Sites from Wady Do'an

Few places on earth are as spectacular in appearance and exotic as Wady Hadhramout. The most dramatic and most thrilling of all the Hadhramout Valley, is undoubtedly Wady Do'an. It has so many breathtaking sites; lush in some places and so lavish in others. It's best to move through Wady Do'an slowly and stop and take time; and enjoy the many exotic villages, the many lush fields and date palms and the many wonderful mountains. A few days ago, I had the joy of traveling through the Wady with my daughter and son. Below, are a few photos that I took:

Above: Al Hajerayn. The most spectacular in Wady Do'an and one of the oldest villages in Hadhramout. It's built on the side of a small mountain and seems to cling on its side. The mountain itself, juts dramatically upwards at the center of the cluster of the elaborately built mud houses.

There are many small villages in the Valley. From a distance, they look so alien and mysterious.

All the villages are built on the side of the cliffs or right below them. This is so, so as to provide security for the villagers in the olden days when there were many quarrels and fights between tribes. For the same reason, the houses were built close to each other so that it would be easy to defend them against enemies.

All villages too, are close to cultivated fields and the date palms. The other main villages along Wady Do'an are: Al Mash'had and Seif.

All the houses are made of mud bricks and they blend so beautifully with the cliffs and the date palms. Most of the houses go up to three or more storeys.

A few years ago, there were no proper, good roads here. But now, there is a very good tarmac road running through the Wady. Good roads also mean more tourists and more traffic through the pristine Valley, which will certainly be, in some ways, destructive to the culture and environment here.

Driving upwards, out of the Wady, and on to the highlands, is breathtaking. The road upwards, is very steep but very well built. And the view below as one goes upwards, is exhilarating. The villages, the palms and the valley are stunningly wonderful.


One of the most dramatic and most awesome of the villages is the last one, before one moves up the road to Al Mukalla. Al Khurayba, above, is a cluster of castle like, very large houses built by one of the richest families in the world. And not far from here, is the ancestral roots of another wealthy family: the Bin Ladens.

'This Is It'

Michael Jackson wanted to give his greatest and best show. One last show which he called: 'This Is It'. In death, he has done just that. His farewell memorial at the Staples Center sports arena, Los Angeles, was his most spectacular show ever, with Michael looming larger than life over the arena and crowd. And since his death, two weeks ago, he has dominated all forms of media and news headlines. Globally.

Whatever might be said about Michael Jackson, whatever one might think of him - one thing is certain: he defined an era. As for his lifestyle and as one of the most eccentric people who ever lived, it's not for us mortals to judge others; that is only God's prerogative. He will judge him the way He will judge each of us.

One thing is certain too: Michael Jackson was a genius and is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians, one of the most talented entertainers and one of the best dancers of all time; and one of the top ten African American entertainers ever, right there with - Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Bob Marley, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Harry Belafonte. Only with time, can we truly know if he was "simply the greatest entertainer that ever lived."

As Michael said: "If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with." He was loved and will always be loved by millions of people worldwide. Most probably, in the history of music, of all musicians and entertainers, none has been as loved and adored by so many, as Michael Jackson was. As he would have very much wished and wanted, he leaves this world with millions of people still loving him. In life and death, very, very few people can ever be as passionately loved and revered as Michael Jackson was and is.

Photo: TinEye

The intricate windows of Yemen

I don't know of any where else, where so much care is taken to build such very elaborate, complex windows as in Yemen. Especially around Sana'a. Below, are a few photos of these windows:








I quote from the book, Yemen: Jewel of Arabia, by Charles & Patricia Aithie: "One of the most attractive aspects of Yemeni architecture, particularly domestic architecture, is the windows. These often consist of two parts: a lower part, for viewing and ventilation, separated by a lintel from an upper part which serves as a fanlight, filled with alabaster or glass to throw light inside the room. Some windows are simple openings made of shutters, alabaster and stained glass. Others include the shubaq, a perforated box structures jutting out from the wall so that women can look down into the street below without being seen...."

What makes a Man happy.....

What is happiness? It means different things to different people; conditions, circumstances and times, all play a big role in making a person happy or not. But generally, it is a state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy or it can be described too, as a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. And now there is the definition of happiness given by the Happy Planet Index (HPI); the index measures well-being in terms of long, happy and meaningful lives.

The HPI reflects the average years of happy life produced by a given society, nation or group of nations, per unit of planetary resources consumed. Put another way, it represents the efficiency with which countries convert the earth’s finite resources into well-being experienced by their citizens. In HPI's latest report, incredibly, but to me - understandably, the wealthiest and most developed of nations, ranked low and were the most unhappy. Small, quiet countries mostly in Latin America - lead by Costa Rica, did best. As can be seen here, most Arab countries - lead by Egypt and Saudi Arabia - didn't do that badly. Yemen, as can be expected, due to poverty and its many problems, scored poorly; and so have Lebanon and Iraq. And understandably, due to its consumerist, artificial and synthetic form - the UAE ranked lowest; together with Kuwait.

