To honour the spirit of the Olympics 204 poems from around
the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, have been collected from each of the 204 participating countries by the Scottish Poetry Library.

Here are the first ten from Asia. Enjoy

1. Afghanistan: The story of my country
2. Azerbaijan: The poet’s voice
3. Bahrain: All of them
4. Bangladesh: Mon-doria
5. Bhutan: A lesson in light
6. Brunei Darussalam: Brothers, your cries…
7. Georgia: Circle and rectangle
8. Hong Kong: Floral Apron
9. India: Homecoming
10. Iran: An Iranian Professor I know asked me…

The poems selected are often not by the most notable poet a country has produced. Some of them are funny or light-hearted. Often they are snapshots of lives rather than grand narratives. And some of the choices may be controversial. However, they all give a glimpse of lives in countries spanning the globe. Together these poems depict a world united not only by sport, but by emotions that are universal and need no translator other than the heart.

To honour the spirit of the Olympics 204 poems from around
the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, have been collected from each of the 204 participating countries by the Scottish Poetry Library.

Here are the first ten from Africa. Enjoy!

1. Algeria: At the water’s edge
2. Angola: Build my house…
3. Burkina Faso: Cattle Count
4. Burundi: Come and live with me
5. Cape Verde: Prelude
6. Chad: from Yet the Infanta of Salamanca
7. Comoros: My high powered sailing boat
8. Congo: The Village
9. Democratic Republic of Congo: A year of Grace
10. Djibouti: Desire

The poems selected are often not by the most notable poet a country has produced. Some of them are funny or light-hearted. Often they are snapshots of lives rather than grand narratives. And some of the choices may be controversial. However, they all give a glimpse of lives in countries spanning the globe. Together these poems depict a world united not only by sport, but by emotions that are universal and need no translator other than the heart. Enjoy!

The BBC and the Scottish Poetry Library have collaborated to 
broadcast a poem on the radio every day during the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games. To honour the spirit of the Olympics 204 poems from around the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, have been collected from each of the 204 participating countries.

The poems selected are often not by the most notable poet a country has produced. Some of them are funny or light-hearted. Often they are snapshots of lives rather than grand narratives. And some of the choices may be controversial. However, they all give a glimpse of lives in countries spanning the globe. Together these poems depict a world united not only by sport, but by emotions that are universal and need no translator other than the heart.

Enjoy!

For the full listing visit the Scottish Poetry Library site

Tisha b’Av is the day when those of the Jewish faith remember and
commemorate the many tragedies that have befallen them, throughout history, on the 9^th day of the month of Av in the Jewish Lunar Calendar. This year it takes place on the 28th of July.  It is a very sad day in the Jewish calendar.  As is customary in Jewish tradition, fasting denotes a sign of mourning and as such Jews fast on this day.

When I first arrived in London, in 2009, the BT tower was counting days to the Olympics. The countdown was slowly moving down from the 900s. Now, the moment is only a day away! The Olympic Games 2012 open tomorrow.

Over the past few months London has had mixed feelings about the games. Some Londoners deeply resent them and have long ago made plans to escape the city, others grumble about the traffic the games will bring but are secretly excited, and the rest have been counting days with the BT tower and are warmly welcoming the event.

To get an idea of the enormity of the games, watch the BBC animation on Olympics people in numbers, or the more general Guardian animation on Olympics in numbers. You’ll learn that this is the third time London is hosting the Olympics, and 203 countries are participating this year. The global audience to watch the opening ceremony tomorrow evening is estimated to be around 4 billion people. That’s 60% of the world’s population.

I’m sitting in a hot, rickety van on a foldable seat. We are six, big Western people in the van, with our big, Western luggage stored at the back and among our feet. The air is humid, the road long and bumpy.

In addition to vans, tuk-tuks are a common ride in Cambodia.

The six of us make a group of volunteers teaching English in the small village of Bakod in Southern Cambodia. We are on our way to the capital, Phnom Penh, to indulge, for a weekend, with luxuries such as air-conditioning, cold drinks, and Internet connection. In Bakod, there is no electricity, only a few electric light bulbs to light up the quiet hours from 6.00 pm to 6.00 am. It goes without saying that we are all looking forward to be in the buzz of a city.

The van picked us up from the village this morning, a very unusual practice. To catch a ride, people in Cambodia usually gather along a high way to find someone going to the same general direction as them. But we are the foreigners, the barang, thought to get lost in such endeavors. So, the van man agreed to pick us up.

