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November 18: A Reminder of Morocco’s Long Fight for Independence.
The day marks a celebration of Moroccan bravery in the face of the French and Spanish colonial regimes.
On November 18, Moroccans will celebrate the 67th anniversary of Morocco’s independence. The date, which once commemorated King Mohammed V’s ascension to the throne in 1927, celebrates nowadays the country’s long fight for freedom and independence against the French and Spanish protectorate.
The colonial history dates back to March 30, 1912, with the signing of the Treaty of Fez, laying the foundation for the French protectorate and the division of Moroccan territories between Paris and Madrid with Spain controlling the northern and southern provinces with the exclusion of Tangier, which became an international zone in 1923.
However, Tangier’s special status was temporarily revoked between June 14, 1940, and August 31, 1945, as Spanish dictator and general Francisco Franco occupiedthe international zone.
As for the Ceuta and Melilla enclaves, they have remained under Spanish control since the 17th and 15th centuries, respectively.
A fierce fight
Since the establishment of the French and Spanish protectorate regimes in Morocco, local communities led numerous revolutionary missions fighting back the expansion of the colonial forces.
The establishment of the Republic of the Rif by Abdelkrim al Khattabi in 1921 and its continuity until 1926 strongly reflected the Moroccan will for independence. Despite being defeated by the Spanish Army of Africa with the support of French forces, the republic remained a prominent example of Moroccan-led resistance movements.
In November 1925, the Moroccan nationalist movement was initiated to put an end to the oppressive colonial regimes. The movement was instrumental in voicing Moroccan demands in not only urban and rural centers but also on the international stage.
In January 1944, 66 members of the Moroccan national movement signed the country’s Manifesto of Independence and presented it to the French and Spanish colonial authorities, as well as representations of the US, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.
The manifesto was a turning point in Morocco’s struggle for independence. Aware of the threat that the declaration represented to the continuity of the French protectorate in the North African country, French colonial forces worked on pressuring Sultan Mohammed V to condemn the proclamation, while leading a purge of Moroccan nationalists and intellectuals and accusing some of the signatories of spying for Nazi Germany.
This was a time when Muslim and Jewish nationalists were discussing the prospect of establishing a modern and free Morocco that can equally celebrate both communities and reverse discriminatory measures forced by colonial authorities such as the Berber Dahir and Vichy’s anti-Jewish policies.
Despite facing fierce oppression from French colonial forces, the Moroccan nationalists continued to voice their demand for self-determination.
The movement further worked in coordination with Sultan Mohammed V to obtain freedom. The Sultan’s calls for independence eventually led to his forced exile along with his family members on the eve of Eid al-Adha in August 1953 to Corsica, and then to Madagascar in 1954.
The Sultan’s forced exile fueled public uproar with many nationalists organizing protests and calling for the return of the Sultan and his family as well as the right of the people to self-determine their fate.
Faced with rising pressure from the Moroccan public for independence, France allowed the return of Sultan Mohammed V to his homeland on November 16, 1955.
Two days later, the monarch delivered an iconic speech, stating, “We are delighted to announce the end of the trusteeship system and protectorate and the advent of freedom and independence.”
Incomplete independence
By late 1955, Mohammed V agreed to the gradual restoration of the country’s territorial integrity in line with agreements reached with France.
On March 2, 1956, Morocco officially gained independence from the French regime. That same year, Morocco re-integrated Tangier and the northern part of Morocco that was under Spanish rule.
However, the Ceuta and Melilla enclaves, as well as the country’s south remained under the Spanish regime at the time.
Morocco gradually recovered its territorial integrity in the south with the withdrawal of Spain from Tarfaya in 1958, Sidi Infni in 1969, and Saqia al Hamra and Oued Eddahab region in 1975.
A significant part of the Moroccan recovery of southern territories was led by the late King Hassan II (1961-1999) who orchestrated the Green March that contributed to the full withdrawal of Spain from southern Morocco.
After over six decades of fighting for independence, Morocco regained the majority of its territories with the exception of the Ceuta and Melilla enclaves that remain under Spanish rule.
The country’s southern provinces, known as Western Sahara, are also subject to disputes with the eastern neighbor and the Polisario Front, a self-proclaimed separatist group challenging Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty of the region.
Today, Rabat continues to defend its territorial integrity in international gatherings with the support of friendly states.
With the biggest show in football 24 hours away, Arab News takes a look at the 12-year journey to make Qatar 2022 happen.
