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Opinion: Creativity and Necessity: Not All Children Want to be Doctors and Engineers By Zainab Al-Arabi |
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One day last summer, I discovered that my ten-year-old son had the potential to become a creative genius. I found him kneeling on the ground near a mound of clay he had dug out from a nearby hillside, to which he was busily adding water and punching into malleable elasticity. Bits of the reddish muck were in his hair and on his face, not that it bothered him.
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Opinion: Libyan Electronic Services Website is Online, a Welcome Initiative, But… By Sami Zaptia |
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Further to my March 2008 article (issue 189) entitled 'Special teams of 'mystery clients' to monitor the performance of government departments' in The Tripoli Post on the relative advancement of Dubai in the field of e-government and e-administration, it has been pointed out to me since that there is some progress in Libya on this front.
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Opinion: Keening for the Children By Zainab Al-Arabi |
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My heart is crushed, crushed I cannot breathe - the pain - the anguish Shall I scream? Should I pray? Of course I will pray, But let me scream, scream first Let me grieve for little Iman Who will no longer feed from my breast. I wrote these simple words after watching a news clip about little Iman Hajju, a nine month old Palestinian baby, killed by Zionist soldiers.
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Opinion: Passion and Energy of Libyan Youth for Football Need to be Harnessed for Self-improvement too! By Sami Zaptia |
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On Tuesday 22 April there was a very important football match taking part. The main and more important match was the 4 pm kick-off of the two top teams in the Libyan Premier League. But I do not think that you needed me to tell you about the match, because if you were driving in and around Tripoli for the week before the match, you could not have missed the various red or green banners and flags that have been hanging from here there and everywhere.
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Opinion: Mothers Beware By Zainab Al-Arabi |
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Some mothers I know, whether relatives or friends -or friends of relatives, or relatives of friends- treat their sons as if they were emirs. Then each one of these little emirs grows up expecting that every woman in their lives exists for the sole purpose of serving them. This type of arrogant thinking becomes dangerous in adulthood when it's coupled with anger and a sense of male superiority, leading to verbal or physical abuse.
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Opinion: Truth... And the Israeli Lobby in the United States By Morgan Strong |
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(Brick, N. J.) The New Yorker Magazine ran a particularly important story in the edition of April 14. The story was a lengthy piece on an obscure scholar of Archeology, Nadia Abu El-Haj. The story was not entirely about Archeology. The story was about truth, and the horror of the consequence of the suppression of truth, and the unwelcome, most dreadful, calamity of monumental lies.
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Opinion: The Tibet Card By Joseph M. Cachia |
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As I watched the corporate media coverage of the protests and disruptions during the Olympic torch route, I became angrier than usual over the hypocrisy. Goodness knows how many anti-war protests over the last years have been down-played and under-covered by the corporate media. Many crimes against humanity are rendered invisible to the public eye, while issues, like those of Sudan and Tibet are highlighted as the only objects of acceptable moral outrage and action.
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Opinion: Where are Tripoli's Car Parks? By Sami Zaptia |
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As a frustrated driver living in our capital city, I was happy to read in the news last summer a tender announcement for 'the execution of multi-floor car parks'. At last I thought! Those signs at the proposed car parks have been up for a few years now with absolutely no hint of any implementation. However, despite that announcement of last summer, so far there has still been no sign of any construction at the sign-posted sites.
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Opinion: Village Roads and Village Ways By Zainab Al-Arabi |
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In a very small area of the Gebel Gharbi, there lies a village that has the dubious honour of being the final resting place of a 'walee salih'. A 'walee' (not as in Wali - governor) is a person who is said to have had miraculous healing powers during his life, and whose powers continue even after his death.
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Opinion: Naming and Numbering Libya's Streets, Buildings is Vital for Economic Development By Sami Zaptia |
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I was happy to read that the Administrative Committee for the General Housing and Utilities Corporation in its meetings held in Tripoli in June and October 2007 agreed 'to coordinate with related authorities to speed up giving names and numbers to streets in all towns and villages in Libya'.
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Opinion: Time Travel By Zainab Al-Arabi |
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While astronauts were walking in space a few weeks ago, I was wondering when -if ever- I would be able to 'take the train' from Tripoli to any other destination in Libya? The subject was brought up during a family discussion about the planned railway in Libya and if it would actually reach the Gebel area. I knew that there used to be a bus company serving Gharian and its surrounding regions in the 1960's, and a train service from Al-Hira to Janzur had existed. Whether it had stopped because of disuse or misuse, is not clear.
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Opinion: Complete Privatization is Not Necessarily the Magic Formula for Success By Sami Zaptia |
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Throughout the month of March the various Secretaries of GPCs have been holding meetings to discuss the possibility and feasibility of privatizing the whole of the state sector. As a result, an intense debate has been going on amongst the Libyan public regarding the whole matter of privatization.
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Opinion: Welcome to the New Cold War! By Joseph M. Cachia |
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There is no doubt that the structural changes in the world over the past two decades have been profound. These include not only the collapse of the Soviet Union (and the end of the balance of power which had provided an equilibrium) but with it the beginnings of a new era.
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Opinion: The Tail that Wags the Dog By Morgan Strong |
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(Brick, N.J.) Condoleezza Rice went to Israel a week or so ago. She went there to pressure the Israeli's to make some concessions to the Palestinians, and restart the peace process.
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Opinion: Tribes and Nations By Zainab Al-Arabi |
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Through dialogue and recognition, Islam asserts the principles of respect and co-existence towards peoples who differ in religion and customs from Muslims. Contrary to the atmosphere of fear generated by some, regarding the 'horrors' of the anticipated growth of Islam in Europe and other continents, the basic teachings of Islam do not call for the enforcement of religion upon others.
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