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* Dr. Abdulla Al Sayyari continues his comments in English by saying "As a medical student at UCL, I was fascinated؛ I would say, I even actually loved 3 diseases and got to be good at them.
I thought of them, in my medical student mind, in every patient we came across in OP or grand rounds - SLE, bacterial endocarditis and above all cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis always looking with wonderment for its fine crackles and finger clubbing and rarely being a "blue bloater.
It never occurred to me that, as I get weaker with age and decades later this disease I admired so much or one its variations (IPF) would viciously and mercilessly ail me and try obliterate my existence."
* Dr. Shihab Ghanem mentioned that "Professor Muhammad Anam Ghaleb is considered one of the well-known economists in Yemen, and besides that, he is a founding poet of poetic modernity.
Ghanem continues by saying "In the nineties of the last century, he gave me his poem Al-Gharib and I translated it into English in my book Poems from the Land of Sheba.
His name was Ali
I met him on a far-away shore
I recognised the colour of his skin
The chewed tobacco behind his lip
I had just made my first journey
Excited to have left my Yemen home
To travel the wide, wide world
A world full of throngs and strife.
* * * * *
I met him by a far-away shore
Ten years ago
In a harbour which spanned a mile
Crowded with ships
He spoke to me in my language
But I did not grasp most of what he said
I did not understand the cause of his
sadness
He who had travelled the world
And tasted water from every river.
* * * * *
He had tried all tasks
As a porter on the quays
With rope, hook and sweat
In far-away harbours
Earning a meager income
In quarries cutting stone
For the palaces of the rich
In many lands.
Or deep in northern mines
Enveloped in mist and snow
Where day and night looked the same
Deep down to the hewing of the coal
To give warmth, or make steam for the
train
Fighting the ocean’s waves
From harbour to harbour
On a ship forever on the move …
* * * * *
The whole world was his home
Yet he was always a stranger,
Restless in the vast expanse
He helped to build so many houses
He had lived under every sun
Yet he did not belong
For he was a stranger …
* * * * *
One day a ship disgorged him
Into a port full of workers,
And no job for an extra hand.
The unemployed were in hundreds
Passing the day, lolling in the open air
Cooling themselves
With fans from the leaves of the palms.
Everything was like fire
The air was like fire
And prices were like fire …
* * * * *
Once he worked as a salesman
Travelling and selling all sorts of things
Perfumes and soaps
Silks and books …
His capital was nothing but his sweat
The war had started a month earlier
And prices were like fire
Peddling could not provide for him his
loaf of bread.
The war had started a month earlier
Soldiers jested,
Buying the pleasures of flesh,
For war was profitable.
Yes! The war could be a suitable job
He was brave
He was a good shot
His bullet always on target
And so he enlisted …
He still remembers the terrors of war.
“I fought not in defence of my land
But for a loaf of bread
On the side of the Fascists
In the black nights midst blood and
flames
I could see my countrymen
From Yemen, on the opposing side.
And we fought each other,
Not in defence of ideals,
Caring not who lived or died
Who won or lost”…
* * * * *
O! You convoys of wondering Yemenis
Crossing every road
Building in every region
Whilst your country lies in waste
O! You long convoys
Extending from the harbour of the south
of Yemen
Spreading through every land,
To the northern mines,
To the seas,
To the oil wells,
O! You long convoys
When will you return?
When will we return?
* Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam  Performance and Theory in the 20th Century by Johnny Farraj and Sami Abu Shumays.
"The music of the Arab world has been little understood outside the region, yet in recent years it has gained enthusiasts worldwide. Coauthors Farraj and Abu Shumays have written both an engaging guide for general readers and a valuable resource for musicians and scholars.
The book focuses on the musical
“Golden Age” from 1930–1970 that encompassed the region from Egypt to Syria. The book’s topics include Arab and Arabized instruments, ensemble types, song and instrumental genres and the art of ornamentation. Its guide to rhythms includes those that accompany muwashshahat, sung poems that arose in al-Andalus that are still loved today.
The book also delves deeply into maqam, the system that guides melodic structure, development and improvisation. Inside Arabic Music’s greatest strength lies in its generous presentation of Arab music as an accessible, living art that today’s musicians can learn and that general readers can understand and appreciate."
To learn more click here.
* Dr. mohamed Ali Al Bar co-authored with Dr. Hassan Chamsi-Pasha a study paper entitled "Patient-Physician Relationships: Islamic views" in the Journal of the British Islamic Medical Association.
"Over the years, the patient-physician relationship (PPR) has dramatically changed due to commercialization quality of healthcare services offered in the government set-up, and privatization of the health sector. Doctors may, nowadays, ask for unnecessary investigations or may give over-prescriptions, just to be safe. There is also a remarkable decline in human touch or empathy; and a significant rise in unhealthy competition among doctors.
The ideal PPR has six components, namely voluntary choice, doctor’s competence, good communication continuity, doctor’s empathy, and the absence of a conflict of interest. A poor PPR, on the other hand, has been proved to be a major hurdle for both doctors and patients. In the case of poor PPR, patients show poor compliance with doctor’s advice; they may practice
doctor-shopping by frequently changing their doctors; remain anxious; may choose quacks or other non-scientific forms of treatment; and result in a significant increase in medical expenses."
Read the paper here.
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