A Peek Under Saudi Arabia's Veil

By Sami Mobayed

Will the Arab Spring eventually reach Saudi Arabia? This question seems to be on everybody's mind, from think-tanks in the United States to traditional cafes in Damascus and Baghdad.

Critics of Saudi Arabia are divided when it comes to the answer. Some respond with an affirmative "Absolutely," claiming that the oil-rich kingdom cannot remain immune to the popular movements sweeping through Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Syria.

Its women are oppressed, they claim, and so is its small Shi'ite population. A rising generation of Saudi princes are fed up with tolerating aged monarchs from the House of Saud, waiting for a chance to prop themselves on the throne of Riyadh.

Young people are restless for change in Saudi Arabia, just like everywhere else in the Arab world, and radicalism is on the rise in a country that gave birth to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda.

Other Saudi-watchers shake their heads when answering the question, claiming that the US - a traditional ally of the House of Saud - would never allow it to fall.

The truth, however, is by far more complicated than a "yes" or "no" answer. True, unrest has already hit Saudi Arabia, and true, the US cannot tolerate radical change in Riyadh, but the US doesn't hold Arab masses by remote control and cannot get Saudis to riot - if they don't want to.

King Abdullah, aged 87, knows what it takes to please young Saudis. With swift moves, he has managed, for now, to keep a job bequeathed to him and his brothers by their father, the kingdom's founder, King Abdul Aziz. In March, shortly after the collapse of Saudi Arabia's ally, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, in what was seen as a pre-emptive measure, King Abdullah ordered a massive increase in spending, up to $130 billion over the next decade, on measures like affordable housing for young Saudis.

Many young newly married couples have complained that it was becoming increasingly difficult to buy a house in Saudi Arabia. Abdullah additionally raised wages in the public sector and pledged more public sector jobs. Critics immediately accused him of "bribing" his citizens, but the king did what was required from him to keep his people happy.

Abdullah realized that times had changed since he was a young man in the 1940s, and that social media networks like Facebook and Twitter had completely revolutionized not only Saudi Arabia but the Arab and Muslim World at large. The handwriting had been on the wall, after all, since demonstrations began in Tunisia last December.

In Saudi Arabia, it immediately triggered an online campaign demanding major political and economic reform. In early February, 40 women demonstrated for the release of prisoners held without trial in Saudi jail. This was repeated in March in al-Qatif, al-Awamiyah, and Riyadh.

Demonstrators called for a "day of rage" on March 11, but it was severely suppressed by authorities. It is always painful for any leader to grant concessions under pressure, and Abdullah managed to make those concessions at the right time, before they became too painful and before riots snowballed, taking Saudi Arabia down the path of Egypt and Bahrain.

Abdullah wanted the Saudis to see him as part of the solution in Saudi Arabia, rather than as part of the problem, as was the case with Mubarak, for example.

At the weekend, King Abdullah took his reforms a step forward by granting Saudi women the right to vote and become members in the shura council, for the first time ever in Saudi history.

The Riyadh-based council is a powerful 150-member assembly, appointed by the king to advise on legislation. Opening it to women must have taken a lot of thinking, and courage, from the king, knowing that this would unleash hell on him from traditional and conservatives both within his family and in the clerical community of Saudi Arabia.

"We refuse to marginalize the role of women in Saudi society in every field of work," King Abdullah said on state television, adding that empowering women would help empower the nation as a whole. This in itself is groundbreaking in the world's strongest theocracy, where women are strictly segregated in public, forced to cover themselves when out, are separated from men at schools, restaurants, banks and work.

Famously, they cannot drive in Saudi Arabia, and cannot assume political jobs that are now open to both sexes throughout the world, like foreign minister or prime minister.

In 2009, he turned a deaf ear to all critics, establishing the first co-ed university in the kingdom, carrying his name. He then appointed Nora Bin Abdullah al-Fayez as the first deputy minister in Saudi Arabia. A Utah State University graduate, she had served as director general of the women's sector of the Institute of Public Administration since 1993. Additionally she had also worked as professor at King Saud University between 1989 and 1995.

The new reforms will go into effect in the elections scheduled for 2015. They might not yield immediate results, given the resistance that such a decree would face from traditionalists and conservative Saudis who would now allow their daughter, sister or wife to campaign for public office.

When Abdullah's brother King Saud introduced public education for women in 1960, Saudi society frowned on the decree and it took years for men to send their daughters to school.

That is why although the decree has been warmly received by a majority of Saudis, others are arguing that the timetable for their implementation is too long, asking Abdullah to put his words into action. They are demanding early elections where women are allowed to vote and run for office.

Others are saying that the step is too little too late, claiming that Saudi Arabia by now should have long allowed women the right to sit on the shura council.

The real reforms needed for 2011, they claim, are to make the entire shura council an elected body, rather than one appointed by the king.

