Category Archives: Environment

The Qat ate your visa

Environment, Immigration Issues, Qat (Catha edulis), Yemen

U.S. Embassy to Qat Chewers: quit now if you want an immigrant visa

By Sarah Wolff, Yemen Times,

SANA’A, March 31 — The United States Embassy in Yemen recently introduced a new provision for Yemenis seeking permanent residence in the U.S. Its message? Lay off your qat if you want to live in America.

Under this new stipulation, the U.S. Embassy will not issue immigration visas to anyone who is addicted to qat. Unites States law defines an “addict” as anyone who has used a drug for other than experimental purposes, i.e., more than one-time usage. This means that anyone in Yemen who has chewed qat more than once will have to medically prove that they are no longer using it in order to live in the United States.

U.S. law qualifies qat as a Schedule I controlled substance because it contains the chemical cathinone, which is a narcotic with addictive properties and has no known medicinal benefits. Abuse of Schedule I drugs is considered a “Class A” medical ineligibility under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Continue reading The Qat ate your visa →

Georgetown Conference on Alternative Perspectives of the Gülen Movement

Environment, Ethics, Gender and Sexuality, Immigration Issues, Turkey


CALL FOR PAPERS
ISLAM IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES:
Alternative Perspectives of the Gülen Movement
October 17 – 18, 2008
Georgetown University

Conference Website

Georgetown University President’s Office, Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, The Institute of Turkish Studies, and Rumi Forum would like to invite you to participate in a conference that explores alternative perspectives of the Gülen Movement within the larger framework of Islam in the Age of Global Challenges. The conference will take place at the Georgetown University on October 17 – 18, 2008. Continue reading Georgetown Conference on Alternative Perspectives of the Gülen Movement →

Anthropology in Arabic

Anthropology/Sociology, Environment, Folklore and Proverbs, Teaching Resources

As is true of many fields of academic study, there are Arabic introductions to the subjects. Many of these are little more than perfunctory translations of English-language textbooks. For a refreshing Arabic text introducing the whole field of Anthropology to Arabic readers, there is now an online work in progress by Saad Sowayan at http://www.saadsowayan.com/articles/anthropology.html.

Here is The Table of Contents

Introduction
02 بداية الحياة على الأرض Begining of Life
03 أحافير الرئيسيات Primate Fossils
04 الرئيسيات المعاصرة Modern Primates
05 البشريات Hominids
06 الأسس البيولوجية للثقافة Biological Bases
07 الإيكولوجيا الطبيعية Natural Ecology
08 الإيكولوجيا الثقافية Cultural Ecology
09 النسق الاقتصادي Economic System
10 النسق الديني Religion

Dr. Sowayan, who has conducted ethnographic and linguistic research in Saudi Arabia and is the editor of a massive volume on Arabian folklore, has made available much of his academic work online at his main website, with sections in Arabic and English.

Muhammad the Profit: Commerce, Play, and Entertainment in the Neoliberal Imperium

Animals, Danish Cartoon Controversy, Islamophobia, Muhammad, Sudan

Following a link on the website www.korans.com can take you to the website www.teddybearmuhammad.com, which hawks the cute and cuddly namesake of Islam’s prophet. As the site explains, the bear commemorates the Sudanese government recently accusing 54-year old British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons of blasphemy for “allowing” her class of 7-year old students at Khartoum’s Unity High School to choose what some considered the wrong name for the class stuffed animal. (The children named the bear after a popular classmate, not directly for the Prophet). The incident provided Sudanese politicians with an opportunity for local pandering, geopolitical bluster and a demonstration of sovereignty in reaction to international condemnation of the genocide in Darfur.

Cultural sensitivities about divine names and images are real, even when in particular instances they are feigned, exaggerated, or used as weapons in military or political conflicts. This reality is what gives their manipulation its potential power, although it also lays such manipulations open to exposure, derision, and failure. Continue reading Muhammad the Profit: Commerce, Play, and Entertainment in the Neoliberal Imperium →

When Iran was Welcomed into the Nuclear Club

Environment, Iran

In all the recent back-and-forth about the capabilities of Iran to produce a nuclear bomb, it is well to remember how Iran was once welcomed into the nuclear club defending the free world (well, not that free in Iran at that time), when the Shah was in now-all-too-clear power. Iran was in fact a good example for the folks pushing nuclear power plants in our own back yards. What a difference a regime change makes … The ad above would seem quite dated, but then history does have a habit of repeating itself.

Traveling Light in Arabia

Animals, camels, Travel, Yemen

[Note: the following list of items for light camping in Arabia is provided by G. Wyman Bury for the early part of the 20th century.]

CAMP EQUIPMENT
Try to do without a tent. Arabs hate pitching tents after a long day’s march, and seldom pitch them well. They draw fire and afford no protection, while preventing your own observation; they also betray the site of your camp to bad characters and casual callers on the look out for supper.

BEDDING
Avoid Wolseley valises or anything with pleats and folds, which become the permanent abiding places of parasitic insects.
‘Blankets.’ One each for the men. A few extra for convalescents or invalided men. Two for yourself.
‘Pillows.’ Carry your spare clothes in a green canvas sack. Continue reading Traveling Light in Arabia →

Tuareg Blues

Anthropology/Sociology, Environment, Mali


[Tuareg man serving tea; photo by Jane Greenhalgh for NPR.]

“Climate Connections” on today’s NPR website has a slideshow and brief article on recent changes in Tuareg lifestyle in southern Mali. Known as the “Blue Men” of the desert (for their indigo clothing) and serving as a prime ethnographic example of a society where the men (rather than the women) veil, life for the Tuareg is undergoing rapid change. In this case it is prolonged drought that has served as the main impetus for change. The slide feature is well worth a look.

A Sailor and His Camel Ride

Animals, camels, Travel, Yemen


[Illustration: Arabian Camel from George Shaw, Zoology (1801)]

[Joseph Osgood was a Black American sailor who visited the Yemeni port of Mocha about a dozen years before the start of the American Civil War. He offers a rich, descriptive account of his visit to the Yemeni coast, including a sailor’s view of the ship of the desert.]

No wheel carriages are used here, the most general mode of transportation being by camels, for which the males along are serviceable. The flesh of the camel forms a staple article of food, the head and neck being excepted, because one of the race unwittingly rendered these parts unholy by obtrusively poking his head and neck into Mahomet’s tomb. Wellsted says that a camel is welcomed at its birth, by the Arab, with “another child is born unto us.” Continue reading A Sailor and His Camel Ride →