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Within the alienated and antagonist cultures inside Israel’s borders, Arabic and Hebrew—related, but mutually unintelligible languages—cross-fertilize each other.
“Translation” originally meant moving a body. Dead saints and live bishops, for instance, were translated from one place to another. Today, we mostly only use “translation” to mean words transported into other languages, where, unlike bodies, they often change completely.
When Anton Shammas’s Arabesques was first published in 1986, it crossed a notable translational fault line. It wasn’t the first Hebrew-language book written by a Palestinian in Israel, but it became the most famous. The best-seller’s English translation made it to the New York Times’s seven best novels of the year in 1988, but it’s the Hebrew original that drew the attention of scholars Adel Shakour and Abdallah Tarabeih.
“Almost all Israeli Arabs have at least some Hebrew proficiency, and the language is taught in Arab schools,” they explain. “For Israel’s Arab citizens, Hebrew is the key to the dominant Jewish majority and most of its social, financial, and educational resources; it is therefore essential in the minority’s daily life.”
Modern Hebrew is the official language of Israel. The minority Palestinians have a complicated relationship to the majority’s language. Living in Israel means Hebrew is a necessity, but Palestinian identity is intimately connected to Arabic. The language of “Islamic liturgy and the Quran” has a high status among Israeli Palestinians, the majority of whom are Muslim.
“Israeli Jewish society appears to perceive Arab culture as inferior, less modern, and less sophisticated,” write Shakour and Tarabeih, an attitude that includes Arabic. Hebrew, meanwhile, is intimately connected to the identity of Israeli Jews, who in the larger Middle East are a language, religious, and ethnocultural minority.
The fraught relationship between a Jewish state and the non-Jews within it as well as surrounding it, language-wise, meant “Hebrew attained prominence in the non-Jewish literary sphere only in the 1980s, with the works of Anton Shammas, a Christian, and Naim Araidi, a Druze.” (The first Hebrew novel by an Arab, Atallah Mansur’s 1966 In A New Light, proved to be “a fleeting phenomenon.”)
In the press of linguistic intimacies in Israel, the two Semitic—related, but mutually unintelligible—languages cross-fertilize each other, even in the “mutually alienated cultures” found within the state’s borders.
Shakour and Trabeih note that Palestinian “Arabic has borrowed many Hebrew words and even sentences.” Meanwhile, Hebrew, which was revived and modernized in the nineteeth and twentieth centruries, has adopted words from Arabic, as well as a host of other languages including Aramaic, Yiddish, Ladino, Polish, Russian, English, and so on.
Shammas, a noted translator of Arabic into Hebrew (especially of Emile Habibi), is a conscious language bridge-builder between the two languages. Part of this language-bridging means he invents neologisms, new words, in Hebrew.
As Shakour and Tarbeih detail, “Shammas creates new verbal forms in Hebrew by deriving them from nouns along the lines of such derivation in Arabic.” Their first example adds another language to the mix: “the Arabic verb šaksbaranī derived from the noun Shakespeare leads him to use the same derivation in Hebrew.”
Such neologisms can make texts “more obscure” to native readers of a language who have never encountered the word before. Shammas does it to “give the work a highly authentic flavor” to the Arabic culture he wants to introduce to the Jewish Israeli audience.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some partisans of both Arabic and Hebrew have criticized Shammas’s translations for daring to speak across antagonistic borders. Some Israeli Jews think only Jews can create Hebrew literature. For them, Hebrew is part of the Jewish national character, part of the Zionist project. Some Palestinians think he’s using the enemy’s language, putting a spin on the Italian saying “Traduttore, traditore.”
The saying, meaning “the translator is a traitor,” is usually meant to signify the compromises necessarily made to help language slip across borders into other words. Of course, both languages here, like most languages, are already infiltrated by each other, something language’s border guards never seem to accept.
In line with the airline’s strategy to match capacity with demand, optimize performance with the best in on board experiences for its customers, Kuwait Airways launched its first inaugural flight to New York John F Kennedy Airport utilizing the Airbus A330neo and in setting the record for the longest flight flown by the A330-800 neo in 13 hours.
