Someone shared a link to an ebook called Archewallogy by Tarek Chemally. Being a book lover and someone who just can’t pass the idea of Free and Book together in the same sentence I downloaded it. And offffffffff offff offfff I loved it! It is a collection of photographs of walls all over Beirut. Alot of these images are of things that no longer exist. Chemaly then collaborated with Ashekman a group of graffiti artists/rappers and came up with both a video called “El hitan am tehkini” (The walls are talking to me) and the book. I loved the video clip too, it’s like an urban/retro mix that is interesting with even more interesting lyrics. This would make a really interesting coffee table book.
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From my inbox: Ele ba3 el tram. Seriously one of the funniest con jobs in Egypt. The article is dated 3-1-1948. A young man sold...
A while back I tried explaining web 2.0 to someone and found it very difficult. Dr Michael Wesch, a professor in Kansas State University does it perfectly and in under 5 minutes too.
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Sense of Direction I have always had a good sense for directions. I love taking a random turn and getting to where I was...
A friend of mine commented about the girl effect post and told me that it was sexist. Being forever in search of the truth and fairness I took the comment to heart and thought about it. Was it really sexist to beleive that girls were the solution to the world’s problems? So in my defense here are the reasons why I think girls really are the solution.
Girls already make up half of the world’s population. They are daughters, sisters and eventually become mothers. When they are just daughters they can help their parents and when they become wives and mothers they help in their own household. Their help might be just by helping in the house or as far as adding a second income to the house or maybe even being the sole breadwinner of the family.
Grameen Bank‘s statistics (based on Nobel laureate Mohamed Yunus‘s idea of microfinancing) shows that 97% of their clients are women. Maybe this is because women need the money more or because they have more drive or motivation to making their lives better. Either way this just proves that investing in a girl does matter.
From the girl effect’s fact sheet, the statistics also show that:
When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man. I find this statistic interesting because I am wondering where does the rest of the man’s money go if he is the head of a family. If he has not yet married or had children then I might understand. I will try to find out more.
The total global population of girls ages 10 to 24—already the largest in history—is expected to peak in the next decade. That’s alot of girls out there.
Out of the world’s 130 million out-of-school youth, 70 percent are girls. So compared to boys they really do need some extra help.
Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers. This one proves that after all men benefit from this investment.
Medical complications from pregnancy are the leading cause of death among girls ages 15 to 19 worldwide. Compared with women ages 20 to 24, girls ages 10 to 14 are five times more likely to die from childbirth, and girls 15 to 19 are up to twice as likely, worldwide. Men don’t have to go through childbirth and trust me, if they tried they would all become die hard feminists.
I probably am a bit on the sexist side, what can I say, I am a girl, I have a daughter of my own and tend to think we have it slightly tougher than men, and can’t help but pick a side.
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Make over
I would love to get a makeover. A nose ring, an eye patch and dye my hair bright red. Then, I'll...
The Girl Effect Do you know what could fix the world's problems? Do you want to know, watch this video
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Baby Observations My daughter and I enjoyed a lovely day out today and I learned some interesting things.
She tortured...
I think the Egyptian Educational system is crap. Excuse my French but it really is. I was lucky enought not to be exposed to it except for 3 years in middle school. My first years of education were spent in the American system, followed by the British system then those 3 horrible years, then IGCSE then finally I ended off in a private University. So I consider myself very lucky. However, I think it needs a serious overhaul and quickly.
Home Economics should make a comeback. Home economics should probably be the most important subject taught in today’s schools. In the current state of the economy the ability to cook, sew and handle finances should not be taken lightly. Having the knowledge of how to prepare healthy, cheap and nutritious meals should be something every student learns at school. Learning how to budget should not be taught to Business majors, but to elementary school students, it is a skill that is vital to everyone. If you think I am joking, read this article.
Universities should limit the number of students they are accepting. 342,902 students graduated in 2002 ( Source World Bank EdStats Query). Do we need all of those doctors, engineers, nurses, etc? How many graduates do we really need? No statistics are really available but by judging the percentage of unemployment in 2001 for University graduates was 14% (Source Employment and Unemployment in Egypt: Conventional Problems, Unconventional Remedies ) which means that the demand is less than the supply. The exact market demands should be studied with 5 year projections and should also be aligned with the governments plan for reform as well.
Universities should not be free. Although I do believe that education should be free abd available to everyone but that should stop at the secondary level. I am not being cruel or mean to people who are poor or who do not have the financial means to go to college not go. On the contrary I think the gifted should be offered scholarships that would cover their full tuition. The problem is in the scientific colleges, that need immense fundings to keep labs, classes and professors up to date, the cost is just too high for the government to be taking all of the responsibility. Projects should also be set up so that big corporations help in the funding and sponsorship of university programs.
Polytechnic institutes should be updated and students should be more encouraged to join. There is a high demand in fields like nursing which are not being met. Students should be encouraged to enter these fields so that instead of holding a degree to which they can not get a job with, they can have a degree that is useful.
Majorly increase the salaries of our teachers and professors. If we no longer offer university for free, we can actually pay our professors more and thus be able to get more from them.
Give it some time. We need at least a full generation before we see any kind of significant improvement so if we start change now, we need to be patient for the next decade or two at least. Patience is a virtue.
That about sums it up, maybe my ideas are not very smart or maybe just one or two changes could cause some major improvement. Please let me know what you think.
Double Dutch is rope jumping game, sounds juvenile right? It started out as a street game, where two people turned two ropes and two other people would jump and skip to the rhythm. When I was a child I used to think that they were magical and wished that I could learn how to do it, that and doing cartwheels. I never learned either, but managed to learn lots of other useful and totally useful things, so not all is lost. Now it is more like an organized sport played worldwide with lots of competition.