Others are posing a simpler question, asking how women can campaign for office if they cannot even be allowed to drive.

King Abdullah actually went one step further from both loyalists and critics in Saudi Arabia, claiming that Saudi women can now change whatever legislation they want - including the world's last standing driving ban on women - once they enter the shura council and other government bodies.

Veena Malik Against Islamic Clerics

By M H Ahssan

In her socially conservative country, moralizing against figures like Malik - an actress, model and reality TV star - can seem as routine as the call to prayer. All the more reason, then, for shock when she responded to religious critics by taking on Muslim clerics themselves, some of whom she said "rape the children they teach in their mosques, and do so much more", adding, "Since you have set up a court here, I demand that the court dispense justice."

But this was no courtroom. The venue was a TV studio in Lahore, where a shouting match erupted between the brazen 27-year-old and a respected white-haired cleric named Mufti Abdul Qavi.

Moments earlier, Qavi had admonished Malik to examine her conscience for her behavior on a popular Indian reality TV show, telling her she had "disgraced Pakistan, as well as Islam". Qavi later admitted he had never watched Malik's show.

The debate over Malik's moral obligations had millions of Pakistanis glued to their television sets. The sheer audacity of an actress openly challenging a religious figure left many thunderstruck.

Divisive figure
Veena (real name Zahida) Malik is a tremendously polarizing figure in Pakistan. Her supporters praise her as a trailblazer, a young Muslim who stands for an emerging strain of progressive Islam committed to women's rights.

Her detractors - a coalition of conservative religious figures, nationalists, Taliban loyalists and a 13,000-strong "I hate Veena Malik" Facebook page - question her moral credentials.

Malik's recent participation in the hit reality show Big Boss 4, the Indian equivalent of Big Brother, has been plagued by rumors of illicit behavior. These rumors were used by Qavi to upbraid Malik, leading to a showdown that made television history in Pakistan.

Mariyam Ali, a producer for the Express News television channel that broadcast the March debate, says her opinion of the controversial actress changed after seeing Malik confront the cleric. "She's not a hypocrite, at least," she wrote in an e-mail interview, adding that Malik's decision took some serious "guts and courage". Speaking for herself and her circle of friends, however, the 25-year-old said that while they "may not dislike her", they "don't look up to her either!"

'Thinking for themselves'
Malik ranks among a small but diverse group of defiant women in Pakistan. They range from assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to the young and still relatively unknown Shehrbano Taseer, daughter of slain former governor Salmeer Taseer, a vocal supporter of the rights of religious minorities. Taseer recently came out in support of her father's work, vowing to continue in his footsteps even if it put her in danger.

For her part, Malik says, "You won't believe the kind of huge response I have received from the women of Pakistan, even the women who wear the burqa and all." She quotes messages from girls who say things like, "You have given us hope, to stand up."

She thinks things have "already started" to change in Pakistan. But with Islamabad mired in political infighting and the country confronted with growing insurgent violence, she says the time has come for women to "think for themselves ... Because no one else is going to give a damn [about them] in Pakistan."

Weeks after the debate's airing, Malik was injured in a suspicious road accident. She was hospitalized and has since sought refuge in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where she continues working for Voice of Women, a non-profit organization she founded to help female victims of domestic violence and other abuse throughout Asia.

Violence against women is a widespread problem in Pakistan. Some 1,000 women die in honor killings every year. Reports suggest that as many as four in five women are subject to abuse in their own households.

Standing up
Malik is no stranger to any of this. Born into a poor family of seven children in the northern city of Rawalpindi, her mission comes out of personal experience, ever since she was "a kid".

"I've been watching my dad hitting my mom for no reason, for the food. 'You did not cook the food on time,' and things like that. Little things," she says.

"When I grew older, my elder sister, she was 14, my father married her off. The other sister was 11, my father married her off. I was in the sixth standard [sixth grade in secondary school], when my father said that, 'Now it is your turn.' I stood up. And I was hardly 12, 13 at that time. I said, 'No, why should I get married? I mean, why, why should I? I mean, I don't want to!' And then my father said, 'No, you have to.' And this was the first time I stood up for myself."

In Malik's telling, her father, a retired army officer, told her he had no more money for her studies so she worked to put herself through school. At 17, she decided to go into show business, a decision derided by her relatives as an unconscionable disgrace.

She fell in love for the first time, she says, when she was 20 years old. Rumors abound, but she says she is not in a relationship at present, adding that things fell apart with a former boyfriend after she became a victim of physical abuse.

But she emerged from that experience with a message for Pakistani women. "I want to tell them that 'You are beautiful, and strong, and you don’t need to hide under the shadow of a man just because you're a woman'," she says. "They have to be told that they don’t have to wait for a man to feed them, they have to be told that they are strong. These women don’t know how strong and beautiful they actually are."

