging leaders who order young, impressionable men and women into illegal conflagrations? The pseudo-liberal Kay then fascistically advised that if Galloway entered Canada: "then (opponents should) have police on hand to apprehend him" ( http://bit.ly/WEKIb).
Getting accused of supporting terrorism by a government and its bought-and-paid-for media who are prepared to roll out the red carpet for Bush (twice in eight weeks), Rice and Clinton is a bit like getting told to sit up straight by the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Bush, the self-confessed torturer and sadist, should either be barred from entering Canada as Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act allows for, or if he enters Canada, according the Lawyers Against the War: "the Attorney General of Canada must prosecute him for torture or provide consent to private prosecution", as Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act equally allows for. The Canadian government's recent ‘Canada's Program on Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes: Tenth Annual Report' had the ostensible commitment: "to deny safe haven in Canada to war criminals, that is, individuals who may have been either directly involved or complicit in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide." The report concludes: "Canada has proven to be a pioneer in the development of a world-class war crimes program. Its coordinated approach and initiative in the realm of international cooperation and outreach has earned the War Crimes Program acclaim in the global community. Strong legislation reflects the Government of Canada's determination to hold suspected perpetrators of war crimes accountable for their actions"
(see: http://bit.ly/UKA57).
The propaganda surrounding Clinton's legacy has allowed a misperception to coagulate that he was a ‘dove' and ‘the best U.S. president ever'. It must be acknowledged that there exists a plethora of incriminating justifications for banning Clinton from entering the country based on his own illegal rapacity. Some of these include the use of proscribed weapons of mass destruction and the deliberate destruction of Yugoslavian "hospitals and health-care centers, public housing, infrastructure vital to the well-being of civilians, refineries, warehouses, agricultural facilities, schools, roads and railways." (See: http://bit.ly/7VsKy)
George Galloway's courageous solidarity with the Palestinian people by leading the convoy of aide to the Gaza ghetto was a self-styled method of raising awareness about unspoken Holocausts which the media obediently censor from the public domain. Galloway led a similar convoy (this time in a red London bus) to beleaguered Iraq during the 1990s when western governments, spurred on by Clinton, were punishing the Iraqi people with sanctions for having a dictator which western governments had themselves installed, funded and armed to the teeth with chemical and biological weapons. Galloway's humanism thus warrants the kind comments opined by John Pilger that: "Galloway's work has saved countless lives, particularly in Iraq." As Galloway stated: "I've met Saddam Hussein, exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald met him to sell him guns and maps the better to target those guns, and I met him to bring an end to sanctions and suffering and war" (see: http://www.guba.com/watch/3000067165). Just as Galloway's sanctions busting in Iraq was an attempt to alleviate U.S. (Clinton) imposed suffering, which killed a child every six minutes, so the recent convoy of aide was warmly received by the captives of the Gaza ghetto who are starving as a result of Israeli illegality. Thus the canards of ‘anti-Israel', ‘pro-Hamas' etc, disseminated by the popinjay, armchair warrior Jonathan Kay were, as to be expected, no more than squalid propaganda as is customary from the guttersnipe media outlet which he genuflects at the behest of.
The effect of Kay's and others of his ilk's disinformation is highly pernicious and corrosive for a young democracy like Canada's. The truth about George Galloway was concealed and his reputation in Canada was hence besmirched which then allowed his message of peace and anti-imperialism to be diluted which (no surprises) benefits Kay's own perceived agenda of legitimizing the aggressive warfare which Canada's government are deeply complicit in contemporarily. As part of the same hidden agenda, Bush and Clinton's blood soaked records are obediently concealed by the likes of Kay, and the credibly accused war criminals are being glorified rather than arrested. These hidden agendas and disinformation campaigns prevent the Canadian people from imbibing the realities of the world which has the ultimate effect of allowing the U.S. regime to continue its atrophy of democracy uninhibited.
On April 28th 2009, Professor Anthony J Hall (University of Lethbridge) courageously confronted the baneful Jonathan Kay at a speaking engagement in Montreal (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez1sY5g8_Uo). Dr Hall asked Kay why he uses anonymous sources (such as the anonymous, peddler of propaganda ‘Blackrod' blogger) to commit character-assassination upon respected dissenters such as former Liberal candidate Leslie Hughes who's only real crime was that she dared to cross the invisible boundaries which Kay's National Post, CBC, The Globe and Mail and the rest of the 'mainstream' media are the gate-keepers for. Dr Hall described Kay's efforts as "questionable…shoddy journalism" and accused him of being a "radical, extremist…with access to a large audience through CanWest Global." Whilst Professor Hall was doing all Canadians a service by challenging the National Post's chief propagandist, an interlocutor shouted at Kay: "you are covering up for mass murder…you should go on trial for propaganda and disinformation…you should go on trial like Joseph Goebbels did." At which point Professor Hall invoked international law and the Nuremburg Principles educating the infelicitous Jonathan Kay: "the role of the press in dehumanizing whole populations, preparing public opinion for aggressive warfare, that is what you are a part of, he (the interlocutor) is correct, you are part of the propaganda machinery of aggressive war and incidentally that is outlawed in the UN…we've read your columns for years…the War on Terror is based on psychological warfare…and you have been a very intricate part of that machinery of aggressive warfare." Prof Hall also challenged Kay on his complicity in the disinformation campaign against George Galloway to which Kay replied unabashedly: "I said he was a toxic clown", exposing the lack of intellectual rigor which one can expect from his supposed journalism.
It is clear that Canada is increasingly perceived to be a 'safe haven' for self-confessed tortures and war criminals who have committed what at Nuremburg - reflecting upon the unilateralism and genocidal practices of Nazism - was defined as "the ultimate war crime" of aggressive war. If the ahistorical, Goebellian normalizing of those who have committed the "ultimate war crime" perpetuates from Canada's apologetic government and media then it is the people who will be forced to attempt citizens arrests upon those who are either self-confessed violators of international law, or are credibly accused so, as the Canadian domestic law allows for. One such attempt has already been mounted in Canada by the courageous activist Splitting the Sky who sought to break the police lines in Calgary to conduct a citizens arrest against the self-confessed criminal George W Bush on March 17th. Professor of International Law Francis A Boyle in his book Protesting Power: War Resistance and Law has advised those of us who oppose the impunity afforded to war criminals to deputize ourselves and attempt to implement Canadian law which we respect, unlike Steven Harper and Jason Kenny who have eviscerated the legal system. Splitting the Sky will embark upon a five day trial in March 2010 where, in reality, he will not be in the mindset of the accused, but rather that of the accuser, not the criminal but the interrogator. He was attempting prevent Canada from becoming a safe haven for mass murderers and self-confessed tortures and was arrested for doing so. If the police are aiding and abetting the self-confessed torturers and mass murderers are we to stand by and watch? As Pastor Niemoller regretfully opined: "In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. And then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to speak up." They came for the ‘Communists' during the Cold War - and massacred them in their millions - now they have come for the Arabs and Muslims and massacred them in their millions, who will be next?
