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Back in 1729, the Parisian authorities introduced the French capitals iconic blue-and-green street name plaques, topped with a little “Napoleon’s hat” containing the number of the street’s arrondissement.
The plaques honor France and the world’s leading politicians, philosophers, artists, writers, and scientists, including a number associated with the Arab world. French President Emmanuel Macron has previously proposed renaming some of the capital’s streets to include more personalities from ethnic minorities, but that has not yet happened. Still, there are enough Arab names to comprise a walking tour around Paris — including a president, a poet, a pop star and more.
With a wonderful view of the Grand Palais, this large, peaceful stretch of greenery is named after independent Tunisia’s first president, Habib Bourguiba. The secular leader was in charge between 1957 and 1987, and was famously a supporter of women’s rights. Next to his plaque, there is a bronze bust of the leader looking towards the River Seine, with his name written in Arabic underneath.
An admirer of Bourguiba, Halimi was a Tunisian-born French lawyer, feminist, and former member of the National Assembly in France. She died in 2020, aged 93, and this sloping pathway was named after her last year. Halimi’s life of hardships shaped the respected career she had. When she was born, her father hid her — ashamed of her gender. She went on a hunger strike at 10 and, at 16, rejected an arranged marriage, going on to study law in Paris. Halimi is perhaps best known for a 1972 trial, in which she defended a minor who had an abortion after being raped. It was a key event that propelled the country into legalizing abortion in 1975.
Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe (second from right) and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (second from left) unveil on June 14, 2010 in Paris the new Mahmoud Darwich esplanade named after the Palestinian poet who died Aug. 9, 2008. (AFP)
In 2010, just two years after the death of Palestine’s most famous poet Mahmoud Darwish, a square in Paris was inaugurated in his honor. Known for his writings on home, memory, and exile, Darwish spent many years outside of his native land. He lived in Beirut, Cairo, Tunis, and Paris. He had a special connection with the latter, describing it as the place where his “true poetic birth” happened. The plaque is situated in a district the poet reportedly liked, on the banks of the Seine and near the classical buildings of Institut de France and Monnaie de Paris.
A few minutes away from Notre Dame Cathedral stands an unassuming but sobering reminder of how an Arab collective suffered during the turbulent Sixties. In 1961, when Algeria was seeking independence, a group of Algerian protesters were attacked by the police and some of their bodies were thrown into the Seine. In 2021, to mark the 60th anniversary of this horrific event, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo inaugurated a memorial artwork, made of metal with silhouettes of heads carved out, in remembrance of those who lost their lives.
Between 1962 and 1987, the blonde bombshell diva Dalida, who was born to Italian parents in Egypt, lived in this four-story townhouse in hilly Montmartre, a quiet area outside of the bustling city center of the city that is historically associated with artists. Dalida sang in a variety of languages, including French, Italian, and Arabic. “Salma Ya Salama” and “Helwa Ya Baladi” are some of her most loved Arabic songs. Sadly, it was in this house that she committed suicide in 1987, as a result of tragedies in her personal life. The plaque on her house reads: “Her friends from Montmartre will not forget her.”
The acclaimed Lebanese-born poet and philosopher — and author of “The Prophet” — Khalil Gibran is well-known as a member of the Arab diaspora in 20th-century America. But he also lived in France for a time. Between 1908 and 1910, Gibran, who was then in his twenties, studied painting at Académie Julian in Paris. His stay in the city was made possible by the financial backing of American philanthropist, editor and Gibran’s lover Mary Haskell, who was 10 years his senior.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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A memorial to remember the 1961 attack on Algerian protesters by the police in Paris. (Supplied)
Al-Ahsa, the world’s largest date palm oasis, is generating a new era of prosperity following the launch of a new development authority.
On May 12, the Kingdom formed the board of directors for the Al-Ahsa Development Authority, headed by Prince Ahmed bin Fahd bin Salman, deputy governor of the Eastern Province.
The move aims to enhance the governorate’s potential while helping develop the tourism, heritage and cultural aspects of Al-Ahsa.
The authority will create a balanced and sustainable development environment that supports the governorate’s economy and promotes development, modernization and diversity, according to the state press agency.
“The decision reflects the leadership’s keenness to invest in the comparative advantage of Al-Ahsa and to utilize it in economic projects that will align with Vision 2030,” Ibraheem Alshekmubarak, secretary-general at Al-Ahsa Chamber of Commerce, said in an exclusive interview with Arab News.
The city of 1.3 million people was included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2018.
UNESCO said: “The city has an ancient tradition of handicrafts, considered cultural and social practices passed on from generation to generation.
“Around 50 expressions of crafts and folk art have remained throughout the city’s history and bear witness to Al-Ahsa’s scenic wealth, including textiles from palm trees, pottery, weaving and joinery.”
Boosting tourism
The governorate hosts 36 weekly open markets and stages several festivals a year.
“When we talk about tourism in Al-Ahsa, we are talking about agricultural, heritage and natural tourism,” Alshekmubarak said.
In February 2022, the Ministry of Tourism launched a high-profile investment conference in the city called Destination Tomorrow. The conference showcased Saudi destinations to local investors and international operators.
