Oasis Memories

The thing that I remember as the oldest my memory has retained is the seguia. We used to walk five times a day to get water from the seguia. The closest seguia was 2 kilometres from my grandparents' house.

The oasis was located in a valley at the foot of a rift, so it was below the level of the underground source. My ancestors used blocks of stone, clay and straw to make a cementing mix in order to construct the foggaras. The palm trunks were used to consolidate the underground galleries. The foggaras allowed for the passive transport of water, relying only on the force of gravity.

The water was captured underground and and flows under the earth, which prevented its evaporation, until it was close to the oasis where it flows into an open-air canal called the seguia.

A small triangular basin called the quasri collected water that arrived at our oasis by the way of the seguia.

My grandfather and the rest of the men of the oasis used to set up a water assembly where decisions were made on who would receive how much water. The water deciders were responsible for the distribution of the water.

The home environment in which I was raised did not nourish an interest in the outside world.

Our house was in red clay which contrasted with bright green of the oasis and the goldish of dunes. Open doors lead through winding passages into small courtyards and rooms with floors covered in sand. 

I remember my mother was sitting on a mattress on the floor covered in sand and I was sitting next to her. I was drawing pictures on the sand. It was an important day! It was my brother naming ceremony. 

Naming ceremonies take place seven days after a child is born, on the day when the child's name is chosen, often in the presence of the Imam, and publicly announced. 

The day was an important day and all my aunts and cousins were preparing the lavish meal which was offered to the family and friends. 

The women of the family were dancing and singing and all the women who were invited left presents of money with my baby brother. 

I used to like to sit next to my elder cousin whom I admired a lot. She used to bring books to me and I would spend most of my days reading them and rereading them. 

My cousin used to tell me how proud she was of Algeria; the champion of the liberation of Africa, the champion of socialism. I considered my cousin to be a liberated woman. She used to tell me that only our diplomas would set us free. 

My grandfather heard one day one of our discussions about women's education and freedom and renaissance. He became very upset and he shouted "education is an evil colonialism brought!"

My mother had never been to school. She could not read. She could not write. But she was eager to see me succeed in school and to become independent one day.

Indeed my cousin was right! we do not want condescension, we want respect. Men should replace condescension with respect. Good education means helping people respect themselves and others. 

Veiling should not prevent our women from gaining an education nor cause their health to deteriorate. Women should excel in education and sports.

I, the daughter of three continents, consider myself lucky to have been able to witness the birth of the "invisible feminism" that circulated in our oasis. 

My mother's generation was composed of all these females who couldn't hold their pens and write about the injustices which they had witnessed in their societies. 

These women remained secluded behind clay walls, inside rooms covered with sand, not able to attend assemblies of men, not participating in debates, not participating in public life, not able to use their voices. 

If women are backward because of a lack of education, the society will remain backward. 

Dalila al-Zaituni wrote: "My life is a desert, a fence...oppression, Where is the light, the day?"

Awareness 
Change has begun.

Emotions and Pain

What are our emotions ? 

What purpose do they serve ? 

How do emotions relate to our thoughts, memories, and behaviors 

towards others ? 

So many questions…

In 1872, Darwin published The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, in which he argued that all humans, and even other animals, show emotion through similar behaviors.

There are four kinds of basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, and anger, which are differentially associated with three core affects: reward = happiness, punishment = sadness, and stress = fear and anger.

Emotional states and behaviors directly affect the body and can lead to illness. 

Indeed pain can cause a lot of damage. Pain can be a manifestation of difficulties in resolving feelings of loss, anger, and depression.

People who feel chronic pain can turn anger inward. They become unable to grieve effectively. 

Pain can be influenced in important ways by an individual's personality, by family, and by the sociocultural environment in which they live. 

Ivan Pavlov, who conditioned a salivation response to the sound of a bell, will help us understand how cognitive behavioral approaches show promising results for the treatment of chronic pain. 

Pavlov (1927) suggested that as a result of conditioning, the conditioned stimulus becomes able to elicit the same response as the unconditioned stimulus. 

Indeed Pavlov insisted that medicine had to be grounded in science, on data that could be explained, verified, and analyzed, and on studies that could be repeated.

Pavlov showed how the brain can be trained, through repetition, to cause certain reactions in certain circumstances. 

People suffering from pain experience a significant decrease in the actual size of their brain. 

Pain is just a production created by fear and anxiety. Therefore, we can get rid of the pain by taking a deep breath, and most importantly, by believing the non-existence of the pain. 

As Pavlov set forth a concept called Second Signalling System, a qualitatively unique form of higher nervous activity peculiar to humankind; a system of speech signals.  

