FOCUS Fourth Edition

Distribution Electronics

FOCUS Summer 2012 3

EDITORIALWhen colleagues suggested that this, the 4th edition of

FOCUS, be dedicated to health, fitness, and the environment,I blenched. This was before any contributions had come in.But why the apprehension?

Topics like “health and fitness” always seem to attractthe kibitzer clan in general and the anti-smoking zealots inparticular. The latter have been my sworn enemies for the lastfive decades or so, and, if readers wish to see how thoroughlynasty and bigoted they can be, they may as well start at thebeginning in 1604 with James I’s “Counterblaste To Tobacco”.(To this peevish tantrum --- even the ‘cool’ Jeremy Benthamremarked on its venom --- we owe the odious ‘misocapnist’, orhater of (tobacco) smoke.)

“Health and fitness”, I also feared, might trigger some ofthose frightful sermons that are designed to make all of us,particularly the young and impressionable, feel ashamed ofourselves because we don’t look like Olympic athletes orprom queens. This sort of induced narcissism breeds despair-ing anorexics by the boatload. In other words, the modernplague of ‘experts’ and prefabricated ‘role models’ has made itmore and more difficult for us to be who we really are.

Actually, we should remember that, when we talk of“we” and “us” and so on, this refers only to that self-obsessedminority who can afford the privilege of leisure to worry abouthow to stay fit and healthy, often in exclusive gyms. Most ofthe world worries mainly about where the next meal is comingfrom and how much it will cost.

The “environment” was included, I assumed, since itcontinued the argument that we really treat the world aroundus with the same destructive savagery as that with which weare supposed to treat our own bodies. But the thing we call‘environment’ is clearly in quite a different category from our-selves. We can influence it very little and that will be for ashort time sub specie aeternitatis. Perhaps another SnowballEarth might prove persuasive. In the meantime, we live underthe delusion that we both affect and control so much outthere. It is this delusion that furnishes the tribe of ‘experts’with a marketplace for their wares.

Jeremy Beastall

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Contact us for article sub-missions

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Environmentality 4

Mind Your Butts 6

Fighting Fit 9

Branded 11

The Last Action Hero? 12

Flying Cars 18

Uncle Yousuf’s Page ‘O’ Poetry 20

Love, Lebanon 22

The Life of a Trade Negotiator 24

A Word in Grammer 26

Making the Right Choice 27

Syria 28

Passion Play 29

Battle of the Quads 30

Tune Inn 32

Summer Cinema 34

Game Reviews 35

Desirable Objects 36

Razer Review 38

Environmentally Active 40

Fitness Facts 42

Bon ApetitHealth is Wealth

43

Hidden Beauty 44

Short Story CompetitionDebate Winners

45

Words of Wisdom 46

Dylan LongleyEditor

Farah FawziProduction

Nawaf Al-SaudDesign & Layout

Faisal SalamahDesign

FOCUS Summer 2012 6

Yes, I am a smoker and I am aware of thehealth issues related to smoking. Nevertheless,this article is not about trying to convince myselfor other people to stop smoking, but to mind ourbutts! As smokers, we have an environmental re-sponsibility not to throw our cigarette butts on theground, but dispose of them in an ash-tray when-ever possible. I admit this is not always easy todo sometimes, but as a smoker, I feel the needto help other smokers to become more awareand at the very least butt out in an ashtray whenthey are provided.

Did you know that that several trillion cig-arette butts are littered worldwide every year? Infact, cigarettes are the most littered item in theworld. That's billions of cigarettes flicked, one ata time, on our sidewalks, beaches, nature trails,gardens, and other public places every singleday, tossing many directly into the environment.Cigarette butts accumulate outside of buildings,on parking lots and streets where they can betransported through storm drains to streams,rivers, and beaches.

I have noticed smokers at PSU discardingtheir butts on the ground even when there is anashtray nearby. Rather than make the effort andwalk a few meters to dispose of their cigarettebutt properly, they just toss it on the ground. Thisreally is unacceptable. Therefore, as responsiblesmokers the very least we can do is to ensure wedo not litter our beautiful PSU campus with ciga-rette butts. I know there are some KSA campusesthat are gradually implementing smoke free en-vironments. If we do not collectively mind ourbutts, we may very well speed up this implemen-tation owing to the careless habit of smokersbutting out everywhere except in the designatedashtrays.

Did you know that 95% of cigarette filtersare not made of cotton, but cellulose acetate, aplastic that takes a very long time to decompose?Cellulose acetate fibers are thinner than sewingthread, white, and packed tightly together to cre-ate a filter. Cigarette filters are specifically de-signed to absorb vapors and to accumulateparticulate smoke components. They can takedecades to decompose. Not only does cigarettelitter ruin even the most picturesque setting, butthe toxic residue in cigarette filters is damagingto the environment, and littered butts cause nu-merous fires every year, some of them fatal.

Cigarette butts in the environment are a lit-ter issue, not a smoking issue. Just as the man-ufacturers of sodas have no control over theconsumer's disposal of empty cans or bottles,cigarette manufacturers cannot control asmoker's behavior when it comes to the disposalof cigarette butts. Just as beverage manufactur-ers contribute to litter prevention campaigns, andhave invested in public education on litter issues,so too should the tobacco industry.

Thus far, cigarette manufacturers havemade small efforts at litter prevention education.They need to take an active and responsible rolein educating smokers about this issue and devoteresources to the cleanup of cigarette litter. Strate-gies can include anti-litter messages on all pack-aging and advertisements, distribution of small,free portable ashtrays, and placement and main-tenance of outdoor ashtrays in areas wheresmokers gather. Maybe cigarette packages canbe redesigned to accommodate discarded butts.

So, come on fellow smokers, let’s do ourpart and keep PSU free of cigarette butts!

Carl Schraefel

M i n d Y o u r B u t t s

FOCUS Summer 2012 9

Most people must have seen RussellCrowe in “The Gladiator”, which gives a good ideaof how these fighters were trained. They were for-midable in close combat, armed or unarmed. TheRomans knew how to win on the battlefield. Andthey also learnt from the Greeks --- remember theSpartan hoplites in “The 300”? They transferredthese martial skills to the gladiatorial schools or‘ludi’, which had their ‘lanistae’ or professionaltrainers, and consequently to the arenas.

It was as if, for going on 600 years (ca 260BC-326AD), Rome had a Blood Sports’ Committeethat contrived to make the next spectacle moregruesome than the last at the hundreds of arenaswhich were ultimately built. Thrown in alongsidethe gladiators, who had generally been captives,slaves and criminals, there were innocents that in-cluded women and children and, of course, ani-mals, which had the misfortune to be condemnedto what were euphemistically called ‘hunts’.

Will there ever be a film called “The Gladiatrix”?There is plenty of evidence that women fought inthe arena. What is more, some seem to havecome from good families. For instance, the Em-peror Tiberius, not known for his strict morals, is-sued a decree which banned these ladies fromthe arena. After all, being a gladiator, and, evenworse, a gladiatrix, was not a profession for thegenteel classes. Juvenal the satirist makes fun ofthese female fighters, who were typically womenfrom upper-class families and who sought thrillsand notoriety. This doesn’t say much for theirhome life.

Gladiators were as skilled as any modernmartial arts exponent. They had a large repertoire

of take-downs, chokeholds, and joint locks. Theyalso carried--- or wore --- lethal weapons. Every-one recalls the ‘retiarius’, the man with a net, a tri-dent, and a dagger. He also had an arm-guardand a bronze shoulder-guard, but he wore nothingon his head and only a loin-cloth around his waist.He was considered the lowest of the low. He wasoften up against a heavily armed ‘secutor’ or pur-suer, who had a crested helmet, a shield, and asword.

But surely the most blood-chilling weaponwas the ‘caestus’, which could literally be trans-lated as the “clobberer”. The Greeks had a similar‘boxing glove’, called the ‘myrmex’ or “ant”, a mis-nomer if ever there was one. The fighter woundleather thongs round his hands. The leather con-tained metals like lead and iron. Sometimes theseso-called gloves had extras --- studs, spikes, andnails. The ultimate knuckle-duster.

The 2012 London Olympics will be upon usfrom July 27 until August 12. We won’t be seeingso much blood-letting and the boxers won’t bewearing the caestus. Yet how far removed are thefanatical male and female competitors we haveseen in the run-up to the games from the gladiatorand gladiatrix who actually chose to be fightersand risked the raised thumb*¹ perhaps three timesa year if they survived long enough?

*¹ How the Roman practice came to be turned onits thumb, so to say, is a mystery. It was ‘turned’upwards, toward to the breast (“Thumb up!”) tomean “Kill!”. It was ‘pressed’ downwards, awayfrom the breast, to signify that the loser be spared.

Jeremy Beastall

Fighting Fit

FOCUS Summer 2012 11

What is Branding?

Branding the most efficient way of highlighting andexposing a company’s service or product. The purpose be-hind branding is to gain competitive advantage in the mar-ket.

As they say, “you never have a second chance ofmaking a good first impression”.

A brand is not only limited to the company logo, butextends to a set of brand applications that are mainly usedin marketing. The brand itself is promoted through marketingand corporate identity.

Through the use of attractive design, service propo-sition, and corporate culture, branding becomes engravedin peoples’ minds, in a way that benefits the business.

Branding is also the first attempt at helping any busi-ness perform better. That is why it is extremely important tocreate an accurate brand that represents the company’s truevalues, and is clear about what the business stands for.

As a result, successful branding is about promotingstrengths, or “brand values.”

Strengths are defined as the skills the business of-fers, high-quality customer service, value for money, and in-novation.

Why Branding?

Effective branding can place the product or servicein a unique position, instead of being just “another” brandthat does this or that, like any other. It also serves to weakenthe competition and allows management to focus on beatingstronger competitors.

In order to make the brand stand out, a range ofmethods is used, ranging from a simple color in a design(Coca Cola), to special packaging (Apple), to a whole brandidentity.

These methods create consumer awareness andinterest in whatever the company is offering.

Experience demonstrates that customers are willingto pay more for better-branded products. With a strongbrand, consumers can see added value in new services

the company creates because of the association of the newservices with the core brand. However, this acts as a dou-ble-edged sword since poorly executed branding can driveconsumers away.

As branding is one way to increase public recogni-tion of any business, it can help the business engage withcustomers and create a connection.

Branding’s key ingredients

There are four elements in successful branding:

1-The big idea

a.What is being offered?b.What makes the company different?c.What do consumers want or need?d.What gap should be filled in the market?

2-VisionThe company vision is an understanding of where

the business is heading so that management can planahead.

3-ValuesThis is what the business stands for. It is also how

people perceive the business, hence the importance of de-sign and brand identity.

4-PersonalityHow a company wants the product or services to

come across. It is vital for the company to convey their per-sonality through the following:

a.Graphic design & Visual Identityb.Slogansc.Customer service

Branding is essential for most companies. Brandawareness is a must in order to have successful start-ups,as well as keeping existing companies up-to-date to retaintheir competitive advantage. Every company should con-sider investing in branding. As they say- “There is no alter-native to success!”

Tony HelouBusiness Development Manager

Zoom Creative

B R A N D E D


It started as an interview...

I approached the PSU Physical Education De-partment’s Swimming instructor, Saud Egil for some Qand A after I had heard he worked as Muhammad Ali’sbodyguard back in the seventies. Always an ardentdevotee to a fascinating story, I determined to discovermore. The voice of the call to prayer at PSU, one hearshim more often than sees him, but the full breadth ofSaud’s background and adventures captivated me –to unfold the details of the journey of his life, read on.

