I love being an unpaid intern. I'd rather do nothing more than research, write, and commiserate with awesome, intelligent people all day. Plus, there are so few jobs that really pay you what you're worth. (I kid.)
All sidesplitting irony aside, we were Lexis-Nexising away at our computers one day when Graham brought to my attention this awesome headline that appeared in The Guardian a few weeks ago:
Dubai in mourning after emir, 62, dies in Australian hotel: Cause not known but history of heart problems: Fatboy Slim concert among cancelled events
Now I'm never one to poke fun at death, and I'm an even less enthusiastic fan of run-on sentences yielded by inappropriate punctuation (TWO colons? To quote George Oscar Bluth, "Oh come on!"); but equating the devastation of a cancelled Fatboy Slim concert with that of a deceased Emirati elite is pretty darn funny.
I cannot even begin to imagine what may have caused this man with a history of heart problems to die so suddenly. I am of the humble opinion that some things need remain a mystery.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Saving an Arm and a Leg
Come for the surgery, stay for the fun! The number of “medical tourists” traveling from the Gulf to Asia has been rising substantially in recent years. Now, thousands from the GCC states are flocking to India, Thailand, and Singapore every year to receive medical treatment.
In years past, Gulf Arabs sought high quality medical treatment in Europe or the United States, and many still do. Meanwhile, the Asian health care market is booming. Singaporean hospitals host an average of 200 patients from the Gulf every month. Thailand welcomed 152,360 medical tourists from the Middle East (98,000 from UAE alone) in 2007, generating about $1.25 million for the country. India’s Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) projected that medical tourism will be a $2 billion industry by 2012.
Relatively inexpensive medical treatment is clearly one driver on this trend. A heart operation that costs $30,000 in the United States costs a fifth as much in India; a hip replacement costs half in Singapore what it would cost in the United States or Europe.
But something else is going on as well. Travel agencies have begun to offer medical tourism packages that incorporate travel expenses, treatment, and a small post-operative vacation to ensure proper recuperation. What better way to see the sights of a distant land than with a new pair of LASIK-enhanced eyes?
No, no, let's try that again. Why not seize the opportunity to get "First World treatment at Third World prices?" (an actual description of medical tourism I found on one terrible website). Ha ha ha! Thank God we don't live in the global periphery, right Geoffrey?
In years past, Gulf Arabs sought high quality medical treatment in Europe or the United States, and many still do. Meanwhile, the Asian health care market is booming. Singaporean hospitals host an average of 200 patients from the Gulf every month. Thailand welcomed 152,360 medical tourists from the Middle East (98,000 from UAE alone) in 2007, generating about $1.25 million for the country. India’s Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) projected that medical tourism will be a $2 billion industry by 2012.
Relatively inexpensive medical treatment is clearly one driver on this trend. A heart operation that costs $30,000 in the United States costs a fifth as much in India; a hip replacement costs half in Singapore what it would cost in the United States or Europe.
But something else is going on as well. Travel agencies have begun to offer medical tourism packages that incorporate travel expenses, treatment, and a small post-operative vacation to ensure proper recuperation. What better way to see the sights of a distant land than with a new pair of LASIK-enhanced eyes?
No, no, let's try that again. Why not seize the opportunity to get "First World treatment at Third World prices?" (an actual description of medical tourism I found on one terrible website). Ha ha ha! Thank God we don't live in the global periphery, right Geoffrey?
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Hitting Below the Belt
The minute I stepped off the airplane in Cairo, I was assaulted with an indefinable musk of sweet incense, cigarettes and... something else burning, like trash or a tire. Some people refer to this gentle smoky bouquet as "pollution," but I like to think of it as the smell of development. Mmm...
So yes, Cairo smells like a grandpa, and this might just be because 60% of the male population in Egypt (2% of the female population...reportedly) smokes; to put this into perspective, about 24% of the male population in America smokes. Yowzah! While Egypt is one of the top 15 "smoking" countries in the world, it's also one of the 12 countries (along with Canada, Jordan, and Brazil) that require cigarette packs to bear labels with graphic warnings about the hazards of smoking.
Needless to say, pictures of blackened lungs, diseased tongues, and children coughing were not enough to deter the majority of male smokers in Egypt, who normally start chain smoking at the age of ten and continue the manly habit until their mysterious and untimely deaths a few decades later. (What gives?) So the government decided to hit the men of Egypt where it would actually hurt: below the belt.
Yes, that's right folks. In August 2008, Egypt launched a campaign of cigarette labels with the warning that smoking causes impotence. Take a look at the label:
Loosely translated, the label explains that smoking "will gonna cause you the impotence, guy." Ok just kidding. It actually says that "long-term smoking has an affect on marital relations." But I guess as long as it's all within the bonds of marriage we're good, right?
Apparently not. I've been trying to find some figures about the effectiveness of these new labels thus far, but have had no luck. Again, the stats might not be conclusive, as this is a relatively new campaign. What I do know, however, is that the influence of these warnings was independently tested before production, and the impotence label was the most effective out of all of the disease and death-related labels. Well done.