The first FIFA World Cup to take place in the Arab world will kick off Sunday in Doha when the host nation take on Ecuador in the tournament’s opening match at Al-Bayt Stadium.
The journey from winning the nomination on Dec. 2, 2010 to the big kick off on Nov. 20, 2022 has not been without challenges and controversies, but for the teams and fans who have landed in Qatar, and for millions around the world, the moment of truth has arrived.
As in Russia four years ago, there will be four Arab nations taking part in the tournament. This time around they are Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are among a record six Asian Football Confederation members taking part, along with Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia.
Of the Arab nations, Qatar have an immediate chance to get three points on the board against Ecuador — arguably the easiest of their three matches in group A, which also includes the Netherlands and Senegal.
A win would leave the Asian champions requiring perhaps just a single point from their two other matches to become only the fourth Arab nation — after Morocco (1986), Saudi Arabia (1994), and Algeria (2014) — to reach the knockout stages of a World Cup.
Saudi Arabia have the toughest start of the Arab nations, taking on Argentina in their Group C opener, before facing Poland and Mexico in two matches that are only marginally less difficult.
A strong Morocco squad will have high hopes of causing an upset in Group F against Belgium Canada and Croatia, while Tunisia were dealt a tough hand when placed with champions France, Denmark and Canada in Group D.
While the Arab teams might struggle to progress beyond the group stages, it is a mission they should embrace. Players like Qatar’s Akram Afifi and Almoez Ali, Saudi’s Salem Al-Dawsari, and Tunisia’s Hannibal Mejbri could introduce themselves to a whole new audience.
Others, like Seville keeper Yasssine Bounou, and his Moroccan colleagues Achraf Hakimi of PSG and Hakim Ziyech of Chelsea are already familiar to audiences worldwide.
Standout matches for the Arab contingent will be Qatar’s showdown with the Netherlands on Nov. 29; Saudi’s second Group C fixture against Poland, which could provide their best chance of an upset; Tunisia’s clash with champions France; and Morocco’s final Group F match against Canada, potentially a match in which they could seal their progress to the round of 16 if they already have points on the board.
Elsewhere, there will be titanic clashes (Spain vs. Germany), international “derbies” (England vs. Wales), politically charged matches (Iran vs. USA) and revenge missions (Ghana vs. Uruguay)
Among the favorites for the trophy will be France and Brazil, both of whom have named fearsome squads, as well as Euro 2020 finalists England and South American champions Argentina.
The latter have become many people’s sentimental favorites, with a swell of emotion building behind Lionel Messi’s bid to end a glorious career with the trophy he craves the most.
Win it on Dec. 18, in what would be the Argentine maestro’s 1000th professional game, and the title of greatest footballer of all time will no longer be debated.
Messi’s rival for the title of greatest player of his generation, Cristiano Ronaldo, will also be playing in what is surely his last World Cup. And while things have not gone smoothly for the Portugal captain at Manchester United this season, his army of fans will no doubt be watching to see if he can pull one last rabbit out of the hat.
With Messi and Ronaldo walking into the sunset at the end of Qatar 2022, the position of world’s best player is up for grabs. The contender most likely to fill the void is Kylian Mbappe.
Already a world champion, the Frenchman has long been many people’s choice as the world’s “next” best player, and though he has continued to excel for club and country, the fact that he has remained at Paris Saint-Germain and, crucially, failed to land the coveted Champions League for them, means the jury is still out.
And then there is Neymar. This World Cup could well be the final chance for the Brazilian teammate of Messi and Mbappe at PSG to prove that he belongs among the greats after two World Cups plagued by injuries and underwhelming performances.
Other veterans including Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, Uruguay’s Luis Suarez, Poland’s Robert Lewandowski and Croatia’s Luka Modric will also have the chance to bid their fans a fond farewell at the highest level.
Among a new generation of players to watch in Qatar are the likes of Brazil’s Vinicius Jr, Raphinha and Bruno Guimaraes; France’s Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni; Uruguay’s Darwin Nunez; Germany’s Jamal Musiala; and the brilliant 19-year-old Spaniard Pedri.
The stage is set, the curtain rises on Sunday night.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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The first FIFA World Cup to take place in the Arab world will kick off Sunday in Doha when the host nation take on Ecuador in the tournament’s opening match. (Reuters/File Photo)
Guinness World Records, the global authority on record-breaking achievements, announced on Friday that its 2023 edition, available now in stores and online in the Middle East, features 50 records from the Arab world.