© Copyright Joshua Blakeney, Global Research, 2009
Israel Steals Palestinian Heritage, History
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad has made a formal complaint to the Canadian government regarding the intention of Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum to collaborate with the Israel Antiquities Authority to host "Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World" from June 27 to January 3, 2010.
Palestinian Archaeological Department Director-General Hamdan Taha explains, "The exhibition would entail exhibiting or displaying artifacts removed from the Palestinian territories… I think it is important that Canadian institutions would be responsible and act in accordance with Canada's obligations."
The Israeli exhibition violates international conventions or protocols that Canada has ratified and that protect cultural property during armed conflict. The State of Israel seized the Jordanian-owned Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem in 1967 to take possession of the scrolls and has continued to loot similar Palestinian cultural property from the Occupied Territories ever since. Under the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and the 1954 Hague Convention along with its two associated protocols, Canada is legally obliged "to take appropriate steps to recover and return any such cultural property" at the request of the wronged party.
The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition is part of Israel's effort to re-brand itself. According to The Economist, American Jewish groups and Israeli diplomats are trying to create the perception of Israel as "hip, cool, cultured, fun and creative." The campaign has included placing sexually suggestive advertisements in Maxim and other men's magazines.
Harvard Professor Stephen Walt suggests in his Foreign Policy blog that the re-branding effort is foredoomed to failure: "Restoring Israel's image in the West isn't a matter of spin or PR or `re-branding;' it's a matter of abandoning the policies that have cost it the sympathy it once enjoyed. It's really just about that simple."
The archaeological component of the propaganda campaign, however, uses subliminal suggestion to bypass such political arguments. A top Israeli re-branding advocate argues, "[Let's] get to that first stage when people associate Israel with science and music and archaeology…Then we'll take it from there."
In Facts on the Ground Columbia Professor Nadia Abu Al Haj writes, "In the context of Israel and Palestine, archaeology emerged as a central scientific discipline because of the manner in which colonial settlement was configured in a language of, and a belief in, Jewish national return." Even though asserting ownership to a country after absence of 2000 years is preposterous, Israel's theft of Palestine from the native population is popularly legitimised through the claim that today's Jews descend from inhabitants of Greco-Roman Judea.
According to New York Times Reporters Ethan Bonner and Isabel Kershner in "Parks Fortify Israel's Claim to Jerusalem," "[There] is a battle for historical legitimacy. As part of the effort, archaeologists are finding indisputable evidence of ancient Jewish life here."
This claim is nonsense.
Intellectuals of Jewish origin in 19th century Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, invented their folk narratives `retrospectively,' out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people, argues Tel Aviv University Professor Shlomo Sand, author of How and When the Jewish People Was Invented.
There is no single founder population for modern Jewry any more than there is a single founder population for modern Christians or modern Muslims. Late ancient and early medieval texts describe an ethnically diverse collection of communities associated with proselytizing pre-Rabbinic Judaism.
In English to use the word Jew is anachronistic before the 10th century when medieval Rabbinic Judaism crystallised thanks to the efforts of Saadyah Gaon (Sa`îd bin Yûsuf al-Fayyûmi) and his colleagues.
With the revolutionary codification of Rabbinic law these communities became part of a vast trade network that spanned the Christian and Muslim world and that extended into China and began to exchange members on a large scale. The main population-exporting region seems to have been located in territories near the Black Sea.
Current genetic anthropological findings based on DNA analysis indicate that the male ancestors of Yiddish Jewry were of Eastern European and non-Levantine Southwest Asian origin while the female ancestors were Eastern Europeans.
Sand admits, "[The] chances that the Palestinians are descendants of the ancient Judaic people are much greater than the chances that you or I [meaning Israeli Jews] are its descendents."
The Palestinians' ancestors created the Hasmonean Kingdom, composed the Hebrew Bible, followed Jesus, wrote the New Testament, compiled the Mishnah, and redacted the Jerusalem Talmud. The Palestinian people constitute the living link to the earliest beginnings of the heritage from the Torah and Gospel.
Zionists are almost pitiable, for they are so ashamed of their own history that they have usurped one belonging to another people. When the Israeli government sends the Dead Sea Scrolls to Canada, by its own law Canada must turn them over to their rightful owners - the Palestinian people.
Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based writer on Middle East affairs and US politics. She is Director of the Division on Muslim Civil Rights and Liberties for the National Association of Muslim American Women.
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Swine Flu
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WHO has decided to stop referring to the new influenza virus as ‘Swine Flu’ for the technical and more accurate Influenza A H1N1. If you want why this name is more accurate just keep reading.

In Biology classes at school we used to draw cells as a circle or oval with smooth surface. But a close-up on any cell would reveal that its surface is far from being smooth - it’s rather very bumpy and spiky (see how they look in the drawing!). These protrusions or spikes are the only reason that would make the word ‘Immunity’ have any sense, as they are the tool by which a microbe recognise which creature it will attack an on the other side will let - for instance - the cells of your body tell friend from foe from the trillions of entities they come across. This makes the spikes stand as the ‘5 senses’ of any cell.
The influenza virus then, like any other creature, recognises its victims through these spikes, and through them also does the immune system of the victim mounts a suitable strike. The 2 main types of these spikes are given the initials H and N, and from the H there are 15 subtypes while from the N there exist 9.
From the combinations of the Hs and Ns arises 3 families of influenza; A, B and C. The families B and C are only concerned with humans and they are stable which makes their infection mild and would not qualify them to cause any outbreaks. Family A is the one that is really troublesome, because they can infect several creatures other than humans and because their sleazy habit of shifting and drifting ( I had written a detailed post about this habit).
Influenza A viruses are very unique from their peers. They continuously do changes in the shape of the surface spike, which would not jeopardise their ability to recognise their victims but would only compromise any previous recognition that a victim’s immunity has gained from previous exposure. That’s why you don’t get life-long immunity after getting the flu (which differs from what happens after infection from the less clever measles virus). And also this is what makes a vaccine for influenza only seasonal; because the immunity it gives you against this winter’s flu will be useless against the ’slightly different’ flu virus of next winter.
