Friday, May 31, 2013

Smartphones will Replace Sex..


 
 
Lots of the posts by Dr Henry Makow are controversial, specially among people with twisted emotional, intellectual and closed-eyes.. Yes, he goes the extra mile in defending heterosexism; which by all means is a righteous track for humanity, despite allegations of modern philosophies and wealth-media lobbying.. In this interesting article, he describes an urban experience, which urban people hardly notice.. You may, or may not agree..!!


by Henry Makow Ph.D

One of my whimsical observations based on my annual pilgrimmage to the lifestyle capital of Canada, a.k.a. Toronto.

As my longtime readers know, I live in South Flin Flon, Manitoba,(aka Winnipeg) a frontier town on the snowbound Canadian Prairie. I miss the urban ambiance of Toronto where I was a grad student from 1976-1982. Every year, I can't wait for the ice to melt so I can canoe to the Metropolis and pontificate on the latest trends:


1. While men use smart phones for business, women turn to them to fulfill their emotional needs. You see them on the streets making love to their phones. Their expressions reflect the urgency, desire and satisfaction that used to be reserved for sex. Women are discovering that "relationship maintenance" is far more satisfying than hookups, anal intercourse and other forms of modern sex.

The sight of so many women with faces and ears glued to phones gives rise to another futuristic vision: Wireless-controlled women. Some day, women will receive instructions governing every aspect of their lives and thought. "Henry Makow is making a speech at Dundas and Bay. Can all women in the area swarm this man and set him straight?"


2. There is enough eye candy here to give an old man diabetes. Translation: I see more beautiful young women here in an hour than in two weeks back in S. Flin Flon. Some of these young women have made it their job to look like ethereal young goddesses. They are so self conscious and reverential, you feel their beauty might be tarnished by a glance. 


 3. The postmodern metropolis resembles the aftermath of a Mongol raid where the barbarians (Khazars?) have broken down the doors of every home and forced the women to leave their hearths and nurseries and congregate in the town square and side streets. There, they were instructed to get professional degrees and jobs in online marketing. Everywhere you go, you overhear women pitching themselves or some product like luxury handbags. There is no peace for them.

Yet at the same time, you feel that if a man made them a decent offer, and put up with their bullshit, they'd gladly return to the home where they know they belong. They display their toned thighs through skin-tight leggings practically begging a good man to father their children and make women out of them again.

4. I am staying on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Toronto.
I am amused to see the campus decorated with banners on lightposts featuring pictures of professors like they are on the cutting edge of progress and enlightenment. The captions read something like, "Arno Miller- Fighting Climate Change." Or " Sammy Ganz- Imagination on Fire."

Hype is the last refuge of scoundrels. If you can't produce the real thing, start lying about it. Universities have seamlessly melded with the bankers' Communist NWO agenda. They are not devoted to free inquiry and the pursuit of truth. They are obstacle courses where our future Quislings compete for acceptance.

Ever wonder why professors are paid so much for six-months work? Think of them as actors or entertainers. They are paid to pretend to investigate and teach the truth. They create the faux education system just like politicians create the faux political system and journalists the faux free press. That's why professors earn $175,000 a year... plus $450 for their souls.

But I am grateful for small mercies. The residence where I am staying still has different MALE and FEMALE bathrooms! There is hope yet for civilization!
See more at: http://henrymakow.com/2013/05/smartphones-will-replace-sex.html#sthash.fOPTe44H.dpuf


Saturday, May 25, 2013

A Young Lonely Egyptian Wife..

Y


Expressions of love from a young lonely Egyptian wife..
 
Young Egyptian wives are more romantic, once their lives are steady and secured.. The Exodus of Egyptian husbands across the Arab world, searching for better earnings, had left behind millions of lonely young wives..
By nature, women are not cheaters, and much more faithful than men.. However, media had twisted the facts for more exotic revenues.. The fact that Egyptian culture is powerful and influential, due to complex factors of religion, geographies and exposures..
Romance often dies with economic and social pressures, which regretfully had publicize the Egypt with many awful phrases.. However, I can tell about the authentic Egypt more than the its natives.. I can sense their depth and shallowness too..
Maybe its the privileges of a foreigner..
 
Thanks to my sweet sister Afaf, for sharing.. or probably writing..!!