Where do we begin?

I was born in the Philippines in 1949 on a smallisland south of Mindanao. My island of Jolo Sulu be-longs to the warrior Tausog tribe. My father was afarmer who worked a 65 hectare property growing ba-nanas, mangos and coconuts and native fruits. Mymother was a housewife. She looked after me and my12 brothers and sisters. My father was also a fisher-man. I learned to swim early in life and when I wasseven years old, I would accompany my dad or my twoolder brothers in our canoe to go out and catch fish. Itwas my job, to help out my dad and, as we were al-ways outdoors, it was a healthy life. We ate well andgot plenty of exercise. We used to hunt by spear fishingand using long line nets. One of the varieties we wouldcatch was tuna. They got up to 30 kilograms at times!

In 1965 my father told me that I would have tostop my education before I could finish high school be-cause we didn’t have enough money and he neededme to work on the family farm. My older siblings hadthe chance to complete their schooling, however, andI was really upset because I had excellent grades andI wanted to continue so badly.

I had a friend, Richard Brown, who was a Fil-ipino marine from the area and stationed near us. Hewas a mestizo or half-American half-Filipino guy. Hewas older than me but his barracks were in our villageand I liked hanging out with him and going hunting forwild boar amongst other things. Now, Richard told methat he was being re-assigned to Manila and I decidedthat, rather than work on the farm, I would go with himand continue my education. He said that he could getme a cadetship with the marines. I told my mum that Iwas going to leave for Manila and she laughed at me.Nobody would believe that a teenage kid would just upand leave, but that is exactly what I did.

My total possessions were two pairs of shortsand a t-shirt, I had no shoes. I got on board the LST (aFilipino Navy boat) and waved goodbye. Just as theboat started to take off I had a sudden change of heart.Seeing my mother and my family standing there, cry-ing, I wanted to get off. They signalled to me from thebeach to jump off the boat and swim back but I hesi-tated and the next thing I knew, we were going too fastto get off safely. It was my destiny to leave home for anew life.

Almost immediately after we arrived, my friendRichard received a new assignment to go north toPalawan, which was 28 hours by boat. He departedand left me in Manila, in an area called Cavite city. I hadsome relatives in the navy, but try as I might, I could notlocate any of them. I had enough money to last me formaybe one week. I walked from the Navy barracks forabout three kilometres until I came across an aban-doned boat hauled up on the seashore. There weretwo boys there, about the same age as me, who wereliving on the boat and said I could stay with them. I won-dered to myself what on earth I could do to survive,even with a place to stay. I looked out to the water andsaw a bamboo fish trap at sea, so I swam out to it anddived down. In the net between the poles there weresome fish surrounded by these gray-dotted crabs.

The Last Act ion Hero?


These things were edible, as I knew. So from then on,my friend and I would take a bucket every morning andswim out to the net and catch crabs. We sold them onthe street, right in front of the beach, for one peso each.We had a table there and to stop the crabs from run-ning away we just tied a piece of string around one oftheir claws and we made good business. So that’s howI supported myself in Cavite city.

After I had been there for about two weeks andsettled in to a routine, I began to think about why I hadcome to Manila in the first place. I decided to go andlook for a school that would take me. At this time in thePhilippines there was a lot of prejudice towards Mus-lims. Our country had been predominantly Islamic forcenturies, but the Spanish had colonised the islandsfor 333 years and converted many people to Catholi-cism. There was real palpable hatred between thesecommunities in certain parts of the country. Cavite citywas predominantly Catholic, so naturally I ended up asthe only Muslim boy in school. I went to the nearest oneand handed a teacher my report card and asked herto help me enrol. I was tall for my age and she enquiredto see if I played any sports. I could swim and I hadplayed volleyball for my previous school, so with mygrades and these sporting talents I was eligible to joina class.

To be honest I didn’t expect to be accepted byanyone there. As I said before, Muslims at that timesuffered from a lot of discrimination politically, socially,in all parts of life. There was a commonly used deroga-tory word for people of my religion “Moros”, from theSpanish word for the Moors. This related to the me-dieval occupation of Spain by the Moors under theUmayyad Dynasty. At this time in the Philippines, therelations between the government and Christianchurch with Muslim communities were at a very lowpoint- it was very bad. My teacher stood me up in frontof the class and she said to the students “This is Saud,respect him because we are lucky- this is the first timein the history of the school that we have had a Muslimstudent enrol to study with us. Please give him anyspare uniform items you have, or shoes because he isvery poor.” I felt ashamed at first, but the next day Icould not believe my eyes when the students came tothe class with everything you could imagine- moreclothes than I could carry and money to help me. I wasso humbled that I started crying right there in front ofeveryone.

So of course to repay their kindness I becamethe best student I could be. I competed in volleyball,

water polo and swimming and in this area, I beat every-body. I was selected to represent my school and com-munity at interschool meets and then qualified torepresent the national team. Later I would go on to rep-resent the Philippines internationally, but we will cometo that. I worked in a bakery near my school and my“apartment on the beach” – the boat where I stayedwith my friends. I had bread to eat and a little money tosurvive and I worked in the afternoons as a shouter forthe jepni drivers- Jepnis are the minivans and smallbuses that took people around the city.

By 1968 when I graduated from high school, Iwas already playing and touring with the national waterpolo team as a professional athlete. I also became thefirst Filipino Muslim to gain the black belt in Karate! In1970 I was recruited by the Philippines Army to helpcoach and train the national water polo team. I workedat De La Salle University and San Beda College astheir assistant coach and also studied at the MarcosSports Academy majoring in Physical education. Iswam with a lot of different currents back then, goingfrom place to place- I even ended up going with myfriend to some classes he had at the University of EastPhilippines at the School of Business. Eventually Igraduated with a Bachelor’s Degree of Education andthen got my Master’s Degree in Physical Education.


I had just returned with the team from a com-petition in China and we were in the pool practising forthe upcoming Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailandwhen three officers came in and started asking aroundfor me. My friends were worried that I had done some-thing and I was in trouble. I was escorted back to mybarracks and told to report to the President’s Office tosee Colonel Estrada. I told the officers “I’ve done noth-ing wrong!” They laughed at me and told me there wasa surprise and that I should put on my military dress fa-tigues.

When I arrived, I stood before the colonel. Heasked me “Are you Private First Class Egil?” I said Iwas. He opened a draw in his desk and took out twohandguns, a Colt 45 automatic and a Magnum .357revolver. I started backing away and he saw the lookon my face- I was terrified! He laughed and said I waslucky as I had been chosen for a special mission. “Theywant to you to serve as bodyguard for Muhammad Ali!”I was in shock as the Military Police drove me to theHilton Hotel to begin immediately- out of the thousandsof Muslims serving in the Philippine Army; they choseme to protect the world’s greatest fighting champion! Istuck with him all day, every day for 27 days as he pre-pared for “The Thrilla in Manila!” title event against JoeFrasier on 1st October 1975. Even when he was train-ing I went with him and I can tell you he is a legend. Iwas at my peak of fitness at that time and when hewent running, I couldn’t keep up- I had to take a motor-cycle! He would wear these t-shirts that have his quote“Float like a butterfly- Sting like a bee” on the front. Eachtime he finished with one he would take it off and giveit away. I have eight of those t-shirts, worn by Muham-mad Ali.

As you may or may not know; there had beena lot of political and social unrest around this time be-tween the Marcos government régime and the MNLFin the south and Communists in the north of Luzón, themain island where the capitol city Manila is located. In1972 Marcos declared martial law in a move to pre-

serve his political power and subsequently he launchedattacks. It was on a mission up there that I was shot forthe first time. I got hit in the lower abdomen and the bul-let went out of my back. I was lucky enough to fully re-cover and got put back on active duty.

Later I was trained as a Scout Ranger with aspeciality in demolitions. An assignment came up andI was given orders to go back to my home area insouthern Mindanao. The MNLF (Moro National Liber-ation Front) had been active since the late 1960s butthe real struggle of the Muslim communities in thesouth goes back as far as the Sultanate of Sulu andthe first invasion of the Philippines by the Spaniardsover 300 years ago. The ‘Moros’ as the Spanish calledus fought for independence against Spain, America,Japan, during the Second World war and the Marcosgovernment. After the assassination of the regionalgovernor and some key military personnel, I was or-dered to be dispatched along with my unit to patrolareas in Mindanao that were known MNLF strong-holds. This prospect, however, caught me in a seriousdilemma. I was to be sent as a government army officerto fight people of my own religion, some of whom mayhave been people I grew up with. This alarmed me andI wasn’t alone. Two other Muslim guys in the unit werediscussing the matter as they prepared our LockheedC-130 transport plane. As luck would have it, the planehad a mechanical problem in one of the engines, sowe took our chance and deserted. On reflection, evenif we had arrived in Mindanao, we would still have de-serted.

This marked a really interesting developmentfor me. I was absent without leave, fully armed and onthe run from my own government and a suspected mu-


jahid. So I returned to Manila and hid out for ninemonths. After a while, I got restless and returned to myold training ground in Manila, The Rizal Memorial Sta-dium where the Southeast Asian Games were heldseveral times. I was swimming laps in the pool when Isaw my old coach and asked him if anything was goingon. He told me that he had selected a water polo teamto travel to China for some competitions and they wouldbe leaving the next week. I said to the coach “I want tobe on that team!” He told me I was crazy and that se-lections had been concluded. In my locker I had myservice rifle- an M-16 and some hand grenades frommy field kit. Being a Scout Ranger and demolitions ex-pert, I knew how to achieve the desired result. I took agrenade over to my coach and pulled out the pin. I toldhim “We’re going to China, or we’re going to hell!” Ofcourse, he capitulated and let me attend the trainingsessions for swimming and ball handling. I qualified asnumber three on the team and so we went to competewith the Chinese teams in Canton, Peking and Shang-hai. I got to see the Great Wall of China there and dur-ing a trip to Egypt I visited the great pyramids.

During this trip I met the head of the sports del-egation, General Sarmiento of the Philippines AirForce, and I explained my situation to him, how I haddeserted from the army, I didn’t want to fight my Muslimbrothers and that I had not become an enemy com-batant but was following my dream of being an athlete.I showed him my press clippings and volunteered tosurrender myself upon our return to Manila. This wasenough to persuade him to speak with the head of thearmy, General Sagala. In the event he did not accept,Sarmiento said he would have me transferred to theAir Force. He even said that “We are proud of you thatyou did not turn traitor and fight against the govern-ment.” As it turned out, I was designated as the swim-ming coach of the armed forces and promoted fromPrivate First Class to Staff Sergeant, skipping the rank

of Corporal. I had my salary reinstated, but news of myreturn was kept quiet, for fear of assassination.

By this time I had made quite a few friends withsome senior police officials and some businessmen inManila. Because of my training and my connections Iended up working as a bouncer at a German ownednightclub. The money was good- 1,500 pesos. A far cryfrom the one peso per crab I was earning when I wasfresh off the boat from Mindanao. I was happy, I hadfreedom, I had friends, but as you know, Allah sets youstraight when you’re on the wrong track. One day acouple of off-duty police officers came to the club andstarted threatening the owner with extortion. These cor-rupt cops it turned out had been suspended from thepolice force for the very kind of activities they were en-gaging in with my friend, the German. Soon, the con-frontation became physical and I intervened to try andhelp. One of these thugs pulled a gun and shot metwice in the abdomen. I collapsed and while I was onthe ground he took aim at my head and fired on me atclose range. Miraculously, the bullet just missed andricocheted off the cement, leaving me bloody from theshrapnel, but alive.