“Post pandemic, people are a little bit more conservative internationally regarding cross-border investment. But we are proving to be a destination attracting quite a decent amount of interest,” Mahmoud Abdulhadi, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for investment attraction, told Arab News.
The Kingdom seeks to generate 10 percent of the gross domestic product from the tourism sector and to attract over 100 million visitors by the end of this decade, creating an additional 1 million jobs in the sector.
“We want to make the sector stand on its own two feet. So we are keen on large private sector investment to come in, even as we are mindful that the whole sector is built on small and medium enterprises,” added Abdulhadi.
The city’s chamber of commerce led several initiatives to support SMEs, monitoring the sectors most affected by the pandemic to keep them formulating plans and drawing strategies that help them overcome the damage.
“Al-Ahsa Chamber organized a set of development initiatives and advisory services provided to entrepreneurs through the Prince Ahmed bin Fahd bin Salman Center for Business Development,” Alshekmubarak added.
Airport expansion
Al-Ahsa airport’s capacity will more than double the expectations of fast regional growth, Fahad Alharbi, the CEO of Dammam Airports Co., said in an earlier interview with Arab News.
The city’s airport has a capacity of around 400,000 passengers but aspires to reach 1 million, Alharbi added.
Saudi Aramco mainly uses the facility, but before the pandemic struck, there was commercial activity from two or three local destinations and another two or three international sites.
“With the economic and tourism boom expected in Al-Ahsa, the development of Al-Ahsa International Airport is the most in need of projects at present,” said Alshekmubarak.
Business destination
The city is already growing in businesses as the Ministry of Municipal Rural Affairs and Housing announced in June that the investment opportunities in the city increased by 53 percent in 2021, with 362 available options on its online portal.
The total value of these investments exceeded SR275 million, Essam Al-Mulla, the mayor of Al-Ahsa, told Arab News.
The available opportunities in the portal in 2022 already reached 112 investments, said the Saudi Minister of Municipal Rural Affairs and Housing Majid Al-Hogail, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Investment opportunities in the city increased by 53 percent in 2021, with 362 available options on the ministry’s online portal. (Supplied)
Sara Sabry – Mechanical and Biomedical Engineer. The first female Egyptian Analog Astronaut
Engineer Sara Sabry has become the first Egyptian to travel on a suborbital flight, after New Shepard’s 22nd space flight (NS-22) – operated by the American private aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin – carried her and five others to the edge of space before returning to Earth.
Launched from Corn ranch, West Texas in the US, the New Shepard stayed for 11 minutes at 106 km above the ground.
The 29-year-old Sabry flew with entrepreneur Mário Ferreira, the first person from Portugal to fly to space; British-American mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien; American technology leader Clint Kelly III; telecommunications executive Steve Young; and Coby Cotton, cofounder of the YouTube channel Dude Perfect.
Sabry earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the American University in Cairo and her master’s degree in biomedical engineering at Italy’s Polytechnic University of Milan.
She is also currently preparing for her PhD in aerospace sciences with a focus on space suit design, according to Blue Origin.
Sabry’s seat on NS-22 is sponsored by the Colorado-based nonprofit Space for Humanity (S4H), which is concerned with increasing access to space for all of humanity.
According to the official website of Space for Humanity, its “citizen astronauts” are chosen from among “change-makers who are currently serving a community leadership role.”
Sabry is S4H’s second “citizen astronaut” to fly on board the NS-22 after Katya Echazarreta in June.
Blue Origin has not announced how much it charges for seats on its space flights, and neither has S4H revealed how much it paid to book seats for its “citizen astronauts.”
According to some news reports, however, the price possibly ranges from zero to $28 million based on several factors including who the passenger’s social status.
This is the sixth trip by Blue Origin since its launch by US billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2015.
The U.S. Senate today confirmed UC Merced Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe to be the new director of the Office of Science in the federal Department of Energy.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the lead federal agency supporting fundamental scientific research for energy, and the nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences.
President Joe Biden nominated Berhe last April. She is a renowned professor of soil biogeochemistry in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences; the Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology ; and the interim associate dean for Graduate Education .
“It is an incredible honor for me to be nominated, and now confirmed by the U.S. Senate, to serve as President Biden’s director of the Office of Science at the Department of Energy,” Berhe said. “I thank the president and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, for trusting me to help lead the next chapter in the great scientific success story of the Office of Science.”
Berhe will serve in Washington, D.C., taking a leave of absence from campus. She will hold the director position for the duration of Biden’s term.
Her research is at the intersection of soil science, global change science and political ecology with an emphasis on how the soil system regulates the Earth’s climate and the dynamic two-way relationship between the natural environment and human communities.
“I hold the Office of Science and DOE National labs with highest regard as since the time I was a graduate student and until now, DOE funding and national labs have played important role in my own scientific training and research, and the training of my mentees. Further, as a soil and global change scientist who has studied and worked in public institutions of higher learning, I have always taken my responsibility to serve the public very seriously. I believe publicly funded science and technology is critical for pushing the frontiers of science forward and inspiring the next generation of scholars,” Berhe said. “I am excited to join the Department of Energy’s Office of Science to contribute to the Office’s mission of expanding human knowledge, driving discovery, and fostering innovation, technology development and economic progress.”