وحشتني قوي

عـــارف أكتر حاجة وحشتني فيك أيه.. خوفك عليا..
وحشني قوي إني أبقا عيانة.. وتقولي: مش هكلمك لغاية ما تاخدي الدوا..
أقولك أنت عارف إني عدوة الدوا ومش بحبه..

تقولي: وأنا مش هتكلم لغاية لما تاخدي الدوا..
وانتي وضميرك بس لو ضحكتي عليا وماخدتيش الدوا مش هكلمك تاني..

أقولك حاضر: وأقوم زي الشاطرة أخد الدوا اللي أنت حددته وأجي..
عشان خاطرك انت بس.. وعشان متحرمنيش منك..

وحشني كمان..
إنك لما بتكلمني او تشوفني أول حاجة تسألني عليها أنا..
وتعرف كل حاجة بالتفصيل..
ولو لقيت مشكلة .. لو لقتني مضايقة..

مترتاحش إلا لما تحل لي المشكلة وتعرف إيه مضايقني..

ومكنتش برتاح إلا معاك.. ومكنتش بخاف منك.. وبحكي لك كل حاجة حتى لو غلط..

وكنت بحبك لما تحسسني إني بنتك وإني مسئولة منك .. وتبقا خايف عليا..
عمري ما حسيت منك إنك أناني في حبك.. أو في أي حاجة تانية..
بالعكس.. كنت دايما بتدي كتير قوي.. ومش بتدور إنك تاخد..

وحشني كمان..
لما كنت بتبقا الستايلست بتاعي ... وتختار لي لبسي..
وتقول لي ده حلو فيكي وده مش حلو..

وترسم لي الـ 111 علامة التكشير الرسمية.. لما تلاقي حاجة مش عجبتك..
وانا استخبى على طول ومفكرش أجي جنبها حتى لو عاجباني ..
عشان أنت مش راضي عنها..

وحشني فيك..
إنك عمرك ما خيرتني بينك وبين أي حاجة ..
لانك عارف إنك كل حاجة وإنك مش ممكن تبقا في مقارنة مع حد أو حاجة..
وإني بفهمك من نظرة عين .. واللي مش عايزة مش بعمله..

وحشني..
إنك أكتر حد في الدنيا دي كلها كان بيعرف يضحكني ومن قلبي..

وحشني..
كل حاجة حسيتها معاك.. وملهاش طعم غير معاك ..
وكل حاجة حبيتها معاك وليك..

وحشني حبك.. وحشتني قوي..

Friday, May 24, 2013

Polygany 2013



An interesting article (as usual) on Dr Henry Makow's website; discussing the inevitability of men to cheat, and possible forgiveness.. http://henrymakow.com/2013/05/should-married-men-be-allowed.html
 
This was my contribution:

Salaam;

The world rapidly changes the typical and conventional state and definition of marriage; allowing same-sex marriages, and no wonder to have more bizarre cases of man-animal marriages too. Media has already spoken about a woman marries her own pet.
Regretfully, as how Mankind had suffered climbing the ladder of urbanism and civilization, as how been trapped by allegations and advocacies that unrelated to our basic core consensus.. Civic definitions had been widely confused since the “sin” became a controversial topic under the “freedom” domain. It is rather landmine to address the polygamous marriage under religious context, as great portions of peoples will be automatically expelled away..
Despite not been a native English speaker; I can read the term polygamy as not practical nor historical. No one discusses multiple partners for a person (male or female) but all discussions are on multiple female partners for a male person.. Therefore, it is polygany or polyganous..!  Yes, researches with integrity in zoology, history and psychology would support; while the need is great to purify the oppositions from any personal or lobbying favorites, despite how many they are.
Reverting back to our principle moralities and code of ethics; human beings are more devastated with their own intellectual supremacy than acts of nature. Academia had trained us to start with backgrounds, therefore; it is rather important to define our own “manual”: rationale, authority, purpose, processing and delivery.. Man does not have the capacity to answer all the first three elements; yet we are arrogant enough to manifest both processing and delivery.. There is a logic conflict that had already lived within for many centuries; since the times of Adam..!
These were not off track pick-ups, but a preface for the topic from a Muslim perspective.. Yes, Muslims are the ones who had brought polygany into legal form, yet unable to defend..!
To avoid a lengthy post, you may follow the link (http://adilsud.blogspot.ae/2009/06/ploygany-yet-polygamy-not-polyandry.html) to the whole concept at my blog. Once done, either you accept the notion that “Polygany” has a rationale to start with, or to conciliate with the forgivable multiple-affair concept..
Thanks; Adil


 

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Woolwich 2013..