The fight was over, or so these guys thought. Icame to and got up. The streets were dangerous andbecause of the nature of my job, I was usually armed.I got to my feet and took the .357 Magnum from thewaistband of my jeans – the same firearm I had beenissued with when I was assigned to protect Muham-mad Ali. I took aim at the closest shooter as he walkedaway. After years working on special assignments inthe army, I was a marksman with a pistol. Even withmy injuries I fired with accuracy. The bullet passedthrough the shooter’s back and exited from his throat,killing him instantly. Before the other guy knew whatwas happening I had braced and fired a second shot,which pierced his chest and killed him on the spot.

I staggered out to the street and forced a taxi tostop at gunpoint. Ordering him to take me to the near-est hospital, I then passed out. It was 12 hours beforeI regained consciousness, by which time the surgeonshad opened me up from the sternum to belly buttonand removed the bullets and stitched me back up. Asenior police investigator came to see me while I wasin the hospital. He instructed me not to talk with any-body who might come to ask me questions becausethe suspended officers I shot were criminally con-nected. Their accomplices could come to threaten me,or worse. He took my wallet and army ID – they hadalready confiscated the pistol.


After a short time in the ward, I saw three guysoutside my room looking around and asking questions.It turned out that these were companions of the policeI had shot and they were looking to get at me. I told mywife and brother to get the doctor to see about beingdischarged but he explained to me that the nature ofmy injuries would confine me to bed for at least twoweeks. I figured two weeks in bed at home were betterthan two days and ending up dead in the hospital, so Idischarged myself and went with my family. After oneweek, I was feeling surprisingly good, so I went backto the swimming pool to do some training. My coach’seyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw thecondition I was in and of course he told me I was crazyto be out of the hospital. I said to him, “It’s just psycho-logical”.

So, as you can well imagine, I was in quite astate with everything that had been going on and I waskeen to get myself out of there. On February 1st 1980I made the acquaintance of an American who was in-volved with the Philippines Amateur Swimming Asso-ciation (PASA). He was helping to recruit coaches,lifeguards and other workers for the U.S. Sports Acad-emy (USSA), which had contracts here in Saudi Arabiato train pilots with the Air Force in swimming tech-niques. The president of the PASA recommended meas a lifeguard as did my commanding officer, Colonelde Borha. I had an interview two days later and wasoffered coaching and life guard positions. By March Ihad been hired but I had a problem with the medicalexamination. I had removed the stitches myself fromthe operation scar after I was shot and it had becomekeloidal. The doctor was pretty freaked out by my gen-eral appearance and told me as much. I explained thatif I stayed in Manila I may become a hoodlum, whereasif I was authorised fit to travel to Saudi Arabia I would

be in charge of the training at the aquatic centre withthe King Faisal Royal Air Force base in Dhahran. I said“I’m 32 and strong but if I die over there, it won’t be yourproblem”. I guess this convinced him because he gaveme the medical clearance and the next thing I knew, Ifound myself living in Dammam.

After six months in Saudi, I received a citationfor service when I resuscitated a drowning US airmanat the swimming facility. I made my mark during mytenure from 1981-89 with the Sports Academy bycoaching my swimming teams to victory at the cham-pionships each year. I spent four years in Riyadh from1982-86, then I had a spell in Taif. From there I wastransferred to Jeddah until 1988 with the Saudi Amer-ican Sports Facility to continue training. I was able toindulge in my love for scuba diving in the Red Sea –some of the world’s best marine environments areavailable all up the western Saudi coast.

Then in 1989 at the end of the company’s con-tract more than 200 Filipino staff were being sent home. I, however, stayed on by transferring to Air Defence andworked until 1999, winning three championships with


my team. By this time, my contract was finished. Mywife had gone home and my eldest daughter had grad-uated and was working at Saudi Airlines. I had sold oneof the family cars but I was delayed because I couldn’tleave without clearing my second vehicle. I had beenoffered a job as a coach with the Etihad basketballteam but they only wanted single men. Then mydaughter approached me with a copy of the Arab Newsone day and showed me an advertisement for PrinceSultan Private College for a swimming and P.E. instruc-tor. I was basically set on going home. I had psycho-logically and physically focused on leaving, I hadalready cut up my iqama and we had plans for the farmand our homes in the Philippines. However, my daugh-ter secretly typed up my CV and sent it to the recruit-ment personnel. I received a call early in the morningfrom Dr. Yamani who said that if I wanted the position,it was mine. The package was good and I accepted,so on September 18th 1999 I became the first Filipinoto join the staff at PSU along with my colleague, LatifTufail. We are among the longest-serving staff. I havebeen calling Athan for prayer for over ten years andteaching students how to swim.

In terms of my sports achievements and the in-teresting people I have met during my career I havehad some great opportunities.

I met the Deng Xiaoping, vice premier of Chinaon a trip with the Philippines’ water polo team and gotthe chance to visit The Great Wall. I also met Olympic

gold medallist Mark Spitz in 1975 at a swimming clinicthat took place over three days in Manila. He had com-peted in the 1968 Mexico Games with the world recordbreaking 100 metre freestyle relay team. I had thechance to cook for bodybuilder Chris Dickerson, whowon titles for Mr America, Mr Universe and Mr Olympiain 1982. He was short- only 5’6” but in great shape- hetaught me some techniques for getting in shape andhe liked the grilled hammour that I caught and preparedfor him.

I had some excellent victories in Karate cham-pionships, winning the heavyweight title while I was liv-ing in Jeddah several times and competed for the lasttime in 1997. I used to enjoy ten-pin bowling for a timetoo, competing with the PSU team for eight years. Ieven played with Prince Mohammed Bin Sultan on afew occasions. I played basketball, volleyball and bad-minton at a competitive level here in Riyadh. However,one of the most enjoyable things I have done was totrain for my SCUBA diving certificate. I started with myopen water certification in the Philippines in 1976, thenprogressed to advanced, rescue and finally got myDive Master level. I taught my wife, Fatima and twodaughters Tarhata and Aisha to dive. I spent manyyears diving at some of the most beautiful sites in theRed Sea, deep sea spear fishing.

Finally, in reflecting on my life, I would have tosay that I feel lucky. I also think that providence fromAllah has been a key force in my life. It changed the di-rection of my life when things could have been very dif-ferent. When I think about the adventures I had and thepeople I met and the opportunities I was able to takeadvantage of, I have to be grateful. Not everybody getsdealt an equal hand in life and it can be hard to seehow to make the most of what you have, but so far, Ifeel as if I’m doing OK. We’ll see what else the futureholds...

Dylan Longley


For this issue’s Flying Carswe take a look at one of the homesof both the exotic and unique auto-mobile. The streets of Riyadh regu-larly thunder with sonic vibrationsfrom the luxury stables’ finest thor-oughbred vehicles: The Italian stal-lions, the undeniably muscularAmerican Appaloosas, the technicalperfection of the Japanese Misaki ,the sleek German Destrias, EnglishCoursers and the European cross-breeds.

The Pit Stop on DhababStreet recently reopened from itsprevious location with an expandedand remodelled headquarters,sporting new facilities for premiumcar aficionados and tuned-car cus-tomers. “Customisation is a key in-gredient for Saudi car enthusiasts”,says marketing brand managerShady Abd-Elmaksoud. “Thisranges from performance enhanc-ing engine tunes to individualisedwheels and rims, grills, accessoriesand airbrushing art to dyno-pro-gramming and onboard entertain-ment systems.”

Everything for the car-minded cruiser can be catered for bythe fleet of on-site mechanics andautomotive-artisans. “Basically weprovide the full service needs of mo-torists in the Kingdom, with brancheson the east and west coasts. This in-cludes maintenance, customisationand modification. We have started a

page on the social networking siteFacebook and now have almost6,000 followers. We also sponsormotor events and clubs such asBlazing Rims, Riyadh Riders group, the LX Club (Dodge, Chrysler andJeep drivers) and the Gulf Drift web-site as well as Saeed Almouri driftingevents”, he continues.

The new five-section work-shop is running at full capacity withquick services available to all modelsof cars, while the exit 12 workshopis on the Eastern Ring Road stillcaters to the higher-end market ofsports car. These include Bugatti,Lamborghini and Ferrari. The newDhabab Street showroom will onceagain house the prime examples ofauto-obsession inducing rides suchas the Pagani and Koenigsegg la-bels, as well as Spyker and Wies-mann as part of the PremiumCollection wing.

A family business, Nah-waSharq, started by the Al-Kraideesteam, led by Abdullah and his sonsSabah, Fawaz, Mohammed andSaud is well known in a variety of in-dustries. “With this business weaimed to put a public face on our op-erations”, says Fawaz Al-Kraidees,General Manager of The Pit Stop,“as an interface for our other busi-nesses that go largely unheraldeddue to their nature. Our focus for thePit Stop and Premium Collection la-bels is to add a dimension of im-

proved customer care and serviceby providing easy solutions in a one-stop shop. This is where a certaintype of car enthusiast can create hisvision of his perfect car, whatevertheir budget”. Some familiar brandsin stock are Borla and Magna Flowperformance exhausts, SuperChips, K&N Filters and HamannAuto Design.

With enough services andsolutions to make an ordinary rideinto a flying car, Pit Stop has openedits doors to a new generation of carfanatic. In a city where four wheelsmeans more than just a mode oftransport, indeed, a second homefor some, this option may temptsome readers to explore their innerdesign guru and plan some im-provements to grace this page forsome future edition... the choice isyours!

A special thanks to Mohammed and Saud Al-Kraidees for facilitating the visit and interviewsherein and to the team at Pit Stop Riyadh for theirtime and assistance.

Dylan Longley

To follow Pit Stop on facebookscan the QR code

THE PREMIUMCOLLECTION


So, you mean to say, you’ve neverFallen in love with a camel?I dare you to lookIn those wide molasses eyesThose glass-encased bottomless wells,I dare you to considerThose elongated eyelashes(and there are plenty of lassesWho’d die for those ‘lashes!),And I dare you to stareAt those voluptuous lips(but not while it’s girningwhen chewing the cud)As if swollen up by a whole hive’s stinging,And tell me it’s not beautiful.

And I’ll tell you the Arabic for ‘beauty’Is derived from the word ‘camel’:

Jamal; jameel; jamaal.

And there are plenty of menWho’ve already fallen in loveIn the village of Umm Riqaiba,Where they’ll pay millions for a prize winner.And if you think they’re mad,Then you’ve never fallen in love with a camel.

Maybe you’ve never seen a real one up close(and grunting and spitting and smell aside)

And admired the muscular neck,The tapering underbelly with nipped-in waist,The preposterous hump(well, where do you put your suitcaseswhen the boot is full?),The soft pneumatics of the legs’ suspension.Perhaps you’re not aware of the verse,“Do they not see how the camels were created?”Perhaps you’ve never ridden a ship of the desertAnd felt the rhythm that pre-Pickup Bedouin felt.Perhaps now’s the time to gaze into well deep eyes,Eyes surrounded by splashes of molasses,And fall in love with a camel.

Uncle Yousuf’s Page ‘O’ Poetry

Ruing the pulled cotton wool, they fund the joyOf the always almost falling over boy.Their tottery puppet with his strings all clipped,Wanting to cane them with his penchant for sticks.He will too, he will too, this dapper Charlie ChaplinMoonwalking as if the flooring’s pulled from under him;Dad at the ready for a goalie dive to save face,Mum braced for the trip and slap, the sobbing and grazes.