Rising tide of youth
Her decision to debate Qavi in public was an impromptu move - she was not given advance notice, she says, that he would be participating in the interview. "I had no idea," she says, "whether they would kill me when I stepped out of the [television] studio or they would welcome me."

As a 27-year-old celebrity, Malik is part of a growing majority in Pakistan, where over two-thirds of the population is under 30. Pakistan is home to deeply rooted conservative values with unprecedented exposure to the modern world due to the ready availability of cheap modern technology and the country's widespread use of the English language.

Nineteen-year-old Siraj Ali, a Pakistani studying in Karachi, says Malik "was right about that cleric [Qavi]", adding that he and his friends "all support her". He doesn't think this is the dominant opinion among his peers, however, warning that many young people have been influenced by the fundamentalist Taliban.

Others believe more positive changes are afoot. Umar Saif, a 33-year-old Pakistani professor recently listed among the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's prestigious Top Young Innovators, thinks Malik's generation will change Pakistan.

"Pakistan's really come of age, as most nations need to, and the next generation will usher in a time of modernization and usher in an era of political awareness, usher in an era of political tolerance, and just enlightenment," Saif says. "And we hope to embrace, you know, the civilized way the rest of the world has gone about their business."

Malik's encounter with the mullah may not be a glowing example of civilized discourse, but the bigger question - for Pakistan - is whether or not it's a step in the right direction.

Bitter pill for Big Pharma

By Bhupesh Bhandari

A committee headed by Planning Commission member Arun Maira, the former head of The Boston Consulting Group in India, wants all acquisitions of Indian pharmaceutical companies by foreigners to be scanned by the Competition Commission of India or CCI. The report will now be sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Prime Minister Singh is expected to take a final view on the matter after he meets all stakeholders on October 10.

The Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance or IPA, the lobby group for home-grown pharmaceutical companies, has been vocal for a while about the need to review the policy that allows overseas drug makers unrestricted entry into India. The health ministry supports the view because such acquisitions can raise the prices of medicine in the country. IPA has also found support from the ministry of commerce and industry. But the department of economic affairs in the finance ministry has opposed it because it would amount to rollback of the liberal policy on foreign direct investment.

The multinational lobby, of course, will have none of it because it is a journey back to the Middle Ages — the days of protection. Mr Maira too doesn’t want to change the rulebook but wants to ensure that such acquisitions do not lead to any price rise or other restrictive trade practices, hence the suggestion to refer all acquisitions to CCI.

So, is IPA happy with what it has got? Not really, because price rise was never at the core of its campaign. Its argument, and the Planning Commission is well aware of it, is that Big Pharma (the collective of large transnational drug makers) wants to acquire Indian companies and thus kill competition in the generics (off-patent medicine) space across the globe. There is evidence, IPA Secretary General D G Shah says, that Indian companies that got acquired by Big Pharma have scaled down their patent challenges in the West.

Also, they have slowed their “compulsory licence” business. (Developing countries often give out licences for patented medicine to cheap producers; Indian companies have been the main beneficiaries, but it hurts the patent holders real bad.) This is the reason why, says IPA, foreigners have paid huge amounts of money to acquire Indian companies in the last few years.

There is fear that most acquisitions will pass the CCI scanner because the Indian market is very fragmented – about 50 companies share 80 per cent of the market, though the share of the top 10 has gone up from 10.5 per cent in 2004-05 to 19.1 per cent in 2009-10 – and hence the charge of market dominance may not stick. On the flip side, argues ChrysCapital Managing Director Sanjiv Kaul, since there are hundreds of brands for every molecule, it’s not easy for one or two companies to collude and raise prices.

All told, there are almost 20,000 pharmaceutical companies registered with the government, almost 300 of these are of a respectable size. Also, Indian-owned companies take decisions quickly and have lower overheads, unlike the foreign-owned ones, so it’s not easy to out-price them.

IPA wants foreign investment in Indian companies to be vetted by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board which can take a holistic view of the proposal; all investments into new production capacity should, it says, stay on the automatic route. Foreign investment in the sector, IPA says, has focused on acquisitions. In the 15 years from 1995 to 2010, it has told the Planning Commission, overseas pharmaceutical companies have contributed only Rs 3,022 crore in gross fixed assets, as against Rs 54,010 crore by local companies. So what IPA has got from the Maira committee falls way short of what it has been demanding.

IPA may have a point in its arguments. One, the acquisition of Indian companies does not seem to be driven by their ability to produce inexpensive generic medicine — it can always be sourced from them. At the moment, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is producing at only 40 per cent capacity; so, most companies are desperate to recover their capital costs and hence ready to sell at rock-bottom prices. It’s a buyers’ market.