“This is fabulous news and so well deserved,” Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development Marjorie Zatz said. “Professor Berhe is highly respected as a researcher and thought leader by her colleagues nationally and internationally, as well as by those of us at UC Merced. She will be a terrific director for the Office of Science and a strong voice for inclusive excellence within the scientific community and beyond.”
“The School of Natural Sciences is immensely proud of Professor Berhe’s appointment to this important and influential office,” Dean Betsy Dumont said. “She is an immensely talented scientist who will bring a holistic, innovative and practical perspective to the challenges of energy and climate change.”
“Professor Berhe is an international leader in environmental sciences and climate change research, and a champion for underrepresented people in STEM,” Professor Peggy O’Day said. “We are excited by her appointment and the impact she will have on the national agenda in addressing energy and climate issues.”
Berhe is widely recognized for her research, including having been an invited speaker at the TED conference in 2019, and for her advocacy for inclusion, anti-harassment and anti-bullying. She previously served as the chair of the U.S. National Committee on Soil Science at the National Academies; was a leadership board member for the Earth Science Women’s Network; and is a co-principal investigator in the ADVANCEGeo Partnership — a National Science Foundation funded effort to empower (geo)scientists to respond to and prevent harassment, discrimination, bullying and other exclusionary behaviors in research environments. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America, and a member of the inaugural class of the U.S. National Academies New Voices in Science, Engineering and Medicine.
Berhe was born and raised in Asmara, Eritrea, and lives in Merced with her husband, Professor Teamrat A. Ghezzehei, and their two children. She earned a B.Sc. in soil and water conservation from the University of Asmara, an M.Sc. in political ecology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in biogeochemistry from UC Berkeley. In 2020, she was named a Great Immigrant, Great American by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Featuring Dega Nalayeh, a managing director and private-client advisor at Bank of America’s private bank.
Dega Nalayeh told Insider that she’s currently climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. She’s doing it to honor her sister, Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh, who was killed during a terrorist attack at a hotel in Somalia in July 2019.
Dega Nalayeh and 14 other climbers have so far raised more than $ 230,000 for the nonprofit Give to Learn to Grow Foundation. Proceeds help underserved communities in Somaliland.
Today — when not climbing mountains — she is (figuratively) moving them for the ultra wealthy. Nalayeh is a managing director and advisor at Bank of America’s private bank, where she manages $6.4 billion in client assets.
She built that book from scratch, relying on tried-and-tested word-0f-mouth strategies. Her savvy networking capabilities have also come in handy, particularly when she met a professional basketball player with the Atlanta Hawks, whose identity she could not disclose.
Climbing the highest mountain in Africa sounds easy when considering the adversity Nalayeh has faced. She moved to Canada from Somalia at just 11 years of age. While her father worked as a parking attendant, she ran a newspaper route as a teenager.
Later, she moved from Georgia to California for her husband. But when Nalayeh joined BofA’s private bank in 2006, she was divorced with a two-year-old son.
Nalayeh, who is 49, told Insider that she doubted her ability to be a rainmaker for the bank at a time when she was dealing with a divorce and a toddler. But in six months, she landed a high-net-worth client.
The banker leads a team of 13 alongside Avi Cohen, a fellow MD and private client advisor who was once her rival within the bank.
Most of their clients come from the entertainment and media industries, as well as tech, real estate, and healthcare.
Nalayeh is also focused on finding more women clients, including those who are overwhelmed by responsibilities found both at home and in the workplace.
The plant is located in the northwestern governorate of Marsa Matrouh.
Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker and General Director of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) Alexei Likhachev attended the ceremony at the plant, giving the green light to start the construction works.
Shaker said that El-Dabaa’s reactors comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) safety measurements. They can endure earthquakes and airplane crashes, he noted, adding that the reactor’s operating span may extend to 60 years.
“Building El-Dabaa NPP allows Egypt the chance to achieve a new level of industry and technology. This will be the biggest project between Russia and Egypt since establishing the High Dam project in Aswan. It has been a dream of Egyptians to acquire nuclear energy for more than half a century. ROSATOM is honoured to fulfil it,” the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in Egypt quoted Likhachev as saying at the ceremony.
The event was attended by Osama Asran, the deputy minister of electricity and renewable energy, CEO of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) Gaber Desouky, Advisor to the Minister of Electricity Amgad Said, a delegation of senior officials from Russian companies implementing the project, as well as Amgad El-Wakil, the chairman of the NPPA, which organised the event.
El-Wakil told Al-Ahram Arabic news website on Wednesday that El-Dabaa is located on the Mediterranean, 140 kilometres west of Alexandria.
He noted that funding for the project is based on a governmental financial agreement. Loans will be acquired after operating the plant and collecting revenues from electricity generation.
El-Wakil said the project is expected to generate net revenues of $264 billion for the state treasury over 60 years.
In December 2017, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement in Cairo to initiate work on the plant at a construction cost of $28.75 billion.
Russia will finance 85 percent of the cost with a loan of $25 billion, while Egypt will provide the remaining 15 percent in the form of installments. The Russian loan is repaid over 22 years, with an annual interest of three percent.