“Just don’t let it be serious!” “Please, nothing major.”—Companion prayers that follow every new venture.His legs one step ahead of his balance’s ability.How long, how long can he defy friction and gravity?Feeding out more line for slack tightens the tension.The toddler is father to future’s pensioner.

Yousuf Hindess

Thank you, young man,

for making matters

so clear to me.

That BlackBerry pin

on the back of your car

means we need no introductions,

no direct or indirect approaches,

no pious go-betweens

or seasoned matchmakers.

We don’t even need to begin.

So thanks, once again,

for letting me know

you’re not the one

to marry my daughter.


For any non-native of the region, the Mid-dle East seems to hold a lot of misconceptions. Iwas pleased to be able to shatter another of mineduring the mid-term vacation.

Lebanon is known as a country of im-mense historical interest and natural beauty. In-deed, it’s capital, Beirut, is sometimes referred toas the ‘Paris of the East’ (although this claim isalso touted by Baku, Bucharest, Budapest,Casablanca, Hanoi, Kolkata, Lahore, Shanghaiand Warsaw. Whilst Lebanon’s beaches may befamous for serious summer posing, it is in winterwhen the country is truly transformed.

Lebanon is not a large country. Indeed,you can drive the length of in as long as it takesyou to get from Riyadh to Ha’il. Driving along thecoastal road out of Beirut, a visitor has little clueas to what lies a few kilometers inland: skiing ableto rival that of parts of the Alps in Europe.

The organization I had arranged myequipment hire through, skileb.com, assured methere was sufficient snow to spend a whole dayon the pistes, something which was difficult to be-lieve seeing as, if the temperature had been acouple of degrees higher, I would have beentempted to go to the beach! But, within a few min-utes of turning off the main road at Zouq Mosbehand the climb into the mountains starts, the tem-perature drops dramatically, and the roads arewet. Not much further on, the water is replacedby piles of snow at the side of the road. And notlong after this, you actually find yourself drivingon snow itself. So much snow, in fact, that I wishI had my 4x4 rather than the elegant yet modestRenault to get me around!

The higher the vehicle went, the more dif-ficulty it was having battling both the altitude andthe freshly fallen snow. This was accompanied bycloud nestling well into the mountains, reducingthe visibility to, well, that’s difficult to judge really,

seeing as everything was white! Out of nowhere, the Intercontinental appeared.This proves to be a useful spot to park the car (insafety!) and a welcome stop for a warm drink,breakfast, lunch – in fact, pretty much anythingyou feel like before or after skiing.

All the equipment you need is available at the footof the slopes: clothing, boots, skis, snowboards.If, however, you want to look like a true king ofstyle on the slopes, you’ll have to purchase yourown gear there – the rental stuff isn’t quite ascool…

Faraya Mzaar has excellent infrastructure,offering dozens of both chairlifts and poles cov-ering the area. The area is recce’d every morningby Snowcats (large tracked vehicles) to makesure the routes are skiable. There is also a hand-ful of snowmobiles that, if you speak to the driv-ers nicely enough, may take you to some of themore difficult to reach areas.

International recognition of the quality ofslopes there is obviously growing, as evidencedby the presence of ski instructors from Franceand Italy. Once, these objects of adoration byboth men and women alike would stick to theslopes they grew up on, able to navigate them atnight, blindfolded. Now they’re doing a season inLebanon goes to show it really does have some-thing to offer.

Although most of us don’t pack full on win-ter gear when we come to Saudi, if you have anyinterest in skiing, snowboarding, or just messingaround in a white wilderness, throwing snowballsat your friends, then give Lebanon a try. And ifyou hate the snow, you’re only an hour away froma top quality restaurant overlooking the Mediter-ranean.

Andy Conder

Love, Lebanonxxoo



Trade negotiators live mostly in meetingrooms, hotel lobbies, airports and fast food restau-rants. If you see someone wearing a suit that lookslike they slept in it, with bleary eyes, clutching ahalf-eaten sandwich and a briefcase and talkingconstantly on a mobile phone, chances are he (orshe) is not a salesperson but a trade negotiator onthe run from one meeting to another.

If you try to engage them in conversationyou probably won’t get anything resembling a nor-mal discussion. “Hi, how’s your day going?” islikely to be met with “What day – I’ve been up allnight discussing how a negative list approach toservices works and they’ll only accept a positivelist with no MFN or phased-in schedule. And theywon’t discuss cumulation in ROO either”. The jar-gon is pretty well impenetrable to anyone but anexpert – which is probably just as well because thedeeper you go the worse it gets!

It’s an arcane world, where two or morecountries agree first that free trade between oramong them will support the objectives of each foreconomic growth and development. Then theyagree to enter negotiations and a long process be-gins where small groups of negotiators get to-gether to try and find enough common ground onparticular issues to eventually agree on rules andtimetables for moving to free trade.

All countries export goods and servicesthey produce to other countries that need them,and import goods and services that they need. Themost basic principle is called comparative advan-tage. If one country is good at producing a partic-ular product (say fertilizer) and can do so at lower

cost and meet quality and other requirements inforeign markets, and another country is good atproducing something else (say apples), then theycould trade – apple trees need fertilizer and peopleproducing fertilizer need food and might like ap-ples. All else being equal, if the fertilizer-producingcountry can sell fertilizer to the apple-producingcountry at lower cost than the apple producer canmake it, and the apple producer can sell apples tothe fertilizer producer at lower cost, then both arebetter off.

The problem is that all else is often notequal. Countries often try to protect their industriesby imposing extra fees on imported products tomake them more expensive so the local producerscan sell their products at a lower price even if it’snot the lowest possible price. These fees arecalled tariffs and consumers end up paying morethan they need to when they go to the supermar-ket or other shops. Imported products could becheaper but the tariffs make them more expen-sive.

Free trade agreements are mostly aboutreducing or eliminating tariffs so consumers arebetter off being able to buy things more cheaply,and local producers are forced to become moreefficient to be able to produce at a cost that canmatch imported goods. As well as imposing tariffs,governments sometimes also subsidise producersor exporters so they can compete with importedproducts – the subsidies allow producers to sellthings more cheaply but they’re paid for from taxesand the money can often be better spent on edu-cation or health or infrastructure or other publicgoods.

T h e L i f e o f a T r a d e N e g o t i a t o r


So, when you encounter the sleepless, har-ried negotiator, spare a thought for what he or sheis trying to achieve! But that’s not all – moderntrade agreements include far more than liberalis-ing trade in goods and services – they can also in-clude provisions on labour and environment andintellectual property and regulation. Barriers totrade can extend beyond tariffs applied at the bor-der to include environmental standards and otherregulations that can be used to discriminate be-tween products and prevent imports from othercountries on the basis that they do not meet arbi-trary standards applied in the importing country.

This just goes to show that trade agree-ments are complicated affairs – which is why theytake so long to negotiate and why politics often en-ters the picture as special interests put pressureon governments to stick with the status quo andnot expose them to competition.

Your correspondent has been involved inmany negotiations including those with developingcountries and developed countries. Over the pastyear he has been involved in four separate nego-tiations – most are difficult and slow as negotiatorstry to find a way to move from highly protected sit-uations to more liberal arrangements, often oper-ating in highly conservative political situations.Others are more ambitious as countries look to de-

velop a basis for trade that will last well into the21st century.

Sectors such as agriculture often presentchallenging problems, particularly for developingcountries where large proportions of the popula-tion still live in rural areas and rely on agriculturefor their livelihood. Developed countries haveshifted away from agriculture toward industrial andthen service based economies. Asking developingcountries to open their agricultural sectors togreater competition when their industrial or servicesectors aren’t advanced enough to replace ormove beyond what might be lost in agriculture isa difficult challenge.

So, next time you go to the supermarketand you’re able to choose apples from differentcountries at reasonable prices,or your departmentstore offers you shoes from all over the world, thisis often the result of hours and weeks and monthsof work by trade negotiators hammering out a dealthat allows these products to be available. On theother hand, if you find that you don’t have a choiceand the range of products is narrow and they’renot always of good quality, then you might reason-ably conclude that free trade is not a priority andyou might reasonably ask why not!

Brett Longley

RGF and Central, Environmental LaboratoriesProviding Environmental Analysis and Testing Services Since 1987

For Inquiries: [email protected], Dr. Issam Fawzi PhD +96614784558

The most funereal of sciences', opinedH.L. Mencken in 1921---was he thinking of Car-lyle’s “dismal science”(economics)?--- at a timewhen prescriptivists were still talking as if Eng-lish could be made to lie on the Procrusteanbed of Latin grammar. The lives of generationsof young children were being blighted by 'Pro-fessor Balderdash', as he named his fictitious,archetypal exponent of this hermetic art

In fact, before the C17th, 'grammer', as itwas usually spelled, was Latin grammar, and itneeded no qualification as to which languagewas involved. The word had a much broadersense than it has now. In any case, it includedastrology, magic, and necromancy. It was in thisway that a variant gramarye developed, as didgrimoire in French---call it 'hocus pocus'. Thefinal, happy result, popularized by Sir WalterScott, was glamour. (A propos, something simi-lar and equally happy befell prestige, thanks toNapoleon's ego and Scott's pen. Jiggery-pok-ery, its erstwhile meaning, had become very re-spectable.)

Is it still modish to anathematize 'gram-mar' because of the blind pedantry and 'punditicstupidities' (Mencken) of some schoolmasterishdullards who could neither write nor teach?

The fundamental descriptors of languagewere developed over the centuries by men likePlato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the Alexandriangrammarians. Their Greek terms were usuallytranslated into the Latinate terms of today:onoma > nomen; rhēma > verbum; epirrhēma >adverbum; ptôsis > casus (a 'falling down', i.e.a case in a 'declension'); chronos > tempus (>O.Fr.tens> Eng. tense). My favourite is thebeautiful aparemphatos ('unshown' (subject)) >infinitivus. and so on. Simple? Then imagine try-ing to distil out these complex abstractions foroneself, beginning from the beginning, namingthe unnamed. They are hard enough to 'inter-nalize' even if one is given them, so to say, on aplate. The enthusiast can look most things up inDionysius Thrax’s Art of Grammar, which is, ofcourse, on the Internet now.

Jeremy Beastall

A WORD ON GRAMMER



Everyone knows that smoking is a world-wide issue. Smoking has killed and still kills a lotof people all over the world after it has madethem suffer endless health problems like cancer,which is often caused by smoking. The problemis that many smokers do not know the effects ofsmoking on their lives and their future. A lot ofpeople think that quitting smoking is impossible.However, by following these steps, smokers willfind the procedure easier than you may imagine.

First of all, surf the Internet about the ef-fects of smoking. For example, search aboutthe illnesses that are caused by smoking.You will be shocked by the amount of in-formation that you are unaware of.This step will show you what youare facing, or what you aregoing to face in the futureif you don’t quit.

The next step isthis. You have to sit byyourself and think about the time, money,and health that you are wasting on smoking. Afterthis, make a resolution to quit. Say to yourself: Iam going to quit because I can! That with preventyour mind telling you SMOKE! Now, choose aspecific day to quit, a day like your birthday, orNew Year’s Day.

After that, go and remove all of the itemsthat are connected with smoking in one way oranother, like lighters and ashtrays that you haveat home or in your office.

Next, call your friends and family to tellthem that you have decided to quit smoking.Their support in such circumstances is greatlyneeded. Also call the people that you used tosmoke with. Inform them as well so that they stopcalling you for a smoke.