Read on for some of the latest achievements from the region.
01. Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom is flexing its muscles with a set of achievements including the largest LED structure and brightest suspended ornament by Noor Riyadh Festival and the largest Lego brick Formula One car by the Saudi Arabia Motor Federation.
02. UAE
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From the UAE, the new book covers a number of humanitarian record-breaking initiatives such as the largest donation for a patient’s medical treatment by the charity organization Emirates Red Crescent and the most awareness ribbons made in one hour by the Emirates Oncology Society, an organization dedicated to promoting multidimensional care for cancer patients.
03. Iraq
There are three achievements from Iraq: the largest pin-and-thread art by artist Saeed Howidi, the most eggs balanced on the back of a hand (18 eggs) and the tallest stack of M&M’s by Ibrahim Sadeq.
04. Egypt
Mohamed Shehata achieved the widest arm span on a living person (male) and the widest hand span on a living person (male), while Mahmoud Ayoub was featured for achieving the most finger-tip push-ups (one arm) in one minute.
05. Kuwait
Yousef Al-Refaie became the youngest person to climb the Seven Volcanic Summits (male). Kuwait was also featured for the longest indoor slide achieved by LOOPZ.
06. Algeria
From Algeria, the trade center Algiers International Fair created the largest bowl of couscous, and Djamaa el Djazaïr, also known as the Great Mosque of Algiers, broke the record for the tallest minaret, the tower used to project the Muslim call to prayer.
Scout’s honour: lucky break bounced Ahmad Alhendawi into the line of dut.y
Jordanian who substituted basketball for public service now proudly puts the global scout movement’s 54 million young people first as leader of the packs.
Ahmad Alhendawi found his mission in life on the basketball court. Just not in the way he expected.
As a teenager on the brink of university, the Jordanian had set his heart on a sports scholarship. It all depended on one 90-minute trial but, fortunately, young Alhendawi was good.
Even though he was up against more than 30 contenders for one of just two coveted places, he had little doubt in his ability to prevail.
The decisive moment came as he ran back into a defensive position during a one-on-one exercise with a rival when his knee twisted beneath him.
The tears that followed were for the agony and his thwarted ambition. “I can’t remember much because the pain was just unbearable,” Mr Alhendawi tells The National.
The diagnosis was a cruciate ligament injury – and that was that as far as the basketball scholarship was concerned.
“It was literally the only time I needed basketball in my life, just to get to the school that I really wanted,” he says.
“Most of my friends were there and I already had a kind of picture of how things would play out if I went. So it was game over.”
He had little choice but to revert to plan B, one which he now believes should “always have been my plan A”, to focus on his other passion – volunteering.
The switch to public service has not worked out too badly for the man who, at the age of 32, was named as the youngest head of the world’s scouting movement.
“Volunteering is quite a remarkable thing,” he says. “It’s a magical thing. You actually think you’re giving your time and energy but all the time you are getting much more than you are giving.
“Only with time do you realise how much you have accumulated experiences and insights on things that you would never have explored if it wasn’t for volunteering.”
It is tempting to call it a meteoric rise but Mr Alhendawi’s selection as secretary general of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement followed a pattern of volunteering and championing youth causes that was set early in childhood.
The young Ahmad grew up in Zarqa, Jordan’s second largest city and a magnet for migrants from across the Middle East seeking a better life.
Attending a public school with class sizes of 45 to 50, he mixed with Iraqis, Syrians and Christian Arabs whose families had all made their way to the country’s industrial centre beside the Zarqa River.
As the youngest of 10 children from a military family, he was well versed in making himself heard.
His intellectual curiosity was fed by learning from the conversations of his older siblings and visits to the local public library. He remembers, too, aged six, being captivated by his father’s habit of reading the newspaper every day.
“It was always a surprise to me why there were so many stories in there but we were not in the paper,” Mr Alhendawi says.
“My father explained the whole thing that you have to do something to be in the paper. In a very childish way – but in a profound way when I reflect on it – I felt like I would like to be part of those sorts of things.”
Thinking that the opportunities afforded him through the formal education system would not only be conventional but limited by social class and financial background, he fixed upon the idea of expanding the realm of possibilities via extra-curricular activities.
These days, Mr Alhendawi describes it as “hustling through volunteering”. “It was my ticket to try to make it, and it worked rather well and allowed me to do a lot of things,” he says.