 

Does UK pay for a twisted political tolerance?
Being a legal heaven for extremists does not help..

UK became the Global Radicalization School; with 22% population in relative poverty; its home grown terrorism is branded Islamic today, and will be atheist tomorrow..
Unless substantial changes brought into British home politics, devastating incidents will continue to break the British Charm..


No doubt how those murders live in a working class area, with all hallmarks of their personal poverty, and typical hatred developed at radical gathering.. A black mother walking around carelessly, towing her home grocery.. Others are following the trend of free-lancing journalism, and a couple check life signs of the dead man..

Despite how inevitably Socialists will make a comeback; British policy makers should realize the burden they carry towards the world.. They had enabled all kinds of terrorists to survive; when others had expelled away.. Now they need to regularize; while others firmly shut the returning doors..!

Between UK and USA continuous competitions.. Clearly Woolwich tops Boston..!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Multi-Billion Dollar Brassiere Industry

The recent preventive Double Mastectomy of Angelina Jolie; had kicked off a debate  on perceptions of Feminism and Aesthetics as well. It is not only about the conventional sexy looks of a woman, but also on the cost of her own fitness and health. Alike most issues, the Millennia Generation had already put many given thoughts and concepts on new trails towards different mindset and consensus. However, such issue of Bra-or-not is irrelevant for many females in Africa and Asia. Among nomad and rural, such urban code or luxury is not interesting nor concerning. However, the decency of non-swinging breasts is almost agreeable, not because of anything, but intrrupting attention..!!
 
 
 



French Scientists Suggest Women Should Stop Wearing Bras

Women have bound their breasts since antiquity, for modesty’s sake or to conform to an aesthetic ideal. Exposing the breast for human survival in breastfeeding is supposed to be kept politely minimal, even with the known multiple benefits of breastfeeding.
 
In the Western world, women avoid the free-swinging breast, a point of view encouraged by the multi-billion dollar brassiere industry. That began to change in the 1960s, when the Women’s Liberation movement proclaimed brassieres to be as oppressive as the corsets our grandmothers wore. Still, the majority of today’s women continue wearing the bra, conforming to societal norms and to fashion. Recent research conducted in France may influence women to change their minds again.

Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, professor at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, recentlt concluded, after a 15-year study of 330 women, that supporting breasts in a bra helps not at all, neither “medically, physiologically nor anatomically.”
 
Rouillon argues that chest muscle and ligaments that support the breasts atrophy over time if the breasts’ natural motion is restrained by a bra. He claims that the women under study actually developed stronger supportive muscle while going bra-less. (Breast ligaments, which give the breast elasticity, do not regain tone as muscle does; like rubber bands, once they stretch out, they remain limp.) Rouillon proved his claim by the research participant’s nipples lifting 7mm towards the shoulder in one year. According to Rouillon, the women’s breasts became firmer and stretch marks faded.
 
Apart from wishing to improve the silhouette, women should be asking questions about bras versus female health. Some defenders of the no-bra cause claim that bras restrict the drainage of the axillary (armpit) lymph nodes. Lymph nodes help move bacteria, dead viruses and other blood toxins out of circulation. The implication is that these toxins simply stay in the armpit and breast area when a bra is worn, degrading health.
 
Others say that bras retain the heat naturally generated by the breast during movement, thereby increasing the chance of inflammation of the breast tissue and subsequently, cancer. With breast cancer rates rising almost visibly, it may be worth investigating that idea.
 
Although these issues are valid and deserve more research, there are no definite answers to anti-bra arguments based on health concerns. Respected institutions like the American Cancer Society invalidate the theory that bra-wearing increases chances of getting breast cancer. Proponents retort that as parallels between lung cancer and smoking were vigorously denied for decades by bodies with big financial interests in tobacco, so does the brassiere industry have interests in squashing that theory.
 
In the meantime, Rouillon is reluctant to advise all women to take their bras off. He said that the research participants didn’t represent the population at large – his study was conducted on women between the ages of 18-35. Further, he says that older women who have worn bras since early adolescence would gain nothing from removing their bras.
 
Presumably, Professor Rouillon means that if it’s too late to rebuild breast-supporting muscle, a woman might as well look good in her clothes and wear a bra.
http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/04/should-women-stop-wearing-bra/

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The 200,000 Mark..