Can we conclude that he Second Signaling system, together with the theory of Pavlov's conditioning, has contributed to the making of pain?

Pain can be a learned response, rather than a purely physical problem!

To enable a better understanding of pain, we need to view pain as a complex phenomenon that incorporates physical, psychosocial and behavioural factors. 

The three main ways of learning are: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning. 

The ultimate experience of pain is based on experience, memory, and learning, which are important factors in determining the complex approach to how to deal with learned pain behavior.

Pain is subjective! Everyone experiences pain differently. Each individual's interpretation and expression of pain is based on a interaction of physical, psychological, and emotional factors. And all these factors originate from what...

From the brain, of course!

Therefore, we need and we must utilize the power of the humans' mind to eradicate pain. 

Pain is an emotional response. Indeed most pain behaviors are learned.

MILTON GLASER”S TEN RULES FOR WORK AND LIFE

“None of us has really the ability to understand our path until it’s over,” the celebrated graphic designer Milton Glaser (RIP) muses in one of his interviews.

1. YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE

Some years ago I realized that… all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client.

2. IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB

Here, Glaser quotes composer John Cage : Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. 

3. SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.

Glaser recommends putting a questionable companion to a gestalt therapy test. If, after spending time with that person “you are more tired, then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy, you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.”

4. PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH (or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT)

Glaser concedes that a record of dependable excellence is something to look for in a brain surgeon or auto mechanic, but for those in the arts, “continuous transgression” is the quality to cultivate. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. 

5. LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE

I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’

6. STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED

Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often.

7. HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN

The brain is the most responsive organ of the body…. Thought changes our life and our behavior. I also believe that drawing works in the same way…. Drawing also makes you attentive. It makes you pay attention to what you are looking at, which is not so easy.

8. DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY

One of the signs of a damaged ego is absolute certainty. Schools encourage the idea of not compromising and defending your work at all costs. Well, the issue at work is usually all about the nature of compromise…. Ideally, making everyone win through acts of accommodation is desirable.

9. IT DOESN’T MATTER

Glaser credits essayist Roger Rosenblatt’s Rules for Aging (misidentifying the title as Aging Gracefully) with helping him articulate his philosophy here.  It doesn’t matter what you think. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.

10. TELL THE TRUTH

It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behavior towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do.

Ayun Halliday is an author, illustrator, theater maker and Chief Primatologist.

Voyager

Le faite de ne pas pouvoir voyager est la pire chose qui puisse arriver à un citoyen du monde du 21 -ème siècle.

Certes, pour empêcher le virus corona de se propager, il est impératif de ne pas voyager et de suivre les recommandations des autorités sanitaires locales…mais cette situation est moralement très difficile a supporter.  

Certes, le voyage n’est pas une nécessité.

Mais le voyage est pourtant très important pour un cheminement vers soi et une quête de l’autre.

Le voyage nous permet de découvrir de nouveaux lieux et de nouvelles cultures. Le voyage n’est plus considéré un luxe mais plutôt une partie vitale de notre développement personnel.

André Gide a écrit "La perception commence au changement de sensation : d’où la nécessité du voyage."

On a envie de découvrir des natures spectaculaires et préservée ou les montagnes escarpées s’élèvent des fjords étroits.

Admirer le ciel étoilé du désert. Le désert est idéal pour l’observation des étoiles. Au beau milieu du désert, le ciel est le plus pur que l’on puisse trouver sur Terre.

Certes, pour un ciel étoilé sans égal, quoi de mieux que de se retrouver en plein milieu du désert.

Méditer sous les étoiles ! Pendant la journée, se laisser bercer par le rythme des temps libres de découverte du désert.

Aller voir de nouveaux océans ! Aller voir la mer et l’océan, caresser les flots, jouer avec les vagues, observer la faune marine, toutes ses sensations de nouveaux littoraux…

Rester c’est exister, mais Voyager c’est vivre…

Emile Zola l’a si bien dit, "Rien ne développe l’intelligence comme les voyages."

Mais on va continuer à rêver en attendant qu’on puisse voyager ; rêver de voyages, c’est déjà un voyage.

Niger Mon Beau Pays

Niger is a landlocked country located in western Africa: bounded on the northwest by Algeria, on the northeast by Libya, on the east by Chad, on the south by Nigeria, on the west by Burkina Faso and Mali.

The country takes its name from the Niger River, which flows through the southwestern part of its territory. 

The Niger River, the 3rd longest river in Africa, after the Nile and the Congo, contains 36 families of freshwater fish and nearly 250 fish species, 20 of these are found nowhere else on the planet.