On 30 June 2022, the Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) permitted ROSATOM to start the construction work on El-Dabaa project, which Egypt and Russia signed an agreement to build in November 2015 to generate a total of 4,800 megawatts via four reactors.
Earlier in June, ROSATOM announced that it started the manufacture in Saint Petersburg of electrical components for the plant’s reactor vessel, according to Sputnik news agency.
ROSATOM had submitted a request to establish the first two reactors out of four reactors in January 2019, and received the permission in June 2021, after safety measures were checked and qualified workers and means of conducting safety tests were available.
El-Dabaa NPP is designed according to the latest 3+ Generation which is fully compliant with all post-Fukushima requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
ROSATOM had previously announced that 40% of the cost of Dabaa nuclear power plant is allocated for safety measures.
The four units of the plant are expected to operate at full capacity of 4,800 megawatts by 2030, with the first reactor operating at a capacity of 1,200 Megawatts at the first phase, said El-Wakil.
According to the project’s design, the nuclear plant will have four VVER-1,200 reactor units, with the first unit scheduled for operation in 2026.
In November 2021, Egypt signed a long-term $1 million agreement with the Czech ÚJV Rež Research and Development company to consult on El-Dabaa Nuclear Plant, according to ENRRA Chairperson Sami Shaaban.
According to the contract, ÚJV Rež will provide technical assistance to the ENRRA in licensing the nuclear plant.
A scene of pouring concrete of the building the 1st reactor of El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant on July 20. (Photo courtesy of the official Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in Egypt)
An iconic table shared by Gulf Cooperation Council leaders at a recent summit was designed by a Saudi artist.
Lulwah Al-Hammoud produced the drawings for the item of furniture that took center stage at the meeting of GCC member states Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar, along with representatives of Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq.
She told Arab News of her pride and thrill at seeing the table being used by the organization’s leaders. Its design was inspired by the changes taking place in Saudi Arabia and her commission brief had been, “we are entering a new era, but we are not forgetting about our traditions.”
After accepting the design challenge, Al-Hammoud was initially nervous because she was not a furniture designer, however it turned out to be “a very beautiful experience.” And her background in Islamic contemporary art and calligraphy helped.
The round table is made of wood and in its center are triangles of different color tones of wood that rotate outwards with lines made of copper, a metal, she noted, not often used in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Hammoud pointed out that she opted for triangles in her design because the shape was common in traditional Saudi architecture.
She said: “The triangle can also be modern and universal, but at the same time I wanted to capture growth and the act of evolving.”
The idea behind the design was to create something that represented, “the vision of Saudi Arabia while staying true to our roots,” she added.
One of the challenges for Al-Hammoud was to create a round table that could seat different numbers of people.
“It can be odd or even, so the design had to be smart. It took me a while to figure out how to do that. With guidance, I was able to work it out.
“I am really happy, because for a table like that they could have easily gone to the best furniture designers in the world, but they chose to believe in a local talent.”
Al-Hammoud has nine solo exhibitions to her name, with some of her artworks displayed at The British Museum, the Jeju National Museum in South Korea, the Greenbox Museum of Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia in the Netherlands, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The UAE-based Barjeel Art Foundation has described Al-Hammoud as a pioneer in Saudi Arabia’s contemporary art movement.
She said: “I take art very seriously; I feel like it is a very important tool for education. It’s a window to tell people about who we are, it gives the true story of a certain civilization.”
She fell in love with Islamic art while conducting research on the topic and was fascinated by the philosophies and sciences behind each shape.
“My art has always had spiritual elements; it doesn’t talk about the moments I live in or the space I occupy. I speak about a higher dimension, spirituality, my place in the bigger scheme of things, and my connection to God,” she added.
source: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Lulwah Al-Hammoud said that she opted for triangles in her design because the shape was common in traditional Saudi architecture. (AN Photo)
With the newly emerging social entrepreneurship movement, Moroccan youth are keen to develop entrepreneurial solutions to respond to local challenges.
Driven by innovation and the spirit of entrepreneurship, a student-led team from Enactus Club at Morocco’s Mohammadia School of Engineering (EMI) has developed a fabric made from milk to reduce dairy waste.
A team of 10 engineering students took the lead to make a positive impact within Moroccan society after observing the alarming amount of milk waste discharged in rivers and lakes. The dumping of milk waste has severe consequences for the balance of marine ecosystems as well as on the quality of drinking water.
The “S-ILK” project is a promising alternative to classic fabrics, by focusing on creating a tissue based on casein, a protein extracted from milk.
So far, the team has been able to develop the first prototype of its biodegradable fabric in the form of textile yarns and now seeks to begin mass production.
Speaking to Morocco World News, S-ILK Project Manager Omar Dirane stressed that synthetic fabrics, made from nonrenewable fossil fuels, are often bad for health and the environment. This became the reason why the team decided to use milk as a fabric to make clothes while reducing the pollution of dairy products.
Research quoted by The Guardian has found that 16% of dairy products, approximately 128 million tonnes, is lost or discarded globally each year; an efficient solution is therefore needed to reduce the environmental impacts of this large-scale food waste.