My Blog: Adil's World had crossed the mark of 200,000 hits..
 

Sincere appreciation to every visitor..

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Religion and Foreign Policy


This was my Interest Statement to attend a Tony Blair Foundation's program with the Balkan Institute.. on Religion and Politics
 
Despite I had no degree in programs affiliated to international relations or geopolitics; my personal and public interests in these fields are serious and research-based..
My blog (http://adilsud.blogspot.ae/) traces many of the global issues and concerns, with my own views on both events and chronicles..
I deeply believe in the epistemic foundations for both human urbanism and civilization; whereas our trends, phenomenon and favorites are always reflections of local cultures and identity demarcations..
As a Muslim, I do understand the amount of confusion that had flooded the Balkans with the expansion of Ottoman empire.. Similarly, the amount of confusion followed September-11..
As a Sudanese, where my country had gone apart by religious and cultural claims, I can identify the hidden triggers within national and local mindsets..
As an Arabic Speaker, I can tell about the partition within personalities and characteristics; which had considerably spread the emotional unrest..
Yet, as a Human Being, I trust both intuitions and unexplainable derivatives that bred the Millennia Generation; which uncompromisingly advocates peace..
Therefore; I'm interested to attend..!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Sexual Barbarism of Egypt



Since the famous Tahrir protests of 2010, Egypt had been condemned for massive and sometimes violent sexual harassment of women.. The phenomenon had attracted the attention of global media, with frustrated, curse or fun commentators.. Topped with the famous video catching Egyptian Presidents openly manages his “thing” in a formal reception with the Australian Prime Minister..!!
Many commentators had justified the phenomenon by revolutionary blow, political suppression and confused proposition in the great uncertainty that flows.. However, absence of influential government and law & order had brought no solution, but hiding the unfortunate events from the media loudspeakers..
The media had widely exaggerated the matter in absence of records, statistics or watchdogs.. The global average of sexual assault and rape is 300 cases per a 100,000 capita.. Annually; USA has more than 90,000, India 20,000, UK 14,000 and Germany 8,000 cases.. Egyptian statistics before 2010 showed average 70 rape-cases reported to the police; due to the social stigma that hides and covers the actual number of cases.. In similar societies such as Morocco and Turkey, it is 1,000 cases..
Egyptian indecent males are no different from the others; yet more vulgar, abusive and immoral..!
The rise of Rape and sexual assault is well attached to urbanism and population.. As how people live with threats of space, employment and recognition; there responses are violent and irrational.. The role of government is controlling and reducing the root-causes of violence, by social welfare and economic balances.. Yet, the role of NGOs is to mitigate and defuse the potentials of inadequate behavior by developing more sense of community and solidarity..
 

Friday, May 10, 2013

The Valide Sultans

One of the greatest document-alike movies about Ottomans
  
Role and impact of Ottoman Empire on both Europe and Islam are widely controversial.. Tracing the root-causes of style, trend and favoritism of the Sultans were always questions without answers.. The more time evolves, Turks are more open to disclose rituals and chronicles inside the Imperial Palaces.. Only then, we shall understand the true roots of Balkan, Levant and Caucus..!!

The Mothers of the Empire: Valide sultans
The valide sultan was the head of the imperial dynasty, and she had to ensure that there was a living male heir available to take over the throne
 
Mothers-in-law have a sad reputation in Turkey, sometimes deserved, more often not. But without an official day of their own, perhaps they should be included in this weekend’s Mother’s Day. It’s most likely though that they would have had their own day, if some of the valide sultans (sometimes referred to as queen mothers) of the Ottoman Empire had had their way.

 


The first such woman given the title of valide sultan was Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, a Crimean Tatar and the mother of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. She accompanied her son when he was appointed governor of Manisa at the age of 17 (1503) and on his succession to the throne in 1520 took charge of the imperial harem in Istanbul. Although there is some uncertainty about when the sultan’s harem actually came to take up residence at Topkapı Palace, she is credited with being an adviser to her son, practically a co-regent, until her death in 1534. She was probably the first valide sultan to have had built a large complex consisting of a mosque, a primary school, a college and a hospice in Manisa. In doing so, she set the tradition for the charitable works of future queen mothers.