As a teenage scout, he was asked to help as an usher for an event where the charismatic King Hussein of Jordan gave a speech. “It was the only time I saw my father cry, when the king passed away,” Mr Alhendawi says.
He learnt the value of public service from a teacher, who in his spare time ran the school’s scout troop, and his inspirational basketball coach. His own volunteering efforts ran in parallel with his sporting passions until that devastating torn ligament.
The result of the injury was that, instead of staying in his home city and attending the Hashemite University, he went to his second-choice, Al Balqa, in Salt, 50 kilometres away.
Being separated from his family taught him independence, but the course on computer information systems failed to satisfy his growing intellectual curiosity.
Before starting classes, he travelled every week to another university to attend lectures on political economy and psychology. “My friends were laughing at me because they knew that I didn’t have passion for what I was studying,” he says.
His dedication fed into his volunteering work. Mr Alhendawi spent extra hours reading lecture notes and preparing documents while working on school councils and youth commissions.
He was delivering a presentation at a conference when he was spotted and offered a job with the Arab League to work on youth projects and develop civil society.
Mr Alhendawi has consistently maintained that young people are unexploited assets in solving the world’s problems. It is a lesson that global leaders need to learn quickly, he says, with half of the population under the age of 25 but suffering some of its most acute problems.
The dissertation for his master’s degree, achieved at the European Institute in Nice, France, looked into the workings of the Arab uprisings in Egypt. He argues that the perception of apathetic Egyptian youth was not borne out by the mass mobilisation in 2011.
He has spoken of changing the rules of political engagement so that those in the younger generation are treated as more than mere beneficiaries of charity from an older establishment. Despite too often being sidelined in this process, Mr Alhendawi says that young people cannot afford to ignore politics.
His own advancement came when he was tapped by the UN’s secretary general, Ban Ki -moon, in January 2013 to become the organisation’s first youth envoy.
Four years later, he himself was named as a secretary general, representing the diverse views of more than 170 nations in the scouting movement.
No one was more delighted than Mr Ban, who dug out a photograph of his younger self as a scout when Mr Alhendawi came to his office to break the news.
Mr Ban told his departing envoy that his appointment was a good one for the UN. While he might be losing an energetic advocate for youth, he felt that the vast scout network under Mr Alhendawi would advocate for similar goals as those of the UN.
In a sign of how the co-operation would work, the UN, with the scouting movement and the five other large global youth organisations, launched an initiative called Global Youth Mobilisation to provide an initial $2 million for young people and communities affected by Covid-19. Young people will decide where the money goes and how it is spent.
Mr Alhendawi’s mission statement in leading the scouting movement is to embrace the “mega trends that are really threatening the future of this generation, like climate change and inequality ”.
In his own scouting days, he visited parts of Jordan as a child and was immersed in different cultures that he probably would not have experienced otherwise.
“Scouting tends to be inward looking sometimes … a movement that has more than 50 million members and more than 500 million alumni cannot act as a small club in a village,” he says.
His programme of modernisation extends to updating the image of the organisation, which in some countries has lost its appeal to youngsters to the competing attractions of computer games and sports.
Mr Alhendawi has praised the process of revitalisation in the UK, where perceptions were overhauled when the adventurer and explorer Bear Grylls was named as chief scout.
His social media feeds feature many campaigning messages, whether environmental, educational, achieving gender equality, ensuring a fair global distribution of vaccines or promoting peace in South Sudan.
It is a politics founded on consensus building from his history of working for membership organisations – such as the UN and the Arab League – in which progress can be made only by bringing people together in search of a common goal.
He recalls one lunch with a diplomat at which they discussed the differences between working for a country or an organisation like the United Nations. “The way we ended the conversation was that if you were a representative of a member state you could probably promote development for the sake of politics,” he says.
“But if you worked on the UN side, you have for the most time to do the politics for the sake of maintaining development gains.”
Despite his global ambitions for change, some of Mr Alhendawi’s challenges are closer to home. Sexual abuse scandals resulted in the Boy Scouts of America, for example, filing for bankruptcy to allow it to pay compensation in hundreds of reported cases.
One of his first acts as secretary general was to build ethical standards across all the national scouting organisations. In the coming years, any that do not conform to child protection measures “will have no place in the movement”.
In his darker moments, he turns to the words of Nelson Mandela, whose letters and poems are on the wall of Mr Alhendawi’s home in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia where the world scouting movement has its headquarters.