Then start looking for a group of peoplewho are trying to quit smoking. You can searchfor such groups on the Internet. One you find thegroup that you feel comfortable with and join it.Joining a group will help each member to quitsmoking using the psychological support needed.Now, after joining the group, develop your friend-ship with the members as a whole. Choose aspecific person that you get on with very well, andthen improve your friendship with him even more.

Being close to a person whohas the same aim, i.e. to quitsmoking, is very helpful in such

a scenario. You can call eachother every time either of you

feels the urge to smoke again. Thatcall may be valuable in that it pre-

vents one of you smoking again.

In conclusion, with desire and de-termination you can always achieve what

you want. There are still chances for allsmokers to quit. We all make mistakes, but

only the smart ones amongst us correct theirs.I hope that by writing this article I am changingsomeone’s life for the better.

Abdullah Al-Abduljabbar

Making The Right Choice

What’s in a cigarette


A few weeks ago we went to Jordan as mem-bers of the ‘Dignity Convoy’. The trip was not an ordinaryholiday excursion- our goal was to meet with Syrian civil-ians who had escaped the current unrest in order tomaintain their freedom and dignity.

It was the most amazing and wonderful trip in mylife, but at the same time it was also the saddest. I felt Iwas searching for a missing homeland. Families, normalpeople have been forced to leave their homes and every-thing behind them to save their children's lives. Some arenow living in tent cities in Jordan's refugee camps. Theyare exposed to the weather, the summer sun, all aftersurviving a cold, wet winter. Some of the luckier oneshave the chance to live in unfurnished homes, many stillunder construction, in outlying neighbouhoods.

We visited the Syrian Women’s Association(SWA) and helped distribute aid to the people. Somewere even from the wealthiest class in Syria before theylost everything: homes, work, money, and even mem-bers of their families. In some ways I was surprised atthe high spirits some of them had. Perhaps this is be-cause they are 100% confident about victory. We wentto help them and elevate their spirits, but in fact what hap-pened was the opposite. We learned confidence andfaith from their smiles, from their children's words andfrom their attitude. We stood at the Syrian border for awhile, looking at our country. It is a hard situation, whenyou can see your homeland but cannot touch it. How-ever, I came back with a stronger will to work and do whatI can do to get my homeland back and to help my peoplereturn there.

At a refugee camp we found an old women sit-ting on the floor covered with a thick blanket. She lookedtired. We were waiting with her to find out what sort of

help she needed but were surprised when she said, “Wedon’t want anything, except water”. She said they hadnot received any water for 15 days. “I'm from Al-Khaldiya- a part of Homs.” She was forced to leave to avoid theviolence. Her neighbour’s house had been shelled andher daughters were forcibly evicted from their homes.

In Al Ramtha, a woman had just given birth totwo baby girls named Lojain and Seden. Her husbandtold us “I swear to God, we are a decent family, we hada car and a house and I was working and we did not doanything to anyone.” Then he fell silent. In another home,a wife tended to her sick husband and three childrenunder fifteen. I noticed that their meal was just a smallplate of dates and tomato. They welcomed us and invitedus to dinner, and although they were sad and concerned,they kept smiling at us and spoke of their hope for a goodoutcome. Their dignity and pride was inspiring.

In another area, a family of seven told us theirstory. The father, Abu Sanad, was injured in Deraa, andstill had not received surgery to remove a bullet fourmonths after he was shot. He spoke about going backto fight and avenge his cousin who had been killed duringa protest. “A lot of people have volunteered for the freearmy but could not join because of the lack of weapons,food and water,” When he was asked if the revolutionmay not succeed, he responded by saying, “There are alot of people that are willing to sacrifice anything no matterwhat, down to the last child.”

Indeed what is happening in Syria is scary. Wemust try to provide whatever we can to help these peopleuntil the situation has been resolved and they can returnto their homes and cities in peace.

Ammar Al Fathi

S y r i a


I started playing in 1999 when I was 9 years old.That was the first time I held a basketball, and I imme-diately enjoyed it. So I started to learn everything aboutthe sport, especially when I started to see older peopleplaying the game and liking it. I just wished I could playwith them. But they were taller and bigger…..I didn’tenjoy playing with young kids who didn’t know verymuch.

So I started to work very hard and to practise 3hours a day except for Friday. So I began to watch theolder boys and learn from them --- how they dribbledthe ball and shot a basket --- and gradually I got better.

At the age of 12 I had improved a lot, and someolder kids saw me playing in the youngsters’ team thatalways won. They saw my skills and came over andplayed with us. I scored 12 points and I was going crazyduring my first game with them. They were impressed,so my chances were good.

But people started saying that I wasn’t tallenough just to put me down. At that young age it is easyto feel ‘low’ when people say things like that about you.I told my family that people were talking behind myback, and they tried to motivate me all the time. So inthe end I was twice champion on the DQ for the teens’sports club.

When I was 14, Al-Nasser basketball clubwanted to sign me. They went to my father to ask if Icould play with them. My father accepted, and I startedto play. But then something bad happened: I got a nastythigh injury that kept me out of basketball and othersports for 2 years. It started when a guy hit my leg veryhard and put it out of action. I just stayed at home be-cause I could only walk with the help of a crutch. I felt

that my life was useless because I had stopped playingthe sport I loved best.

I started to sit around, eat, and surf the Internet.My weight rose from 73kg to 112kg. I had becomehuge. When I watched basketball on TV, it was as ifsomething was killing me. But after 2 years I got rid ofthe crutch. I said to myself: It is not over! I finished schooland went to university….. I saw that “we” had a team. Ijoined them when I was still 112kg. Then the coach sawme.

He could obviously see that I was fat, but healso saw that I was skilful. He told me that my weightwas not helping me. So I said to myself again: “It’s notover. I will work hard so that I can be in the team andshow what I’ve got, since nobody is better than me!”

I went to work out and went on a diet. I used toeat better, run, and work out at the gym. In the first year,I lost 30kg and got down to 82kg, and I felt good. Thecoach noticed this and he was happy at what I hadachieved. I wanted to improve and get my spot in thePSU basketball team. This I did, and I became one ofthe starting 5! The next year I became vice-captain,and we won first place! This year I am captain of thePSU basketball team.

I started at zero but improved because I didn’tgive up. If you let people and problems drag you down,you lose. That is not my aim! I will continue to get betterand better. If you love something, never leave it. Workhard to get what you want. It’s all about believing inyourself and believing what you can do. Don’t wasteyour time saying “I can’t do that!” Just do it!

Abood Abbas

Pass ion Play


In the feather-weight smart phone category,we have the HTC One X against the SamsungGalaxy S III. Both use quad core technology, butare different in every way. The One X features thenVidia Tegra 3 platform, with a steel punch out ofits 1.5 GHz CPU while the S III uses the Exynoschipset with a 1.4 GHz CPU; a tad lower frequencythan its competitor.

The One X has the muscles to dominateany competition with its polycarbonate one piececovered body, while the S III uses a plastic bodywith a "brushed-metal look", which looks as if itcould shatter. The main disadvantage of the OneX’s body is it doesn't have an interchangeable bat-tery, whereas the S III has a removable back coverfor battery swapping.

Both phones use the Android 4.0 (IceCream Sandwich), but each has a unique ‘flavour’,The One X has the HTC Sense 4.0 user interfacewhich in my opinion, is the most mature user in-terface of all the other Android phone companies,featuring unique widgets and services, but to beunbiased, the S III has the latest TouchWiz inter-face with S-Voice to combat Apples Siri, but ac-cording to most reviewers, it still isn't as good asthe ads would lead us to believe.

To the screen comparison, when I see aSuper Amoled I usually side with the phone thathas it, but in this case HTC brings a new techniqueto the fight. The super IPS LCD2 produces amaz-ing picture quality with a full set of sub-pixels andappears as almost 3-D when you first look at it,blinding the S III with a much brighter screen. TheS III fights back with a contrast ratio of almost dou-ble the HTC and deep, rich, blacks. With this fea-ture, it could beat the One X in pitch black withboth hands tied behind its back.

On to the camera department. Both phoneshave 8 Mega Pixel sensors, capable of recording1080p video. When you look closely at the photostaken by both phones, you will notice less noiseon the S III and better overall quality too.

In the end it is the real world tests that mat-ters, random benchmarks suggests that Sam-sung's S III is much more efficient and powerful,and most importantly, has better battery life. Lookslike the HTC is having a hard time keeping up, butthe Samsung wins in my perspective, although theHTC is no slouch either, they are both ridiculouslypowerful with amazing performance.

Nawaf Al-Saud

B a t t l e o f t h e Q u a d s

Have you picked up a mobile phone brochure lately and seen a dual core smart phone only tothink to yourself "what will they come up with next?”

… Well, line them up boys...

VS


B a t t l e o f t h e Q u a d s

In the heavy-weight tablet category, wehave Apple's iPad 3 against the Asus TransformerPrime. Asus uses an "intimidating" name to scareoff the iPad 3, but it looks like the iPad is up to thefight. The Transformer Prime is lighter and has aslimmer waistline than its competitor, but will thatbe enough to win three rounds?

The iPad charges forward with its pixel pow-erhouse, featuring a whopping 1536 x 2048 pixelson a 9.7 inch screen, knocking the poor Asus off itsfeet with its 1280 x 800 pixels 10.1 inch screen.

Comparing both operating systems is likecomparing apples to oranges (pun intended), butlet's go through the motions. Apples iOS 5 has anamazing simplicity to it, it should win this bout withflying colours, but the new Android 4.0 tries to blindside the iPad with a left-hook, its highly customis-able operating system, which also "borrows" thetwo-panel layout in the settings and email/messag-

ing app from the iPad. The Asus hits hard, but theiPad seems unaffected.

Most people think that the iPad may go outon a technicality, as it has a dual core CPU accom-panied by a quad core graphics processor. How-ever, it is still a quad core machine. Both tablets areblazing fast, but the iPad is certainly smoother andquicker to respond.This might be judged an unfair fight, as the clearwinner here is the iPad 3 on points- it is undeniablya true multimedia tablet.

A big round of applause to our contenders!Congratulations to the champions of Ultimate TechChampionship; and hard luck for the rest. Mean-while, we look forward to see what they come upwith next, in the rematch following these state ofthe art devices.

Nawaf Al-Saud

Transformer Prime

VS


What’s worth doing in your chill out time more thanlistening to the musical fruits of summer? Some hot acts tocheck out this season include Bachelorette, Kimbra andThe Grates for some cool tunes.

Bachelorette vocalist Annabel Alpers is a NewZealand musician based in New York City. Specialising inelectronica with pop combinations, her sound is at onceethereal and yet engaging. She had an end credit song onHBO’s comedy show ‘Bored to Death’ in its third season (ifyou’re also up with the play on excellent TV series). Shehas been around since the 1990s in various bands suchas Christchurch’s awesome Hawaii-Five-O, but has beenrecording as a ‘solo artist’ since 2005 and released her self-titled Album in 2011. Check out her profile, music andvideos available at www.particletracks.com.

Kiwi singer Kimbra is taking the Australian popscene by storm and with good reason. A great voice andwell produced sound are most salubrious on a livelyevening. With popular and jazz elements, her sound goes

On DVDThe Hunger Games is a visually impressive and

definitely worthy adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ teen trilogynovels. Heroine Katniss Everdeen battles brutality, single-minded combatants and the hegemonic state of ‘Panem’ inthe blood-bath of ‘The Arena’. Strong themes involving pol-itics, social-commentary, the ethics of warfare and its in-evitable sidekick, propaganda, as well as self-sacrifice givethis action thriller much more than just a light-and-sweet af-tertaste. The books are great if you’re planning some addi-tional down time and feature an expanded story andcharacter elements that will leave any fan of the film han-kering for the next instalments, Catching Fire and Mocking-jay.