There is a tendency to consider the famous Hürrem Sultan as a valide sultan, but in fact she died before Sultan Süleyman. Yet she set the precedent for future valide sultans by actively taking part in state affairs, even to the extent of corresponding with European rulers in her own name. What we know little about, however, is her rule over the harem, because that seems to have been the main responsibility of the valide sultan.

The number of valide sultans who achieved notoriety for their involvement in governmental affairs is limited. Nurbanu, Safiye and Kösem were the three most active as the mothers of sultans. The span of time when they ruled, including Hürrem Sultan, has been termed the Sultanate of the Women.

Nurbanu, the mother of Murad III, was Venetian and possibly Jewish and played a role during her tenure (1574-1583) in Mediterranean politics by strongly supporting Venice against its archrival, Genoa. She was able to govern with the assistance of Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmet Paşa and even corresponded with the French queen, Catherine de Medici. When she died suddenly, it was rumored that somehow the Genoese had poisoned her.

Safiye Sultan was also a Venetian whom Nurbanu is supposed to have personally chosen as a concubine for her son Murad III. She became valide sultan (1595-1603) when her son became Sultan Mehmed III on the death of his father. She wielded considerable power and also pursued a pro-Venetian policy. Of interest is that Safiye exchanged letters and gifts with Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Kösem Sultan earned a reputation for being the most dangerous and devious of the valide sultans (1623 to 1651). Her long tenure lasted through the reigns of her sons, Murad IV (r. 1623–40) and İbrahim I (r. 1640–48) and her grandson Mehmed IV (r. 1648–87). She is less known for her influence over governmental affairs and more for her intrigues in order to see that it was her sons who became sultans.

Kösem was replaced by Turhan Sultan, a Ukrainian who was less interested in political affairs and basically allowed the grand vizier of the time, Köprülü Mehmed Paşa, to head the state. As valide sultan (1648-1682), she was more involved in building projects such as completing Yeni Cami at Eminönü.

Ruling over the harem rather than the empire

Although the list of valide sultans continues until the 20th century, the women contented themselves with ruling over the harem rather than the empire. The harem certainly needed a firm hand.

The valide sultan was the head of the imperial dynasty as a family and she had to ensure that there was a living male heir available to take over the throne. The result was that the valide sultan would see to the education and grooming of suitable candidates who might catch the fancy of her son. So the responsibility for ensuring continuity fell to women and in particular the valide sultan.

While traditionally a man would be the head of the family among the Turks, the various struggles for the throne, often in later centuries with the reigning sultan weak and ineffectual or simply too young to rule, meant someone strong had to be in charge. Grand viziers, who were in any case never members of the dynasty except by marriage, changed more frequently than sultans did. The valide sultan’s importance was underlined by the proximity of her chambers to the sultan’s privy chamber.

As Leslie P. Peirce points out in “The Imperial Harem,” we know little about the harem but much can be divined by examining the various registers still surviving that deal with the personnel and expenses of members of the harem. Until the Old Palace was finally ruined beyond repair and abandoned, it was a place where young girls were trained to be concubines if they caught the eye of the sultan and where the young princes would receive some, if not all, of their education. When a sultan died, his valide sultan, women, daughters and their retinues would be housed in the Old Palace. Only the valide sultan of the reigning sultan would live at Topkapı Palace with his women and their retinues.

The more women, the greater the number of servants.

The figures relating to how much was given as a daily stipend to the members of the harem have been recorded and interestingly enough, the valide sultan received considerably more than anyone else including the sultan. Nurbanu Sultan received a daily stipend of 2,000 aspers, while her successor, Safiye Sultan, received 3,000 aspers when her son Mehmed III took the throne. In contrast, the highest stipends of leading public officials were: the mufti (750 aspers per day), the chief justices of Rumeli and Anatolia (572 and 573 aspers, respectively) and the commander of the Janissaries (500 aspers). Even the sultan himself only received a 1,000-asper stipend per day. Expenses grew with the number of people actually living in the harem and at the same time construction must have been continually going on to accommodate those numbers. It doesn’t seem as though anyone decided to have a smaller harem, more in line with revenue.

So for 400 years, more or less, one of the most important roles in the Ottoman Empire was that of a woman, the valide sultan.
 

Syrian Women for Sale..

 
Kazal's agreed to the marriage to help her family
 
Poor helpless women are for sale everywhere..
Various types of purchase; from temp-marriage to rape..
Only Syrian came in-focus to ignite the yellow media..
It is a chronicle cycle, sooner will cool down for another nation to top..!!
Correct search should be on who were purchased (or married) in Egypt, Jordan, Libya and elsewhere:
Are they comfortable, dignified and secured.. or not..?
Media stories are always short from the full context..
 
