Friday, June 08, 2007

Odds and ends

We recently learned of the Global Peace Index from the association called Vision of Humanity. Apparently it is the first ever attempt to measure nations' and regions' positions of peace. We were pleased to see Canada rated 8th, the UAE was 38th and the USA ranked 96th out of 121. I'm not sure how much the results will influence public opinion and foreign policy of nations I think that the data will be studied by in the fields of academica and think tanks.

Despite my undergraduate degree being in History I did not know much about the Six Day War in June 1967. It's been interesting to read about it from an Arabic perspective this week due to the battle's 40th anniversary . The Israeli-Palestinian problems stem largely from the aftermath of the short battle which is why you hear the phrase of regions returning to pre-1967 borders mentioned a lot by the Palestinians. I believe that solving that problem is a key to defusing the flames of war and rhetoric that have engulfed the Middle East.

Other regional news is that the UAE has the highest country Internet connectivity measure ranking in the Arab world. Meanwhile the latest reports state that Cyclone Gonu killed 35 people.

We went to the mall today and I bought a 49 litre Samsonite carry-on bag, 5 Pierre Cardin dress shirts, 5 Cardin ties, and an Apple international power adaptor for our laptop all for just under 1,400 AED or about $380 USD. I hadn't bought a new tie in over 7 years. They are pretty phat (slang for cool) plus they are fatter/wider and stiffer than my old ones. Maybe ties soften up over time after being tied so many times.

I was looking at a neat book called Earthcam that had images taken from the same NASA satellite that took the photo of Cyclone Gon. On page 150 of the book was a satellite image of Hurricane Wilma's eye passing over south-east Florida on October 24, 2005. What an eerie reminder of being in the center of that terrible storm!

Below are photos of some of the things that I bought at Sharjah's Blue Souk a few weeks ago. The two darker colored kilims are from Afghanistan the lighter brown one is from Iran. The incense burners are traditional Middle Eastern design but are surprisingly hard to find. The post modern ones are more rounded in shape. Darcy and I are still sick. I'm stuffed up and achy while poor Darcy is constantly coughing. Hopefully she will recuperate for the play next week.

No comments:

Post a Comment