As for Costa Rica, it deserves the highest score; who can not be happy in such a country: a country that has such strict conservation laws that it protects a quarter of its land, has no standing army, enjoys continuing stability after a century of almost uninterrupted democratic government; and has the most stunningly beautiful of rivers, streams, waterfalls, valleys, mountains, greenery, jungles, beaches, coastlines and sea. Costa Rica too, internatinally, ranks 5th in the Environmental Performace Index and 50th in the United Nation's Human Development Index; and it ranks very high in most other international rankings.

On the HPI site, there is a 'calculator' for checking how 'happy', overall, one is; I decided to check mine. As I took time and was very honest and sincere in all my answers, I found the results very surprising: according to the Index, I am a very happy man. I scored a high 71.5 while the average score of all online responses to the survey was 53.1; I thought I would do poorly.

But, the HPI aside, what really makes a man happy? Personally, I believe, if a man is healthy, two things matter most. For those unmarried and still studying, being close to the family and enjoying or liking school or college matter most; and then having good friends and being physically active helps. As for those married and working: well, happy is the man who is happy with his marriage - the happier the marriage the happier the man will be. And: happy is the man who likes and enjoys his job - the more a man likes and enjoys his job, the more happy will the man be. Happiest of all men are those who have happy, contented marriages and enjoy their work. Being physically and mentally active, make it even better.

Personally, I believe, urban places, due to their artificiality and with all the crowds, concrete slabs, glass and steel - very rarely can make one happy. Most probably, that's why those living on islands and rural areas are happier and more contended. But conditions too matter; nothing can be as saddening as poverty and disease; and being in a war zone. Character too matters; one's character is, most of the time, a person's main driving force and conditioner of how one feels. Character is fate.

Contentment plays a big role in influencing a person's happiness - the wisest said: "Riches does not mean, having a great amount of property, but riches is self-contentment." - Bukhari,Volume 8, Book 76, Number 453. There are some who are never contented; either in what they possess or the condition they are in. In life, one should try to change one's situation or condition if one can; and if one can not, then he should completely accept it. And then there is the spiritual side. I believe, the more spiritually conscious, enlightened and involved one is, the happier a person would be.

As for women: what makes a woman happy? I don't know and I don't think I will ever know.

The 'thing' with airplane crashes

Flying is the safest way to travel; in contrast, the most dangerous and most unsafe way is using the automobile. Across the Globe, it's estimated that over 1 million people are killed each year in road accidents and tens of millions more are injured; millions are maimed for life. Worldwide, thousands of people, are killed everyday in road accidents. And yet, there is this 'thing' about airplane crashes that has a tremendous impact on the public and in the news.

Whenever an airplane crashes, media coverage is instant and nonstop. Governments and elected officials, even though there are many more people dying due to other causes, react immediately to plane crashes - offering condolences and promising action; airlines and manufacturers of the planes, fall over themselves trying to deflect blame and try to avoid responsibility. That, unfortunately, is the reaction we are seeing and having to the recent Yemenia plane crash.

Founded in 1949 as Yemen Airways, in 1978 it became Yemenia - with 51% owned by the Yemeni government and 49% by the Saudi Arabian government. In its 50 year history, the Yemeni airline has never had a plane crash; this, is not being mentioned in the present frenzy by the news media. It's very unfortunate too, that one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the Comoro Islands, is getting so much attention and focus at such a very sad time for some of its people.

Very, very rarely is one of the most astoundingly, naturally beautiful places on Earth - the Comoros - mentioned in the news. Search on the Net, and very little can be found on the islands, either written or in photos. The people of the Comoros have, for years, had a very close relationship and affinity with Yemen; especially Hadhramout. The islands of the Comoros share mostly African-Arab, mainly Hadhhramy, origins; Arabic-Hadhramy culture is firmly established on the Islands. Many from the Islands, still do have relatives here and still do visit Hadhramout. It's very unfortunate and sad that, the people of the Comoros have all this focus and attention from the media and for Yemen to be repeatedly mentioned in relation to that - not due to our deep ethnic and cultural ties and closeness, but because of an unfortunate tragic accident.

More fresh water discovered in Hadhramout

This is great news and a blessing.

A short distance from Al Mukalla, more underground fresh water has been discovered. Hadhramout is known for its abundant underground fresh water; fresh water, that's very scarce in most Middle Eastern countries.

The water discovery has just been reported on the humanitarian agency IRIN news website:

"A water company in Hadhramaut Governorate, southern Yemen, has discovered an important new source of water near the provincial capital, Mukalla, after four months of exploration.

"Using modern machinery, we have discovered a huge underground drinking water resource in Al-Ghaliah on the outskirts of Mukalla," Awadh Al-Ganzal, head of the Local Corporation for Water Supply and Sanitation (LCWSS), told IRIN.

"Our preliminary assessments regarding the newly discovered field have shown that it will provide Mukalla with potable water for the next 50 years… Water quality is great."