The award winning Airspace cabin is equipped with a two-class configuration comprising of 32 full flat business class seats and 203 economy class cabin seats on a 2-4-2 configuration. Thus offering passengers state of the art flying experience with more personal space, quietest cabin in its market and the latest generation of in-flight entertainment system and connectivity.
Sustainability From a sustainability and efficiency standpoint, the A330neo offers benefits to both the airline and the traveling public. With double-digit fuel savings and CO2 emissions compared to other aircraft in its category, the A330- 800 allows significantly lower operational cost and therefore competitive ticket pricing. Captain Ali Al Dukhan, Chairman Kuwait Airways said.
“This flight marks a new era in our strategy to right-fit the best of customer experiences while balancing cost efficiencies and sustainability in our operational decisions. The utilization of this aircraft’s long-range capability will also bring double-digit savings, which coincidentally means less harm to the environment, matching closely to our ESG goals. We are proud to take the next step forward in reaching the corporate strategy goals in reducing costs and enhancing marginal performance”.
Mikail Houari, President, Airbus Africa Middle East said: “We are proud that Kuwait Airways has chosen to deploy the A330-800 on John F Kennedy Airport, a key route for the airline. We are confident that the aircraft will provide passengers with exceptional flying experience while providing the airline with unbeatable economics, efficiency and environmental performance.
As a child, she took part in the game she loves against a backdrop of civil war. Now, Britain’s first black female Muslim referee fights for the rights of others as a role model for inclusivity.
A cold, cloudy Sunday morning in West London and 22 grown men are on a football pitch playing in one of the capital’s minor leagues. The standard is not particularly good but nonetheless there is something remarkable about the fixture.
As the tackles fly in, a 1.6-metre-tall figure wearing match officials’ kit and a headscarf brandishes a yellow rectangular piece of plastic.
“My philosophy is that everyone deserves a chance,” Jawahir Roble, Britain’s first black female Muslim referee, tells The National. “But if they keep repeating fouls, I book them.
“I like to control the game first and then I’ll use my cards. The game is not about me. It’s about them having fun and making good memories.”
The contest finishes with a 3-1 home win but, for Roble, 29, the more important result is not the score at the final whistle — it’s that the players amble over to shake her hand and say thank you. Confirmation, she says, of a job well done.
Her extraordinary achievements have been recognised with an MBE in King Charles IIIs first New Year Honours List for services to the Football Association and volunteering work with the education and social inclusion charity Football Beyond Borders.
It is a feat perhaps rivalled only by the journey that has brought her to within tantalising distance of collecting the silver medal at a forthcoming investiture at Buckingham Palace.
Musing on how far she has come, Roble herself once said: “Who would ever think a black, Somali-born immigrant girl with eight siblings could ref a men’s game in England with a hijab on?”
Jawahir Jewels (JJ), as she is commonly known because of the Arabic meaning of her first name, was born in Mogadishu, where she could often be found barefoot in a four-a-side competition with her siblings, kicking scrunched up cloth wrapped in sticky tape around the courtyard of the family home.
Her parents, Mahdi, a grocer, and Safya, sometimes watched the rough and tumble from the sidelines with Jamila, the baby too small to take part, until the moments when the country’s civil war came perilously close. Then, play was suspended as everyone scarpered inside to relative safety.
“You did have to be careful,” Roble recalls. “You could hear gunfire, people screaming sometimes, loud bangs and explosions. I was scared. There were lots of kidnappings and crazy stories.
“But, as a child, it was also very carefree and fun and happy. We still had to get our school and mosque work done. We got told off so many times. But we learnt the system — do our chores and then we could go outside. We had to earn the right to play football.”
After Friday prayer, they would rendezvous with friends to play on a larger patch of muddy ground outside the house, or on the beach at Xeebta Liido by the Somali Sea a half-hour drive away.
The walls of the bedroom shared with her two younger sisters, Amina and Fatima, featured images of David Beckham and, intriguingly given Roble’s future career path, the controversial Italian defender Marco Materazzi, whose aggressive style amassed an inordinate number of bookings.
“With the obsession I have with football, you would think that someone encouraged me or a teacher influenced me. But, no, I just fell in love with it out of nowhere. At heart, I am a complete tomboy.”
As tensions heightened and the war escalated in the early 2000s, the siblings’ outside excursions were curtailed and Mahdi, who had applied for British visas and bought suitcases, put in motion a hitherto secret escape plan.