“Just two weeks ago, I was confronted with a situation where I thought, maybe I should be angry … and gave myself two hours, read a few of the letters and it just calmed me down and helped me find the right tone,” he says.
At 37, Mr Alhendawi has reached the stage in his life when he is running out of time for “the youngest …” to be attached as a prefix to each new appointment. He was due to marry his partner, who is from Finland, last year but the coronavirus has delayed the nuptials until this summer.
The pandemic has hit young people hardest, Mr Alhendawi says. He wrote on Twitter last year that the effect of Covid-19 on youth was not just severe, it was catastrophic.
“It has resulted in a generation in waiting,” he said. He points to his own native Jordan, where youth unemployment stands at 50 per cent.
Despite the gloom, lockdown living has had some advantages. In this online interview, Mr Alhendawi occasionally tugs at his black polo shirt, sticky from the effort of throwing a few hoops on the basketball court outside.
After two decades of exercises to relieve the discomfort caused by the old sporting injury, he has at last had surgery. As he puts it, “I’ve finally fixed something that’s been broken for 20 years”.
More than 9,000 people signed up online to learn first aid within 24 hours of the campaign launching.
The Saudi Red Crescent Authority has received a Guinness World Record for its “Saving a Soul” awareness campaign after 9,836 people signed up to learn first aid within 24 hours.
More than 9,000 people signed up online to learn first aid and how to use automated external defibrillators within 24 hours of the campaign launching, Saudi Press Agency reported.
Spokesperson for the Saudi Red Crescent Authority, Abdulaziz Al-Suwaine, said the campaign was held at Riyadh Front and witnessed a big turnout from both citizens and residents who showed true willingness to learn first aid and ways to use AEDs.
The authority has installed defibrillators in several public places to help save lives, he added.Al-Suwaine said the campaign’s success in attracting such a large number of people in a short amount of time shows how responsible Saudi society is and the will of its individuals to be influencers at the humanitarian level.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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The Saudi Red Crescent Authority receives a Guinness World Record for its “Saving a Soul” awareness campaign. (SPA)
The Iraqi researcher Mootaz Salman has won the “Young Scientist Lectureship Award” for research that involved putting human brain tissue on a microchip and using innovative technology to treat neurodegenerative diseases.
Salman started his academic career at the University of Mosul, where he earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy with Honours, and is now is a senior researcher and lecturer in the department of physiology, anatomy and genetics at the University of Oxford.
He spoke to Al-Fanar Media about his work, which has taken nearly ten years of research, and the experiences that led him to his current post.
The first researcher in Britain to win the award, Salman said the support he received from universities where he had worked in the United States and the United Kingdom had been a key factor.
“I deeply believe that the more a person works, the more fortunate he is,” Salman said.
“From the very beginning, I was aware of the challenges ahead, the double effort I had to make, as an academic from a conflict country, and the responsibility I had to convey a different image of my country and to help humanity provide solutions to brain diseases and stroke, which have risen dramatically.”
Human Brain Tissue on a Microchip
The International Society for Neurochemistry and the and Asian-Pacific Society for Neurochemistry will present Salman with the award in September in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Salman led a research team that used a human brain “microvessel on a chip” to study what happens when drugs cross from the bloodstream into the brain.
The research was part of his ongoing work to understand the cellular physiology of the blood-brain barrier and exploit its mechanisms to improve the effectiveness of therapeutic treatments of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.
The device the researchers designed for the study allowed them to track the movement of tiny molecular sizes across the blood-brain barrier. Their device is ideal for studies involving biotherapies, as well as being able to employ it in high-resolution imaging methods, such as transmission electron microscopy, Salman said.
Academic Journey
Before moving to the University of Oxford two years ago as an assistant professor and lecturer at Wolfson College, Salman was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital in the United States.
Before that, he earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Sheffield Hallam University, in the United Kingdom.
During his doctoral studies, he discovered a new pharmacological framework for developing drugs to treat patients with brain tumours resulting from accidents and strokes.
This research focused on water receptors in the brain. Salman described it as a turning point that helped him recognise the molecular mechanics of brain diseases and think of ways to provide therapeutic solutions rather than surgery, which has major risks and complications.
He said the research led him to discover how cells develop brain tumours and the mechanics that cause these tumours and strokes at the molecular level.
A World Health Organization report says that about 75 million people in the world suffer from strokes annually. About five million of them die and another five million suffer permanent disability.