The name Niger derives in turn from the phrase gher-n-gheren meaning river among rivers in the Tamashaq language.

Niger River, 2,600 miles, 4,200 km, the Niger basin is the largest river basin of western Africa. The Niger River which rises in the mountains of Guinea and enters the sea through its delta in southern Nigeria is about as I mentioned before 2,600 miles.

Niamey is the capital of Niger. It is located along the Niger River and it originated as an agricultural village of Maouri, Zarma, or Djerma and Fulani people.

Zarma speak a dialect of Songhai, a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family and are considered to be a branch of the Songhai people.

The vast Songhai Empire (also known as the Songhay Empire) which was the largest and among the greatest African empires and dominated trade and cultural life over a vast territory from Mali, to Niger, Burkina and parts of Nigeria and Cameroon. It was at its height from early 15^th to late 16^th century. 

The nomadic Songhai groups live in Mali, Niger, and southeastern Algeria.

I grew up speaking Zarma and Songhai and Arabic and French. 

Roughly 85% of the population (Hausa, Fulani, and Djerma) adheres to the Sunni branch of Islam. Christianity remains a religion of the towns, particularly of Niamey.

Niger was a French colony. Independence was proclaimed on August 3rd, 1960. I was born 6 years later. 

Hamani Diori set up a single party dictatorship and ruled until he was toppled in a coup in 1974: I was 8 years old.

Seyni Kountché was the next president, another military dictatorship until his death in 1987: I was 21 years old.

My father believed at that time that French schools were the best schools in the world. I attended the French school from Kindergarten up to Terminale (which is the last high school year and I got a Baccalaureat in Philosophy, Literature and 4 languages: French, English, Spanish, Arabic, German)

In Niamey, street food is delicious. On every street of Niger, we can buy farimasa, doundou, or lamb meat called mainama. Farimasa is made of a leavened fried dough, yeast, water, flour, salt, sugar, beaten eggs. Farimasa is like a doghnut, golden brown and crsipy on the outside, while the interior should remain spongy and chewy.

Niger is one of the poorest nations on the earth and one of the hottest countries in the world and is famously nicknamed as "frying Pan of the world." It can get enough to make raindrops evaporate before they hit the soil! Niger has a hot and generally dry desert climate with a short rainy season from June to September.

Harmattan is a dry and dusty season. The north easterly wind blows from the Sahara desert into the Gulf of Guinea, between the end of November and the middle of March. The temperature can be as low as 3°celsius. On its passage over the desert, the wind picks up fine dust particles, the sky is dusty, we can barely breathe outside or see in front of us.

In Niamey, we have a museum where you can learn about dinosaurs. A dinosaur named Nigersaurus has been discovered in Niger. It had a long neck and a mouth like a hammerhead shark with up to 600 teeth for grazing ferns. It lived during the middle Cretaceous period, about 115 to 105 millions years ago.

Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar, observed by Nigeriens and Nigeriennes and by Muslims worldwide, as a month of fasting, prayer, and reflection. 

During Ramadan, you can meet Tobey Tobey in the streets. Children paint their faces and bodies with white face paint and they dance in the streets : almost like a Halloween festival during Ramadan. They go on a trick or treat looking like ghosts.

I had attended many weddings with my Mum. The main wedding attire in Niger is called bazin (sometimes referred to as boubou). This fabric is hand dyed polished cotton. There are two types of bazin /boubou: rich and basic, which are formal and informal.

During weddings, I was fascinated by the griots. These men and women are considered the masters of speech in the western Sahel. The griot is above all a bard (poet), a person who sings praises to the ancestors, to the life of the past. The griot is also the custodian of a society’s traditions, the one who maintains and reinforces the links between present and past; he or she is an artist, and music and oral art are his/her very definition, oral art is highly venerated in west Africa.

In the Republic of Niger, you can find giraffes; West Africa’s last surviving giraffe herd, just 45 minutes outside of Niamey, near Kouré.

Even though Uranium is Niger’s largest mineral export ranked 5th in Uranium production globally, it is still one of the poorest country in the world.

In every house, you are welcomed with a glass of tea. We drink green tea with fresh mint and sugar. 

The Millennial Generation

The millennial, also known as Generation Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 is considered a Millennial: the name given to the current generation of young people aged between 24 and 38.

It seems the millennial generation are attracted to starting their own businesses.

It's not just about earning more money, but also about passion and doing good.

The millennial generation are dissatisfied with the old ways of doing things. They are trying to make the world a better place.

Some of the millennial generation are not happy with the old ways of doing things. For example, they are dissatisfied with how big business uses date from social media and the negative impact of companies on society and the environment.