Two, it is not driven by India’s ability to produce new drugs at low costs because the new drug pipeline of most companies looks pitiable. Three, generic medicine from low-cost producers in India, Israel and China is a serious headache for Big Pharma. It has challenged their validity in various international forums. Most large global companies now have a generics arm, and many like to go with authorised generics sourced from friendly companies.

But killing competition through acquisitions may not be the only reason why they are acquiring companies in India. The world pharmaceutical market at the moment is around $800 billion and is growing at four per cent per annum. Out of this, emerging countries like India contribute $225 billion, or a little over 28 per cent, but this market is growing at 12 per cent per annum. So, in the next one year, of the $32 billion additional sales, emerging markets will contribute $27 billion, or over 80 per cent. This is a good enough reason for Big Pharma to pay crazy valuations for Indian companies.

Nilekani's UID Under Siege

By M H Ahssan

What a difference two years can make. In 2009, the Unique Identification Project spearheaded by the government’s then golden boy, Nandan Nilekani, was a much publicised and pampered one. Today, it has become everybody’s favourite whipping boy.

The project chief aim was simple: to disseminate unique identification numbers to every resident of the country, chiefly benefiting those with no identity such as the poor and migrants who find it difficult to get access basic entitlements like a ration card, a phone connection or a bank account.

The Cabinet Committee on UIDAI, after allowing the authority to collect data for 10 crore people in 2010, never took up the matter again, while the Finance Ministry decided later to increase this number to 20 crore. Things came to a head when the UIDAI came up with a proposal before the Finance Ministry last month seeking around Rs 14,841 crore for collecting data and issuing numbers to the entire population.

The Home Ministry was the first to cast a stone at the UIDAI proposal saying that it did not find the data collected by it reliable and that it would have to collect its own data for the National Population Register (NPR), which was to provide identity cards to people in coastal areas for security purposes. This meant duplication of work, and cost.

What is embarrassing for the UIDAI, is that the data it has so far collected for 8.5 crore people stands the possibility of being rejected by the NPR whose officials say that they may collect data for these people all over again. “We can collect the data for the whole country by 2014 and at half the cost,” says a top official of the NPR. And we collect the data from a person in his residence, and hence ours is reliable while the collection points for UIDAI are ad hoc, and through introducers. We cannot use this at all,'' says the official.

UIDAI director general R S Sharma says that if data on 20 crore people collected till March 2012 is rejected it would be a loss of Rs 1,000 crore. Sharma is at a loss to explain why the NPR can’t trust UID’s data since it is after all one of the registrars partnering with UIDAI in data collection. The other registrars collecting data are state governments, the same ones who help the Census,'' says Sharma.

Meanwhile the Home Ministry has called a conference of Chief Secretaries this week to emphasise the importance of collecting data through the NPR, which now seems to be competing with the other registrars appointed by UIDAI. UIDAI pays Rs 50 per person for collection of data to the state, while the Census pays nothing and consequently the states have been giving more attention to the UIDAI work than to the NPR much to the annoyance of the latter.

The Home Ministry also has knives out for UIDAI due to what it feels are unnecessary expenses especially with respect to iris scanning. The Ministry points out that the Cabinet had given only an ‘in principle’ approval to iris scanning and that it has a ‘huge cost implication’. The total cost on NPR and National Identity cards (a new project of the Home Ministry ) would be Rs 13,438 crore. The cost of UIDAI -Aadhar is projected at Rs 17,864 crore. Thus an investment of Rs 31,302 crore would have to be made if NPR and UIDAI are implemented in parallel.” it says. It further says that the convergence of UIDAI and NPR and exclusion of iris ...would reduce the cost by over Rs 15,000 crore.”

Sharma disagrees: “The iris scanner costs just Rs 23,000 while it used to cost a lakh rupees earlier. A single scan costs Rs 4.40 and for the whole country it would cost just Rs 500 crore. This is nothing compared to the Rs 6000 crore the Planning Commission is talking of”, he says. Sharma also argues that having multiple modes of identification is always better than a single one and prevents faking of identities.

The third accusation is levied by the Planning Commission, its parent body, which states that the expenses of the UIDAI are not routed through it and hence needs a separate financial advisor;preferably its own;to monitor UIDA,. says Sharma. The Commission by imposing its financial advisor on the UIDAI would be reversing its own notification which had earlier allowed the UIDAI financial advisor to send proposals directly to the Finance Secretary like all ministries do.” The last nail in the coffin seems to be the seemingly absurd declaration by the Reserve Bank of India this week that having a UID would not be enough to open a bank account and that an address proof would still be needed.

Of course, all of this could have been easily avoided if the government passed legislation making UIDAI a statutory authority, which would have laid out its mandate in clear terms, vis a vis the role of all other institutions and ministries. Its absence has bred rampant confusion and speculation.

Nilekani addressed the media on Thursday and said that the plan had the backing of the government. “The Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will clear the air once he returns from abroad but the UIDAI is on schedule to meeting its goals,” he added.