Ten-year-old JJ, forced to swelter in a coat in anticipation of the colder weather ahead, was taken in a packed eight-seater van to the airport for the 6,400km flight to London.
“We got told: ‘We have to move out.’ No time to tell anyone or sell the shop,” Roble says. “Dad gave it to a relative to look after.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘We’re not coming back here for a long, long time’.”
Landing at Heathrow nine hours later was a shock. “Oh, my goodness, the place seemed massive. So many different people. Like there’s white people, there’s Chinese people. I’m only used to seeing black people. One of my siblings reached out to touch someone’s bright blonde hair.
“I thought: ‘Wow, this is the real world.’”
First stop was Sudbury in north-west London for a few weeks with a relative, then a temporary hotel stay in Kilburn before they were allocated a council house in the shadow of the largest football stadium in the UK.
“Can you imagine?” she asks with an infectious laugh. “Wembley! We could see the stadium — the home of football — from our house. Just amazing. Something I’ll never forget.”
Roble had thought that only players or special fans were allowed into the hallowed grounds but she has since been twice: on a Chalk Hill Primary School trip (“I couldn’t imagine someone like me could go … It was surreal); and last summer when England’s Lionesses beat Germany 2-1 in the European Championships final (“That was incredible”).
In their new garden, the serious rivalry resumed, one team captained by the oldest Roble sister, the other by the oldest brother, and a lemon or potato for a football.
But, after much pleading, her parents soon handed over £3 ($3.69) for a coveted purchase that enabled JJ, who at that time spoke no English, to overcome the language barrier and fit in more quickly at school.
“Because the kid that has the ball gets the friends,” she explains, smiling. “The first words I learnt I think were, ‘pass, pass’ and ‘shoot!’”
The restrictive uniform of long black skirt, white shirt, school shoes and hijab did little to stop Roble from playing every spare minute, skipping breakfast and lunch to take to the field before lessons, in break times and after the final bell.
“Sometimes kids at primary school teased me. Teachers asked how I could play dressed like that. I was like, ‘This is it, this is what Muslim people wear. You have to be covered up.’
“My religion was not an issue. As long as you’re just a nice person, they would accept you in the group. Being a Muslim is about being a good person, being modest and doing what makes you happy.”
When a supportive PE teacher spotted how well Roble was performing in sports, the first seeds of discord were sowed with her parents who expressed a strong preference for their children to excel instead at maths and English.
“My dad actually sat me down and said: ‘You came all the way from Somalia, all the way from the war just so you can play football? We want you to make use of this country’s opportunities. At least learn to be something that can help other people, like a doctor.’”
But, in Roble’s characteristically headstrong way, fulfilling her father’s ambitions was never a realistic outcome.
At 14, she thought the moment she had dreamt of had arrived. Players from Queens Park Rangers’ women’s team visited the secondary school for a coaching session and to seek out talent for the club’s academy.
Roble put in the work, showing off her pace and left-footed skills in the attacking and defensive duties of a centre midfielder.
“I was one of four or five girls who got a letter inviting me to trial. I was so excited. I’m on the bus and I’m reading this letter over and over again. All that letter needed was a parent’s name and a signature.”
When she arrived home, however, her mother tore up the invitation in an act that even now, 15 years later, causes Roble pain to recount.
Heart-broken at her life’s ambition being thwarted, the resigned teenager eventually left school early to begin a design technology course at college.
While there, she took the level one and two coaching badges with Middlesex Football Association before a referee shortage led to her being asked to step in at the last minute, with no experience, to take charge of an under-sevens girls’ match.
“The parents were very nice to me and the girls said how nice it was to have a female referee. So, from that, I continued volunteering as a referee for a whole year at junior level.”
That prompted the FA to fund her formal referee training. “I said to myself: ‘I have to continue, get braver, do different leagues, different age groups.’ Next thing you know I’m doing men’s and women’s. It happened so fast. Within four years, I was doing adult games.”
After joining the women’s pathway, Roble advanced to National League Level 3 and is now determined to progress to the Women’s Championship and Super League, and who knows where after that?
