TYO Recommends: Friday, August 24
This week we share the stories of Iraq's fastest woman, a 15 year old woman elected as mayor of her West Bank town, developments in Gaza, and historic photos from Lebanon and Syria's Palestinian refugee camps. Outside of the Middle East, we take a look at the ways that mobile technology is changing our world and why educations systems need to pay attention to the Finnish way.
More than the Medal. Dana Abdul Razak, Iraq's fastest women and flag barer at the Olympics may have come in dead last in the preliminary of the 100 meter sprint, but for her the most important was showing "young people in [her] country that it's possible for them to come and compete in a world competition like the Olympics."
Not your average summer job. She could have spent the long, hot summer holiday hanging out with friends or helping at home. But instead, 15-year-old Bashaer Othman is making speeches, signing documents, chairing meetings, attending civic functions and meeting citizens as mayor of Allar, a small Palestinian town high in the West Bank hills. Now that's what we call youth empowerment!
Boom times for Gaza? A new city, hospital wing, neighborhoods, parks, playgrounds, and more are under construction in Gaza with support from Gulf. Growth rates are extraordinarily high and unemployment has dropped to its lowest in a decade, but snags with Egypt and the PA as well as power cuts are still plaguing the territory.
E-Exhibit. Photographer, Soha Masoud, shares beautiful and haunting photographs taken in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria in 1981 in her e-exhibit, Remnants of a Lost.
Mobile Life. From philanthropy to photography, the grid, and commerce, Time magazine brings us ten ways mobile technology is changing our world.
Ignoring an Education Superpower. Everyone agrees the United States needs to improve its education system dramatically, but how? One of the hottest trends in education reform lately is looking at the stunning success of the West's reigning education superpower, Finland. Trouble is, when it comes to the lessons that Finnish schools have to offer, most of the discussion seems to be missing the point.