But this is not enough to cause an epidemic, because these slight differences are quickly recognised by your body and in a few days all the fever, cough and muscle pain goes away (except in those with weak immunity of course). The influenza A viruses have a very strange capacity. Various types of viruses can invade the same cell. This usually happens in pig farms and the scenario goes as such…A human with a strain of influenza A transmits the virus to a pig. The same unlucky pig gets another infection from, say, a bird or a dog with a different strain. This pig acts as a mixing vessel. So an H5N3 coming with an H1N1 can give a brand new H5N1 (the combination rings any bell?). This is called a shift because a totally strange virus with a brand new combination is produced and this is what makes it capable of infecting huge amounts of people (or animals) in different places and killing many of the victims.
For the H5N1 virus, it primarily infected and killed poultry, and that’s why it was correctly termed avian flu. As for the current virus, it looks to have had acquired its H from a virus that infects pigs in North America, while the N resembles that in a virus from European pigs. But all the cases discovered were in human beings and that’s why it is not accurate to call it ’swine’ flu. It’s important to add that this is the first arrival of H1N1. In fact, the most notorious and aggressive flu epidemic in 1918 (that killed from 50 to 100 millions) was an H1N1. But the current virus it quite different from its the older brother because, as I said the spikes Hs and Ns are always changing, and the combination of these 2 specific ones is what’s causing the problem.
It looks now that the best way to deal with the new outbreak is to try avoid catching the virus. All news footages show people wearing masks. This is a nice article about how useful this is. Simple measures as covering the mouth during coughing and washing hands regularly can be magical. Also seeing a doctor with any suspicious symptoms (fever, coughing, severe tirednss, headache and specifically with this one vomiting and diarrhoea) is very important. It’s said that the tamiflu that worked with avian flu should work with the H1N1 (but this yet is to be proved).
But why not have a vaccine? It should be the best defence. It should be, yes, but it isn’t. It will need some 4-5 months to appear which is very late. Scientists say that the same difficulties that faced them in developing a vaccine for avian flu persist in this case.
The first step for preparing the vaccine is to extract the genes of the virus that are responsible for making the H and N spikes. These genes are then implanted in another harmless virus that will be able to have these spikes on its surface without having the capacity to destroy the cells of the lung. When the new virus is injected in an animal it will induce its immunity to make antibodies against these spikes that will render the vicious virus blind if it comes, and will also point the eaters of the immune system to clear them. The problem that arose with the Avian flu virus was that when its genes were incorporated in another virus, that new virus always failed to incite production of enough antibodies which requires using huge doses which makes the whole thin not practical because laboratories will be unable to mass-produce enough amounts of the vaccine. So for the time being just rely on yourself and follow the rules of prevention.

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Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas assualted
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The Egyptian police is currently questioning Wael Abbas, a renowned Egyptian blogger, on an incident that occured last Thursday when he and his mother were assaulted in his apartment by a police officer and his brother.
The full story in Arabic is published on his blog. The following is the translation of the post to English (and refer to the photos on the original post that show the injuries sustained by Wael as a result of the assault).
My fate was to personally sip from the same cup, from which drink those I defend against police brutality and abuse of bullies, where my mother and I were the victims of a vicious assault in my apartment by a police officer.
Yesterday morning, at about 7, my neighbor Ahmed Maher Ajlan called saying that the Internet does not work well, since I, by virtue of neighborhood, give them for free Internet connection, so I said to him, I will check the wires and I did not find anything, so I went to sleep without calling him because it’s impolite to awake people this early from their sleep to say that the net is down, especially when I’m still tired from traveling from Alexandria where I attended in the Swedish Institute in Alexandria a conference on training in the field of civil society, which is complementary to the team-building program, which I went for training in Sweden.
I also do not work at his father’s Technical Support team.
When I woke up, he called again and spoke in a very rude way full of arrogance, saying to me: I do not want to insult you so I told him: “You can’t insult me in the first place” and hung up.
But it seems that he didn’t like the word ‘you can’t’ and wanted to prove the contrary..
So he accompanied his brother, a police officer Ashraf Maher Ajlan, who lives with him along with two parents and brother, and came knocking on my door. My mother opened and called me and he went on shouting at us and waving his hand in my face my mother’s again and again. I tried to contain the situation and explain to him that what he was doing is contrary to courtesy and morality.
Then he pushed me in my chest so I pushed him back, then he and his brother the officer attacked me with punches and kicks till I sustained a broken front tooth as you can see in the pictures..(and bruises on the head, and scratches behind the ear)
My mother tried to stop them, so they assaulted her, which caused her bruises on her right arm and side and pushed her and pushed the door of the apartment and when she tried to forcibly close it in their faces and they entered the apartment and assaulted me again.
I phoned police for help, but help did not come except after two hours. Then I called again, and they came this time and escorted me and my mother to the police station to have a record of what happened.
There the officers tried to pressure me to sign reconciliation and told me that he had filed a suit against me. I totally rejected and denounced the idea, calling for the punishment of the bully.
I was transferred for medical examination and my mother in Mansheyet El Bakry General Hospital.
The reaction of the hospital, where the medical report was written, was bizarre since they refused to tell us the content of the reports, although they asked us to put our finger prints on it, and they didn’t include a medical report on my broken teeth, although it’s the most important incidence because it is a permanent disability requiring treatment for more than twenty one days, making the attack a felony rather than a misdemeanor. Their reason was that there is no dentist or X-ray machine and they asked me to come on Saturday. They told me only the numbers of medical reports. I went to the police station and annexed them to the original record.
No. of police record is 7620, offences of the dome Gardens 2009
No. of my medical report is 892
No. of my mother’s reports:
891 surgery
894 bones
The attack was, as obvious from what was said, not because of my political activity, nor my blogs. But after all, it’s a manifestation of the bullying of the police and the abuse of power, like the many cases we published here in the blog and I doubt that this officer knows at all about my activity because we don’t mingle with neighbors much and as you can see, I am in good relationship with all people. Being a police officer does not prevent me from giving him Internet connection, but this is the police of Egypt, even if they’re your neighbors.
I was sad because of some of the comments on the Internet and the effort of the security to play down the pernicious assault on me and my mother, the virtuous lady.
Does it have to be a political attack to be important???
Is the attack on a citizen and his mother’s home by a police officer normal???
Even if this was a simple citizen; a microbus driver or a plumber, can causing a permanent disability to the person that continues with them the rest of their life be normal???
If this person was not a police officer, would he dare to attack the sanctity of a house with such audacity???
Police assaults and bullying affect everyone!!!
