Researchers whose report appeared in the American Journal of Sport Medicine, found that of 222 young athletes who suffered a concussion, female athletes tended to have more symptoms than males. Upon testing the ‘visual memory’- the ability to recall information about something they’d seen- they also scored lower.
For parents, teachers, coaches and athletes the key message is to have patience with concussion recovery and not rush their children back into sport. Young athletes seem to be sustaining more concussion than in the past and according to a study in 2008, there were five concussions for every 10,000 US high school athletes who hit the playing field.
There are more people playing contact sports, and young athletes are training more aggressively at an early age. Experts say that the doctors are also becoming more vigilant about diagnosing concussions.
My visit to the Multi-Faith hall area for Friday prayers on November 4th, 2011 had left me with a mesmerizing experience of understanding social behaviour and norms in a spiritual and religious setting. Friday, also known as ‘Jumu’ah’, is considered to be the most virtuous and noble of the days of the week by Muslims. During my visit to the mosque, I was able to observe human conducts and practices in relation to collective and individual beliefs and empathise with the structured ritual experience in a peaceful, warm and welcoming atmosphere of ‘ togetherness’, where I felt at ease.
The first thing I noticed and expected when I entered the hall mosque was the separate prayer spaces with men in front occupying a larger area and women at the back behind a table barrier, cramped in a smaller section. The logical reason for segregation that came to my mind was that it ensures less distraction during the prayers and allows for modesty, respect and humbleness to be expressed for the opposite gender in this holy setting. At the same time I recollected that some mosques, mostly in Muslim majority countries (but in the West as well), may not even have enough space for women. Their (‘Ulema’-Muslim legal learned scholars’) argument is that women, unlike men, are not obligated to pray in mosques. Women, according to them, can pray at home and take care of their “womanly duties” (including taking care of children and household chores) which to me, as a women, is a form of disconnect from the community and the message of Imam (one who delivers the sermon). There is also an idea that men could be sexually attracted to women’s bodies or voices and this will interfere with their worship. Therefore, knowing this, and then being forced to be in a completely separate space behind men, reminds me that my bodily female forms, can be a sexual distraction to men visiting the prayer area. This makes me feel like a temptation or sexual being but also makes me question whether the urges of Muslim men can be so uncontrollably weak. I also wondered if men and women don’t interact with each other and are secluded in places (other than the times designated for worship; which often happens in certain Muslim communities and occasions), where else could they get the training and develop tolerance of living with the opposite gender? Such a cultural barrier clearly concerns me in relation to the practicing of societal norms, etiquettes, self-development and appreciation of the values of individuals of another gender.
I also noticed that everyone was dressed beautifully yet decently. As I was secluded in a ‘women-only’ space I observed how women were appropriately dressed in loose-fitted unrevealing clothes of a wide spectrum of colours and styles depicting humility and modesty in both attire and manners. Some women were wearing pants, others full-length skirts or dresses with long sleeves. All women were wearing a head-scarf and some were fully covered from head to toe. The head-scarf, according to me, symbolises the piety and serves as a sign for differentiating a Muslim women from a non-Muslim. From my understanding, the liberation of a Muslim woman is that she is recognized by the content of her character rather than by the display of her physical attributes, but it can be considered a form of oppression by some members of the society. “Liberated” western women, who, in my opinion, must often worry about their looks, figure, and youth for the pleasure and display, are trapped in a form of slavery by what latest fashions and trends dictate.
Regardless of the worshippers’ differences in background, colour, class, creed, language and opinions on particular acts of prayers, the spectacular arrangement of female worshippers in straight lines, standing shoulder to shoulder, displayed the uniformity, togetherness and bonding of Muslim community and its submission and surrender to only one God: Allah
It is truly astonishing to see the current situation of Pakistan and its economy. When I shut down my television and ponder over our nation’s political and social stability, nothing but despair shatters every ounce of hope I may have left. The political discussions, social problems, lack of education and growing economic instability pollute the future image of Pakistan in my mind and I am sure it does so in others minds too.