The millennial generation feel alienated from the term so they call it the Millennial burnout!

They feel alienated from the term because they don't recognize their own work, experience, and work ethics in that description of people who are lazy or entitled.

The millennial generation don't feel that they are self-centered, after all.

Millennials have been reluctant to buy items such as cars, music, and luxury goods. Instead, they are turning to a new set of services that provide access to products without the burdens of ownership, giving rise to what's being called a "sharing economy."

Indeed, the millennials are so attracted to starting their on businesses.

They are all these platforms that let millennials build entrepreneural venture much more easily. Millennial entrepreneurs want to start their own business especially after seeing a new opportunity. 

The growth of things like crowdfunding have helped make entrepreneurship more accessible. 

Crowdfunding is a way for people, businesses and charities to raise money. It works through individuals or organisations who invest in or donate to crowdfunding projects in return for a potential profit or reward; getting the funding for a new business by asking a large number of people to give small amounts of money, usually via the internet.

The growth of things like crowfunding has led to tons of new start-ups. Start-ups are newly formed businesses intended to grow rapidly by providing for a particular market gap.

For many millennials, creating a start-up is not just about making money but also about being socially responsible and doing good.

Charles Kenny, former World Bank economist, cautions against overemphasising individual business over governments. If young people want to make the world a better place, they need to fight corruption. In order to fight corruption, they need to work in government places.

The more we have young, committed people who want to make the world a better place working in government, the more likely government is to start delivering the kind of services we need in order to ensure a high quality of life in the country.

Governments can act morally wrong or illegal ways, often in return for money or power.

Therefore, the millennials can push development in their countries by fighting corruption. It has to be a collective effort.

The passion and talent that millennials put into starting their own business could instead be used to improve governments through a group of people acting together to achieve a common goal: to fight corruption through collective effort.

If the millennials work together, they can raise people's level of satisfaction and comfort. They can raise people's quality of life.

This is something that Muhammad Yunus was doing. His micro finance initiative reached out to people shunned by conventional banking systems-people so poor they have no collateral to guarantee a loan, should they be unable to repay it. His revolutionary microcredit system is estimated to have extended credit to more than seven million pf the world's poor, most of them in Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations in the world.

Millennials start-ups can help solve many of the developing world's problems, instead of governments which may be corrupt.

Millennials, men and women, want to improve the quality of life through a collective effort.

Indeed if they work together, they will make the world a better place.

Rain Poem

It's raining cats and dogs today!

How beautiful is the rain,

But even worse,

Heavy rain and severe flooding,

Cause deaths,

But How beautiful is the rain.

Rain. Rain. Rain.

Nothing but the wild rain,

Let the rain fall,

Let the rain fall down on me,

Rain and Solitude,

In a hot summer day,

Watching the droplets of rain,

On my window pane.

No rain without clouds,

Dark, Dangerous, Destructive clouds,

But no rain without clouds,

And No happiness without shadows,

The heavens pour rain,

Thick as drapery,

To cover our worries.

Rain in Summer,

Summer in full swing,

Watching alone the droplets of rain,

the droplets of rain on the window pane.

Expecting the rain to fulfill our promise,

under the gaze of a wet crying sun,

water rolled down the cheeks;

Tears and Rain reconcile,

A clap of thunder sounds,

Then lightening flashes,

Then all is quiet outside.

My soul has grown deep like the lakes,

Powerful is the rain,

Who feeds all creatures,

Love and Caring,

I am the rain.

I am Alive, I am alive,

The morning rain, the morning rain,

Unbroken silence, 

The rain is so fitting today. 

CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus and hydroxychloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine has long been used to treat malaria as well as other conditions such as lupus and arthritis.

Chloroquine is an antimalarial drug that was developed in 1934. Hydroxychloroquine, an analogue of chloroquine, was developed in 1946 and is used to treat autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis.

One of the world's largest studies, the Recovery trial run by Oxford University, has involved 11,000 patients with coronavirus in hospitals across the UK and included testing hydroxychloroquine's effectiveness against the disease, along with other potential treatments.

It concluded that "there is no beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with Covid-19" and the drug has now been pulled from the trial.

There are no drugs or other therapeutics presently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent or treat COVID-19.

What Is Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

At the end of 2019, a new type of coronavirus began making people sick with flu-like symptoms. The illness is called coronavirus disease-19 — COVID-19, for short. The virus spreads easily and has now affected people in many countries.

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

COVID-19 causes a fever, cough, and trouble breathing. Some people might have:

• A sore throat
• chills
• repeated shaking with chills
• muscle pain
• headache
• a loss of taste or smell

The virus can be more serious in some people. People who are very ill get care in a hospital with breathing help, IV fluids, and other treatments.