Ghita Dahhou, a project associate, told MWN that their long-term goal consists of making “S-ILK” a startup in which they seek to develop and sell eco-friendly clothes, while also raising awareness about food waste and making people eco-responsible through what they wear.
“The idea of creating a brand of ecological fibers is present and could be a big step for the textile industry in Morocco,” Dahhou said. As eco-responsible alternatives to fast fashion keep growing worldwide, the industry is significantly becoming more competitive.
Project associate Taoufiq Saaad spoke on the difficulties they could potentially face in implementing their startup in the future, especially as young students without years of experience in the field.
S-ILK team members, however, are keen to keep their optimism and ambitions to achieve their professional aspirations, noting that “our young age will not stop us from being invested in the engineering field and giving everything we have to improve it.”
Social entrepreneurship: challenges and opportunities
Eager to position their product in the Moroccan market, the team has conducted a market study to identify their niche while focusing on customers that support environmental advocacy and are eco-responsible.
Similar customers that follow the ecological trend are harder to find in Morocco due the “traditional mindset” some people still have, Ghita argued. Such a mindset, in addition to societal pressures, hinder young project holders from “taking risks and exploring what is beyond our comfort zone.”
As part of their market research, they also conducted interviews with people in the streets of Rabat. Taoufiq Saaad highlighted that people were “intrigued by the product especially when we told them that the piece will be cheaper than actual silk.”
“As we have been showing a potential to grow, we have been able to find clients who are interested in purchasing our product,” he added.
Supported by Moroccan hypermarket chain Marjane Holdings and Orange Maroc, one of three major licensed telecommunications operators in the country, the project manager expressed the team’s interest in securing more funds to be able to expand their project.
He explained that “Orange digital center” provides them with the tools needed to elaborate their research while “Orange Fab Lab” is where they experiment on their product and work on improving it.
When asked how they manage to finance projects within Enactus EMI, especially those starting from scratch, Dirane underlined that when a project within the EMI network wins a prize, they split it so that all projects can be able to expand.
Meanwhile, Ghita underlined that in recent years, Morocco has been offering several opportunities for young project holders to show their potential, either through financial aid or other facilities that banks provide, in addition to the support and mentoring from several incubators.
“With over 300 alumni of Enactus EMI, and 66 current members, we have much expertise, and engineers in different industries across Morocco, all coming together to contribute to the growth of innovative projects,” he added.
For Omar, Taoufiq, and Ghita, the project is helping them become the leaders of tomorrow by.being engaged in extracurricular activities to develop soft skills such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving, among others, while also seeking expertise in the engineering field.
source/content: moroccoworldnews.com (edited)
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S-ILK: Moroccan Engineering Students Create Innovative Fabric From Expired Milk
Find out how a kid from war-torn Sudan became an Australian hero who has the world at his fingertips.
You, me, The Pope, your butcher – we’ve all had those moments when we stop what we’re doing, fall silent and ask ourselves, How could this be? How could I have gotten from where I once was (Point A) to where I am now (Point B)? It’s a universal experience, for sure, but it’s going to be more intense for some than others. And it’s hard to imagine that many have felt it more powerfully than has Peter Bol.
You’ve probably absorbed snippets of this guy’s background. He was born in Khartoum, Sudan 28 years ago amid civil war. Via Egypt, he arrived in Toowoomba as a boy with no English or interest in running. That was his Point A.
His Point B was the Tokyo Olympic Stadium last August. It was lining up for the 800m final – the first Australian man to do so for more than half a century – in the fourth most-viewed event in Australian television history. It was leading the pack at the last bend before, yes, two Kenyans and a Pole outkicked him, consigning Bol to that cruel mistress of placing: fourth. It was leaving the media conference to go watch the Boomers play and getting a tap on the shoulder from an Australian Olympic Committee official.
“The Prime Minister wants to speak with you,” the official said.
“Do I have to?” /
“Yes.”
“Okay. Please give him my number.”
After some back and forth, Bol finds himself on the phone with the (then) Prime Minister, Mr Morrison, who’s calling him “mate” and thanking him for his efforts, which, the PM says, had inspired Australians during the challenges of the pandemic. The PM signs off by saying he’d love to meet Bol sometime. That’s a decent Point B.
“Yeah, I’ve come a long way,” says Bol, who’s taking time out from his preparations for this month’s World Athletics Championships, in Oregon, and next month’s Commonwealth Games, in Birmingham, to speak with Men’s Health. “And this is bigger than sports.”
Indeed. Because the story of Peter Bol can be read in any number of ways. You could see it through a purely athletic lens and marvel at how Bol became world class in the classic two-lap race – a long-busting physical examinations that takes you back to schooldays: “Two laps of the oval, boys,” your PE teacher would bark. “And let’s see some effort for a change.” Similarly, it’s easy to be intrigued by Bol’s newfound command of the psychology of performance. But trumping both those elements is how he accepted the hand fate dealt him and played it expertly, transforming from a pint-sized kid from a poor immigrant family into an inspiration – an inspiration who’s intent on being a change-maker. “Now that I am, I guess, a high-profile athlete, I have a responsibility,” says Bol. “A responsibility to call certain things out.”