The recent Bohja airline plane crash in Islamabad has left many of us feeling devastated. A series of investigation proved that it was as a result of numerous aviation failure factors, including the weather conditions and the failure to consider a change of route. It is also said that this route from Karachi to Islamabad had proved to be fatal and devastating in the previous years too, resulting in plane crashes and incidents. This had resulted in many changes of routes to Lahore (another major city of Pakistan in Punjab province) as a stop-over location until the weather proved to be normal for flight over Islamabad. Moreover, the Boeing 737 was found to be ~ 28 year old plane which after being scraped by the Shaheen airways was purchased by Bhoja airways. This was its first flight from country’s largest city, Karachi. Approximately 127 passengers on board lost their lives when the plane , as the spectators put it, was struck by lightning in the sky and descended in a wheat field, present in an outskirt village of Islamabad. Blames have also been put on the licences of the airline and it has been accused for compromising human lives and safety for profits and business.
The loss of loved ones has had a major effect on the families and relatives who with the hopes of meeting them, were left with nothing but a collection of their missing body pieces. The country prays for the well-being of these families and that Allah may give them strength and patience to overcome such a tragic loss. Such an incident only adds up to the problems and chaos the country is already raveled in.
An article published in one of the leading publishing websites, DevoDigest.com, talked about the fitness benefits of ‘Kinetic, a concept of in-door group sport activity : “This will give people an ideal avenue to exercise in their home, as people do not put off things that they find entertaining.”
Other medical reports show that the increased obesity rate is linked to either a busy lifestyle, extreme weather conditions or expensive sports equipment, which make hand-free gaming devices such as the ‘Kinetic’ an optimal solution. For example the XBOX Kinetic allows a person to exercise in front of his or her television through trusted sports programs designed in collaboration with video games developers and professional athletes and coaches. After scanning your body, Kinetic will view an image on the screen of yourself virtually. The game will ask for your weight, age and it will calculate the calories burnt during the game activity.
Kinetic demonstrates how video games have evolved and help people stay in shape and become amateur athletes from the comfort of their own living rooms. If we look at Microsoft, sports was not related to technology. However, the company adopted that cause not only to promote its leading role as an organization, but also a good corporate social citizen who helps in inspiring people to an effective and healthy lifestyle.
This 1995 ‘If you let me play’ Nike commercial shows girls from a variety of different backgrounds, race and socio-economic statuses in various physical activity settings. Nike’s commercial suggests an idea of empowering girls through sports. Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ swoosh, which appears at the end of this ad, is recognised globally but for some this symbolises a paradox of unfair labour practices (poor working condition and wages)and worker’s oppression in third world countries like China and Pakistan to make the branded sport products. Surprisingly, the majority of workers in these countries are women and children who tell the other side of the story of this ideal global image portrayed by Nike as a social saviour. Nike’s ‘If you let me play…’ campaign implies that tween girls have to be granted permission (as if in a victimised position) and seek approval to play sports. This ‘cause-related marketing’ (Lucas 150) allows companies like Nike to gain public support by addressing the issue of gender inequality and inequity in sports to promote its brand. It questions the fact whether Nike should be granted credit for its motives in increasing female sports participation by identifying future benefits to a girl from playing, in comparison to a desire in creating a consumer demand for its product in a market which was previously mainly male-dominated. The commercial “If you let me play…” described in “Nike’s Commercial Solution” article by Lucas recognises that such a marketing strategy mainly targets adult audiences (including parents) who have the financial power to fulfill the appeals presented by young girls in this ad (150).
What is hidden behind the picture and discussed at length by Stabile is Nike’s mode of mass-production and the quantitative research on minimum wages paid to its cheap labour in places like China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam (197). Stabile elaborates on the paradox in the commercial in very explicit terms:
..Female consumers of Nike products can only find Nike's ads progressive insofar as its largely female labor force (not to mention its masculinist corporate culture) remains out of sight. For instance, one can believe that Nike's "If you let me play sports" ad signifies a commitment to women's liberation and empowerment, as long as the Vietnamese women who make Nike shoes, working 12-hour days for a wage of between $2.10 and $2.40 a day, are kept off the screen (199).