What Is an IV?

An intravenous line (IV) is a soft, flexible tube placed inside a vein, usually in the hand or arm. Health care providers use IV lines to give a person medicine or fluids.

How Can I Protect Myself From Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

To protect yourself and your family:

1. Keep your family home and away from others as much as possible.
2. Avoid other people, especially those who are sick, and busy places until the outbreak is under control. Remember, COVID-19 can spread before a person has symptoms and even when someone has no symptoms.
3. If you need to go out, cloth face masks on adults and kids over 2 years old can help slow the spread of the virus:
4. Do not use a face mask meant for a health care worker because they're needed in hospitals and doctor's offices.
5. To see how to put on and remove masks, clean them, or make your own cloth mask
6. Try to stay at least 6 feet (2 meters) away from other people.
7. Wash your hands well and often. Wash for at least 20 seconds with soap and water or use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Teach your kids to do the same.
8. Try not to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth.
9. Use a household cleaner or wipe to clean and disinfect surfaces and objects that people touch a lot.
10. Follow recommendations from your local health authority, especially if there are people with coronavirus in your area.

Empathy, empathy, empathy.

If their fears and frustrations are minimized or dismissed, Hatfield says, children likely will show up in other ways — fighting with siblings, throwing tantrums or being generally uncooperative.

For small children with big emotions, she says, get on their level and say something affirming like, “I imagine you are worried about getting sick. I wonder if you are frightened about all the things that are suddenly changing.”

For kids feeling the pinch of isolation, you could say, “It’s so frustrating to not compete in your dance team program. You had looked forward to that for months!” Communication is the key !

You and your child will get through this — and, if you’re lucky, you may even be a little better for it in the end.

Gabriele D’Annunzio's "The Rain in the Pinewood"

The Rain in the Pinewood

Be silent. At the edge

of the wood I do not hear

the human words you say;

I hear newer words

spoken by droplets and leaves

far away. 

Listen. It rains

from the scattered clouds.

It rains on the briny, burned

tamarisk,

it rains on the pine trees

scaly and rough,

it rains on the divine

myrtle,

on the bright genista flowers

gathered together,

on the junipers full of

fragrant berries,

it rains on our sylvan faces,

it rains on our bare hands

on our light clothes,

on the fresh thoughts

that our soul, renewed,

liberates,

on the beautiful fable

that beguiled you yesterday,

that beguiles me today,

oh Hermione.

  

Can you hear?

The rain falls

on the solitary vegetation

with a crackling noise that lasts

and varies in the air

according to the thicker,

less thick foliage. 

Listen.

With their singing, the cicadas

are answering this weeping,

this southern wind weeping

that does not frighten them,

and nor does the grey sky.

And the pine tree

has a sound, the myrtle

another one, the juniper

yet another, different

instruments

under countless fingers. 

And we are immersed

in the sylvan spirit,

living the same

sylvan life;

and your inebriated face

is soft from the rain,

like a leaf,

and your hair

is fragrant like the light

genista flowers,

oh terrestrial creature

called Hermione.

  

Listen, listen!

The song of the flying cicadas

becomes fainter and fainter

as the weeping grows stronger;

but a rougher song

rises from afar,

and flows in

from the humid remote shadow.

Softer and softer

gets weaker, fades away.

One lonely note

still trembles, fades away.

No one can hear the voice of the sea.

Now you can hear the silver rain

pouring in

on the foliage,

rain that purifies,

its roar that varies

according to the thicker,

less thick foliage.

Listen.

The child of the air is silent;

but the child

of the miry swamp, the frog,

far away,

sings in the deepest of shadows

who knows where, who knows where!

And it rains on your lashes,

Hermione.

It rains on your black lashes

as if you were weeping,

weeping from joy; not white

but almost green,

you seem to come out of the bark.

And life is in us fresh

and fragrant,

the heart in our chests is like a peach

untouched

under the eyelids our eyes

are like springs in the grass

and the teeth in our mouths

green almonds.

And we go from thicket to thicket,

at a time together, at a time apart

(the vegetation, thick and vigorous,

entwines our ankles

entangles our knees)

who knows where, who knows where!

And it rains on our sylvan faces,

it rains on our bare hands

on our light clothes,

on the fresh thoughts

that our soul, renewed, liberates,

on the beautiful fable

that beguiled me yesterday,

that beguiles you today,

oh Hermione.

Gabriele D’Annunzio: The Collection of Poems in English. The most comprehensive English translation of the poetry of Gabriele D'Annunzio.