Lets hope that for the sake of millions of Indians who have trouble proving their existence that he is right.

The Youth Revolution and the Influence of the New Media

By Ahmed Essa Al Zedjali

The revolution which has taken place in Egypt recently did not come out of the blue. It has not been orchestrated by internal political powers such as the opposition parties or the Muslim Brotherhood as claimed by the former Egyptian regime.

The Egyptian revolution was not influenced by foreign powers or subjected to foreign pressure. As a matter of fact, technology has played a vital role in the success of the revolution.

The Egyptian youth have mastered the use of technology and managed to use it in a way that served their own goals despite the government’s efforts to the contrary. A new Egyptian generation was born. A generation that has managed to use the new media such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter in serving its own cause.

The former Egyptian regime used to maintain an iron grip on the print and broadcast media. It used to control and influence the media in a way which would serve the interests of the regime.

It used to justify this approach by arguing that this was necessary for security reasons. This was a mistake on the part of the former Egyptian regime. The regime maintained the old-fashioned style of the Egyptian media and interfered in its affairs.

The regime also appointed old-fashioned officials to run the media, who could not cope with the new media. As a result of this, the Egyptian media became weak and was unable to keep up with events. This meant that the Egyptian media became the mouthpiece of the regime, which had lost its credibility.

The reliance on old-fashioned traditional media has weakened the regime. This weakness was exacerbated by the emergence of powerful satellite television channels, an interactive Internet, and an enthusiastic youth.

All of these factors pulled the rug from under the Egyptian media, which remained in the sixties’ mentality; consequently, it could not resist the invincible new media.

The former regime in Egypt could not understand that maintaining its old-fashioned media would weaken it and would shift the people’s attention away from the official media. The Egyptian people have sought a credible alternative media, which would deal with the real facts as seen by the people.

The youth have been able to get access to real facts as soon as they occur via different communication means such as mobile telephones, satellite TV channels, Internet -- etc. The technological development has enabled Google to provide an alternative for those who wanted to communicate with each other via the Internet, when the former regime decided to stop the local Internet network.

The youth revolution has succeeded and the regime has lost out simply because it tried to maintain the status quo with regard to the media. The regime has lost because it tried to suppress the media and this made the regime lose its credibility and eventually it became unable to keep up with the new media such as the social media and Al Jazeera satellite TV channel, which had been the real leader of the rebellious Egyptians. On the other hand, the situation of the Egyptian media, which was given one assignment and that was to conceal the real facts, was pathetic.

Unfortunately, Arab countries, which have benefitted from the Egyptian expertise in devising their own laws as well as their security and media strategies, have followed Egypt’s example in making security considerations prevail over media considerations.
These countries should immediately review such approach in a way which would take into consideration the horrible fate of the Egyptian approach.

The restrictions imposed on the local media in Arab countries are not the right solutions. These restrictions would weaken local media and would reduce its importance as a social safety net. Facebook, Twitter and others could pose a real threat to Arab countries which continue to adopt old tactics in dealing with its people and this would make Arab regimes an easy target for Al Jazeera.

The lesson learned from what happened in Egypt is that running the local media on the basis of security obsessions is not the solution. I believe that more freedom of press would serve the interests of the authorities and the society.
Such freedom would also help in alleviating the impact of any sudden tensions and would prevent things from getting out of hand.

I think the time has come for Arab regimes to learn from what happened in Egypt and to work on supporting and strengthening their own media away from security obsessions. Arab regimes should help their media in order to enable it to operate along with the new media.

These regimes should open the door for the youth and listen to them. We live in a new world order, which cannot and should not be led by old-fashioned mentalities.

Talise Spa — The place for self-discovery

By Marium Hinna

Her beauty, as we are told, was in itself not altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her; but converse with her had an irresistible charm, and her presence, combined with the persuasiveness of her discourse and the character which was somehow diffused about her behavior towards others, had something stimulating about it” – Plutarch’s “Life of Antony.” These words bespoken for the regal beauty Cleopatra come to greet you at the doors of Talise. Located in a palace as a sort of escapade along the Coast of Palm Island in Dubai, Talisan offers a world of indefinite regality and smooth contours.

One of their Turkish masseuses, full of vigor and optimism, spoke of women struggles and vowed an emancipation of therapy is imperative for every woman — be it in Turkey, Rome, Morocco or this Arab Peninsula.

Talise is more than a spa. It is a destination providing out of this world spa and wellness experiences for the mind, body and soul. A wide collection of relaxing and pampering spa treatments are complemented by their advanced and bespoke science, medicine and evidence based therapies, paired with an onsite pathology lab. All treatments are administered by an expert team of leading traditional and alternative practitioners who are focused on restoring you to the perfect balance. From conventional to homeopathic medicine, from health and nutritional programs to ayurvedic medicine, and from innovative diagnostics to Chinese medicine, all is provided in a tranquil, relaxing and luxurious environment at Jumeirah Zabeel Saray resort in Dubai.