Along the way, she has garnered a clutch of accolades, including the FA Respect Match Official Award 2017 and being named on the BBC’s 100 Women 2019, as well as that MBE on the same honours list as the England head coach Sarina Wiegman, captain Leah Williamson, and players Lucy Bronze, Beth Mead and Ellen White.
When she’s not teaching at a special needs school in London, Roble dedicates herself to promoting inclusivity, defying stereotypes, demolishing barriers and clearing a path for future generations.
There are, she says, no limits to what can be achieved: “Only I can stop myself, and I’m not going to do that.”
Fitness is a priority, and she has also spent countless hours watching YouTube clips of professional referees such as the former Premier League’s Mark Clattenburg to study their positioning during play and how they control the game.
Further inspiration came last November when an all-female on-field refereeing team led by Stephanie Frappart took charge of a men’s World Cup game for the first time in the match between Germany and Costa Rica.
Even her parents are coming around to their daughter’s deep involvement with football, though Roble sounds as though she is meeting them halfway.
“I understand now that they wanted the best for me and to make sure I was protected and safe. They told me, ‘We don’t want any hatred towards you.’ I’ve told them it’s not like that.
“At the end of the day, I’m spreading positivity. I’m sharing my sports journey with young girls, you know, who like me are interested in football. Maybe if they hear my story, they can use it to inspire them and have a shortcut instead of what I did.”
What she did, ultimately, was find the courage to tackle the norms within the Somali community and succeed on her own terms.
“My faith encourages sports, my faith encourages a healthy lifestyle,” Roble says. “I feel like [the issue] was more to do with cultural concerns. Because our culture says girls should be at home, not getting involved in men’s sports. Girls should be shy, keep on the low, low. I’m sorry but that’s not me.
“I have challenged it. Now, in my Somali community, most of them are: ‘Oh, wow, you’re doing a great job.’ And I’m like, ‘So who was the problem? Do you have anything to say now?’”
It is the same toughness displayed when Roble encounters disbelieving looks from players and coaching staff as she walks to her happy place on the pitch or a decision is criticised.
As with all referees, she has received verbal abuse but says it’s nothing she can’t deal with. Despite her diminutive size, Roble’s big personality, confidence and forthright retorts make for a commanding presence — and there is always the “power” of the red and yellow cards in her pocket.
Her story might have had moments of isolation, sometimes in the family setting and at least initially in an unfamiliar country as a refugee, but she seems undaunted by the “loneliness” of the referee presiding over two teams.
“I have accepted that,” Roble says of the latter. “Once I get on the pitch, I feel like everyone is my team. I feel totally free, like nothing else matters. There is no stress, nothing.
“I wanted to be a footballer so, in a way, I am kind of living that dream. It is where I belong.”
When she’s not teaching at a special needs school in London, Jawahir Roble is dedicated to defying stereotypes, demolishing barriers and clearing a path for future generations. Photo: Shutterstock
Morocco’s berry production is one of the country’s key contributors to the agricultural sector.
Morocco has outperformed the US becoming the fourth largest blueberry exporter in the world.
Data from East Fruit said that Morocco exported 53,000 tonnes of blueberries in 2022. Peru was the largest exporter of fresh blueberries last year, with 277,000 tonnes, followed by Chile (105,000 tonnes) and Spain (87,000).
Despite Morocco’s leading position in blueberry exports, the Netherlands exported more blueberries than the North African country in 11 months of last year, the same source said.
“It should be noted that the exports from the Netherlands in 11 months of last year were higher than that of Morocco, having amounted to 104 000 tonnes,” East Fruit reported.
Elaborating on the data, the news outlet said: “However, if we take into account the volume of re-exports, the real result of the Netherlands will be much lower since it imported 130 000 tonnes of fresh blueberries during this period.”
East Fruit also recalled that Morocco ranked seventh place among the largest exporters of cultivated blueberries in 2017.
Berry production in Morocco has contributed to the country’s agricultural sector significantly.
Morocco’s revenues from strawberry exports to the international market are estimated between $40 and $70 million annually.
According to previous data from East Fruit strawberry products are one of the top 10 most exported goods from Morocco.
According to estimates, Morocco exported 22,400 tonnes of fresh strawberries globally in 2022, representing an increase of 17% compared to a year earlier.