Our Sudanese ones are not that fair to attract non-dark men; therefore, their "Purchase" is always local.. While out of focus; the amount of injustice and domestic violence is beyond belief..
The same happens elsewhere in Africa and Asia; where women and girls are literally purchased alike any commodities.. For a $500 you may get two instead of one..
Add to it, the short-sighted clerics and scholars, who can't maintain the coherence of Islamic morals and ethics, even within themselves.. The lobbyist media professionals who are not certain of question their own integrity.. and the Statesmen who worship the chairs, as if they are immortals..
 
 

Syrian Refugees 'Sold for Marriage' in Jordan

B

Before the war began, Kazal was in love with her neighbour in Homs. "He was 20 years old and I dreamed of marrying him one day," she says. "I never thought I would marry someone I didn't love, but my family and I have been through some hard times since coming to Amman."
Kazal says she is 18 but looks much younger. She has just got divorced from a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who paid her family about US $3,100 (UK £2,000) to marry her. The marriage lasted one week.

"I lived with my husband in Amman, but we weren't happily married. He treated me like a servant, and didn't respect me as a wife. He was very strict with me. I'm happy that we're divorced."
Her huge, blue eyes fill with tears when she talks about the marriage.
"I agreed to it so I could help my family. When I got engaged I cried a lot. I won't get married for money again. In the future I hope to marry a Syrian boy who's my own age."
'Survival sex'
Andrew Harper, the Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Jordan, is concerned that some of the 500,000 Syrian refugees in the country are increasingly turning to such desperate measures.
"We don't have enough resources to give aid to all those who need it. The vast majority of refugees are women and children. Many of them are not used to going out to work, so survival sex becomes an option."

His office in central Amman is surrounded by hundreds of newly arrived refugees, waiting in long lines to register for aid. He says the UNHCR has intervened with some families who have been offering their daughters up for early marriage.
"I can't think of anything more disgusting than people targeting refugee women… You can call it rape, you can call it prostitution, you can call it what you want but it's preying on the weakest.
"The government and people of Jordan are doing what they can but people are poor and we have to get more resources into the community so families aren't forced into something that deep down I believe they don't want to do."

Short-term marriages between men from the Gulf and Syrian girls reportedly happened before the war began. But Kazal's mother Manal, who dresses conservatively like her daughter in an abaya and headscarf, says she would have never considered such an arrangement in the past.
"Life here is very hard and we receive very little aid. We have a baby who needs lots of milk every day, and we can't afford to pay the rent. So I had to sacrifice Kazal to help the other members of the family."
She says that the marriage was arranged by an Amman-based NGO called Kitab al-Sunna, which gives cash, food and medicines to refugees. It is funded by donations from individuals across the Arab world.
"When I went for help at the NGO they asked to see my daughter. They said they would find a husband for her."

Syrian matchmaker
The director of Kitab al-Sunna, Zayed Hamad, says that he is sometimes approached by men who want to marry Syrian women.
"They ask for girls who are over 18. They're motivated by helping these women, especially those whose husbands died as martyrs in Syria. Arab men see Syrian women as good housewives, and they find them very pretty, so traditionally it is desirable to marry one."
Um Mazed is a 28-year-old Syrian refugee from Homs who has started earning money by arranging marriages between Syrian girls and Arab men.
In a grubby room covered with mould, she fields phone calls from prospective brides and grooms.
"The men are usually between 50 and 80, and they ask for girls who have white skin and blue or green eyes. They want them very young, no older than 16."

She says she has presented more than a hundred Syrian girls to these men, who pay her a fee of US $70 for an introduction, and about US $310 if it results in a marriage.
"If these marriages end in divorce after a short time, that's not my issue, I'm just the matchmaker. As far as I'm concerned it's not prostitution because there's a contract between the groom and bride."
Um Mazed means "Mother of Mazed", one of her three children. She doesn't want her identity known because she's ashamed of what she is doing for a living, but claims she has no choice.
"How are we supposed to live when the NGOs give us so little help? How are we supposed to pay our rent? We're not getting enough help to live decently, that's why I'm doing this - so my family and I can survive."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22473573

Celebrity and Publicity



Regardless of Celebrity and Publicity
A Human substance is shockingly drawn

Should we welcome the simple Reality
or follow the glowing Falseness

My immortal question:
Why Arabs have no Integrity..?