“Imagine for a moment an oasis designed to meet your every need. Luxury, relaxation, pampering and indulgence,” says Talise’s website. The spa is a place, which is redefining the spa experience, as we know it. Your treatment becomes a journey of self discovery rather than just a feel-good experience, and they can prove it.

Talise massage treatments include Talise Signature Massage, Talise Thai Massage, Talise Indian Massage, Talise Balinese Massage, Talise Therapeutic Massage, Talise Pregnancy Massage and even the Talise Chakra Balancing Therapy. Tailor your therapeutic experience with Talise Energiser, Talise Stretching Manipulation, Talise Five Element Shiatsu Talise Cupping and Talise Lymphatic Drainage. The Talise therapeutic baths are sensuous and magical. Talise Organic Seaweed Bath, Talise Organic Peat Bath is reinvigorating and stress free. The Talise body treatments offer Talise Hot Stone with Organic Seaweed.

Talise body treatments offer a luxury of options. Talise Basil and Mint Body Scrub, Warm Herbal Bag Treatment, Cellulite Treatment and Marine Detoxification Treatment. What you cannot miss for ignorance is the Talise Hamam, which is far from traditional. The treatment begins with a soothing warm and aromatic compress to stimulate your senses. Hammam is designed to be more of a therapeutic experience by combining exfoliation, steam and cool water to release toxins and shed dead skin. Special herbal oils are used during the exfoliation to soften and stimulate toxin release.

Not only will you get a chance to experience what Cleopatra must have felt like, but you also feel like a new being. Their Turkish Hammam reinvigorates your soul and gives you the luxury to soak in the ambiance as you are served wild dry fruits with Arabic coffee. The journey through Therapeutic Massage, Hammam and body treatments is one of self-discovery, calm and exuberance.

Talise facials include Anti-aging, Rejuvenating Antioxidant, Seaweed Marine Nutritive and even Talise Exclusive Men’s Facial. Talise rituals have an intoxicating mixture of gold, herbs, sea organics and natural elements in their therapy. Their specialized treatments are the Talise Head and Scalp Treatment Option and the Talise Luxury Manicure and Pedicure, which are the basic gratifying services they offer.

Following a massage, a rejuvenating mask promotes cell renewal and re-hydrates sore hands and feet. You will also be treated to a cuticle care, “buffand” polish.

Give yourself two hours for their Arabian Gold Ritual or lose yourself for five hours of sensational euphoria with their Exceptional Ritual. A glimpse of their Arabian Gold can be captured in picturing yourself suspended in their surroundings of calm exuberance. While the aroma of Arabian rose incense relaxes your mind and body, you can also enjoy their famous invigorating basil and mint body scrub.

Continue to unwind while being cocooned with the deeply purifying gold clay body mask and balancing “shiffa” facemask. Then, end your journey with an opulent rich body gold infused massage and their coveted healing balm face massage.

They say you can discover unknown secrets and fathom mythical journeys. Talise makes sure their journey enthrals, stimulates and baffles you. So, embark on a journey of Cleopatra’s discovery at Talise Spa today.

Al-Makkiah: The multicultural Saudi Arabia

By Sadaf Al Hamedi

Saudi Arabia is generally associated with the idea of a closed society, eager to preserve its own traditions from external cultural influences. For different reasons, Western countries too are starting to suffer from fear of cultural contamination. However, even in such peculiar context, it is possible to find personalities like Architect Sami Angawi who try to reassert the importance of enhancing the common cultural heritage shared by western and Islamic societies and the risks of a theoretical construct based on the “clash of civilizations.”

The concept of balance, known in Arabic as “Mizan,” is the essence of Islamic tradition and of many religious beliefs. The aspiration of Angawi to reflect this principle in his life and works has spontaneously generated in him a multicultural approach to reality: “You have to see things from different perspectives to reach balance and refuse the idea of conflict as predestination. You cannot use a one-sided scale.”

Angawi is former director of the Haj Research Center and founder of the Amar Center for Architectural Heritage. He has dedicated his life to preserve the history and architecture of Islam’s holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, encouraging dialogue about Islam and cross-cultural understanding. The region where he comes from, the Hijaz, contributed to form his religious thought and accustomed him to cultural and ethnic diversity: “Hijaz is the site of Islam’s holy places and the melting pot of the Muslim world. Pilgrims from all over the world have traveled for centuries to the region, enriching it with their traditions and ideas.”

Placed in the city of Jeddah, a gateway to Makkah and Madinah, the Angawi family home, better known as Al-Makkiah, represents today a main center for Saudi Arabia’s restricted artistic and social landscape. An environment where local and foreign artists, businessmen, diplomats and politicians can meet, thanks to the organization of weekly cultural events. The house is an ideal location for the arrangement of seminars, lectures, exhibitions and concerts and has hosted various dignitaries including two visits by former US President Jimmy Carter.