Countries like the UAE, Qatar were key buyers of Moroccan goods. In Europe, the US is one of Morocco’s strawberry importers. In 2022, the US imported almost half of Morocco’s strawberry export supply.
The IFFCO Group, one of the UAE’s largest producers of food products, has opened the first 100-percent plant-based meat factory in the region, in Dubai.
Located in the Dubai Industrial City, the THRYVE factory will catalyse the move towards a more sustainable and healthy food chain in the Middle East, actively supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the UAE’s Vision 2051 initiative to bolster food security through diversity and innovation. The factory will provide nourishing, sustainable and healthy local plant-based meat products inspired by the unique flavours of Middle Eastern cuisine.
Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and the Environment, said, “The new 100-percent plant-based meat factory supports the UAE’s Food Security Strategy and our mandate to mitigate the impact of climate change. The opening of this innovative new facility also supports our efforts to protect the country’s ecosystems and enhance its food and water security and diversify our food sources. By fostering such robust research and development focused on producing innovative food products, we seek to raise the UAE’s ability to move up the global food industry value chain and achieve first place on the Global Food Security Index by 2051. The new factory represents a significant contribution to sustainability in the food supply chain.”
Hadi Badri, CEO of the Dubai Economic Development Corporation at Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism said, “The opening of this factory, which will pave the way for a dynamic new industry that will boost trade across the region, is a reflection of the UAE’s commitment to pioneer the use of innovative technologies to provide sustainable solutions to real world problems. It contributes to Dubai’s economic diversification journey in line with the goal of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 to consolidate the emirate’s status as one of the top three global cities. The new facility is a testament to the pivotal role being played by Dubai in promoting the growth and evolution of environmentally sound practices that can alleviate the effects of climate change. By providing opportunities for private companies to invest in sustainable technologies, Dubai is accelerating the creation of a robust and resilient green economy.
“Such initiatives also reflect Dubai’s success in creating a fertile environment for new businesses and investors to thrive, and generating new job opportunities. Dubai and the UAE will continue to work with stakeholders and partners to remain at the forefront of innovation and economic sustainability, inspired by the ambition of our visionary leadership to create a better future for all.”
Saud Abu Alshawareb, Executive Vice President, Industrial Leasing, Dubai Industrial City, said, “DIC is an ideal location for initiatives like the IFFCO Group’s plant-based meat factory that underscore the importance of food security. The Dubai Industrial City is home to a growing number of Dubai-based food manufacturers who are leading the way in introducing innovative food products. This new enterprise adds value to the industry while strengthening our reputation as facilitators of a self-reliant food programme.”
The THRYVE plant-based venture, developed using cutting-edge food technology, contributes to at least three UN’s SDG’s: good health and well-being, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.
The only 100 percent plant-based meat factory in the Middle East, IFFCO’s THRYVE will leverage advanced food technologies to produce tasty, healthy, sustainable and culturally relevant food that meets the needs of the local consumer. In addition, IFFCO is working closely with the government to create regulatory standards for plant-based food products.
The global plant-based meat market was estimated to be worth US$7.9 billion in 2022, and is forecast to reach US$15.7 billion by 2027, according to a report from ResearchAndMarkets.com. The newly opened THRYVE factory will cater to 30 percent of the GCC population, stimulating the development of the market for local plant-based products. As per proprietary research, the GCC has the potential to be a future leader in developing food products for flexitarians, people whose diet is primarily vegetarian.
Russian ambassador to Egypt Georgiy Borisenko has awarded the Dostoyevsky Medal to Anwar Ibrahim – the under-secretary of the Ministry of Culture and former head of the ministry’s Foreign Cultural Relations Department – for his work in translating Russian literature into Arabic.
The honouring ceremony took place at the headquarters of the Russian Embassy in Cairo on 6 March. It was attended by a delegation from the Egyptian Association of Graduates of Russian and Soviet Universities headed by Sherif Gad.
Ambassador Borisenko expressed appreciation for Ibrahim’s efforts in translating classic and contemporary Russian literature into Arabic, thereby promoting Russian culture.
“The Arab reader is lucky when he reads translated Russian literature through creative translators like Anwar Ibrahim,” Borisenko said.
Borisenko wished Ibrahim continued success in his literary career, which he described as part of the soft power between Russia and the Arab peoples.