"The field in Al-Ghaliah consists of nine wells, each able to produce 30 litres a second. It will definitely supply the city with drinking water for decades to come,” said Mahfood Obaid Bagwaigo, manager of the Mukalla Water Supply and Sanitation company.

“Engineers struck water in sandstone at a depth of 225-320 metres. They couldn't go beyond that because of the immense pressure of water in the reservoir," he added.">>>>> read more from IRIN

For more, read the paper delivered at a Vienna conference in 1996 suggesting that a “significant deep groundwater resource may exist” in the Hadhramout.

And then comes Collecta

It seems there is now a frenzy in launching 'new' search engines. A few weeks ago, Wolfram Alpha was launched, then came Bing. A few days ago there was CrowdEye; and now we have Collecta:

Collecta is not like other search engines.

The web is alive with real-time information. So why search a stale archive? Collecta monitors the update streams of news sites, popular blogs and social media, and Flickr, so we can show you results as they happen. Give it a try.

That's what Collecta says. And this is what others have so far said about it:

• If you have a completely new search engine -- in other words, one that's not a renamed version of Windows Live Search -- you need to give it a niche that somehow emphasizes the quality of its results compared to those from Google. Wolfram Alpha's niche of choice is the intelligence of its results, in an effort to wring the educational power out of the verbal sponge that is the Internet. So that slot's taken for now............the ideal of Collecta is that it searches content that tends to be updated quickly and frequently, and that it conducts those searches on the fly -- it's truly searching for what you've asked it to search for, rather than look up results from a massive index. Beta News

• Collecta is a new real-time search engine that taps into Twitter, Flickr, blog comments, and news sites--all at once. Users are able to quickly filter which sources they want to search from, and can leave multiple searches running continuously, so that the latest content keeps rising to the top.........What I really like is that you can just leave it running in the background, and come back to check on searches throughout the day. I often do the same thing with TweetDeck with Twitter searches, but what's nice about Collecta is that it's grabbing search results from multiple sources. Cnet

• The Big G comes up whenever online search is discuessed and every other release is compared to it. What works for the masses might not work for all. Google has always been trying to innovate the ’search’ with new betas coming out from GoogleLab just too often. But, recently there are a few search engines which are trying to push the search dimensions further than where Google has already reached. While Microsoft’s Bing is adding decision making to your search, the newly launched Collecta gives you ‘real time search’. OnlyGizmos

• As we become inundated with more and more streams of data from Twitter, Facebook, blog, Flickr, and everywhere else, we need better ways to search what is happening right now. Twitter, Facebook, and Google are working on their own real-time search efforts, along with a slew of startups including OneRiot, Scoopler, and CrowdEye (which launched last night). The latest entrant in the real time search wars is Collecta........What you are getting with Collecta is the pure stream of what is happening right now. If you want to refine that then you can do that by refining your search terms. The Washington Post

• If you're in the market for some real-time search results, Collecta offers filtered news, blog comments, images, and more at a really rapid clip.......We've covered methods of monitoring real-time searches before, and previously mentioned TweetGrid certainly wins the prize for most parallel search options. Few sites, however, offer the kind of filtering that Collecta does. Lifehacker

• Two new search engines are challenging market leader Google and Microsoft's much-touted Bing: Collecta and CrowdEye. Collecta and CrowdEye say they offer better and more timely information via real-time search results. Collecta offers dynamic real-time results, and is likened to a search feed. CrowdEye searches Twitter for real-time info. Newsfactor

I tried Collecta last evening. I searched for Hadhramout, Hadhramaut, Yemen, Islam and Muslim. The results I got were at times interesting, but I found Collecta dull, at times very slow and many times it didn't come up with any proper results. Still, it's in beta; and it's innovative and evolutionary. And what's more - it gets the big guys: Google, Yahoo and Bing into thinking more and getting even better.

More Dinosaur Tracks Found

This just in from Yemen Times:

For the second time in a little over a year, Yemeni scientists have discovered dinosaur footprints in Yemen. The latest trackways, dating back 140 million years, were found in bedrock 35 km outside Sana’a.

The Yemeni team also found fossilized ferns between and around the villages of Darafat and Bait Al-Jaled in the district of Arhab in Sana’a governorate. The sites are located just around 2 km west of the main road from the capital Sana’a.......

As I mentioned here over one year ago: No dinosaur tracks had ever been found in the Arabian Peninsula before; but just about 30 kilometers from Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, fossils now reveal that a herd of 11 gigantic dinosaurs — sauropods - about 150 million years ago, left deep tracks into the earth. Near the same spot where the sauropod tracks were found, there are tracks of the two-legged plant-eating Ornithopods — a large, common vegetarian with birdlike, three-toed feet that walked on its hind legs. The dinosaurs, are said to have lived there nearly 150 million years ago; back then, the African and Arabian Peninsula land masses had not yet been separated by the Red Sea.