THE LESSONS OF LOSING
Face to face, the first thing you notice about Bol is how busy his hands are in conversation. It’s as though words alone are insufficient to convey the scope of his meaning or the depth of his feelings, and his hands must come to life to fill the breech. Which makes sense because since Tokyo, Bol has had to grapple with a plethora of new thoughts and experiences.
Tokyo wasn’t his first Olympics. In 2016 he raced in Rio, where he was eliminated in the heats. You might figure, Oh, well, in those intervening five years he must have come on in leaps and bounds as an athlete – as a physical specimen. But that simply wasn’t the case, Bol insists. “Between Rio and Tokyo, the physical part, if it changed at all, it would have only been by five per cent.”
In Brazil, however, Bol learnt a lot about peak performance – or, more accurately, about what prevents it. It was there he battled bouts of anxiety the likes of which he could scarcely have imagined. He’d wake at 4am, trembling, his stomach in knots, his night’s sleep over. “I realised that performing in the big events is about more than running hard every single day of your training,” he says.
When he wasn’t anxious in Rio, he was most likely distracted. Because, man, talk about distractions! Free haircuts. Free food. And there’s…wait…Klay Thompson in the dining room! What’s a bloke who’d rather watch an NBA game than an 800m race supposed to do?
Between Rio and Tokyo, Bol also tested himself at two world athletics championships – in London and Doha in 2017 and 2019 respectively – and tasted no joy at either. Looking back, he sees these disappointments as necessary steps in his maturation. “You build your resilience on setbacks,” he says. “I got knocked out early [at all those meets] and it would have been easy to stop after each one. Athletics: it’s not hard to stop” – because you train relentlessly to face mighty competition, and when you get your butt kicked, stopping cries out to you. Stopping’s a siren song. But Bol covered his ears and kept running.
REALITY CHECK
For mine, one of Bol’s most admirable traits is his aversion to cliches, stereotypes and myth making. Yes, he spent his first six years in an African country wracked by civil war, but he doesn’t want you to assume that those six years were a nightmarish battle for survival, because they weren’t.
“I don’t remember too much,” he says. “I remember family. I remember going to mosque with my grandparents and a little school. And I remember playing football outside with other kids.” The third-born of five brothers, Bol and his family could have stayed in Sudan, but his father was determined they find a better life elsewhere. Travelling solo, Bol’s dad ventured north into Egypt to establish a foothold, at which point the rest of the family joined him when Peter was six.
For a while it was out there in the public domain that the Bols had lived in a refugee camp while in Egypt. But that is incorrect. If it were true, Bol says, he’d have no problem acknowledging it, but it isn’t – some people just wish it were, he suspects, because they think it would enhance his story. But his story doesn’t need enhancing. From his mother, Bol gleaned that family is everything: “For her, separation from family is unbearable.” From his father, the take-outs have been hard work and the power of hope. And bravery: “He wasn’t scared to take a risk, my dad.”
Their time in Egypt tested the Bol clan. While the Sudanese and Egyptian cultures, linked by the Arabic language, are similar, he says, “there was a lot of racism towards Sudanese people. At the same time, there were a lot of great Egyptians. My dad used to iron clothes for work, and he worked with these Egyptians who were the nicest people. But this period was a struggle for my oldest brother. He was four years older than me. He had to look after us when we walked through school, when there was racism going on or there were fights. He had to stand up and be the bigger man while trying to protect us.”
A sadness – an incomprehension – sweeps over Bol as he reflects on those times. “Just seeing people being unkind,” he says. “Why? Was it necessary? We really weren’t trying to bother anyone. We were just trying to live day by day. I hate seeing people being unkind to random people for no reason.” After four years in Egypt, the family was ready for another, bigger move. Bol’s father had relatives in Australia who helped facilitate a shift to Toowoomba, in 2004. The expectation was that the Great Southern Land would offer educational and work opportunities unavailable in Egypt. As it turned out, things didn’t happen quite fast enough in Toowoomba, so in 2008 the family headed west to Perth, where there were more and better-paid factory jobs for the father. Peter eventually landed a basketball scholarship at St Norbert College.
“My family shaped who I am as an athlete,” Bol says. “Because to be a professional athlete, you’ve got to be determined, you’ve got to be consistent, and you’ve got to be committed. My brothers and I competed over everything – PlayStation, sports, learning English. We had that competitive nature. We wanted to be the best. But when we stepped back from competition, we relaxed – we forgot about it all. And my dad was important here, too: when I didn’t make a team, he’d be like, ‘It’s okay – it’s not the end of the world.’”
It took two years’ persuasion by a St Norbert’s teacher for Bol to let go of his hoop dreams and focus on running. By this stage he was 17 – a ridiculously late start for an athlete. Bol’s first track coach was a taskmaster with no tolerance for nonattendance or half-heartedness. While a lot of teenagers would have haughtily pushed back, Bol thought about his coach and realised, You know, this man doesn’t have to be here, so don’t waste his time. “He pushed hard and held me accountable, and I needed that because I wasn’t getting it at home.”