Stabile lays emphasis on harsh realities that are usually kept out of public sight and urges the public to be more politically aware of the propaganda behind the marketing techniques (200).
To look further into this issue, in a “qualitative storytelling inquiry research design” (12), Boje and Khan’s study focused on “women soccer ball stitchers” (11, 12) in the region of Sialkot, Pakistan. Although this phenomenon of brand story-telling through ‘entrepreneurial activity’ (Boje and Khan 10) is idealised by media to portray Nike as a saviour of third world countries, Boje and Khan found the following:
Estimates of the number of stitchers employed in Sialkot's soccer ball manufacturing cluster varied from a low of just over 30,000 (International Monitoring Association for Child Labour [IMAC] 2003) to a high of 65,000. The great majority of children helped their parents at home, who were in turn paid for the number of soccer balls rather than hours worked-an ILO estimate placing the number of children at approximately 15,000. Most of these balls were stitched in homes (mostly in the 1,600 odd villages surrounding Sialkot) (11, 12).
Investigation of labour rights showed that an endless cycle of production and consumerism resulted in serious offenses inflicted upon women and children employed in sweat-shops or cottage industries in places like Sialkot, Pakistan. The details of unfair employment practices were explained in Boje and Khan’s study which quotes the feelings of a women stitcher:
Wages are poor. We have children. [We] Work hard to earn bread. We get money on time [from subcontractor] sometimes. Ten years [I have been] stitching. If I protest, there are 1000 people willing to stitch. [Subcontractor will] say fine. You do not want to work, [I will] give it to others (19).
A helpless statement by an employee like the one quoted above, who receives the minimum wage just above the poverty line, clearly shows the lack of power and rights to cause a dramatic change in a culturally-woven working environment.
_ Politics of space and identity in places like Tasmania, where banning of street-skating has marginalized the act, including the skaters, has often resulted in campaigns or protests stating that ‘Skateboarding is not a crime’. These campaigns allow skaters to come together for a common cause. Street-skating, being pleasurably dynamic requires general awareness of footpaths, fixtures, passages and roads for manoeuvring. According to an anonymous skateboarder: “Skateboard, made of wood, metal and plastic, costs about £100, runs on leg power, causes chips and scratches on bits of stone and metal. Car, costs a fortune, runs on poisonous sh*t, pollutes the air and water, fills the city with 'smog', causes the death of hundreds of thousands of people every year (in Borden 1998).” Such transportation policies are indicative of the underrepresentation of other modes of mobility, which maybe relatively cheap as well as environmentally friendly, and the city planning accommodating or rather favouring the use of cars.
Another example depicting a similar scenario to Tasmania is a world-famous ‘skate spot’ adjacent to the City Hall, Philadelphia’s LOVE Park, which underwent a skateboarding ban in 2002 as policy makers implemented park reconstruction and stated that young people are a threat to public order. Around-the-clock police officers patrolled the park area with $300 citations and possible imprisonment for those who violated the skateboarding prohibition . Borden (2001) believes that skateboarding promotes the ‘use’ value instead of the space’s ‘exchange’ value failing to form tangible goods or raising national productivity. The Central Business District in Philadelphia seeking to create the aesthetics of a more business-friendly environment views this lack of exchangeable production by the skateboarders as irrational.
“Skateboarders have encountered a politics of space similar to the experience of the homeless. Like the homeless, skateboarders occupy urban space without engaging in economic activity . . . to the annoyance of building owners and managers. As a result, urban managers have declared skaters as trespassers.” (Borden, 1998, p. 50)
The story of LOVE Park is also indicative of how young people were treated and considered out of place as a result of the inherently transgressive and alternative nature of their activity. Barriers and conflicts prevented the skaters from developing spatial skills or being ‘street liberate’ for self-representation and non-verbal cultural expression. Park Department of New York city also found that city street parks create a feeling of boredom, isolation and exclusion although seeking to cater different user’s interests and responding to issues of pedestrian safety.