Salman says the incidence of brain disease in the Arab world is rising because of the dietary and living patterns of the majority of the population, the intake of fats and sugars at “unreasonable” rates, the lack of physical activity, and the pressures of daily life.
Difficulty of Research in Arab Countries
After graduating from the University of Mosul, Salman worked as a teaching assistant in the university’s Faculty of Pharmacy for about two years and experienced firsthand the difficulties of research in the Arab world. He said there was no financial support for conducting research, research laboratories were limited, and the teaching and administrative burdens on professors usually led them to abandon research.
Salman said scientific research should be considered “an investment,” not a “random academic luxury.” Such work only flourishes in a suitable environment where there is stability and financial support, he said.
He believes the political unrest Iraq has experienced in recent years has affected teaching in universities and Iraqi researchers’ chances for professional development. He described government support for Iraqi universities as “very limited” and said most research initiatives were “individual and random” and did not amount to regular institutional work.
A Call for Greater Investment in Research
Salman said Arab countries needed to increase investment in scientific research at the national level and benefit from the experience of wealthy Gulf countries that have attracted foreign and Arab professors from major European and American universities to establish research centres where young researchers can train.
He said he had tried to open communication channels between the University of Oxford and Iraqi universities to reach agreements for cooperation and scientific research, which could provide research fellowships for Iraqi researchers at British universities.
This year, the University of Mosul signed a cooperation agreement with Oxford on a project that uses remote sensing and photographic information systems to study antiquities. The work would preserve the cultural heritage of Nineveh Governorate and other Iraqi provinces, and attract Ph.D. students to training courses at British universities.
Salman said: “These efforts give me a high sense of pride and a greater incentive for hard work and research that benefits all humanity. I feel a sense of responsibility and love towards my country, my city and my mother university, which helped me and paved the way for me at the beginning of my academic journey.”
Mootaz Salman, an Iraqi scientist at the University of Oxford, has won the “Young Scientist Lectureship Award” for his use of innovative technology to treat neurological diseases. (Photo: Mootaz Salman).
A longtime Wichita Falls physician has been honored with the International Surgical Volunteerism Award by the American College of Surgeons for his over 30 years of volunteer work with Physicians for Peace and others, according to the Wichita County Medical Society.
Dr. Eid B. Mustafa has been on at least 40 medical missions since 1988, including at least 25 with Physicians for Peace.
He has volunteered his surgical and medical expertise to help the people of the Palestinian West Bank, as well as other underserved areas of the Middle East, according to the ASC .
“Dr. Mustafa served as a leader, facilitator, and trusted advisor to Physicians for Peace for over 25 years since its founding in 1989,” according to the nonprofit organization providing education and training to health-care workers in under-resourced communities.
“He led numerous multi-specialty surgical training missions to the West Bank, and spearheaded a successful mission to Morocco in 2010,” according to an Oct. 10 statement from Physicians for Peace.
Mustafa, a plastic surgeon, received the International ACS/Pfizer Surgical Volunteerism Award at the ASC Clinical Congress Oct. 18 in San Diego.
The award recognizes surgeons who are committed to giving back to society by making significant contributions to surgical care through organized volunteer activities abroad.
Mustafa was born in the West Bank, received his medical education in Egypt and moved to the US to perform his residency and fellowship training in plastic and reconstructive surgery, according to the ACS.
After his training, he relocated to the medically underserved city of Wichita Falls where he was the only practicing plastic and reconstructive surgeon for many years, according to the ACS.
His international volunteerism began in earnest in 1987 when he met Dr. Charles Horton, founder of Physicians for Peace. Horton worked with Mustafa to initiate medical missions to the West Bank the following year.
For many years, Mustafa traveled to the West Bank for 10 to 21 days. His initial efforts focused on congenital defects, burn care and reconstruction from injury.
As his missionary work evolved, he recruited a multidisciplinary team aimed at the needs of each individual community, including specialists in urology, orthopedics, peripheral vascular surgery, off-pump cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology and physical therapy.
With the advent of minimally invasive surgery during this period, he arranged for equipment and education to be provided in the West Bank to accommodate the growing interest.
His trips provided preoperative care, interoperative teaching and postoperative care for the patients. The teams Mustafa developed have provided over 2,000 procedures.
Mustafa has been responsible for all logistics, including planning with the host country, setting up patient visits, acquiring visas, and making travel and lodging arrangements for his team and educational venues.
