30 September 2023 3:36 am
Arab youth ready to boycott environment-damaging brands

Arab youth ready to boycott environment-damaging brands

Sep 21, 2023

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The Gulf Cooperation Council Arab youth ready to boycott environment-damaging brands with 58% ready to support calls to boycott brands that harm the environment.
Above Image: Shutterstock
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Arab youth ready to boycott environment-damaging brands, survey finds

By Arabian Business

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Arab youth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states lead the charge at 65 percent, followed by North Africa at 58 percent, and the Levantine nations at 51 percent.

A majority of Arab youth are prepared to endorse calls for boycotting brands detrimental to the environment, according to the 15th annual ASDA’A BCW Arab Youth Survey.

This percentage stands at 58 percent, with notable variations across regions. Youth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states lead the charge at 65 percent, followed by North Africa at 58 percent, and the Levantine nations at 51 percent.

The survey, released on September 21 to coincide with Zero Emissions Day, indicates mounting apprehension among Arab youth about climate change’s impact on their daily lives.

An astonishing 66 percent of respondents, the highest in five years, expressed being ‘very concerned’ about this global challenge.

With climate crisis asserting its immediate presence in the region, a substantial 71 percent of all respondents affirmed that global warming is already affecting their lives. This sentiment is most pronounced in North Africa (76 percent) and the GCC states (74 percent), and somewhat lower but still significant in the Levantine countries (63 percent).

Despite this, 87 percent of Arab youth believe their governments are taking positive action against climate crisis.

However, 56 percent feel that governments should set transparent and accountable targets for achieving net zero emissions.

Presently, only a handful of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have set such targets, including the GCC states and Iraq.

Regarding the role of Arab countries in tackling global warming compared to other nations, less than half (42 percent) of the surveyed youth believe that Arab nations should do more.

When it comes to addressing global warming, opinions are divided, with 49 percent advocating for lifestyle changes and 47 percent pinning their hopes on technological advancements.

Climate Change awareness among Arab youth

Sunil John, President of MENA at BCW and Founder of ASDA’A BCW, highlighted the region’s significance in the global climate change dialogue due to its energy resources.

“The Middle East is home to some of the world’s largest energy producers and proven oil and gas reserves. This has positioned the Arab world at the heart of the global climate change dialogue. With Egypt hosting the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference in 2022 and the UAE preparing to welcome the world for COP28 this year, the region is once again in the global spotlight,” he said.

He also stressed the vulnerability of the MENA region to climate change, citing increased temperatures, frequent heatwaves, and water scarcity as pressing concerns.

“Amidst all this, it is encouraging that the region’s largest demographic, its over 200 million youth, understand the implications of climate change. Most are also willing to support the boycott of brands damaging nature. It is important that businesses take heed of their sentiment and make genuine efforts to minimise their environmental impact by aligning their values with the aspirations of the region’s youth,” he added.

This survey of over 200 million Arab youth underscores the urgent need for climate action, both on a governmental and corporate level.

With the Middle East at the center of climate discussions, the region’s youth are poised to play a pivotal role in driving change and holding businesses accountable for their environmental impact.

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Partnership between private, public sectors main pillar for sustainability

Jun 14, 2023

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Partnership between private, public sectors main pillar for sustainability is certainly not a vain word in Kuwait.

The image above is of  Participants in the conference, which stressed the importance of cooperation between the private and public sectors to achieve prosperity, are seen in this group photo.

 

Partnership between private, public sectors main pillar for sustainable economy: Official

Cooperation encourages foreign investment, creates job opportunities

 KUWAIT: Khaled Mahdi speaks at the conference for partnership between the private and public sectors held on Monday. — KUNA photos

KUWAIT: Partnership between both private and public sectors is imperative for a diverse and sustainable economy in accordance with Kuwait’s 2035 Vision, General Secretary of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) Dr Khaled Mahdi said Monday. Mahdi made the statement while inaugurating the second Kuwait conference for partnership between the private and public sectors, organized by the Kuwaiti Federation of Engineering Offices and Consultant Houses with the participation of some government agencies and under the sponsorship from SCPD.

Partnership between the two sides is one of the main tools for economically enabling the private sector, including small and medium enterprises, and encouraging foreign investment, Mahdi told attendees. Cooperation between the two sectors “is no longer a complementary policy for economic development only, but also necessary and inevitable for economic growth,” he said.

It contributes to creating new job opportunities, raising production efficiency, achieving better value for investment and helps with the transfer and localization of technology. The partnership also creates investment opportunities for the local and foreign private sector, he elaborated. Although SCPD projects have so far been focused on infrastructure, specifically generating electricity, water desalination and sewage treatment, Mahdi said, the authority will be expanding to other fields when collaborating with the private sector.

