Saluting Bahrain’s fight against traffickers
The common image of human trafficking is usually that of women being pushed into vice rings and prostitution and of children being made to work in sweat shops and slavery. That is indeed true of an unfortunate majority of cases – 51% of trafficked persons are women and 28% are children, mos...
Celebrating HH Shaikh Nasser fatherhood in the 21st century
Today is a double-label day. For a few years now, June 21, which signifies the summer solstice or the journey of our life-giving star into the Northern hemisphere of the planet has been celebrated also as International Yoga Day and millions of people around the world together practice the ancient...
Getting ready for the future
The trending phrase these days seems to be ..no, not ‘social distancing’ but ‘new normal’. As governments discuss the re-opening of services, malls, places of worship, these come with a raft of caveats from the mandatory mask and gloves to maintaining the two-metre distanc...
Getting real about land deals
One of the indicators of a country’s economic health, especially in the GCC, where industrial growth is a new phenomenon, is the value of the real estate market.
In many neighbouring countries, the economic stimulus package includes specific points for the real estate sector. I woul...
An introspective Ramadan this year
Ramadan Kareem to all our readers.
For many of us, the Holy Month is a timely gift from Allah, a reminder that even when the world faces shutdown, our souls can still access the healing spiritual presence of the Almighty through discipline.
Stuck in isolation, stripped of the fril...
Price wars – a frag‘oil’ situation?
The oil markets suffer from the double shock of pandemics and politics, which pressured prices to multi-year lows below USD 20 per barrel. The collapse of oil demand is unprecedented, swift and deep.
Official US statistics provide an accurate and timely insight into the status of the oil ...
Videoconferencing and Data Security
“Zoom, the video conferencing app that has become wildly popular during the coronavirus crisis admitted that it had “mistakenly” routed some user data through China.” This news item in the Financial Times of 4 April 2020 said that Zoom “had ‘mistakenly’ a...
The Brunels: A Tribute to the British Engineering Duo
On this day, April 8, exactly 182 years ago, a new service began across the Atlantic, with a new ship. The ’SS Great Western’, was a wooden-hulled paddle-wheel steamship built for the primary purpose of ferrying passengers across the Atlantic Ocean at high-speed.
She was not o...
Joining forces to save civil aviation
Desolate airports around the world bear testimony to the cruel impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on civil aviation – both passenger and cargo services.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced global passenger traffic data for February 2020 showing that demand (mea...
Confronting COVID-19 Together
Americans and Bahrainis have been working together to combat epidemics for more than 100 years. One of the first activities of the doctors and nurses of what would become the American Mission Hospital at its founding in the early 1900s was offering medical care to confront outbreaks of cholera, s...
Social Distancing - A Misnomer?
“Not enough storage space.” That’s my phone speaking to me. When I try to click a picture with its camera app, it says, “Clear some space and try again”. And it’s been telling me this, again and again, since yesterday evening.
Inundated with a million m...
All you need to know about the new Corona virus
The following are the most prominent questions and their answers from the World Health Organization
Who is most vulnerable to infection with the new coronavirus, the elderly or the very young?
...
Hearing for life
This year’s theme of world hearing day is Hearing for life – Don’t let hearing loss limit you. World health organization selected this theme to emphasize that early detection of hearing loss and timely intervention with newer technology can change the quality of life in each ind...
A vaccination of truth
The rapid escalation of the N-Coronavirus has put fear in the hearts of people thousands of miles from Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic. At the time of writing, over 34,000 have been infected globally and over 700 have died while nearly 6,200 are in critical condition. Given the time-frame of...
The #hashtag: Fad, trend or megatrend?
Slowly, but surely, the hashtag is growing in cyber- space to prodigious proportions.
If email has made the “a...
Davos was different this year
RICHARD QUEST
It is fashionable to leave Davos and reflect, ‘was it worth the trek?’ This year I think it most certainly was. I noticed some big differences.
Firstly, there are no urgent economic crises, waiting to be managed. Economies are growing (sl...
Taking Bahrain’s excellence abroad
There are two ways to look at business prospects in Bahrain: either that the Bahrain market is very small and we need to reach outside the Kingdom’s borders to sustain business or that the Kingdom’s compact size makes it an ideal ‘test market’ and its geographic position a...
IIT-JEE Main 2020: Anyone can do it
JEE Main (and Advanced) happens to be one of the most coveted and toughest examinations across the world for the students of Grade 12 level.
JEE Main is applicable for admissions to NITs, IIITs and CFTI in India. The results will also lead to the students being shortlisted for admissions ...
Past challenges and the year ahead
In 2019, the Arab world has witnessed persistent violence, frequent displacements and widespread protests. Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, which were relatively quiet, when it comes to street protests and demonstrations by their respective citizens, observed an upward increase in violence. The warfare in...
Cheerful month
This month, December, is a festive month in Bahrain. It has celebrated its 48th National Day and His Majesty’s Accession to the throne followed by the Commemoration Day (martyrs day). The first ever win of the Gulf Cup by the Bahrain National soccer team has brought an additional flavour to...
Assessors may be excused…
I was waiting at the reception. A policeman came and verified my ID card. I could feel the blanket of fear embracing my body, from toe to head. A few policemen were walking around with some handcuffed suspects. It seemed they were taking them to the courts for their next hearing.
I was vi...