Even inside my house!!!
Mubarak’s soldiers have spread their corruption allover Egypt!!!
This must be stopped!!!
And I’m not giving up my right
Thank you to all who tried to contact me and I could not reply because I was at the police station or hospital, and all of the knowledge of the attack
And in particular the great Professor Hisham Qassem, professor and journalist Wael Abdel Fattah and Mr. Gamal Eid, lawyer and professor Nasser Amin a lawyer and journalist Amr Badr and Al-Constitution and the Egyptian day, the seventh day and Marwa Rakha and Hossam and Alhamlawi Jimehud Alaa and Manal and Cecilia Uden and Noha Atef and we Jiryes and Barmawi and military Abeer Mohammed and Adel and brain Mac and Hafsah Zgmot and Mandy Murad and Hrnkc Sheriff Ezer leftist Egyptian Razan Ghazzawi and Rasha Khoury, Maha Black Maysan Hassan Nivine Lutfi Sarah Demerdash and Zinobia and Rovetologi Gillian York and the Princess Al-Husseini, and Melissa Gera Ahmed Omrane Sami Ben Western and Kichelsavli Anna and Andrew Weiss, Mustafa Hussein, Ahmed Abdel-Fattah, the International Center for Journalists ICFJ and Chris Michael, Hamdi Qenawi Shawqi Recep Samuel Tadrus, Rami Rauf Down Orteja bloggers and the Commission on the Protection Committee to Protect Bloggers, and Global Voices Global Voest and Marcy Newman, Sameh Ahmed Sami Laroussi and BBC Radio and Freedom House, Freedom House
Excuse me, if you have forgotten any one
I leave you now to see what to do with the pain of my broken teeth and the headache.

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| April 11, 2009 | 12:04 PM |
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ICT is not Luxury...
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Today people live in a society where transformation of information and knowledge based on the opportunities for individuals and communities to be information producers as well as consumers, where socialization of knowledge exists. As information and communications technologies (ICT) continue to spread into all sectors of social and economic life, it became a vital tool for creating knowledge based society, building and sustaining human development. It has transformed our world from the industrial society into an informational one.
For that reason, knowledge has become an essential key for production, and a basic determination for creativity. The Info-Technological revolution which is led by advances in ICT is restructuring the global social economic equation— moving from income divide to knowledge divide. The revolution is spearheading the growth of knowledge societies in developed countries and raised much interest among civil society, markets and the agents of change.
While more than 850 million people in developing countries are excluded from a wide range of information and knowledge tools, the poors in those developing countries remain much isolated economically, socially and culturally from the burgeoning information and progress in arts, science and technology. In addition the global economy of capital investment is flowing to where the potential opportunities for reward can be found. These opportunities will be located in these places or regions where new values and creative ideas can be realized.
Information and Communication Technologies broadly refer to set of activities that facilitate—by electronic means—the capturing, storage, processing, transmission, and display of information.[1]
Information and Communications Technology is "an umbrella term that includes computer hardware and software; digital broadcast and telecommunications technologies as well as electronic information repositories such as the World Wide Web or those found on CD-ROMs (Selwyn 2002). It represents a broad and continually evolving range of elements that further includes television (TV), radio, mobile phones, and the policies and laws that govern these media and devices"[2]
Information and communication technologies are the tools that underpin the emerging “information society.” While no universally accepted definition for Information Society exists, it can be defined as "society in which the creation, distribution, and manipulation of information has become the most significant economic and cultural activity. An Information Society may be contrasted with societies in which the economic underpinning is primarily Industrial or Agrarian” (TechTarget 1999). "information" exchange between people and through networks of people has always taken place. The ICT enablement of information exchange, however, has radically changed the magnitude of this exchange, and thus, factors such as timeliness of information and information dissemination patterns have become more important than ever"[3].
As "information" is "the data that has been organized and communicated"[4] while "knowledge" has been described as "the set of statements, facts or ideas; presenting a reasoned judgment or an experimental result, which is transmitted to others through some communication medium in some system systematic form"[5]. In addition, both of the "information" and "knowledge" both considered being main pillars in achieving the "socialization of knowledge" in order to build “information society.”
Information Society has been one of the key terms used to describe today’s world, as ICT have brought revolutionary changes impacting every aspect of our society— connecting cultures, creating new opportunities for education, restructuring employment, generating new economies, and changing citizens' relation to government. Recognizing these and other paradigm shifts are typically seen as the natural development of the modern liberal tradition. Information and Communication Technologies/ICTs represent to today’s world what industrial machines represented during the industrial revolution; they have revolutionized ways of working, transformed the economy, had an irreversible impact on the way people live, and have shaped a new “information society".[6]It is about a second industry revolution but this time based in the information and communication arena.
on the other hand, the term of "socialization of knowledge" is used to "express the idea of transforming the private and individual knowledge to public and collective knowledge"[7].
Within the context of ICTs and Information Societies; we should refer to:
"environmental information systems" and "eco-efficiency"
"environmental information systems": The definition of environmental information is very wide and many researchers link between sustainable development and the information society focusing on the potential for information systems to assist decision-makers "to monitor and evaluate the state of the environment" using computer and information management technology to solve environmental problems and improve environmental stewardship. Environmental information system (EIS) programs seek “to increase the quality, efficiency and accountability of decision-making processes through applications that systematically use environmental information. In this regard EIS development seeks to enhance the use of harmonized environmental data sets through improving data availability; facilitating access to data; ensuring that data is internally consistent; and ensuring that different data sets match each other.” .
While the term eco-efficiency was coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in its 1992 publication: "Changing Course". It is based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution. The 1992 Earth Summit endorsed eco-efficiency as a means for companies to implement Agenda 21 in the private sector, and the term has become synonymous with a management philosophy geared towards sustainability.
According to the WBCSD definition, eco-efficiency is achieved through the delivery of "competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life while progressively reducing environmental impacts of goods and resource intensity throughout the entire life-cycle to a level at least in line with the Earth's estimated carrying capacity.” This concept describes a vision for the production of economically valuable goods and services while reducing the ecological impacts of production. In other words eco-efficiency means producing more with less.
In 2002, the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things was published by Michael Braungart and William McDonough about the ideas of eco-efficiency and its practical applications.
"Eco-efficiency in the production and consumption of goods and services-environmentally is benign to alleviate the impact of further economic growth on world ecosystems.”