The Dostoyevsky Medal was established by the Russian Writers Union to be awarded to translators on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who is one of the most iconic writers of the Russian literary canon.
For his part, Ibrahim said that “this honour is a new birth for me, and I am extremely proud of receiving the Dostoyevsky Medal.”
Toghan, Secretary-General of the Association of Graduates, affirmed that the award for Ibrahim is a tribute to all graduates of the association, especially since Anwar is the first Arab to receive the prestigious medal.
Dostoyevsky, who was born in 1821 in Moscow and died in 1881 in St. Petersburg, gave up an engineering career early in order to write.
In 1849, he was arrested for belonging to a radical discussion group and was sentenced to be shot. He was reprieved at the last moment and sentenced to four years of hard labour in Siberia, where he developed epilepsy and experienced a deepening of his religious faith.
Dostoyevsky’s novels are especially concerned with faith, suffering, and the meaning of life; they are famous for their psychological depth and insight and their near-prophetic treatment of issues in philosophy and politics.
By the end of his life, he was acclaimed as one of his country’s greatest writers, and his works had a profound influence on 20th-century literature.
Building work on Saudi Aramco’s new $7 billion Shaheen petrochemical project in Ulsa, South Korea has officially begun after a groundbreaking ceremony involving the energy giant’s CEO.
Amin Nasser attended the inauguration event alongside South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol and senior officials from both countries.
The Shaheen project, announced in November 2022, is being built by South Korean refiner S-OIL Corp., of which Aramco owns a more than 63 percent stake.
“We are deeply honored by the presence of His Excellency President Yoon at this historic groundbreaking ceremony,” said Nasser – also the Aramco President.
“Shaheen is among Aramco’s biggest international downstream investments, representing a significant and sizeable step forward in our liquids-to-chemicals expansion and another major milestone in further strengthening our presence in Korea,” he continued.
Shaheen is Saudi Aramco’s largest investment in South Korea and is expected to be among the biggest integrated steam crackers – a petrochemical process – in the world.
It is also the first large-scale commercial use of Aramco’s thermal crude-to-chemicals technology, which was developed in partnership with Lummus Technology, a leading licensor of proprietary petrochemicals.
The construction of the new plant will be completed by 2026 and will have a production capacity of up to 3.2 million tons per year, in addition to a facility for producing high-value polymers.
Aramco has established a solid relationship with South Korea, and has recently agreed to a $6 billion framework deal with the country’s export-import bank.
According to the deal, Eximbank can lend Saudi Aramco up to $6 billion, which can be used to fund South Korean enterprises involved in projects with the global energy firm, whereas the bank indicated that $1 billion is set aside for hydrogen and renewable energy projects.
Moreover, Aramco also inked a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s Hoban Group last month to collaborate in building and manufacturing.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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South Korea’s President Yoon (centre) with Aramco president Amin Nasser (Supplied)
Known for her creative take on classic favorites, Saudi chef Mona Mosly is one of the region’s most recognizable celebrity chefs, renowned for her creative takes on classic favorites.
As well as being a judge on the Arabic-language version of talent show “Top Chef,” Mosly has extensive experience in culinary art, having trained professionally in Switzerland before attending the world-renowned Le Cordon Bleu in London and subsequently honing her craft at restaurants across the Middle East.
In January, Mosly joined forces with VOX Cinemas in Riyadh and Jeddah to curate an expanded menu that features more than 20 dishes, including kibbeh nachos and BBQ chicken bao, Armenian tabbouleh, dukka madani chicken burger, halva cookies with Syrian ice cream, Thai curry salmon and more.
“What I love about this is that (movies) bring people joy,” Mosly tells Arab News. “I believe that I can bring people joy with my food as well. And it’s all about happiness, right? So it’s a beautiful collaboration for me.”
When VOX first reached out, Mosly says, her first thought was to create a menu of cinema food, “with an Arabic or Saudi twist.”
She explains: “I believe that food has to be related to us. It could take us to a beautiful memory. It could remind us of flavors from our childhood and all that.”
One of her favorite dishes on the menu is the kibbeh nachos. “It’s basically kibbeh, but it looks like nachos. Instead of cheddar sauce, I used mohamara sauce, so it gives the same feeling,” she says. “I also love the fish and chips, because it has a very nice story behind it. I like food that can gather different cultures together.”