If the weather outside doesn’t match your mood for winter holidays and is more ‘delightful’
than ‘frightening’ then you should type in the following on Google’s search bar: let it snow.
Snowflakes will fall all over the screen and gradually cover the Google result page in snow and
white fog of digital blizzard. If you eventually reach a complete virtual white-out, don’t worry
there is a de-frost button provided by Google too. Then the mouse button can be manually held
to de-frost and wipe off some of the white stuff and can be used to make images just like on a
frosted glass or window.
Another Google Easter egg, “do a barrel roll”, became quite popular earlier this year, completely
rotating Google’s search results. Google regularly swaps its traditional multi-coloured logo towith 'doodles' celebrating key dates or the lives of cult or influential figures
Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!
(‘Let It Snow’ is commonly considered a Christmas classic although the song doesn’t mention
Christmas at all.)
A growing number of people stress about age-related diseases and genetic disorders such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart attacks as they grow older but they hardly realize that it is more of the creeping disability and the inability to remain energetic which should be of a greater concern. Sarcopenia is a term relating to the inevitable loss in muscle mass, specifically skeletal muscles, accompanied with aging and accelerating as aging progresses. Such a loss is faced by people of all fitness levels including professional athletes, particularly women.
Although, according to another recent study reported by an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , “loss of chronic muscle can affect 30% of elderly above the age of 60 and 50% of those above 80”. It also mentions that, “after reaching a peak in early adult years, skeletal muscle mass declines by ~0.5-1.0% per year beginning at about 40 years of age.” (Paddon-Jones, Short, Campbell, Volpi, & Wolfe, 2008) .Sarcopenia would continue to be a public health concern specially in Canada as increasing number of baby boomers older than 65 years of age head towards their retirement. According to a statistical analysis done in year 2000 American health care costs for Sarcopenia alone was estimated to be $18.5 billion (Paddon-Jones et al., 2008).
After watching the Apple iPhone 4 ‘Face Time’ commercial, I believe happiness is an intrinsic emotion expressed through connecting with people who may be transcendently far away but very close to one’s heart. A feeling symbolised by a smile, the repetitions of showing jolly faces supported the frame in a frame strand depicted through box-like images of the furniture including those shown within the iPhone screen. Earthy tones and soft colours of the scenes, brought about feelings of homeliness and comfort, associated with someone at ease and peace with their surroundings. The binary of focused bright light on the iPhone screen images versus the blurry background displayed the commercial aspect of this video, bringing the audience attention back to the gadget and its power of developing, binding and tying relationships. This commercial lays emphasis on the fact that happiness and its cherished moments when shared with close ones fosters a greater sense of life’s worthiness by creating lasting memories. It bridges the gap of space and time as it allows the user to choose the right instances at significant stages and phases in their life.
If one were to take a closer look at the Holy Quran’s verses, differences between Makkan and Medinan chapters would seem distinct.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MAKKAN CHAPTERS:
· Responds to earlier situations when Muhammad (p.b.u.h) is under threat and invites people to the new message of Islam
· Major concerns with eschatology and time (when the end will draw near and its ending time). Verses draw on the apocalyptic images
· Engaged language
· The use of oaths: e.g. ‘By the star..’
· Increased combative and antagonistic language/mocking
· Single/ disjointed letter e.g.: alif-laam-meem
· Rhetorical questions
· Promise and a threat (heaven and hell)
· Sets apart righteous from the wicked
· Shorter narrative of story of prophet and specific messages
CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDINAN CHAPTERS:
· Rules, law and regulations introduced e.g. family issues.
· Community building was emphasized
· Legal matters were addressed
· Longer narrations linked to believers, Jews and Christians
· Theological expansion of understanding of God beyond apocalyptics
· Verses return to Makkan themes, builds and adds to them
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