 

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Cities and Towns

 
The actual dilemma is not the rapid and massive urbanization of the world, but typical mindset to make cities larger and wealthier.. Only Japan, Scandinavia and North America have successfully transformed both functionality and likeliness of towns to be successful urban centers


The Potential Perils of Rapid-Fire Urbanization
Anthony Flint; May 06, 2013

Former mayor of Barcelona Joan Clos has an easy manner and tousled white hair, like an amiable uncle. He seems too laid-back to be delivering such a harrowing message. But as he surveys the world’s fastest growing cities, he sounds the alarm about the millions of people suffering in terrible living conditions -- and the millions more on the way that could turn the metropolis into powder keg.

As executive director of UN-HABITAT, the United Nations organization concerned with helping developing world cities establish basic services, housing, and infrastructure, Clos has come to terms with the numbers: half the world’s population of 6 billion lives in cities, and in the years ahead roughly 6 of the anticipated 9 billion people on the planet will be concentrated in urban areas, primarily in Asia and Africa.

The peril lies in the fact that the cities accommodating these many millions of mostly poor, rural migrants seem to be almost completely unprepared – barely hanging on under current conditions, let alone ready for expansion. Those moving to cities in search of a better life are going straight to the slums. In sub-Saharan Africa, Close says, 65 percent of the urban population is in informal settlements. Slums in general, he says, range from 200,000 to 750,000 in size; for comparison, the entire city of Boston is a bit over 600,000. Families live in 10 by 10-foot spaces with a crude cooking stove and no toilet, and wait in – or more often bail out of -- long lines for public restrooms.

"The urbanization taking place is spontaneous and unplanned," Clos said at a symposium last week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology honoring the SPURS fellowship at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The fellowship takes mid-career professionals from around the world for a year of training and recharging batteries at MIT. “Governments are overwhelmed."

Rapidly growing cities in the developing world must start with the basics, Clos said, thinking about just one thing to start: the street grid and the public realm. In New York City, planning commissioners laid out “the streets in 1811 that we’re still walking on today.” The zoning and regulations and real estate development changed many times over in the two centuries that followed; Manhattan was designed before there was such a thing as a car. Yet the grid has been a remarkably resilient and enduring feature of the city. “The street pattern is the foundation of urban planning."
The same can be said about Philadelphia, where the framework for urbanization was similarly established, in a timeless manner. “In Barcelona, I walk down streets built by the Romans."

But while an average 32 percent of the land in successful cities is devoted to streets and sidewalks and public space making up the public realm, that figure is only 2 percent in the cluttered shantytowns and favelas of informal settlement.

Better organizing urban land would seem to be the very essence of planning. So why aren’t there platoons of planners ready to deploy in this next round of cities poised for explosive growth? For one thing, there is a cultural lack of acceptance of the profession that is leading to inaction, Close says. “Urban planning has a bad reputation. It’s seen as a colonial thing."

If the bad associations are from places like Brasilia or Chandigarh, the reticence is justified, Clos said. "We’re still building cities like it was the first quarter of the 20th century, he said.
Instead of master plans and eminent domain, Clos prescribes a set of refined, roll-up-the-sleeves methods such as participatory land readjustment to set the street network, and value capture – though he prefers the term "value sharing," which seems less “predatory” – to help finance basic infrastructure and the public realm.

The payoff is better living conditions, basic sanitation and drinking water, and the promise of all that human capital participating in a well-functioning economy. In addition to the work of Solly Angel, who in Planet of Cities calls for minimal preparations for massive urban expansion, Clos cites the Stanford Physicist Geoffrey West and his calculation that cities keep getting better, in terms of economic activity and increased productivity, as they double or triple in size. Once investments in basic infrastructure are made up front, few additional resources need be added.

Peril waits around every corner, along with success. Detroit can barely collect its remaining property tax bills; but Medellin, once a dystopian murder capital, is now a model city. (The mayor of Medellin, Anibal Gaviria Correa, addressed the MIT group just before Clos). The remarkable thing, Clos observes, is how few cities actually die. Corporations come and go; national governments, too. But cities endure. What might be most unbearable for leaders like him is the prospect of the 21st century breaking that winning streak.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/05/potential-perils-rapid-fire-urbanization/5491/