Game of ThronesFantasy doesn’t come any better than George R.

R. Martins series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. The dedicationof HBO’s talented writers shows that it is possible to getwork of as fine a calibre as J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of theRings’ Trilogy transposed to television. The scale is grand,the story arcs sweeping, the characters every bit as three-dimensional as you could want. For a fan of the novels, the

TV series, now available on DVD (season one) and seasontwo currently screening in the United States, it is a perfectmarriage of vivid set pieces and intrigue. Some of theworld’s finest actors of the screen sink their teeth into mem-orable performances in an utterly believable and lovinglycreated ‘Game of Thrones’ universe. If you haven’t already-put this on your list of compulsory entertainment.

Modern FamilySet in an alternative universe, not so different from

our own, the characters of Modern Family make the ordi-nary hilarious. They manage to channel the inner thoughtsof every viewer in mockumentary style with surprising andside-splitting observations on life and each other. Odd cou-ples, sullen, cynical and perverse children as well as familydynamics are reflected through the dryly humorous lens ofChristopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan and make for greatviewing. President Barack Obama states that this is hisfamily’s favourite TV show and, now into its third season,it’s easy to see why. If you need to unwind after a hard day,I prescribe 25 minutes of one episode, after meals, everyday. Dylan Longley

beyond cliché, crossing into surprising new territory. Herrecent release of album ‘Vows’ shows an appetite for star-dom and her offerings should be investigated further.Scope out her Facebook and My Space pages for somemore information and features.

The Grates are a pure Rock’n’Roll outfit screech-ing straight out of that great Southern land – Australia. Fea-turing soaring vocals from Patience Hodgson andawesome hooks, each track gives the listener a sense thatwith acts such as this, all is well in the realm of guitar based‘raise your hands and rattle your bangles’ anthems. For agreat biography and access to their brand new tracks fromthe album ‘Secret Rituals’ go to: www.thegrates.com.

All artists have channels on YouTube and downloads of albumsand songs can be obtained from My Space and i-Tunes.


While you’re fleeing to friendlier climates with timeon your hands for relaxation and entertainment, look outfor The Dark Knight Rises, Christopher Nolan’s ultimate of-fering from the Batman Trilogy. Judging by the trailers,there’s a guaranteed sensory overload in store, with yourfavourite heroes and great villains including Tom Hardy’s‘Bane’ and Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman. This film prom-ises to outsell anything else on the block this summer.

Ridley Scott returns to science-fiction with whatlooks to be an amazing 3-D action extravaganza,Prometheus. Starring Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron,Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba and Guy Pearce. Twohippy-trippy archaeologists discover a clue to humanity’sorigins, travel through outer space on corporate coin to afar-off planet and get terrorised by the realisation that thealien technology is somewhat less cuddly than they ex-pected. Expanding the storyline first glimpsed in the originalAlien of the ‘Space Jockey’ as he has come to be known,Ridley Scott once again proves that in space no one canhear you scream, but in 3D it still looks really scary.

Spiderman receives the reboot treatment, with An-drew Garfield (of The Social Network) and the fantasticEmma Stone kicking off the early years in Marc Webb’sThe Amazing Spiderman. Bad guy ‘The Lizard’ stages anentrance that will have you double checking to make sureyour snakeskin boots and crocodile handbag are reallydead. The high school travails of our hero’s alter ego aredealt with in comical teen-angst melodrama. Peter Parkerseeks to discover his secret past and the disappearance ofhis parents, which brings him face to face with his father’s

former colleague and his soon-to-be nemesis Dr. CurtisConnors (Rhys Ifans). One hopes it will be both fan andfamily friendly holiday fare.

James Bond: Skyfall, directed by Sam Mendes(American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jar Head) strays intounknown territory with a ‘more psychological take’ on ourfavourite spy that looks awfully incendiary, if the briefglimpses available in the new trailer are anything to go by.It features the re-introduction of the classic ‘Bond-gadgets’and some comely ‘Bond-girls’. Fans are waiting with baitedbreath to see what awaits James Bond as he strives to pro-tect his boss ‘M’, played by Dame Judi Dench as she facesthe dark shadows of her past.

Snow White and the Huntsman (Kristen Stewart,Chris Hemsworth) is currently screening and is worth alook, if not just to see Charlize Theron turning up ‘the nasty’to level 10 as the Evil Queen. The Great Gatsby (BazLuhrman in his first 3-D film) stars Leonardo DiCaprio,Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Tobey Maguire and eventhe venerable Amitabh Bachchan. It dazzles with anothersumptuous visual feast of tragic love, reminiscent of MoulinRouge- anticipate its release in the coming months. Titlesto keep on the lookout for from the recent 2012 CannesFilm Festival include Palme d’Or winning Amour fromMichael Haneke, Jury Prize winner The Angels’ Share fromthe UK’s Ken Loach and Post Tenebras Lux by Carlos Rey-gadas of Mexico, winner of the prize for best Director.

Dylan Longley


They say you either like science-fiction or youdon’t. If you do, then this is the game for you,Mass Effect has changed millions of lives. Somefor the better. It has redefined science fictiongaming. Bioware has done a great job with this,the conclusion of the trilogy, but with minor prob-lems such as the ending they gave us. Neverthe-less, this game is a must buy.

Score: 9.5/10

Say goodbye to your social life because Skyrimwill consume so much time you won’t be able tokeep track if it’s day or night. One of the mostflexible games of the past decade, it has swords,magic, and dragons; what more can you ask for?This is was the best game of 2011.

Score: 10/10

Are you a big fan of Starcraft II?MLG Spring Season 2012 kicksoff with eight of the top StarcraftII players battling it out in NYC!

To watch it scan the QR Code

Perhaps the most long-awaited game of thedecade, Diablo frustrated many in the gamingcommunity with the constant change of releasedates. Blizzard finally delivered and causedmany to forget about studying for their finalexams because this game vacuumed up somany hours of their precious time.

The good: The PlayStation Vita sports a 5-inchOLED touch screen that displays graphics al-most as good as the Hi-Def PS3. The system'slaunch lineup isn’t bad and is expanding by theweek. It allows owners to download somegames over the PlayStation Network. The Vita'soperating system is easy to use and well de-signed. Overall, the unit feels great to hold andhas reasonable battery life.

The bad: The Vita requires the purchase ofseparate memory cards to play most gamesand apps, which results in not inconsiderable

hidden costs. Battery life could be better, andthere's no video output. Mounting the Vita to aPC/Mac for file transfer can be a hassle due toanti-pirating software. It's also unclear howmuch storage the Vita has onboard.

The bottom line: Overall, the PlayStation Vitais the most advanced portable gaming systemever made. There’s something for every kind ofgamer, with a large selection of downloadsavailable right now from PSN.

Majid Oraifi

Ibrahim Al Othman

REVIEWED!


SpykerD8

This Dutch company is famous for creating luxurious,uniquely shaped, flashy, exotic sports cars.

They recently came up with a crossover SUV designthat is, to say the least, ‘interesting’. Revealed at the 2006Geneva Motor Show, it was originally introduced as the D12,with the Audi 6.0 litre W12 engine, but it was swapped with a6.2 litre V8 engine from Cadillac, (hence the name change),which produces 556hp and 747Nm of torque.

This allows the D8 to accelerate to 100km/h in lessthan 5 seconds, an impressive figure for an SUV to be sure.

The interior is a car enthusiast’s dream and has "oneof a kind" written all over it. Starting with the suicide doors andending with the sci-fi retro style dash. I could say a lot abouthow the body of this car looks, but the interior makes up its ex-terior faults for me.

Nawaf Al-Saud


The Italians are at it again and Pagani has introducedthe fairest one of them all, the Huayra.

It still has its little sister's DNA, no doubt- with the quadexhaust pipes staring right in your face, but Pagani has addeda bit more insanity into the mix with this one.

The chassis is made from carbotitanium, which re-duces its weight significantly.

The interior is nothing less than what you'd imagineit would be, carbon fiber and aluminium almost everywhereyou look, but the most interesting part of the interior is the key.

A miniature model of the car constructed from tita-nium, one end has a key to wake this monster up, and theother end has a USB drive to be used "for music" Horacio Pa-gani says…

Now to the engine, it features a Mercedes-AMG twin-turbo charged 6.0 litre V12 engine, which produces 720hpwith 1000 Nm of torque, this power plant enables the Huayrato accelerate to 100Km/h in only 3.3 seconds, perhaps it’s notas glamorous as the 2.9 seconds it takes the LamborghiniAventador to reach the same speed, still fast by any standard.

Nawaf Al-Saud


In the age of electronic data mobility and en-tertainment, computer games are no longer restrictedto the player sitting in front of a souped up desktopPC, shut in a dark, damp room, strewn with pizzaboxes and empty Doritos bags. Mobile games are in-creasing in popularity in both male and female demo-graphic groups, many of them electing to kill timebefore class or a meeting by playing simple pick-upand put-down game, downloaded on to their palmsized device.

It’s a terrible world isn’t it? However, there arestill those who want portability as well as all the latestgadgets on a powerful platform. Fortunately, Razerhave come online as the savior of gaming Gollumsworldwide, with the new Razer Blade 17” laptop avail-able in any colour you like, as long as it’s black. Razerhas created a new gaming laptop, combining mobilityand performance and long battery life.

This started as a concept laptop called Switch-blade. The track pad and the 10 buttons above it are‘switchable’ to the game type so it can be for first per-son shooter games or Massive Multiplayer Role Play-ing Online Games.

The specifications of the Razerblade areenough to give most computer jockeys saddle itch. Adual core i7 processor with Hyper Threading 64Bit,CPU 2.8 GHz (base)/ 3.5 GHz (turbo).

The chipset is Intel HM65 Express Chipset and It hasan 8GB dual channel DDR3 at 1333MHz for memory.

The display is a massive 17.3” full HD LED backlitscreen. It has 2 graphic chips; one an IntegratedIntel® GMA HD Mobile Mode and the other, the latestgraphics chip from NVIDIA®, the GeForce® GT 555M2GB DDR5 VRAM Using NVIDIA Optimus™ Technol-ogy.

Plenty of storage is available with a 256 GBSATA III SSD with TRIM Support – which in my opin-ion is pretty poor for a gaming pc. Avid gamers needmore space for their games than this. Powered by anintegrated 60Wh Battery, Compact AC Adapter(120Watt), it has the juice to last the distance. Forcommunication it sports 1x Gigabit Ethernet Port, 1xIntegrated Intel Wi-Fi 802.11 B/G/N and 1x IntegratedBluetooth® 3.0. It utilizes Windows 7 as the primaryOS.

BLADE


PS Vita… Nintendo 3DS… keep your eyespeeled for a stealth assassin... What to look out foryou say? A Razer sharp switchblade!

Gaming computer company Razer arelaunching several new products in an effort to cap-ture the mainstream handheld mini gaming market.They have revealed the new ‘Switchblade’ hand-held gaming concept device at CES 2011. As yet,no real solid specifications have been released,but what we do know is that it has a 7 inch capaci-tive touch screen with a thin form factor and it willhave an SSD hard disk, HDMI port, and USB 3.0ports.

Also, WiFi and 3G will be available at thelaunch. Featuring Intel’s newest (unreleased) Atomprocessor, it will maintain the same architecture asthe performance CPUs in gaming desktops, but noword on the graphics processor so far.

Even with this vague information, it prom-ises to run any widely known game without hic-cups, given that it is reported to be powerfulenough to run Windows 7 and run a full graphicsgame package whilst using online play modes.The most attractive thing to me about the switch-blade is the keyboard.

