Reading Arabic: is it that Hard!
I came across a recently published report at the BBC News’ Health section entitled Reading Arabic ‘hard for brain’ by its Science reporter Katie Alock. I felt curious for the scientific news in general and the subject of this report in particular, so I went through reading that made me wonders for what is being presented there.
Brain Hemispheres (Left/Right)
My wonderment isn’t for the news itself at the first glance, since it refers to a scientific research that I am not qualified for discussing by any mean. I am rather concerned about the way of presenting the research’s results over the BBC.
In this blog entry, I would like to share you with my analytic criticism after doing my wondering and pondering research about this topic.
- Note #1: On one hand, please make sure to read the article at first, so I suggest that you open it in another browser tab/window in parallel with reading my post.
- Note#2: On the other hand, this is a lenthy post, so I appreciate the time you spent while reading it.
2010 Pakistan Floods Relief
Pakistan has been struck by floods since 21st June 2010 that are summarized in the following comment: “humanitarian crisis was the largest in decades.” This was proclaimed on The BBC by the senior UN official Louis-George Arsenault who works as the director of emergency operations for UNICEF.
The causalities of the floods are scary. As you can see, the photo in this post illustrates how Pakistan’s land areas are submerged under water where not only houses but also crops were damaged. It’s estimated that the ratio of submerged land is one-fifth or (20%) in parallel with other estimations about 20 million people who were either injured or homeless.
Relief for 2010 Pakistan Floods
Relief List for Pakistan Floods
Relief agencies are looking forward for receiving financial and physical support form those who can afford in order to facilitate the emergency disasters plans. On the major scale, although the response for this crisis seems for me slow and late in comparison to ‘Haiti Earthquake (2010)’ & ‘South Asia Earthquake (2005)’, but at least the countries began to response in a better way and hopefully they can cooperate for helping people.
On the minor scale individuals like me and you can still help by rising awareness plus donating whatever they can. Hence, I place this mini-list for you to check out:
- Google Crisis Response for Pakistan Floods: Resources on donations plus links.
- Global Voices – Pakistan Floods 2010: Special coverage which is regularly updated.
Finally, we are neither millionaires nor billionaires yet our sympathy can help as the minimum response for supporting the Pakistani people in this disaster.
« photo credit »
A Muslim in Ramadan
It has been sometime since I posted about Islamic faith in particular so in this post, I would like to share my dear Muslim readers with reflections from Muslim personnel about Ramadan since yesterday -Saturday- was the 18th day of Ramadan which means 60% of this month is over, or 62% if it is 29 days.
A Muslim in Ramadan
Let me start by mentioning that I am neither judgmental nor welling to discuss the behavior of Muslims, and Arabs particularly, in the holy month of Ramadan as many other Muslims do so either in the media, blogosphere or among conversations.
I however want to direct my effort to walkthrough another way which deals with focusing on the individual attitude starting by myself.
Straightforward to the point, I want to pause a little bit while asking myself the following question: Why do I do whatever I do in Ramadan? For my Arabic readers: لماذا أفعل ما أفعله في رمضان؟)
My answer shall help me to locate myself in order to know exactly where I am, and where I want to be as a Muslim in Ramadan. In the light of this, we are aware about the basic fact about how Ramadan is the holy Muslim month and one of the five pillars of Islam yet I believe nobody can get its real meaning unless he/she purifies and elevated the oneself for receiving both its holiness and messages. Hereby, I believe this is the process that other people can neither force you to do so nor prevent you from doing the contrary unless you cannot take your own decisions. Hence you find yourself just another follower for the prevailing waves whatever they are.
Almighty Allah created humans to use their minds, which is valid for the Muslim too who are following Islam. Therefore we are called to use our minds for understanding in parallel with seeking guidance from Allah to reach success, and this is what I meant by the person’s decision to follow whatever rout in the previous paragraph.
In a nutshell, while the 3rd phase of Ramadan is approaching with Laylat al-Qadr (Arabic: ليلة القدر), I pause and look at my self-inner image reflected in my own mirror while thinking about how it shall be in the eyes of Allah Almighty who knows about us, in the same manner that I take care about the self-image in the eyes of people in the minor community and major society. That’s all about my reflections.
Additional Readings: In case you’re interested, you may check two posts from other insightful bloggers: one from RayonSoleil’s blog in her 13th note about Ramadan plus Lasto Adri’s blog in her day eight’s thoughts about Ramadan. Consequently, you may read more reflections by me in the post entitled Ramadan: Nothing more than Feelings about this holy month.
May Allah accept from us our good deeds everywhere, Amen!
« photo credit »
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Dear visitor, thank you for surfing the blog that renders the perspective of a Muslim, Arab, and Egyptian person who inhabits planet Earth and believes that imagination is more important than knowledge. This means the possession of knowledge should not kill our human sense of wonder and ponder! Simply in a nutshell: inquisitive curiosity paves the path of knowledge.about blog ... »
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