Not only the function, but also the architecture of Angawi’s villa, is a reflection of the idea of balancing dualities and finding unity in diversity. The house is a mixture of architectural styles from Syria, Iraq, Persia, Turkey and North Africa. The fusion of styles is enriched by a combination of modern construction techniques and traditional crafts, thus maintaining a link with ancient Islamic folklore: “More balance can be achieved through respect for the past,” Angawi said. “In Al-Makkiah, modernity and tradition, privacy and openness, stability and dynamism are equally represented to generate harmony.”

Meeting him in his characteristic villa was an occasion to know more of his future projects but also to have his opinion about political instability in the Middle East and its Islamophobic repercussions on Western societies.

“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul. For the last hundred years, people in the Middle East have been deprived of the oxygen.” According to Angawi, the real problem of our era is not cultural but has to do with the access to resources, to modernity and its instruments: “The West and Islam are victims of reciprocal prejudices and cultural stereotypes, which are very dangerous for the indirect legitimation they provide to choices of foreign politics.”

“Concepts of democracy and human rights should be cleansed of strategic exploitations,” he added. “Respect, solidarity and compassion are human values and inspiring principles for every culture and religion. Being aware of these intrinsic similarities and stressing them is the only antidote to fear and ignorance.”

Far from following rhetorical idealism, Angawi has transformed his own house into a model of multiculturalism and has plenty of concrete ideas. Currently, he is hosting an exhibition in Naseef House dedicated to men and women who have been peace promoters throughout the ages. The exhibition, supports the launch of a scouting project, the ‘Messangers of Peace’ initiative, sponsored by the Minister of Education Prince Faisal bin Abdullah. “My hope is that the arrival of these young messengers of love could be a good omen to set up a permanent ‘Messengers of Peace’ exhibition in Naseef House and nearby Al-Makkiah,” Angawi said. “This could be the starting point to materialize the challenging idea of an itinerant exhibition.”

Angawi always tries to involve wise politicians and diplomats in his projects: “The role of governments is very important. They should encourage the private sector to subsidize us.” Funds would allow the creation of an international Institution where different cultures could be represented thanks to designers, architects and musicians coming from all over the world.

Angawi has his own idea of how the ideal globalization should work. An international network of cultural centers constructively exploiting all the opportunities offered by new medias: “We shouldn’t move toward a homogenization, but an interpenetration of cultures.” In perfect accordance with the principle of balance, he likes to adopt the anthropological term of “glocalization,” which deals with preserving the uniqueness of traditions while remaining open to reciprocal enrichment.

“Al-Makkiah represents a seed,” concluded Angawi. “I wish that one day we could have thousands Makkiahs and establish a United Nations of people, regardless of race, color or beliefs.” Whenever he perceives the challenge is utopian, he tries to find inspiration in water: “It is a powerful element, stronger than rocks, steel and diamonds. If it doesn’t reach the sea, water changes its status and comes back in other forms to achieve the goal.”

Environment - The Growth of Biofuels

By M H Ahssan

If airlines wait until the price is right and commercial quantities are available, biofuels might never happen

Biofuels offer the greatest hope for aviation to reduce its carbon emissions. Savings of up to 80% are on the table if the industry can get it right.

There are tough challenges to overcome: aside from technical issues, biofuels must be competitive in price and available in quantity. But the difficulties that appear to be holding them back may also contain the solutions necessary to drive biofuels forward.

“Biofuels represent one of the most promising means for the industry to reduce its carbon footprint,” says Paul Steele, IATA Aviation Environment Director. “But it’s not only about emissions. Biofuels offer opportunities to developing countries to grow new livelihoods and reduce dependency on imported fossil fuels, as well as the obvious benefits to the environment and the industry. These are compelling reasons for governments to get on board.”

High energy
One of the perceived technical problems with biomass -the raw material of biofuels- is that it has a low energy density. It was thought that an aircraft filled with a conventional jet fuel would fly a lot further than a plane containing the same weight of biofuel. Test flights have disproved this assumption, however.

In January 2009, a Continental Airlines flight partially powered by algae and jatropha reported a decrease in fuel consumption in the biofuel engine compared with the one running conventional jet fuel. In other words, the energy density of the biofuel was higher than Jet A1 fuel. TAM Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Interjet and Azul are planning further biofuels tests over the coming months. The work is expected to underscore the substantial gains made by the likes of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Air New Zealand, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines, and vanquish technical hurdles once and for all.

Biofuels will require production to occur locally to ensure maximum efficiency. Because petroleum has a naturally high energy density it can be shipped in large volumes to refineries around the world. Local biomass production would create a new distribution and business model that would bring with it a host of advantages.