Another term commonly used to describe the changes produced by information technology is the "digital divide" term which refers to the gap between those who benefit from digital technology and those who do not. While the term digital economy; this expression emphasizes the new opportunities created by transforming information into a binary digital code. The digital economy refers to more than the boom and bust cycle of many new ventures that aim at tapping the potential of the Internet for commercial purposes. The more profound effect of ICT is likely to be in improving the efficiency and reach of the mainstream production of goods and services, in both the public and private sectors of the economy. Based on this we can defined the The "global digital divide" is a term used to describe “great disparities in opportunity to access the Internet and the information and educational/business opportunities tied to this access … between developed and developing countries” [8] (Lu 2001 p. 1). Unlike the traditional notion of the "digital divide" between social classes, the "global digital divide" is essentially a geographical division.
Cleary the development of the Information and Knowledge Society shows outstanding differences between individuals, places, cities, countries, and regions, thus leading to the existence of the so-called digital divide. However, how individuals utilize ICT to access equal opportunities differ from country to another and from person to person due to economic, physical, geographical, and other reasons.
Despite the potential benefits that can be offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) developing countries face significant obstacles to ICT access due to a wide variety of reasons including technical, economic, legal and educational factors.
Different degrees of access to technology and connectivity mirror the social and economic divides within countries and between countries. Increase in access to ICTs will not, by itself, reduce poverty or secure freedoms on a sustainable basis. But there is a real danger that lack of access to ICTs, and to the spaces where decisions are made about information and communications infrastructure, content and services, can deepen existing social exclusion and create new forms of exclusion. Academic studies on ICT and society show that there is a range of issues which make clear that the Information Society like any society will have winners and losers, beneficial consequences of ICT and harmful applications. A review of these academic studies shows that there are no simple and straightforward effects of ICT on society. Mostly effects are multiple and contradictory. New positive developments are accompanied by neutral and negative effects.
To benefit the world community, the successful and continued growth of this new information world of today requires global cooperation and harmonization in different business and social domains.
Since there are still governments that are not able yet to fulfill the basic demands to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), then it is even harder to join the ICT revolution for their nations. Thus, the digital divide will remain and the gap between develop and the developing world will continue to be increasing.
For sustainable development (SD) to be achieved, it is a must, to promote the tools of the information society. And in order to have a sustainable information society; it is a must to consider the socio, economic, and the environmental needs, besides the local content of nations.
Then, Governments are exhorted to make greater use of both new and traditional information and communication technologies as a tool for development, as well as are encouraged to implement strategies references to the UN Millennium Development Goals. ICTs can create unknown opportunities for generating sustainable livelihoods. This could be easily achieved by building strategic partnerships among all parties in societies. As governments alone won't be able to achieve this objective.
There is a role for both of the private and non-profit sectors in helping governments to achieve the MDGs -each is dependent on the cooperation of others to accomplish its goals and further enhance sustainable development processes.
Many developed countries' future and economic and social developments depends to an increasing extent on their innovation performance.
Today, research and development (R&D) – intensive industries in some of these developed countries account for more than half of all industrial production. Here comes the role of the civil society and international agencies in raising awareness of the local communities about the important of such kind of businesses that invest more in research and development.
Youth should be aware that ICT is not about providing technology alone to areas devoid of the modern machines and equipments. Simply, ICT is a way of living. Also, young people should know that using ICT is not that hard. ICT could be simple as using pens and papers. ICT is for all; it could be for young and old, it could be for poor and rich.
ICT is not Luxury…ICT is Life
--Amira--
Aug., 2007
==========================================
Refrences:
[1] OECD definition cited by Cynthia Hewitt De Alcántara (2001): The Development Divide in a Digital Age: An Issues Paper, UNRISD, Technology, Business and Society Programme Paper Number 4, August 2001, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva , p. 3.
[2] Steve Vosloo: Willard, Terri, and Maja Andjelkovic. A Developing Connection: Bridging the Policy Gap between the Information Society and Sustainable Development.. '1st ed'. Canada: IISD , 2005
[3] Steve Vosloo: Willard, Terri, and Maja Andjelkovic. A Developing Connection: Bridging the Policy Gap between the Information Society and Sustainable Development.. '1st ed'. Canada: IISD , 2005
[4] Romer, P., "Endogenous Technological Change", Journal of Political Economy, 98:5 (1990)
[5] Daniell Bell (1973:175)
[6] Sarrocco, "ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE INFORMATION." www.itu.int. 19 Jul 2007
[7] Diogo André de Assumpçăo, Willard, Terri, and Maja Andjelkovic. A Developing Connection: Bridging the Policy Gap between the Information Society and Sustainable Development.. '1st ed'. Canada: IISD , 2005
[8]Lu, Ming-te (2001). Digital divide in developing countries. Journal of Global Information Technology Management (4:3), pp. 1-4.
[9]Willard, Terri , and Michael Halder. The Information Society and Sustainable Development- Exploring the Linkages. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: IISD, 2003.
[10]Information Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. “About EIS.” http://www.grida.no/eisssa/about/eis.htm
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Follow Up of YLVP
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Today will be the start of a follow-up meeting in for the Young Leaders Visitors Program (YLVP), organised by the Swedish Institute (SI) and held in Stockholm last Oct/Nov. I have a post expalining what the YLVP is and what we did in Sweden.
The methodology of the YLVP is based on the notion of ‘experience-based learning’ and that’s why the participants were divided into groups and assigned to a projct - so each can directly apply what they learned about personal development and team dynamics. So the meeitng which will the be held in the SI HQ in Alexandria will have 3 main things to focus on. First, to see how participants have been working on the personal development that each has but to themselves and to get feedback from the participants and organisers on what was achieved/not achieved.
The second this, is to follow up on the projects that were started by each group in Sweden. Each project is solution innovated by a group using social media to promote human rights and democracy primarily in the Middle East and hopefully to the whole world.
The first group, Mind Space , have come up with “Push It Forward” which is supposed to be a community aiming at spreading good deeds and creating a virtual network of individuals willing to have a positive role in their societies.
The second group, called Vanilla Peace Agents, had the idea of “Arab Calls” that is a social network for Arab Non-governmental Organisations to have a space to showcase their work and cooperate.
The third are Hyper Hummus, which have a composite project of several (five) applications. You can read about them in their blog.
The fourth group is the G4 group, and their project is called “ShowIt”, which is supposed to be a social network for Human Rights, were user can upload whatever content they have (audio, video, text) related to the subject and on the long-run that should create a repository for HR contet. In addition to creating a social network for users interested in the subject of human rights.
The fifth group, The Frozen Five, had the idea of the “Social Arena”, which is basically a space for debating. An issue is raised and you are either with or against stating your argument and at the end the audience decide the winner. The site should also contains tools in social network (profiling, messaging, etc..)