In time, Bol’s running ambitions took flight. At first, he dreamed about being the fastest in his school. When that was ticked off, he imagined being fastest in the state. . .and then the country. “Finally,” he says, his hands waving about like a conductor’s, “it was, Okay, let’s see how far I can get internationally.” Since 2015, Bol has been guided by Justin Rinaldi, head coach of the Fast 8 Track Club. Bol says that when he moved from Perth to Melbourne and started training with athletes who were better than he was, he wanted to know why: what were they doing that he wasn’t? And what should he copy from them to make himself better? In time, however, he came to see that “when you do that, you lose a little bit of yourself each time.” Before Rio, he says, he was too preoccupied with what the Kenyans were doing, what the Jamaicans were doing. “All these different personalities and [me] trying to get a little bit of each one. . .which just doesn’t help you because it gets you so far out from who you are. To perform on the track, you need to be totally confident in who you are and in your abilities. You also need to get your values right off the track: what are your values and are you living by them? At one point I realised, OK, I’ve moved away from home, from family, and yet family is my biggest priority. Okay, let’s get back to family – not physically for now but through phone calls.”
So, in the lead-up to Tokyo, “instead of searching for what other people were doing, I was believing that we [Bol, Rinaldi, training partner Joseph Deng, manager James Templeton] were doing was right. Bring it back to yourself! And once you’re back to yourself, like 100 per cent, man, yeah, you’re kind of on fire. You’re unstoppable. Because you believe in what you’re doing. You believe in your support team and everyone else is just competition.”
A caveat applies here: not copying your adversaries doesn’t mean you ignore them. Come Tokyo, says Bol, he was a student of the 800m. “Whereas before then, I didn’t really care who I was racing against. I didn’t care less. I didn’t watch races, and to be the best you have to watch races and you have to know your competitors. That’s where you learn – off the track. But I couldn’t be bothered watching a race that went for what 1:44 seconds, but I’d watch a whole NBA game. It was crazy.”
READY FOR LAUNCH
Bol laments COVID’s toll on the world as much as the next guy. But insofar as it delayed the Tokyo Games for a year, well, that he appreciated. “Because I was still getting it together,” he says. In 2020, compared to the middle of 2021, “I wasn’t as fit, I wasn’t as strong – and I definitely wasn’t as confident. I needed that year to keep growing.” Ahead of the Games, in the first half of 2021, Bol dominated the domestic season, ultimately recording two times below the Olympic qualifying standard of 1:45.20.
Here’s Bol’s take on perfect preparation: attend meticulously to the basics – and then, on top of that foundation, stack the one-percenters like Pilates, pool running and breathing techniques. And the basics are? Never miss training sessions. Observe recovery protocols. Hydrate right. Sleep right. “I did a whole year of that, and it added up when I came to Tokyo,” he says. “I wasn’t doing that the year before. [Had the Games happened in 2020,] I wouldn’t have made the final. It would have been a completely different story. We wouldn’t be talking now.”
On the flight to Tokyo, Bol gave himself a rev-up about why he was going. It was not to be an also-ran. It was not to gather experience. “I’d served those years,” he says. “I said to myself, I’m going to perform and compete!”
High achievement in any field is about handling the pressure at each new level. Doing that involves keeping that next level – even if it’s the pinnacle – in perspective. For Bol, that meant convincing himself that even though this was the Olympics, he’d still be running two laps of a 400m track about which there was nothing magical; that everything you attach to the Olympics in terms of mystique and grandeur is an optional overlay. “You’re running exactly the same distance you’ve always run,” Bol says. “It’s just with different people on a different track in a different country, but you’re not suddenly running 850 metres.
“Everything you do on the day matters. You’ve got to make sure that everything you’ve done in preparation counts on the day, shines through on the day, because that’s all you’re judged on. The assumption is that, physically, everyone who puts their toe on the line is ready to do well, is in shape. But mentally, are you ready to perform? Are you alert? Are you focused? The best races you’ve ever run, hands down, are those races where you don’t think about anything. It’s like muscle memory. If you’re running a race and you’re thinking, I should make that move, it’s already too late. You should already have made it. Your body should make the move. It should be automatic.”
In his Tokyo heat, Bol set a new Australian record of 1:44.13. The next day, in his semi-final, he lowered the mark to 1:44.11.
Bol loathes ice baths, but with those two fibre-ripping efforts behind him and the final looming, he forced himself into one. There’s another one-percenter right there. In the same vein, he ate heartily to speed up repair of the muscles in his rippling legs and get them ready to propel him into history.
In the final, Bol led through the first lap in 53:76 – two or three seconds slower than you’d expect in a world class 800m. The leisurely pace would suit the faster finishers – the guys with a kick like a mule. Does that describe Bol? Sure. He can do a straight 400m in about 47 seconds and a straight 100m in 11 flat. But, in hindsight, maybe he didn’t trust enough in his finishing speed and kicked a little too early, allowing Kenyans Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich, as well as Poland’s Patryk Dobek, to overtake him in the straight. (Korir’s gold medal-winning time was slower than Bol’s heat-winning time. It’s a strange beast, the 800.)