In Bakod the van man had a short conversation in Khmer with our local school instructor. “A few locals may hop in on the way,” our instructor translated to us, laughing.  A few locals. No problem. It was van, after all.

But now, sitting on the wobbly seats in the moving van, bouncing up and down with our luggage, hoping not to bang our heads to the ceiling, we look around in the van and find that space is scarce.

“We can probably fit a couple more people at the back,” someone says. Yes, couple of people seems reasonable, three or four more will be a stretch.

Once we get to the high way the driver stops the van and begins to advertise our destination with a piece of cardboard, which supposedly says ‘Phnom Penh’. After 10 minutes, two young men climb in and take the seats at the back. Shortly after them, a couple with a small baby enters the van, miraculously finding more seating at the back.

Everyone is sweating. When the car is still, without the breeze of driving, the road is suffocatingly hot. Even inside the car, in the shade, my hair becomes glued to my forehead.

“Do you think we’re ready to go now?” someone rhetorically asks.

Hoping for the best, we all forgot to prepare for the worst. We were nowhere near ready to go…

Today is World Population Day.

The world's population is over 7 billion people.

In the year 1810 the world had one billion people. Today, in 2012, the world is a home to more than seven billion people. July 11th was declared as the World Population Day in 1989 as a response to population issues, such as growth, food shortage, and the right to plan a family.

This year’s theme is Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services. The United Nations Population Fund Website (UNFPA) presents the theme well in the following slogan: “Delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.” The slogan illustrates how population issues are not just about the number of births, but that factors such as the human right to plan a family, the mother’s health and wellbeing, and the quality of the baby’s future upbringing must also be recognized.

According to the UNFPA website, there are 222 million women every year who would like to avoid or delay pregnancy but lack access to reproductive health services. In addition, 800 women die every day in the process of giving birth, and every year 1.8 billion adolescents grow up without the knowledge or services that they need in order to protect themselves.

These facts are shocking and instead of the business-political side they highlight the human side of population growth.

There are several lectures, talks, plays, conferences, and films viewings going on in various cities today. For events that are going on in London click here.

Also in July:

Dharma Day – July 3rd

After having lived in many countries, traveled through various cultures, and read piles of academic books it’s always humbling to discover that there’s still basic knowledge in this world that I haven’t acquired.

Mount Carmel is a place of pilgrimage

Today is the Martyrdom of the Bab, (according to the BBC: “a major holy day”) and until this morning I had never heard about it. My immediate reaction was skepticism: the day must not be that major…Turns out, Martyrdom of the Bab is not only a holiday I’ve never heard of, but that it’s a part of the Baha’i fate, a religion completely unknown to me.

And, this religion is not even a very distant one: there are approximately 6 million Baha’is in the world, 6,000 of them in the UK. Realising that there is a world religion out there (or, out here, in London, probably!) which I had never heard of felt the same as finding out that Pluto is no longer a planet. The row of paper mache planets I had built in third grade is now dated and inaccurate because it includes Pluto, a whole extra paper mache ball which, I found out a few years ago, has not been considered a planet since 2006.

Anyway, I am, and was, both dumbfounded and thrilled. Today is the Martyrdom of the Bab and I looked into it a bit further…

International Day of Cooperatives was proclaimed by the UN in 1992, but only in the recent years has the day grown in significance.

2012 is the International Year of Cooperatives

Globalisation and changing economy have highlighted the importance of the international cooperative movement and the idea of international community, and, to quote the UN secretary Ban Ki Moon, “The global financial and economic crisis has demonstrated the resilience of alternative financial institutions such as cooperative banks and credit unions.” 2012 was, thus, named the International Year of Cooperatives by the United Nations.

There are over 1.4 million cooperative businesses across the world, and over 3 billion people rely to cooperative businesses for their livelihood. In the UK, there are 5450 cooperative businesses. This year, we can expect to see a range of fairs, exhibits, contests, and campaigns world wide, all looking to raise awareness of cooperative businesses, and strengthen relationships between cooperatives and other actors such as governments.

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.

Buddha and his five disciples

This widely spread Buddhist saying captures the essence of Dharma day: a day to celebrate the first teachings of Buddha. The word Dharma translates to ‘truth’ or to ‘the way to enlightenment.’ This date, every full moon of July, marks the day in Siddhartha’s life when he, right after his enlightenment, sought out his five original disciples and begun teaching them what he had learned.

This day is also known as Dharmachakra, or the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, which implies that Dharma day was the day the Buddhist fate begun to form and spread. In ancient times, the Dharma day also used to mark the beginning of rainy season…