Why stop there? Why not correlate the burning of cigarettes to one's future of burning in hell? Smoking kills. Nay, smoking damns.
Thanks to Karim for the tip off... not because he saw the labels when he was in Egypt and told me about it, but because he found out the hard way that smoking causes impotence.
So yes, Cairo smells like a grandpa, and this might just be because 60% of the male population in Egypt (2% of the female population...reportedly) smokes; to put this into perspective, about 24% of the male population in America smokes. Yowzah! While Egypt is one of the top 15 "smoking" countries in the world, it's also one of the 12 countries (along with Canada, Jordan, and Brazil) that require cigarette packs to bear labels with graphic warnings about the hazards of smoking.
Needless to say, pictures of blackened lungs, diseased tongues, and children coughing were not enough to deter the majority of male smokers in Egypt, who normally start chain smoking at the age of ten and continue the manly habit until their mysterious and untimely deaths a few decades later. (What gives?) So the government decided to hit the men of Egypt where it would actually hurt: below the belt.
Yes, that's right folks. In August 2008, Egypt launched a campaign of cigarette labels with the warning that smoking causes impotence. Take a look at the label:
Loosely translated, the label explains that smoking "will gonna cause you the impotence, guy." Ok just kidding. It actually says that "long-term smoking has an affect on marital relations." But I guess as long as it's all within the bonds of marriage we're good, right?
Apparently not. I've been trying to find some figures about the effectiveness of these new labels thus far, but have had no luck. Again, the stats might not be conclusive, as this is a relatively new campaign. What I do know, however, is that the influence of these warnings was independently tested before production, and the impotence label was the most effective out of all of the disease and death-related labels. Well done.
Why stop there? Why not correlate the burning of cigarettes to one's future of burning in hell? Smoking kills. Nay, smoking damns.
Thanks to Karim for the tip off... not because he saw the labels when he was in Egypt and told me about it, but because he found out the hard way that smoking causes impotence.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Littered with Rhetoric
“The devil flies in plastic bags.” “Real men pick up trash.” In the Middle East, messages about cleaning up the environment take on many shapes and forms. It looks as though exasperated foreigners who have wandered the streets looking for a trash bin may be in luck. Governments and civil society groups alike are going out of their way to clean up and cultivate a new environmental ethic in children.
The UAE, Egypt, Kuwait, and Jordan have developed websites and interactive software that preach the importance of recycling, conservation, and putting trash in its place. Each website is tailored to fit the needs of individual countries. Egypt’s Ministry for Environmental Affairs, for example, created a website for children that connects environmental issues with those of personal health and safety. Several groups in Yemen and the UAE have even taken a more religious approach reminding youngsters that cleanliness is next to godliness.
So what’s the motivation? As ecotourism in the region has begun to catch on (66,000 ecotourists visited Jordan in 2008), regional governments have realized that garbage-littered highways and streets are a kill-joy for tourists making their way to nature preserves. Thousands of trash bins and volunteers alike have been dispatched, in hopes of piggy-backing the goals of building a sense of community and national pride to the need to attract tourists. The eco-friendly, economic, and religious reasons for protecting the environment have found a new junction in the region.
Regardless of the rhetoric used to promote this message, there seems to be growing environmental initiatives for the Middle East, and although a turnaround of old practices may be lost on adults, children are malleable targets of this message. Amidst these winds of change, it may just be that the national bird of Jordan, Syria and Egypt - the plastic bag- will eventually lose its wings.
- L.S. and C.B.
The UAE, Egypt, Kuwait, and Jordan have developed websites and interactive software that preach the importance of recycling, conservation, and putting trash in its place. Each website is tailored to fit the needs of individual countries. Egypt’s Ministry for Environmental Affairs, for example, created a website for children that connects environmental issues with those of personal health and safety. Several groups in Yemen and the UAE have even taken a more religious approach reminding youngsters that cleanliness is next to godliness.
So what’s the motivation? As ecotourism in the region has begun to catch on (66,000 ecotourists visited Jordan in 2008), regional governments have realized that garbage-littered highways and streets are a kill-joy for tourists making their way to nature preserves. Thousands of trash bins and volunteers alike have been dispatched, in hopes of piggy-backing the goals of building a sense of community and national pride to the need to attract tourists. The eco-friendly, economic, and religious reasons for protecting the environment have found a new junction in the region.
Regardless of the rhetoric used to promote this message, there seems to be growing environmental initiatives for the Middle East, and although a turnaround of old practices may be lost on adults, children are malleable targets of this message. Amidst these winds of change, it may just be that the national bird of Jordan, Syria and Egypt - the plastic bag- will eventually lose its wings.
- L.S. and C.B.
Mish Mohem
Welcome to مش مهم
In Egyptian colloquial Arabic, "Mish mohem" means "not important," and that phrase will (unfortunatly) be a common theme running through any post you will read on this bloj. I'm sorry, I meant blog (a little fusHa joke for you. Did you enjoy? No? Fair enough.)
So... With that, welcome. And please enjoy these irrelevant nuggets from the Middle.
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