He has conscientiously provided for the safety of his volunteers in areas with significant personal security concerns.
Mustafa’s efforts have expanded beyond surgical services.
Recognizing the burgeoning need for care of the increasing diabetic population in the West Bank, Mustafa founded centers in Al-Bireh, Nablus and Hebron to deliver dietary information, preventative foot care, smoking cessation, neuropathy education and medication management.
These centers also offer education about the long-term effects of diabetes, including cardiovascular disease, kidney failure and ophthalmologic complications.
In addition, burn centers were established in Nablus and in Hebron due to the wartime thermal injuries seen in these areas.
These centers were not only equipped to take care of the burn injuries but provided education and training to the surgical staff, nurses and therapists.
In addition to educating U.S. medical students on the need for and realities of international surgical volunteerism, medical education is included in each of Mustafa’s mission trips, which are open and free to all who wish to attend.
These missionary conferences are coordinated with the Ministry of Health and often one of the local medical schools.
Subjects are chosen based on the needs of the medical communities and include topics such as trauma care, patient safety in the operating room, and complication assessment.
Mustafa also has been a diligent advocate and fundraiser for his medical services, gathering funds and resources from countries including the U.S., Germany, Kuwait and beyond.
He has been an international ambassador for the ACS, taking pride in his fellowship and advancing the ideals of the college.
Mustafa began teaching the principals of the Advanced Trauma Life Support® curriculum on the West Bank years ago at a time when political divisions prevented formal recognition and certification of the course.
According to Physicians for Peace, his deep commitment to trusted partnerships opened doors and ensured efficient delivery of services and materials in regions that were extremely difficult to access.
He carefully recruited team members based on experience and skill to ensure that a full cadre of medical professionals were ready to meet the needs on the ground.
“He would often include medical students in his programs, so the next generation of physicians would see firsthand the value of such service and gain a global perspective of healthcare and needs around the world,“ according to Physicians for Peace.
Mustafa, his wife Saba, and four children moved to Wichita Falls in 1982 and immediately became active in the Wichita County Medical Society and the local medical community.
He served on the WCMS Board for several years, then secretary/treasurer, president in 2000 and then past president.
He served on the editorial board of the Wichita Falls Medicine Magazine from 1985 to 1996 and the Medical Advisory Board of the Texas Rehabilitation Commission.
He served on the North Central Texas Medical Foundation Board that oversaw the Wichita Falls Family Practice Residency, the Family Health Center and Wilson Family Planning, for many years and as president for four years.
Mustafa has won numerous awards.
He was presented the 2009 Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor WCMS presents. Also, in 2009 he won the Texas Patients’ Choice Award for outstanding physicians.
Mustafa was honored with the Americanism Award by the Daughters of the American Revolution-Texas. It is given to naturalized citizens for outstanding contributions to the nation.
On the national level with Physicians for Peace, Eid Mustafa was presented the 2006 Presidents Award and, in 2013, the Medical Diplomat Award.
He has been very active in the National Arab American Medical Association, serving as president in 2007. In 2014, he received the NAAMA Outstanding Physician Award.
Mustafa has served on the board or as an officer on the Medical Advisory Board-American Near East Refugee Aid; Jerusalem Fund for Education & Community Development: Washington, DC; and the American Palestine Public Affairs Forum.
He also serves as a director for the International Women and Children Burn Foundation based in Virginia.
His medical missions have included the West Bank-Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem; Jerusalem; Amman, Jordan; and Beirut, Lebanon. He has been team leader for all the missions, traveling with teams of physicians and nurses.
Board Certified in Plastic Surgery, Mustafa practices medicine at 1201 Brook Ave at the Wichita Falls Plastic Surgery Center .
He also has added qualifications in surgery of the hand by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
Dr Eid B. Mustfa, center in this updated photo, was honored by the American College of Surgeons with the international Surgical Volunteerism Award. courtesy / Wichita County Medical Society.
British firm Rolls-Royce has fired up the first six Kinetic PowerPacks to provide an energy supply for the Middle East’s largest supercomputer facility located in King Abdullah University for Science and Technology.
The firm has shipped 12 of the huge batteries, known as maximum transmission units, to KAUST from its factory in Liege, Belgium, in order to aid its Scientific Computing Data upgrade and power the supercomputer known as Shaheen III.
A maximum transmission unit sets the amount of data that can be transmitted in bytes over a network.