So following-up on projects progress and getting feedback about it is the the 2nd focus. The 3rd and last focus is also related to the first 2 points, which is providing sustainability to personal actions and to projects. There will be guests who are going to speak about their experience in the field and provide inspiration for the partcipants. Also the participants will be able to learn about Tallberg Forum, and how they can develop their projects to be eligible to participate in the 2010 version of the forum.
The meeting promises to be exciting and busy, and above all it’s a great opportunity to meet many friends!

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للحوار أخلاقه أيضاُ_ للكاتب والروائي : خالد صُبيح
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كلمة الحوار ، و المعروفة عملياً ب"سمعنى سُكاتك" أفتكرت موقعها الجغرافي فى حياتنا اليومية ، لأنى من شوية أثارتني مقال للكاتب والروائي: خالد صُبيح عن الحوار وأخلاقيته، وخلتنى أطرح تساؤلات مفتوحة بدون إجابات عن ماهية الحوار.....وكيف أفتقدنا معنى كلمة الحوار أو بالأحري مش موجودة أصلاً فى قاموس حياتنا اليومية
للأسف انعكس جدلنا السياسي وفقر حجتنا على حياتنا اليومية، وأصبح كلامنا خايب وملوش طعم الصراحة
بيقولو الإناء بينضح بما فيه: طيب معنى الكلام ده إننا بقينا فاضيين أوى كدة فعلا..ولا خلصنا الكلام..ولا مبقاش فى نفس..ولا بعنا القضية ..وحبينا نشتري دماغنا...لأننا من الأخر مش عايزين صداع وكلام ملوش لازمة,,,,لأن أول ما بتتقال الكلمة دى ، يبقة علطول كلام نفخ، وفسطائية جوفاء. أو خناقة وضرب نار...حتى ولو كنا بنتكلم عن "ميكي ماوس" فى الاخر هتتقلب بغم
أو إزاى أى كلام بقة فرصة لضرب بعض...زي ما نكون منتظرين مين هيجي تحت ضرسي النهاردة
وكل ما بناخد وندى مع بعض ، كل ما عداد مسك الأخطاء على الواحد اشتغل،يمكن أكتر مثال له فى يومياتنا بيظهر أوى فى علاقة الأزواج والمخطوبين، فتلاقي البنت فى الخطوبة سااااكتة ، علشان ميتمسكش عليها الكلام، والعكس صحيح بعد الجواز ، وكدة يعنى
حتى المثقفين والأدباء والمفكرين كتير مش بحسهم بيفكروا فى آراء بعض لما بيسمعوها بل بيسمعوها علشان يفكروا فى الرد على بعض
خلاص مبقناش عايزين نعرف حتى معنى كلمة الحوار ، فما بالك بالحوار المتمدن، لأننا عارفين كويس إن الحوار المتمدن هو مسألة بعيده عننا..أو لزوم التلفزيونات والكاميرات لبتوع المؤتمرات واللي بيلبسوا بدل وكرفاتات وبس
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للحوار أخلاقه أيضاً
http://khalidsabih.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00%2B01%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=14
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| March 21, 2009 | 10:43 PM |
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In the Arab Youth Forum
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The Bibliotheca Alexandrina organises for the 4th time its forum for Arab youth, inviting about 400 youth from 19 countries who have been active in their communities.
The title of the conference reads ” Arab Youth Culture in the Age of Globalisation” - a quite braod term. The opening session comprised formal words from representative from the sposoring organisations. I liked most when one pointed that when students from Egypt, Syria, KSA, etc. goes to study in the West, they are always regarded as ‘Arabs’, not by their nationalities. Further, there’s no such distinction between ‘Moroccan’ youth, ‘Libyan’ youth in terms of specific traits for each. The differences between Arab youth is just as the differences between compatriots - in the same countries there are leftists, secular, religious, and the list goes on. Yet, their nationalities are not the reason for differences, but their collective Arab identity in what gothers them.
I’m now siting in a session for ‘Young Leaders’ Arab and non’Arab. From Pakistan there’s Ali Khan, speaking about the Youth Employment Summit (YES) campaign, that has put together youth from tend of countries who are networking and sharing best-practicies on how to solve the unemployment problem, specially through social entrepreneurship. He stressed that youth have always be considered as part of the solution, not just the problem.
Tala Nabulsi, from Jordan spke about the Youth For Change Project, that’s a collaboration between TakingITGlobal and the Bibliotheca. It’s an example of how the internet can be a useful tool in encouragement to a positive engagement in the soceity, and in the same time bridging the geographical gab and open a space from sharing knowledge and collaborating on projects and discussing pressing issues.
From Egypt Abel-Rahman speaks about his involvement with the wikimedia foundation and his passion to the idea of making knowledge available for all for free. He works with the Arabic Wikipedia which is growing from 6o thousand article-strong to hundred thousands, and more importantly is promoting for the culture sharing knowledge and open-source sites that is built and serve all.
Samar Mezghanny, from Tunisia, - according to Guiness Book of World Records- is the youngest ever short stories writer. She gave a moving (and much applauded) speech about the fading Arab identity with the sweeping cultural moves coming from the east and west and then need and the hope for a stance to define ourselves and be proud with our culture without cutting ourselves from the outsed world. Afterall, boundaries do not exist in reality, it’s only in our minds.
A remarkable moment was when Tala asked all the the participants to stand for a minute in remembrance to those who died in Gaza in defence of their identity and existence.

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| February 26, 2009 | 11:02 AM |
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Siwa
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I have been to Siwa Oasis last week. Far far away from ‘civilised’ world this green spot in the heart of the vast desert boasts some merits over the metropolis I live in.
 Water Spring
The oasis has hundreds of palms that surround you everywhere. Among these are dispersed tens of springs. These alone (together with its shining sun and clear sky) warrant a breath taking scenery wherever you point you eyes, but when you observe that desert that surrounds these greenery from the 360 degrees, you just can’t help this shivering that sweeps you from grandeur.
 Palms of Siwa
The small town’s style is more rural than urban. The buildings have a distinct architecture that has infected the bank. The remains of old Siwan houses stand at the entrance of the oasis embodying this beautiful architectural style.
 Banque Du Caire - Siwa
The desert itself offers a great opportunity for Safari. Sand skiing is one of the very intriguing activities to do. I never imagined to use a ski-board in my African country that seldom (never!) sees any form of snow.