For any nation, producing as much of its own energy as possible has obvious merits. “Effectively, what the biofuel industry can offer is increased energy security,” says Steele. And infrastructure costs could be outweighed by savings in distribution and the CO2 emissions associated with large-scale shipping.

Endless benefits
The argument for biofuels gets stronger. Despite the rationality of local production it isn’t necessarily true that biofuels will only be available in those areas where potential crops -such as camelina and jatropha- are grown. Local feedstocks are widely available. For example, a British Airways initiative will produce fuel from municipal solid waste. From 2014, part of the BA fleet will fly on fuels derived from waste previously destined for landfill.

A self ‑contained plant built by the Solena Group will convert 500,000 tonnes of waste into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel each year. BA estimates CO2 savings of up to 95% compared with normal fuel services. This is equivalent to taking 48,000 cars off the road. The project will also generate 1,200 jobs, cut another greenhouse gas –methane- by reducing landfill, and even trim local authority landfill tax bills.

“This unique partnership with Solena will pave the way for realizing our ambitious goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 50% by 2050,” says BA CEO Willie Walsh. “We believe it will lead to the production of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene.”

Furthermore, marine algae -another strong contender for biomass material- has no realistic geographical boundaries. The Sea Green project, run by the Sustainable Use of Renewable Fuels (SURF) consortium, will work to further progress this fuel source in the short term.

There are concerns that areas of Africa particularly suitable for biomass crops may not have the financial and logistical capability necessary for local production. But the potential of a new industry, bringing with it new jobs and new hope for the future, is a strong argument in favor of support where necessary. As IATA Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani puts it: “Millions can be lifted from poverty.”

Demanding demand
Energy security and new jobs are strong incentives for biofuels development. In this economic environment, however, such ideals must be accompanied by a balancing of the books. In short, there needs to be a demand for biofuels.

The airline industry will provide this; the critical question is when. If airlines wait until the price is right and commercial quantities are available, biofuels might never happen. To kickstart the process, airlines need to buy in early.

It seems a formidable barrier. No airline can afford to overpay for fuel in an industry where profits are small at the best of times. In fact, the issue is proving easily surmountable. Airlines view biofuels development as good public relations. There may even be a return on investment if the airline can pick up extra business based on its green credentials.

A handful of airlines taking this more far-sighted approach may be all the aviation biofuels industry needs to take off. After all, having biofuels is a bit like offering carbon offsets -and the number of passengers using that option is increasing all the time.

Biofuels will come down in price. With an expansion in production volumes, costs are certain to fall. The International Energy Agency (IEA) suggests that each doubling of the scale of capacity for new energy technologies delivers a 10-20% reduction in unit costs.

On top of this, carbon will become increasingly expensive. Fuel costs are expected to remain in a stable band around the $80/barrel mark for 2011, but the IEA and others anticipate an inevitable long-term increase in price. Added to this will be the increasing cost of carbon once emissions trading schemes (ETS) come into play.

Aviation’s involvement in the European Union ETS starts in 2012 and, even if the recent ICAO agreement on a global approach to reducing emissions forces a dramatic U-turn, any market-based solution will put carbon prices up.

Getting started
Forecasts predict that aviation biofuels will become economical in about 20 years’ time. Government support for the fledgling industry could make all the difference.

The IEA estimates that biofuels will make up about 30% of aviation fuel supplies by 2050. But a report by sustainable energy consultancy E4tech for the UK Committee on Climate Change last year projected a significant improvement on this figure if governments back biofuels and new technologies come into play. Its central estimate for aviation biofuels usage in 2050 was 85%.

At the recent Air Transport Action Group environment summit in Geneva, Doris Schröcker, Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, intimated that while there may not be specific aviation policies regarding biofuels, discussions on a more general bio-energy policy are advanced. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have also stated they will team up with the airline industry to work on developing renewable jet fuel.

There is also potential for collaboration with the automotive industry, which can use certain aviation fuel by-products. Automotive biofuels already receive support worth almost $1 a gallon in some countries.

“With certification expected within months, distribution and commercialization are the challenge,” says IATA’s Bisignani. “It is in the self-interest of every government to get much more involved and support the commercialization of biofuels with incentives to facilitate the needed investments.”

Regional approaches are likely in the first instance. Biofuels development may proceed better this way and a global approach is already there in the stringent specifications a fuel must meet. Only by meeting these specifications will a biofuel appeal to the global market. Local production being ramped up to meet the needs of a local hub would seem a good starting point.

“The foundations for this new, exciting industry have already been laid,” concludes Steele. “What we need now is government action to support and amplify the first moves that have been made. The industry has already demonstrated its commitment to environmental mitigation. Governments must now lend their support with legal and fiscal incentives to turn the biofuel opportunity into a win-win solution for all.”