The devices have a power output of 1.6 MW each, and should a power outage occur, the systems – which are designed for humid conditions and temperatures as much as 50 degrees Celsius – will secure critical load and ensure the starting of the diesel engine via their continuously rotating sturdy kinetic energy accumulators.
The first six are now switched on, with the remaining switch to be activated at a later date.
“The mtu Kinetic PowerPacks are state-of-the-art, uninterruptible electrical power systems that are designed for operating in extreme environments and provide the highest reliability of back-up power for the most critical and essential systems,” the statement said, citing the Vice President of Facilities for KAUST, Matthew Early.
The systems include healthcare facilities, airports, data centers, and Shaheen III.
Projected to be the Middle East’s most powerful supercomputer, Shaheen III will enable KAUST to further enhance its ability for scientific discovery and artificial intelligence innovation, the vice president added.
Shaheen III is set to be operational in 2023, and is set to be 20 times faster than KAUST’s current existing system.
Earlier this year, KAUST partnered with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority to increase human capacity and innovation in the field of AI in Saudi Arabia and the region.
“The SDAIA-KAUST Center of Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence will focus on educational development and upskilling the new generation of Saudi citizens in AI,” KAUST President Tony Chan said.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Rolls-Royce shipped the devices from its factory in Liege, Belgium (Shutterstock)
H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, launched on Tuesday, 19 new volumes of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language at the headquarters of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah.
The 19 new volumes of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language cover four letters, bringing the total number of letters edited so far to 9, thus increasing the number of completed volumes of the project to 36.
The volumes of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language were issued, directed and printed in Al Qasimi Publications in Sharjah.
Sharjah Ruler welcomed the attendance of members of the Academy from different countries, praising their great efforts in working on the historical dictionary, which is one of the valuable achievements that must be worked and built in order to spread, learn and teach the Arabic language.
His Highness announced an endowment to support these Academies in fulfilling their mission to the fullest, pointing to the importance of establishing private centres owned by the Academy.
Sheikh Sultan addressed the great efforts in supporting the learning of the Arabic language in Sharjah, pointing out to the vision and idea of establishing Al Qasimia University, which came as a culmination of His Highness’ efforts to support the Arabic language and Islam. “Here in Sharjah, we established Al Qasimia University, and this university is mine, and it graduates many students from Japan to the Americas,” he said.
The Ruler of Sharjah stressed the importance of preserving Arab traditions in any place and time of all members of society, because this is a part that integrates with speaking the Arabic language and shows belonging.
His Highness said, “We have worked to establish special institutions for the Arabic language, and we have established them with decrees and laws in order to preserve them, so as not to make them blown by the wind, and make the lovers of this language responsible for them.”
The Ruler of Sharjah concluded his speech by talking about the ancient history of Sharjah, as it was mentioned in the report of the leader sent by Alexander the Great when he came to Persia in the year 331 BC. M, pointing out that Sharjah and its people preserve the language, literature and poetry, highlighting their roles in supporting and spreading science and knowledge.
For their part, a number of attendees from the Academy expressed their appreciation to His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah for providing great support for the Arabic language.
The Sharjah Ruler launched the first 17 parts of the “Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language” at the opening of the 40th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair 2021. With the official launch of the dictionary’s website, people can search and read all the completed volumes.
Read on for a list of regional female filmmakers who have been taking the industry by storm.
Farida Khelfa
Farida Khelfa is an Algerian-French documentary filmmaker. She is currently set to release a new film titled “From The Other Side of the Veil” that aims to dismantle misconceptions and stereotypes that often surround Arab women.
Kaouther Ben Hania
The Tunisian filmmaker made headlines in the film industry after her critically acclaimed movie “The Man Who Sold His Skin” was shortlisted for the Oscar’s Best International Feature Film award this year.
Ayten Amin
The Egyptian director has long chronicled the lives of women in modern Egypt. Her feature film “Souad” was selected for the cancelled 2020 Cannes Film Festival.
Danielle Arbid
Danielle Arbid is a Lebanese filmmaker. Her work has screened at numerous film festivals in France and the rest of the world, including New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and more.
Annemarie Jacir
The Palestinian filmmaker has written, produced and directed award-winning films such as “A Post Oslo History.” Her movie “Wajib” (2017) won her 18 international awards.
Nujoom Al-Ghanem
The Emirati filmmaker, writer and poet had to overcome societal stigma and family disapproval to make it. She defied the odds and produced films such as “Amal” (2011) and “Sounds of the Sea” (2015).