The people of Siwa, however, make the best of the experience. People are very nice, helpful and smiling. There, people still trust each other. One of the legends about the country is that people don’t close their shops, for instance, when they go to the prayers because nobody steels anything. I witnessed that for real in Siwa. After midnight, shops and cafes are closed but they left their chairs/goods lying in the street, and to my surprise nothing was taken in the morning.

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| February 18, 2009 | 5:02 AM |
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Canada is Israel
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An article by Yves Engler
Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper's government publicly supported Israel's brutal assault on Gaza and voted alone at the UN Human Rights Committee in defense of Israel's actions three weeks ago. Now Canada has taken over Israeli diplomacy. Literally.
In solidarity with Gaza, Venezuela expelled Israel's ambassador at the start of the bombardment and then broke off all diplomatic relations two weeks later. Israel need not worry since Ottawa plans to help out. On 29 January, The Jerusalem Post reported that "Israel's interests in Caracas will now be represented by the Canadian Embassy." This means Canada is officially Israel, at least in Venezuela.
Prior to the recent bombing in Gaza, the Harper government made it abundantly clear that it would support Israel no matter what that country did. It publicly endorsed Israel's 2006 attack on Lebanon, voted against a host of UN resolutions supporting Palestinian rights and in January 2008 refused to criticize illegal Israeli settlement construction at Har Homa near Jerusalem (even Washington publicly criticized these settlements). Canada was also the first country (after Israel) to cut off financial aid to the elected Hamas government and Ottawa has provided millions of dollars as well as personnel to create a US-trained Palestinian police force to act as a counterweight to the Hamas government and to oversee Israel's occupation.
Harper's support for Israel is extreme, but despite what many well-meaning commentators claim, it is not a break from Canada's role as an "honest broker" in the Arab-Israeli conflict. There is a long history of Canadian support for Zionism, a European settler ideology that has violently dispossessed Palestinians for more than six decades.
The idea for a Middle Eastern Jewish homeland to serve Western imperial interests has a long history in Canada. Since at least the 1870s Christian Zionists called for their biblical prophesies to be fulfilled under British auspices. By November 1915, Solicitor General (and then Prime Minister) Arthur Meighen publicly proclaimed, "I think I can speak for those of the Christian faith when I express the wish that God speed the day when the land of your [Jewish] forefathers shall be yours again. This task I hope will be performed by that champion of liberty the world over — the British Empire." Two decades later Prime Minister RB Bennett began a national radio broadcast of the United Palestine Appeal with a speech about how the Balfour declaration and British control over Palestine was a step towards Biblical prophecies. "Scriptural prophecy is being fulfilled," he noted. "The restoration of Zion has begun."
During the 1947 UN negotiations over the British mandate of historic Palestine, Canada played an important role in creating Israel. Lester Pearson (then under-secretary of state for External Affairs) who chaired two different UN committees dealing with the mandate and Supreme Court Justice Ivan C. Rand, a member of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), played central roles in the negotiations that led to partition. In State in the Making, David Horowitz (the first governor of the Bank of Israel and first director general of Israel's ministry of finance) writes: "It may be said that Canada more than any other country played a decisive part in all stages of the UNO [United Nations Organization] discussions of Palestine."
The UN's 1948 partition plan gave the new Jewish state the majority of Palestine despite the Jewish population owning roughly seven percent of the land and representing a third of the population. Rand's assistant on UNSCOP, Leon Mayrand, provides a window into the dominant mindset at External Affairs: "The Arabs were bound to be vocal opponents of partition but they should not be taken too seriously. The great majority were not yet committed nationalists and the Arab chiefs could be appeased through financial concessions, especially if these accompanied a clearly declared will to impose a settlement whatever the means necessary." A dissident within External Affairs, the department's only Middle East expert, Elizabeth MacCallum, claimed Ottawa supported partition, "because we didn't give two hoots for democracy."
Above all else support for partition was driven by a geostrategic worldview. An internal report circulated at External Affairs explained: "The plan of partition gives to the western powers the opportunity to establish an independent, progressive Jewish state in the Eastern Mediterranean with close economic and cultural ties with the West generally and in particular with the United States." The Ottawa mandarins largely supported Israel as a possible western outpost in the heart of the (oil-producing) Middle East.
When the first Palestinian intifada broke out in 1987, then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney told the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) that Israel's brutal suppression of rock throwing Palestinian youth was handling the situation with "restraint." When questioned by a CBC reporter about the similarity between the plight of Palestinians and Blacks in South Africa, Mulroney replied that any comparison between Israel and South Africa was "false and odious and should never be mentioned in the same breath."
A decade later, Ottawa signed a free trade agreement with Israel. It was only Canada's fourth free trade agreement. Begun January 1997, the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement includes the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of where Israel's custom laws are applied.
The political motivation for supporting Israel has not changed significantly over the years. The government in Ottawa today receives limited electoral support from the Jewish community, but is close to a right-wing Christian Zionist movement. Most importantly, the Harper government strongly supports Western (US-led) imperialism in the Middle East. This is why Canada has taken over Israeli diplomacy in Venezuela.
Yves Engler is the author of the forthcoming Canada on the World Stage: A Force for Good or Bad Actor? and other books. He can be reached at yvesengler@hotmail.com
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| February 14, 2009 | 3:34 PM |
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Young Leaders in Sweden
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As I said before, I’ll use the first posts on my new blog to speak about my visit to Sweden where I attended the Young Leaders Visitors Program (YLVP for short). I will start now by a short article that sums up the whole of the trip, and will go more detailed on each of mentioned stuff later….
When you set your feet on Arlanda Airport, you not only see images of famous International Swedish figures like Alfred Nobel, ABBA & Björn Borg, but you also notice that it’s a ‘silent airport’. This is one thing that accompanies you during your stay in Sweden – it’s a Country with strong passion for the environment. Every wrapping is from recycled material, and people sparsely use private cars. Another feature is that the World Conscience (this is how Sweden is called) which hasn’t engaged in any war for almost 2 centuries is an extremely peaceful country – you never feel
threatened walking in the street no matter how late you are.
I have been in Sweden for 3 weeks this autumn attending the Young Leaders Visitors Programme (YLVP), organised by the Swedish Institute, the official body that promotes Swedish culture, civilisation and values abroad. They aim of the programme was to build long-lasting relations with young voices in the Middle East. The YLVP gathered 21 participants from 5 Arab countries; Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Jordan & Lebanon together with 6 participants from Sweden. The objective was to empower the participants with modern tools to shape public opinion with a focus on leadership and intercultural skills.
The ‘young leaders’ came from diverse backgrounds ranging from journalists and bloggers to projects managers and university lecturers, but all having some link to media either ordinary (old) or social (new).
