On the Earth Day I would like you to meet the Arab Youth Climate Movement and its leading member . Merna Ghaly and her friends from 15 Arab countries are fighting another war
Merna Ghaly
The 18 years old Merna Ghaly was featured in the Newsweek among 25 girls to watch worldwide under the age of 25.Merna fights a battle everybody is ignoring in Egypt whether the government or the civil society. The battle is about Climate Change.Yes tell me who speaks about it now !!
Here is what said about the GUC student who is completely unknown in Egypt unfortunately
And
May God bless Merna , she gives me hope. Of course environment and environmentalists are facing hell in Egypt but again Merna and other environmentalists are giving me hope. May be in the end this generation will bring true change.
Now I have been searching the 125 women List of Newsweek to see whether there are Egyptian women featured or not and I was lucky.I found two Egyptian ladies featured . Dina Farid , the founder of “Egyptians girls are red line” movement against sexual harassment was featured. Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim was featured too with her documentaries.
It is amazing to see nice young ladies like those girls honored like this.
We got nice share this year.
By the way there are other Arab, Muslim and African women in the list. I will focus here on the Arab women. Besides Merna Ghaly , we got Saudi Child rights activist and professor Fawziah Al Bakr , Qatari first lady ‘Not so popular in Egypt’ Sheikha Mozah and her daughter Al Mayassa.
We got also late Syrian blogger Fatima Saad who was tortured and killed by Al Assad regime last November 2012. Syrian English teacher turned in to war photographer Noor Kelze is also featured.
Also Ann Peterson is featured in the list as the Arab Spring Ambassador. It is worth to mention there were strong rumors in Cairo that Peterson was not going to continue in her position as the US ambassador to Cairo.
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| Merna Ghaly on MBC Misr |
The 18 years old Merna Ghaly was featured in the Newsweek among 25 girls to watch worldwide under the age of 25.Merna fights a battle everybody is ignoring in Egypt whether the government or the civil society. The battle is about Climate Change.Yes tell me who speaks about it now !!
Here is what said about the GUC student who is completely unknown in Egypt unfortunately
Merna Ghaly and other activists in the Arab Youth Climate Movement demonstrated at the December U.N. climate talks in Doha, Qatar, calling for emissions cuts and a focus on climate change. Ghaly, an Egyptian student, is set on making sure that the Arab uprisings will give birth to a climate spring.This is what Ghaly said in Qatar.
Merna Ghaly speaks at COP18 in Doha 2012
Merna Ghaly
Now I have been searching the 125 women List of Newsweek to see whether there are Egyptian women featured or not and I was lucky.I found two Egyptian ladies featured . Dina Farid , the founder of “Egyptians girls are red line” movement against sexual harassment was featured. Filmmaker Jehane Noujaim was featured too with her documentaries.
It is amazing to see nice young ladies like those girls honored like this.
We got nice share this year.
By the way there are other Arab, Muslim and African women in the list. I will focus here on the Arab women. Besides Merna Ghaly , we got Saudi Child rights activist and professor Fawziah Al Bakr , Qatari first lady ‘Not so popular in Egypt’ Sheikha Mozah and her daughter Al Mayassa.
We got also late Syrian blogger Fatima Saad who was tortured and killed by Al Assad regime last November 2012. Syrian English teacher turned in to war photographer Noor Kelze is also featured.
Also Ann Peterson is featured in the list as the Arab Spring Ambassador. It is worth to mention there were strong rumors in Cairo that Peterson was not going to continue in her position as the US ambassador to Cairo.
I watched her speak, and she was eloquent. I've been to Cairo at least 5 times, and I know of what she speaks., something needs to be done. To clean up the River and certainly the air quality is the pits for it's citizens who must breathe it everyday. I hope the younger people like Merna, can effect a serious change. Get the lead out of the emissions for instance, just that alone could help. Here is a link for the worse ten cities in the world for the Air. Cairo is #6 even worse then Kabul Afghanistan, rated #10:
ReplyDeleteThe 10 Cities With the World's Worst Air - DailyFinance
www.dailyfinance.com
6) Cairo, Egypt
The most recent WHO data ranked Cairo as having the second-highest levels of particulates in the world after New Delhi. Another WHO report, issued a few years ago, equated living in the city of 7.8 million to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Because Egypt doesn't use unleaded gasoline, citizens are exposed to high levels of lead every day. On occasion, Cairo is also under what's commonly called "the black cloud": a dense, poisonous mass of smoke caused by the seasonal burning of rice by local farmers.
Haha Merna Ghaly has a problem, but it's psychiatric, not climatic:
ReplyDelete"I was born into a world where sun causes cancer, where the food is poisonous, where the water is scarce, and I am always threatened to drown."
There has been no global warming since 1998.