THE BIGGER PICTURE
While fourth at the Olympics didn’t earn Bol a medal, it did change his life. Nowadays, he’s getting recognised in the streets. School students write to him. Bigger crowds assemble for his races. Publications want to profile him. Companies want to be associated with him. When Men’s Health spoke with Bol, the ink was still wet on a new sponsorship contract with prestige watchmaker Longines.
“Yesterday I was on a run and a lady wanted a photo,” he says. “I had to say, ‘Sorry, I’m actually running right now.’ It shows how far I’ve come. Eighteen years ago, I came to Australia. Eleven years ago, I wasn’t running – now I’m fourth in the world.” And he thinks he can improve on that by making his 63-kg frame stronger through the glutes, hips, legs and core, and by getting better at race management. He thinks he can bring down his best time to around 1:42. (For context, the world record, set by Kenya’s David Rudisha in 2012, is 1:40.91.) But medals are more important to him than times. And there’s something more important than medals.
I don’t ask Bol about Yassmin Abdel-Magied, the Sudanese-Australian writer and activist whose 2017 “lest-we-forget” Anzac Day post invoking Manus Island, Nauru, Syria and Palestine triggered a campaign of vitriol that led to her fleeing these shores for Britain. I fail to make the country-of-origin association until it’s too late. Consequently, I can only wonder what he thinks about what happened to her, about whether her fate is, for him, a warning on the precariousness of goodwill in this country for a high-achieving person of colour. As such a person, can you hope to be widely admired for only so long as you toe the line?
I do, however, ask Bol a general question about how he feels he’s been treated in Australia. “Australia. Man. [Because of athletics,] I’ve been privileged enough to travel the whole world,” he says. I’ve seen a bit of the racism and discrimination going on around the world…and the gap between rich and poor. No country is going to get it perfect. The best we can do is work towards it. But, in Australia, I’ve lived a good life. I’m living a good life. Yes, there’s racism. Yes, there’s discrimination. And I think my goal, especially now that I have a voice, is to try to change that. You do what you can and only take on what you can handle. Because a topic such as racism, it’s heavy. And it gets to you. But you can only make good changes when you’re at your best.
“But there has been racism a few times. And you have to be strong enough to call it out. And I have – I always do – whether it’s directed towards me or someone else. Now that I have a profile, I get treated differently. But if someone next to me isn’t treated [well], it’s my responsibility to call it out.”
RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS WITH PETER BOL
Favourite exercise / Squat
Least favourite /Anything core
Favourite movie / The Dark Knight Rises
Last book you enjoyed / Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
Cheat meal /Ice cream
Best advice you’ve received /Be yourself
Biggest fear / Heights
Family motto /As long as we’ve got each other, it’ll be alright.
Words: Dan Williams /Images: Lauren Schultz / by Dan Williams
A female Saudi beekeeper is tasting sweet success on the international stage after winning a gold medal for her honey in a prestigious global competition.
Businesswoman Norah Shawi Al-Shimmari, from the Hail region, scooped the accolade for best-quality talah (acacia) honey in the world at the London Honey Awards.
It was the first time the enterprising apiarist had taken part in the awards scheme, and she told Arab News: “Winning was one of my biggest wishes for this year. I could not believe it at first, to win is a wonderful feeling.
“It gave me a great boost to keep the good work up and participate in more competitions.”
The annual London Honey Awards competitions aim to inform honey-growers, producers, beekeepers, processors, and retailers, who distribute their standardized products legally, to preserve and ameliorate the quality of their branded items by promoting high-quality honey products in all aspects of its use and consumption.
Al-Shimmari is the only female honey farmer in Hail and is known in the Kingdom as “the beekeeper of the north.”
She and two other award winners were recently honored for their achievements by Hail Deputy Gov. Prince Faisal bin Fahd bin Muqrin.
It was while exhibiting at an event in Riyadh that she was urged to enter the London Honey Awards. “I was highly encouraged by one of my beekeeper colleagues, and I am so grateful for him and his recommendation and all the help he offered.”
Al-Shimmari runs her business from Al-Khita village, on the outskirts of the city of Hail, and moves her hives on a daily basis to different locations in the area to allow her bees access to colorful and nectar-rich athel, sidr, and acacia flowers.
Acacias are distinguished by their small, often fragrant yellow, and occasionally white, flowers, that have many pollen-producing stamens and a fuzzy appearance.
To win her award, Al-Shimmari’s honey was laboratory checked for humidity levels, sucrose and glucose content, texture, and other factors. Samples were then evaluated by a jury panel, with each judge conducting an organoleptic taste analysis and marking the product based on criteria such as appearance, odor, and flavor.
Up against competitors from around the world including the UK, China, Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern countries, she said: “The competition was huge, and my winning was a surprise and a shock.
“Beekeeping is about persistence and being eager to produce distinguished honey. However, my goals do not stop here. I would like to walk a steady journey; I am still dreaming of more success and achievements. This is just the beginning. I want to see my products everywhere worldwide.”
Al-Shimmari has been in the honey trade for more than five years producing 11 different products, and she recently launched a skincare line made of organic honey and honeycomb materials.
Last year, she was the only woman among 33 beekeepers who took part in the Hail Honey Festival. The event helps apiarists market their products, while increasing investment opportunities.