The first part was designated for teambuilding and personal development. After that there was an intensive workshop for training the participants on the usage of innovative internet tools helping them to be young opinion makers. Participants were then divided to 5 teams, each assigned to come up with a solution using social media tools to promote freedom of expression in the Middle East, thus combining and experiencing what was learned in the first part. Thus during most of the remaining time teams were working on their assignment, along with several lectures, study visits, internships and workshops by renowned Swedish speakers/trainers about creativity, media in Sweden, stereotyping, leadership, among many other topics. The venue was Hyper Island, an academy for digital media, whose alumni create digital media solutions for big companies in the 4 corners of the planet.
With the busy schedule we had, it was only possible to see Stockholm on the only free week-end we had. On a sunny Saturday (a very unusual event in the grey autumn) we took a trademark sightseeing trip by boat. Stockholm is called ‘Venice of the North’ because it is made up of 14 islands between the Baltic Sea and Lake Mälaren and is linked by 57
bridges. That’s why the ideal start of touring the city is to take a boat trip allowing to you see almost all tourist attractions together in just a couple of hours. You also appreciate the style of the magnificently
looking building everywhere. There’s the city hall that hosts the Nobel Prize banquet with its majestic tower adorned with 3 gold crowns and overlooking the city. Stockholm boasts its cultural richness with 70
museums and 100 art galleries. The number 1 attraction is the Vasa Museum that showcases a warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was only rediscovered 333 years later - it’s the only surviving ship from the
17th century in the whole world. Also the Historiska museet (Museum of National Antiquitues) is the place to go for the richest Vikings collection in Scandinavia. But above all Gamla Stan (the old town, the oldest district in Stockholm) was the most adorable place in the city. Wondering around between the very beautiful old buildings (among which are Nobel Museum and the Royal Palace), big churches, narrow cobblestone alleys and souvenir shops was almost an every-day ritual. The city also features an impressive multicultural aura. You can see that from the variety of restaurants available. I ate in Thai, Japanese, Italian, Syrian, Persian, Greek restaurants, that’s besides a host of other
national cuisines that I didn’t try (the Mexican is the one I’m sad I missed).
Sweden has an economic system that is a blend between socialism and capitalism. It’s a welfare country, where everyone lives luxury, but you can’t easily get filthy rich there due to the heavy taxes you have to pay. However, they have prosperous industry, with many famous brands – IKEA, world’s number 1 furniture manufacturers, Volvo, Scania & Saab in Vehicles Industry and Ericsson in electronics.
As part of the YLVP, we all moved to Malmö for a weekend. Malmö is the 3rd largest Swedish city and the largest in the southern most province, Skåne. This province was historically part of Denmark, it speaks a dialect that is a blend between Danish and Swedish (which are quite close to each other and to Norwegian – ‘tack’ is ‘thank you’, when pronounced with strong ‘a’ it is Swedish and with soft ‘a’ it is Danish!) and its flag is a mélange between the countries’ 2 flags. Malmö is 30 minutes by train from Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital. I took the train to visit Copenhagen with my passport in my pocket, but I never wanted it and I only discovered I crossed the borders when my mobile line was roaming on a Danish network (a lamentable fact when compared with moving across Arab countries). The Swedes are always pictured as the beautiful blonde model. But the fact is that this isn’t 100% true (but it’s true they’re beautiful). Out of Sweden’s 9 millions, 20% come from foreign backgrounds (12% born outside the country). Sweden is a truly cosmopolitan country, and it’s Malmö that demonstrates it the best. There, people come from 180 nationalities, and it’s very common to hear Arabic while walking around. It’s to be remembered that Sweden is one of the most receiving countries to Iraqi and Palestinian refugees in Europe second only to Norway and thery’re mostly living in Malmö. And while the Swedes are one of the most tolerating people in Europe, they are very conscious about the racism and stereotyping in their society. There are many programmes tackling these issues, and there is a magazine that is specified only in fighting fascism, islamophobia and anti-semitism (Expo Magazine).
Talking about stereotypes, there’s this one about the Swedes that they are introvert and boring (colourless!!). I had the chance to get a close-up on the every-day life of average Swedes taking the metro everyday, and the impression I got is that they are extremely helpful, always eager to lend a hand. I came to know Swedish families and have close relation with people there, and they are very warm-hearted and funny, too. I also made very good friendships with young people from the Levant and such human relationships are the most valuable thing I got from my trip.
On the last day, each of the five groups presented the idea they came up with. There will be a follow-up meeting in Alexandria in April for the groups to discuss the progress in their projects. In the closing ceremony we each received a diploma, a Dala Horse (Sweden’s symbol), and as a final reminder to Sweden’s passion with the environment a wooden (recyclable) USB flash drive.
If I get the chance to visit Sweden again, I will gladly cease such chance, and I strongly recommend Sweden to anyone who wants to visit a very beautiful country that prospers on valuing human beings.

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| February 9, 2009 | 4:02 AM |
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Hello world!
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SO this is my first blog on WordPress, and I’m glad I’m finally on board. I won’t edit the stupidly colourful, suggested title of this entry but this might be the last cheerful line to be written here. From the last sentence you can infer a couple of things about me. Well, I prefer to write British English, I’m sceptic/sarcastic and I’, lazy!
It’s not the first time I’m blogging. I actually started blogging (in 2004) before I even learned the word weblog. I started to post my ‘updates’ on this page, which was part of any member’s tool of TakingITGlobal, which is a social network I started using (in 2003) before I’ve known the word ’social networking’.
Why I’m blogging
I have started thinking to start a blog on WordPress (when I first knew about it) in a programme I participated in that was organised by the Swedish Institute. The programme aimed at utlising new media for promoting freedom of expression in the Middle East.
I’m not intending to specifiy this space for any particular topic. It will be for any thing that I’m willing to share - as broad as that!
An important note about the title of the blog
The title is a bit misleading, I know. I actually mean it to be “A” word “from” the masses, but that would an even longer and more boring name than the exisitng one. I don’t claim that this will be a space for the elite mind, nor I allege that I’ll summarise the wisdom of the crowds. It is just a word the represent me - a being…human…man…Egyptian…Muslim…Student…Middle-Class… - or whatever it might be.
With that said, you shouldn’t feel betrayed when you see any thing you wouldn’t like.
I shall start with a few posts about my reflections about the Swedish programme I was part of, and will speak about things I learned there. So till then - have a fruitful surf on the web!

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| February 6, 2009 | 3:02 AM |
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