Meanwhile, Bader Suleiman, head of the Kuwaiti Federation of Engineering Offices and Consultant Houses (KFEOCH) which organized the conference, said the gathering aims at discussing executive, legal and legislative aspects required to achieve the success of partnership projects and removing obstacles. The three-day conference will also touch upon the best global practices in this field to avoid delays and ineffecient government measures, he said. Partnership is the way for the private sector to actively participate in achieving renaissance and prosperity of society, he said, stressing the federation’s support for this aspect to reach the desired positive results. – KUNA

Read the original Kuwait Times

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Day of the Mediterranean, voyage . . .

Nov 19, 2022

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ANSAmed in its Culture invites all to the Day of the Mediterranean, to the voyage through senses that unite people, hopefully for each and every one.

 

Day of the Mediterranean, voyage through senses unites people

UfM’s music and social media for 28 November celebration

 

 

18 November 2022

NAPLES – The Day of the Mediterranean, launched in 2020, will be held again on 28 November 2022. The day is a way to recognize the importance of Mediterranean culture and cooperation and to embrace the rich diversity present in the region. The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) highlights these aspects while launching various events and initiatives focused on music which will take place across the region. Starting from Spain, with a concert of the Arabic Orchestra of Barcelona and of the singer Judit Neddermann, on 26 November. The concert is organized by the European Institute for the Mediterranean and by the UfM secretariat in collaboration with local authorities. While the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) is coordinating civil society organizations across 25 Euro-Mediterranean countries, with 36 different free musical shows at community level, which will take place simultaneously on 28 November.

The Day of the Mediterranean will also provide new drive to build a common identity in the region, from European countries to those of the MENA region. The UfM launched an on-line campaign called “The Mediterranean, a voyage through the senses”, inviting all citizens to think about their common origins and what unites us as a Mediterranean population by filming a short video, sharing a picture or publishing a post in which one of our sense is most stimulated by the idea of the Mediterranean. The Day will also provide the opportunity to present themes of public interest, mobilize political will and resources to face the region’s problems, by remembering the creation of the Barcelona Process on 28 November, 1995.

Therefore the Day of the Mediterranean is a precious reminder of this commitment, to continue to work on this process despite the challenges. Among the initiatives, the ALF secretariat is organizing a special celebration at its headquarters. Among these celebrations there will be a multicultural musical exhibition and the projection of the logo on the building of the von Gerber home, which is located on the seafront in Alexandria, Egypt. The Mediterranean Day was launched in 2020 by 42 Member States of the UfM who declared 28 November the yearly celebratory date.

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Role Architectural Prototypes Play in the Global South

Sep 15, 2022

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It’s an essential component of the design process, where spatial ideations are translated into built form – the design of the prototype. Architectural projects, throughout history and in contemporary practice, have been prototyped to carry out both technical and aesthetic tests, where further insight is gained into the integrity of the design. It’s the blurred line between the experimental and the practical.

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Antoni Gaudí’s 1:25 and 1:10 scale plaster models of Sagrada Família can be defined as architectural prototypes, and so can the wooden model of Filippo Brunelleschi’s Florence Cathedral dome. But these are investigations conducted on a smaller scale. It can be argued that architectural prototypes are most effective when built out 1:1, from which further architectural interventions based on the prototype have the security of a design attempt that is not a scaled-down version of the finished product.

But the making of these prototypes is a protracted endeavor – necessitating the complex maneuvering of resources, labor, and capital – for a structure that aims to merely lay the foundations for how similar designs should be approached in the future.

When scrutinized from the perspective of the Global South, this dialogue is complicated further – in countries that have been historically over-exploited and are currently under-resourced, are full-scale architectural prototypes wasteful if they don’t immediately function as a working building? Is it right for these prototypes to simply exist as say, explorations of new materials without serving as a structure that will be in constant use from its inception?

Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicale exhibited at the Tate Modern in London. Image © Steve Cadman licensed under the (CC BY-SA 2.0) license.
 

In colonial Africa, architectural experimentation was commonplace, from Fry and Drew in West Africa to Guido Ferrazza in Libya. This experimentation included that of French industrial designer and architect Jean Prouvé, who in 1949 developed Maison Tropicales – prefabricated, modular housing prototypes constructed out of aluminum designed to be easily transported, assembled, and disassembled.

The design problem that the Maison Tropicales had to solve was climatic – as France’s African colonies faced a shortage of housing and civic buildings. The prototype was designed for the equatorial climate, including a veranda with an adjustable aluminum sun-screen. Internally, walls were made of a combination of sliding and fixed metal panels – as glass portholes provided protection against UV rays.

Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicale exhibited at the Tate Modern in London. Image © Steve Cadman licensed under the (CC BY-SA 2.0) license.
 

But despite this resourceful, ingenious response to the tropical climate, the Maison Tropicale as a prototype failed. It was no less expensive than locally constructed buildings, and the French colonial bureaucrats did not warm to the industrial appearance of the house. The prototype, ultimately, was a colonial project built for French administrators. A prototype built for the colonial class that proved unpopular with them, and that instead of being widely adopted, was resigned to be a traveling object, making frequent appearances in design exhibitions. This prototype of the African Tropics became a design object that to most, was known outside of its intended context.

But contemporary practice in the Global South has offered up more substantial prototypes, where investigations into materials are coupled with substantial usage. Senegalese firm Worofila’s Ecopavillon in Diamniadio, constructed in 2019, is one such example. Commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment of Senegal, it is built with earth and typha – a type of water reed found in the Senegal River. Woven typha panels provide sound insulation, and when mixed with adobe bricks, provide thermal insulation.

Ecopavillon / Worofila. Image Courtesy of Worofila
 

As the prototype is part of the Senegalese government’s initiative to build a new city to ease congestion in Dakar, its usage is still in its early stages. The intention, though, is clear. The Ecopavillon will allow the monitoring of how the building’s materials behave, and performance can be assessed. the behavior of materials and to measure the performance of buildings. Furthermore, it can act as a training venue for craftspeople, where local knowledge of energy-efficient materials can be further developed.

Ecopavillon / Worofila. Image Courtesy of Worofila
 

The most tangible example of a living prototype in the Global South, however, is arguably found in Bangladesh, in Marina Tabassum Architects’ Khudi Bari. It is a modular mobile housing unit, with an area of 128 square feet. Its light footprint and elevated form mimic the architectural vernacular of the Bengal delta, but more pressingly, it responds to climate change.

In an area with high instances of flash flooding, the raised second level acts as shelter for occupants as they await the receding of the water. In the Chars of Bangladesh – low-lying islands naturally formed by silt from rivers – the spaceframe structure is a crucial response, low cost, durable, and easily assembled and disassembled with minimum labor.

Khudi Bari / Marina Tabassum Architects. Image © Asif Salman
 

Khudi Bari / Marina Tabassum Architects. Image © Asif Salman
 

The true success of the Khudi Bari project can only be measured by what happens after the housing modules are built. A pilot project initiated by a non-profit organization affiliated with Marina Tabassum Architects in conjunction with private and governmental donors aims to establish at least 80 to 100 “Khudi Bari” modules in the flood-prone communities of Bangladesh by May 2023.

More crucially, March 2021 saw the first three homes built in collaboration with families, with some adapting their modules, with the vision for the future being that people involved in this pilot project will then become part of the training collective as the modules are initiated in other areas.

Khudi Bari / Marina Tabassum Architects. Image © Asif Salman
 

Perhaps this is how architectural prototypes built in the Global South should function – as bold, inventive assemblages, that are not only for observation and display, but instead examples of architecture that is dynamic, in use, and living.

 

Read related Article: Why Bamboo is the Future of Asian Construction

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What is the link if any between the countries of the MENA region?

Jun 24, 2022

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From Morocco to Oman, apart from the obvious official language and religion, there is history.  In effect, it is the movement of people from the outer edges of the MENA that was always throughout millennia a common carrier upon which carriages would transport migrants away from danger and bad life.  So, what is the link if any between the countries of the MENA region?

Recent examples of mass movements of Syrians into Jordan, Turkey, and the European Union would be the most edifying sample.  More recently, Yemen despite its status as a poorer country compared to other Gulf ones went nevertheless through conflict with its neighbours and its populations had to flee away to its immediate adjacent countries.  Before that, there was the Libyan case where a large desert country with a small population did produce as it were some migrants mostly to Europe for the well offs and the neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt for the masses.

After more than half a century of migratory movements between the two shores of the Mediterranean, the North African migration system was definitively “formatted” as it still stands today: organically linked to France first, and then to Western Europe.

The Levant conflict and civil wars, and finally the crises and successive wars here and there since the 80s, have consequently forced the exodus of millions.  North African countries have in turn been affected, directly or indirectly, by these Middle Eastern crises.

But geopolitical issues are also not the only differentiator of these countries and apart from armed conflicts and/or civil unrest, oil and conflict are felt like the main drivers of migration to and from or within the MENA.

Climate change and its subsequent life deregulations are affecting its inhabitants.  Would this, despite all the goodwill of all the COPs and SDGs, affect the numbers and the flows?

Would all countries be subject to this culturally well-established custom since the Exodus from Egypt, to run away to search for better climes?

The above-featured image is of Wilson Center.

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