A whole new meaning to personalizationhas been developed here; with every individualkey having an independent backlit LED screen.Users will be able to adjust the keys to show gameaction controls for each individual game to theirpreference... cool huh? No word on exactly when itwill be available on the market, but I suspect itcould be early 2013 until we can get our hands onthis micro-monster.

Nawaf Al-Saud

In addition it has the Razer™ SwitchbladeUser Interface, Razer™ Anti-Ghosting Keyboard,Razer™ Synapse 2.0 Enabled, a built-in HD Webcam(2.0MP), Built-in Speakers, Integrated Digital 7.1 Sur-round Audio Support (via HDMI 1.4) Dolby® HomeTheater® v4 Audio, 1x HDMI 1.4 Audio and VideoOutput (Supports NVIDIA 3DTV) 1x USB 3.0 2x USB2.0, 1x 3.5mm Audio Microphone/Headphone ComboJack and 1x Kensington Lock. In the girth and scalesdepartment this hefty heifer measures up as 16.81inches (42.7cm), Depth: 10.90 inches (27.7cm),Height: 0.88 inches (2.24cm) and Weighs 6.4 pounds(2.92kg).

It comes with a two year warranty so if youbreak it from playing too hard, they’ll replace it (con-ditions probably apply).

Now the major question: should I buy it? Theanswer is simple if you are a gamer or a graphic de-signer and you need performance on the road I rec-ommend this laptop. It is expensive at 3000 USD butit’s worth it if you want power, performance and en-durance all the time, every time. However, for the av-erage office worker just using their PC for internet orfor Microsoft Office you will score a laptop for $3000to do the job of a $500 machine. Just imagine howjealous your nerdy junior colleagues will be….

I have to admit Razer is breaking their wayinto the gaming systems market with some smart newideas and inventions. Keep your eye out for otherproducts from these guys - they know functional, theyknow beautiful, they know cool when it comes to com-puting.

Saleh Mousa

SWITCHBLADE


We live in one of the world’s oldest regionsof human civilisation, an area continuously inhab-ited for thousands of years, with natural resourcesthat have been tapped and utilised for as long aspeople have walked the Earth. We live in cities, asdid the generations alive at the time of thepharaohs. Our societies trade with one anotherand do so using waterways as well as roads, justas they did when Alexander the Great crossed thecontinents from Europe to Asia and as contactspread between nations, cultures, religions andraces when the Ottoman Empire was at its zenith.

These centuries of industry, trade and war-fare had significant effects on people and commu-nities but the pressures on the natural environmentwere far less than today. In the process of rapideconomic development during the latter part of the20th century the population in Saudi Arabia has in-creased three-fold. With close to 30 million people,consumption driven lifestyles, and an industrialeconomy, problems with waste production and dis-posal have increased dramatically.

We enjoy the luxury of food and water se-curity at present. However, the thread that con-nects these certainties to each of us is slender.Many of us are isolated from the effort undertakeneach day to bring fresh water to our homes and theelectricity we need to keep modern life ticking andthe air conditioners running in the deadly heat ofthe Riyadh summer.

Riyadh is a city of 6 million people. Eachperson drinks one to two litres of water a day andeats three meals, uses the bathroom, throws rub-bish away and burns petrol to get from place toplace. What limits are placed on each persons’ability to consume and dispose of the by-productsof their consumption? What happens if we use toomuch water or throw a fast-food package out of thewindow?

Driving in a car next to the Dead Sea in Jor-dan, my father attempted to inquire as to why our

driver, Ibrahim was content to throw an emptywater bottle and rubbish out the window on to theside of the road, something in New Zealand thatwe don’t generally do. “Don’t you care about theenvironment?” he asked. Quite matter-of-factly,Ibrahim responded “What environment? We don’thave one. It’s just sand and rock. You’re crazy” helaughed. We had to laugh too. Despite the fact thathe makes money from tourism and Jordan reliesupon this industry to sustain the livelihoods ofmany Jordanians, sometimes connections be-tween the economy and the environment aren’tmade. Garbage degrades the environment pollut-ing soil, rivers, streams, and marine areas. It looksunsightly and foreign tourists are aghast when theysee how little we care.

The exciting and vibrant cities where we livein this exciting, vibrant and sometimes troubledpart of the world have developed rapidly to achieveeconomic power- but at what cost? Commonsense, legislation, even religion dictate that wetake care of the places in which we live, so thatthose who live after us are able to enjoy the samestandards of life we take for granted now. Whileit’s up to all of us as individuals to care and takeaction, the scale of the problem means that weneed to take collective action. This means havingthe appropriate laws and the institutions to enforcethese as well as public education and awareness-raising.

Who are the agencies responsible for de-fending nature and what do they do to reduce theenvironmental footprint the industries, cities and in-dividuals leave behind them?

Regionally:A conference in April of 1978 saw the for-

mation of the Regional Organisation for The Pro-tection of the Marine Environment (ROPME)between the eight member states, Saudi Arabia,Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and TheUnited Arab Emirates. Its purpose is to providetechnical coordination to the Convention for Pro-

tection of the Gulf Marine Environment and coastalareas as well as the Protocol concerning pollutionby oil and other hazardous substances. Thismeans a coordinated response would be in placeto deal with an emergency such as Saddam Hus-sein’s pollution of the Gulf waterways with oil fromKuwait’s pipelines in 1991.

The issue of serious environmental catas-trophe dictates that enforcement agencies musthave powers to act to protect the environment.They must be independent of governments, yethave the financial and legislative support requiredto act decisively in such situations. Establishingthis goodwill between the member states despitegeopolitical boundaries means that the marine lifein the Gulf (ROPME sea area) and the sources ofyour drinking water are monitored and we can relyon a coordinated response if the sea life or waterquality is threatened.

ROPME’s responsibilities cover a broadrange of activities including energy consumption,water and energy production, fisheries manage-ment and monitoring of threatened fish species,protected marine areas and balancing the driversand pressures on economic activity in the Gulf.ROPME manages this through assessments of thestatus of the marine environment. Continuousmonitoring of the different zones by researchersand scientists provides the information needed todecide when action is required.

Nationally:On the home front, The Presidency for Me-

teorology and Environment is the overall body forenvironmental issues. However, other bodies workat the day-to-day level of environmental monitoringand management. The Royal Commission ofRiyadh, Jubail and Yanbu focuses on the industrialzones of each city by managing investment anddevelopment of industry in gas and oil, raw mate-rials and the processing and production of essen-tial materials for domestic and export uses.Founded in 1975, the purpose of the Commissionis to plan, promote, develop and manage petro-chemical and energy intensive industries. TheCommission does this by working with customers,partners, investors, employees and communitiesto balance the needs of each stakeholder in orderto maximise the conservation and sustainability ofnatural resources. For example, by monitoring nat-ural gas extraction and distribution, desalinationand electric power generation the Royal Commis-

sion has a greater degree of control over the man-agement of resources and pollution in urban areas.The mining and the processing of raw materialsand industrial activities including transportation isclosely regulated by the Commission to make cer-tain that environmental standards are met.

In order to operate independently of theSaudi Arabian government, the Commission has aspecific mandate to manage and fund new devel-opment such as the installation at Ras Al-Khair andmust monitor the pollution output of the variousplants at each of the three industrial cities. Analysisof the sea water used for cooling at the plants andfactories as well as the levels of air, water and soilpollution from the iron foundries, glass factories,fertilizer plants, electricity production and water de-salination facilities is ongoing. This is also takingplace at the bauxite extraction and aluminiumsmelter sites at Ras Al-Khair. To ensure compli-ance, the commission issues each plant a permitto operate. It is then the Royal commission’s re-sponsibility to ensure that all operations conformto the regulations and issue infringement notices ifemissions are exceeded. In extreme cases theyhave the power to close down a plant as a punitiveaction until compliance is restored. In addition,monitoring the marine environment, hazardouswaste management systems, environmentalhealth and the promotion of education in the com-munity also falls under its mandate. These sys-tems are designed to motivate companies to takeresponsibility for the communities and the environ-ments they share.

Quality of life and a healthy population aredesirable goals that most governments strive towin for their citizens. The effects of air pollutionfrom cars and trucks, noise pollution from road-ways, airports and factories and visual pollutionfrom power lines, buildings, billboards or litter allhave negative effects on the well being of people.Awareness is empowerment and clean, healthy,happy, empowered communities make the world abetter place to live in.

Dylan LongleyPrepared in consultation with:

Dr. Nadia Al-Mudaffar: Professor at Department of MarineSciences. Basra University, Iraq.

Dr. Issam Fawzi: Riyadh Geotechnique Foundation. Con-sultant Scientist for the Royal Commission. Jubail, Saudi

Arabia.Brett Longley: Senior Policy Analyst, International Division.

Ministry for the Environment, Wellington, New ZealandFOCUS Summer 2012 41


1. Eating an apple a day reduces the risk ofstroke by 52% (Journal of the American Heart Association).

2. Eating grapes three times a week maintainsgood eyesight. (National Eye Institute of the USA).

3. Exercising 15 minutes every day extendshealth and quality of life in people over 50.(The Lancet).

4. Drinking a cup of coffee a day reduces thechance of men getting prostate cancer by 29%(Journal of National Cancer Institute of the US)

5. Eating red meat every day increases one’schances of suffering from heart disease and can-cers by 20% (Harvard Medical Center)

6. Spanish scientists found that mice with anextra copy of the gene known as “Phosphataseand tensin homolog” (Pten) don’t get cancer.They were also leaner compared to the controlgroup of mice who actually ate less food.(Science Daily).

7.Women who eat oranges and grape fruits dailyhave a 19% lower chance of having a stroke. (Journal of the American Heart Association).

8. If you get cold and flu easily, check the 7 fea-tures involved in regular illness. Do you:Eat sugar a lot? Drink less than 8 glasses ofwater each day? Are you overweight? Is thewater you drink clean? Do you often suffer fromdry nasal passages? Do you suffer from stressfrequently? Do you have less than 6 hours ofsleep each night? (Fox News).

9. The Center for Science in the Public Interestreleased a list of the 10 best foods: Sweet pota-toes, Mangos, Unsweetened Greek Yogurt, Broc-coli, Wild Salmon, Crisp breads, Garbanzo

Beans, Watermelon, Butternut Squash, LeafyGreens (kale, spinach) (CSPI). Sweet potato wasrated the highest from 82 vegetables which haveinhibitive effects on carcinogenesis.(Medical Institute of Tokyo University).

10. When people don’t get enough sleep, theright anterior cingulated cortex of the brain re-sponsible for stimulating appetite is more activethan in people who have normal sleep (7-8 hoursper night). This indicates that lack of sleeping cancause over-eating and weight increase. (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism)

11. If people exercise regularly 3 times a week,each time at least 30 minutes, the risk of cardio-vascular diseases lower significantly. If you don’thave enough time to exercise, you can split it upas 6 times a week, each time at least 10 minutes(from Don’t Treat Exercise Like TV).

12. People who used a fork 20% larger than nor-mal left more food on their plate after finishing ameal than those who used a regular sized fork.Researchers believe that people think they don’teat enough when using a ‘standard sized’ fork.They found that a smaller dish helps dieting be-cause a portion on a small dish looks like a lot offood so that psychologically, the dieter will feelsatisfied. If you want to lose weight, you could trya big fork and a small dish for your meal.(Journal of Consumer Research).