Here, Mosly takes a trip down memory lane to when she first started her career, and offers advice for amateur chefs.
Q: When you started out as a professional, what was the most-common mistake you made when preparing a dish?
A: When I was working for Leylaty ballroom in Jeddah, I once burned 80 kilos of morels — one of the most expensive mushrooms. But after that, morel became my favorite ingredient. In kitchens — or any job where you work with your hands — if you don’t make mistakes, you’ll never learn.
What’s your top tip for amateur chefs?
Be yourself. Food is all about who you are. You translate what you have within you to people.
What one ingredient can instantly improve any dish?
Garlic. Or onion. They are the essence of food.
When you go out to eat, do you find yourself critiquing the food?
After six years of ‘Top Chef,’ believe me, I don’t want to critique anything. I’m done critiquing. I go out to have fun. I’ve reached a place where I don’t want to critique, I just want to enjoy.
What’s the most-common mistake you find restaurants making?
What annoys me the most is when food doesn’t have a taste because the cook didn’t respect the ingredients. I don’t understand how you can end up cooking a dish that doesn’t taste of anything.
When you go out to eat, what’s your favorite cuisine?
It depends. My cheat meal will always be a burger. But if I want to give myself a treat, I’ll go for sushi — or Japanese cuisine anyway.
What customer behavior or request most annoys you?
When people like something, they don’t try other stuff. I find that sad, rather than annoying. Why did you like the first thing that you tried? Because you tried it. That’s why you have to try other things too.
What’s your favorite dish to cook and why?
I do enjoy things like rolling warak enab (stuffed vine leaves) or stuff that takes time, because I’m a very fast person. I do everything very quickly. So, I like things that calm me down like baking. I like having to wait.
As a head chef, what are you like in the kitchen? Are you laidback? Or a disciplinarian?
I believe that when you are loved, appreciated and respected, you can do wonders. So, that’s what I try to give to the people I work with. Really, I like to dance, I like to sing, I like to enjoy being with my team. But when something goes wrong, something goes wrong. So, sometimes, I do have to shout.
Three carbon storage facilities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar capture 10 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide annually, according to an Arab Monetary Fund official.
Abdul Rahman Al-Hamidi, director general and chairman of the organization, revealed that the facilities captured around 40 million tons in 2020.
The announcement was made during the conference on enhancing the transition to a circular carbon economy to support sustainable development currently taking place in Abu Dhabi.
Al-Hamidi noted that the circular carbon economy approach can enable the reduction of greenhouse emissions, improve resource efficiency, and promote sustainable economic development in Arab countries.
The circular carbon economy is a framework for managing and reducing carbon emissions through 4Rs — reduce, reuse, recycle, and remove.
With numerous challenges of energy security, the circular carbon economy provides an opportunity not only to reduce carbon emissions, but also to drive economic growth and create new job opportunities, Al-Hamidi added.
Carbon dioxide emissions that come from coal consumption surged to reach 15.3 gigatons in 2021. Coal alone represents 40 percent of the total growth in emissions at the global level.
Al-Hamidi said: “With the expansion of the uses of energy sources and the fluctuation of their prices, attention is directed directly to fossil fuel sources, especially oil and gas, to classify them as primarily responsible for emissions of greenhouse gases harmful to the environment, especially carbon dioxide, in light of what the globe has been witnessing in recent years.”
The Arab region has performed well in terms of energy efficiency through the provision of affordable energy, according to data revealed by the World Energy Council.
As for energy security, it fell below expectations. The region contains nearly 50 percent of the world’s oil reserves, and around 40 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves.
Al-Hamidi further noted that the Arab world has the resources and experience to transition into a circular carbon economy.
“We have abundant natural resources, such as solar and wind energy, to create low-carbon energy systems, so we can develop innovative technologies and business models that support the transition to a circular economy and create new job opportunities in areas such as renewable energy, emissions management, and recycling,” added Al-Hamidi.
Numerous Arab countries have set ambitious goals for renewable energies in the medium and long term, to be achieved in the horizons of 2030 and 2050 while also committing to reducing fossil energy sector emissions.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Coal alone represents 40 percent of the total growth in emissions at the global level (Shutterstock)