Dr. Won Dae Kim

For more information scan the QR code

Fitness Facts


Members of the Physical Education and HealthRecreation Department at Prince Sultan University havemade some simple observations during our PE classesthat indicate the current level of PSU student health andfitness level is far below normal. Unfortunately, this situa-tion is typical in many developed countries. The main con-tributors to health problems here are connected to thefollowing factors:

•Obesity•Physical inactivity•Stress•Smoking.

Globally there are more than one billion over-weight adults. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions-300 million people are considered to be overweight.These are a high risk for chronic diseases. The increasedconsumption of energy-dense foods and reduced phys-ical activity are prime causes. A lack of physical activity isnow considered an important risk factor for heart disease.As many as 250,000 lives are lost annually due to asedentary lifestyle. Inactivity contributes to a substantialnumber (34%) of the deaths from heart disease and ap-proaches 5.7 billion USD in annual medical costs.

General Benefits of Physical Activity

Gentle exercise reduces the risk for several dis-eases including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pres-sure, osteoporosis (bone loss), and cancer. It improvesthe body’s metabolic rate, and burns calories. This helpsyou to lose weight by lowering body fat and increasing

lean muscle. It can even be effective in treating some ill-nesses such as depression. It can improve mood andprovide a break from daily routines and worries. It can im-prove one’s physical appearance and increase self-es-teem.

Healthy Life HabitsResearch in the health and fitness field associates

the following habits associated with health and longevity:

Regular physical activity – adds life to your years aswell as years to your life. Adequate sleep – 7-8 hours is recommended. Thenerve cells of the human brain need rest. Not enoughsleeping hours reduce creativity and physical abilities.A good breakfast - research show that individuals whoregularly eat breakfast experience better health than thosewho eat breakfast only some of the time.Regular meals– erratic eaters have poorer health thanthose who eat regular meals.Weight control – when body weight is more than 20%above or more than 10% below ‘ideal’ weight - the pro-portion of height to weight ratio– health status declines.

Abstinence from smoking and drugs and reducing stressalso contribute to good health overall.

Physical health, longevity, and the rate of agingare all associated with daily health habits and lifestyle.These habits have impact on health and longevity thanall other interventions by therapeutic medicine.

Alex Borodai

The key to healthy living is a balanced diet with avariety of foods including fruits, vegetables otherorganic products. Combining good nutrition withregular exercise will improve the immune systemand protect the body from illnesses, improvingthe quality of life.

Alex Borodai

Bon Appé t i t

Health is Wealth


It was too early for her first class, so she de-cided to have a cup of coffee in the café near herschool. She smiled to the waitress, waved to thecook whose sandwiches she loved, and had aseat in one of the wooden tables outdoors, near-est to the sea. Delightful it was, that the sun wasshining sheepishly from behind the clouds, whilethe breeze softly carried the sea waves towardsthe shore. She contemplated through the well-structured pier, which was deserted at that timeof the day. What a lovely routine she had, havingto admire the sea before going to school. As shewas taking her time, drinking her coffee unhur-riedly, an old man in a weary black tuxedo and afunny-looking hat, wearing 1960s black shades,sat on the table beside her.

“Are you fond of the sea?”, he suddenly asked.“Very much.”, she replied, in a friendly tone. Aftera few minutes of silence that would occasionallybe interrupted by the sound of sea waves, heasked her why she admired it. “It never disap-points me.”, she said. “Whenever I feel lonely, intears, the sea accompanies me, reflecting itsblueness for me, blueness of disturbing mysteryand countless miles of Unknown underneath, forme to know that I am not alone. For as many se-crets as my heart hides, so does it. When I’mhappy, with no one to share my joy with, I am al-most certain that joyful sapphire stones float, ra-diating, filling my heart with joy.” She stopped,realizing that she is sharing her deep thoughtswith a complete stranger. “Go on.”, he said, smil-ing. “When I’m insecure, it reveals some of its

greatest mysteries to me, to comfort me, to grantme power of knowledge.”

“I’ve never had your experience”, he said, “ButI’d love to hear more.”

“The sea is kind enough to reflect the blueskies, to please our eyes. Every day, when thesun shines, the light reflected on the surface ofthe sea reminds me of luminous diamonds. It isloyal to its admirers; it would never deprive themthe beauty of its view, owing to the fact that welose friends, family members and loved ones, butthe sea will always be found in the same placewe found it yesterday, and the day before. Itteaches birds how to fly, by just remaining in itsplace, for the birds to learn how to fly by their fearof drowning. It is the shelter of the sun as it sets.It conceals kingdoms of enigma. “ She dwelledon her thoughts, enjoying her own answers of thestranger’s question. As a sibling of many, she isnever asked about her opinion. Those little no-ticed details – she believed – are what makespeople slightly blinded.

“What do you think about the sea, sir?”, sheasked, trying to be friendly to the stranger whoseemed lonely.

“You defined it for me.”, he said. “I have neverseen it.”

Alia Sultan Al-Humaidhan

H i d d e n B e a u t y


PSUCW claimed a clean sweep in this year’s competi-tion with Alia Al-Humaidhan winning first place, HalaTashkandi, with ‘Jump’, coming second and Rowan Al-shobaki, with ‘The Secret’, coming third. Although therewere many fine stories from both sides of PSU, it was theladies’ stories that won the judges over most.

Now in its third year, the competition garnered 18 en-tries, nine from the men’s side and nine from the ladies’.

The general consensus among judges is that the standardhas improved since the competition’s inception in 2010. Aswell as the three winning stories, the judges also com-mended a number of other entries.

Focus commends all the entrants for writing a story andcongratulates the winners on their success. It also givesthe magazine great pleasure to share Alia Al-Humaidhan’swinning entry ‘Hidden Beauty’ with its readers.Student Debate Competition Winners

After a week of intensive debates during the lunchhour, Imran Ameen and Ali Merie emerged victorious in thefinal held on Wednesday 18th April in the auditorium. Imranwon Best Student Debater at University Level, and Ali wonBest Student Debater, at PYP Level. This was the culmi-nation of 4 days of debates that saw 38 students whittleddown to four finalists in PSU’s first ever head-to-head de-bate competition.

In the University Level final, Imran Ameen man-aged to overcome red hot favourite Shahroze Mirza by onepoint in a very close-fought encounter. Shahroze’s fire-brand aggressive style of debating contrasted starkly withImran’s laidback and almost casual style.

However, the quality and weightiness of their argu-ments was always apparent. Imran and Shahroze’s topicwas ‘KSA should exploit fuels other than oil’.Similarly, in the PYP level final, Ali Merie and NazeerTenawi matched each other blow for blow in another veryclose debate. Though Nazeer had a more passionate stylethan Ali, it was Ali’s strong and steady layering of argu-ments that helped him to outstrip his opponent.

As the week went on, both Ali and Nazeer gainedin confidence and, by the time they reached the final and

stood behind the lecterns placed on the auditorium stage,they were unfazed by a large and buzzing audience. Ali andNazeer’s topic was ‘English is an easy language to learn’.

Competition judges Carlos Castillo, Carl Schraefel,Philip Adams, Abubakar Galant and Bryan Williams allcommended the participants for the high quality of their de-bates and their adherence to the rules. PYP debate facili-tator Daniel Oliver thought that the competition wassuccessful in its aim of kick-starting interest in the recentlyestablished Speaking & Debating Club of which he is chair-man. He believed the club would help prepare students forfuture in-house competitions as well as intercollegiateones.

Yousuf Hindess, the competition organizer, said,“It’s pleasing to see so many students taking part and reallyengaging wholeheartedly. Some students we didn’t expectto do well have emerged as strong and competent de-baters, which was pleasantly surprising. Overall, we’re gladit has generated quite a bit of interest and excitement andwe hope it will become an annual event on the PSU calen-dar.”

Yousuf Hindess

Words of Wisdom


A Recipe for Good Time Management

Have you ever felt like your 24hour day just shrank to 24 minutes? Doyou feel as if you are always rushing andalways late? Are you staggering under theburden of tons of responsibilities on yourshoulders? Confused and stuck in a rut?In our fast paced world many people feelthis way. If you are one of them, then putthis topic on your daily menu. Here is a se-cret recipe for time management.

Prepare a Weekly Schedule.A weekly schedule will help you

see where you spend your time during theweek. It should include all your major ac-tivities. For example, school, social visits,and meals. First, draw a table, and thenwrite your activities in time slots. Do notforget to leave some gaps between activi-ties. To keep your schedule in mind, I rec-ommend you to place it in somewhereobvious.

Whisk up a List.A daily list is useful, but it also has

to be specific- include breaks. You needfive minutes every day, a pen and anotepad. First, write down everything youhave to do for the current day based onyour weekly schedule, and add any otheractivities that need doing. Then prioritiseyour activities from the most important tothe least important. Leave enough time foreach activity and make sure not to haveany overlap between activities. This willhelp make your list more practical. If youfind that the day is not long enough to doall the stuff on the list, cancel the least im-portant activities to gain some time for themost important stuff. Remember, evenwhen busy, you still need to eat!

Set the Timer.Practicing time management is

the final and most important step. Youneed to wear a watch, keep a daily list andcheck your weekly schedule. Promiseyourself that this will be the backbone ofyour everyday life. In other words, respectthe system you set yourself and stick to it.It’s never painless to practice time man-agement, especially if you are chaotic andmessy, but it’s not impossible.

Faisal Salamah

The Mind of MirzaMotivation and Study conditions

Learning to study effectively overnightusually takes years of practice. Planning aheadby making constructive use of your time is theonly way to consistently succeed at university.In order to study successfully you need a clearpurpose. If you don’t know why you are working,you will not have much incentive to keep at itwhen the going gets tough. To begin, there arethree objectives to consider.

Long term aims:You may or may not already have a

clear idea about what kind of career you wantbut sooner or later you will be competing for ajob. The chances of you finding work you likewill be increased by the qualifications you haveto offer. Studying increases knowledge and un-derstanding and teaches you to think clearlyabout problems. This helps you to cope with allkinds of situations, and gives you greater controlover what happens to you. Acquiring knowledgebecomes a habit, as the basis for a lifetime oflearning and the appreciation of its benefits.

Medium term aims:Thinking about your future in this

highly competitive world does give you a reasonto think realistically about your examinations.There are people who disapprove the examina-tion system and doubt its value, but the fact isthat examinations are a reality. For most of uspassing exams is a key to a better future. Thereis a great sense of practical satisfaction andconfidence to be gained when you meet a chal-lenge successfully.

Immediate Objectives:To tackle day to day assignments,

promise yourself a small reward. It could beanything that will refresh your mind and relaxyou. Remember a small goal that is close bycan be effective when the bigger ones seemdistant.

Where should one study for effective learn-ing?

An organized setting, such as the li-brary works best for people who like to studywith others around them. Finding a place thatyou are comfortable in, where you can focus onyour material is ideal, so create an environmentsuitable to your needs. Be Tidy! Organise yourstudy space! Use time management strategies.Start early on your revision, projects and assign-ments.

Distractions:It is only possible to study when no

outside demands are made on your attention.Noise is another disturbing factor, but is some-times unavoidable. Yoga can improve concen-tration. As a Muslim, I pray 5 times a day andfocus my attention completely for that period oftime. It has a positive effect on your other duties,including study.

A little anxiety about study is not a badthing if it motivates you to work, but too muchanxiety can be destructive. The weeks ap-proaching exams are stressful, but visualise therewards that you will get when you completethis phase. Don’t expect to transform overnight,just prepare and consider using this system tohelp you reach your goals.

Shahroze Mirza

Documents

FOCUS Fourth Edition