ALWATAN DAILY
CULTURE
tuESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012
9
Pilgrims arrive in Mecca for
Unearthed Swedish
Stonehenge may predate English site Hajj amid regional turmoil
FILE - Ale’s
Stones.
(Agencies)
NEW YORK: A 5,500-year-old tomb
possibly belonging to a Stone Age chieftain has been unearthed at a megalithic
monument in the shape of a ship called
the Ale’s Stenar (Ale’s Stones). The tomb,
in Sweden, was likely robbed of stones to
build the Viking-era ship monument according to LiveScience.
“We found traces - mostly imprints
- of large boulders,” said lead archaeologist Bengst Söderberg of the Swedish National Heritage Board. “So my conviction
is that some of the stones at least, they are
standing on the ship setting.”
Perched on a seaside cliff in the village
of Kåseberga stands the Ales Stenar, also
called Ale’s Stones, 59 massive boulders
arranged in the 220-foot (67-meter)-long
outline of a ship. Most researchers believe
the 1,400-year-old ship structure is a burial monument built toward the end of Sweden’s Iron Age. Local legend has it that the
mythic King Ale lies beneath the site.
The Ales Stenar megaliths, some of
which weigh as much as 4,000 pounds
(1,800 kilograms), have distinctive cut
marks similar to ones found at Stone Age
sites. So researchers wondered whether
the stones were stolen from an even older
monument, Söderberg told LiveScience.
In 2006, archaeologists used magnetic
sensors and radar to map the area’s underground terrain and found a larger circular structure about 541 feet (165 m) in
diameter, with a 65-foot by 25-foot rectangle at its heart.
Last week, the team finally dug a small
trench through the center of the circle and
unearthed the imprints of giant boulders
that had been removed long ago. Though
the team didn’t find a skeleton, the imprints suggested the site was a Neolithic
burial chamber called a dolmen - several
upright stones with a horizontal boulder
on top in which a body would be placed.
“All of the stones had been taken
away. And I would say, most probably
they are standing 40 meters away from
the dolmen where the ship setting is situated,” Söderberg said.
Based on the layout, the dolmen may
be up to 5,500 years old - possibly older
than Stonehenge. The large burial chamber likely belonged to a local chieftain or
the head of a clan during the Neolithic
Era, he said. Because there was very little evidence from the outer ring, the researchers aren’t yet sure what it was used
for or whether it’s as old as the dolmen.
Thousands of dolmen sites are scattered throughout Scandinavia, though
later civilizations stole many of the boulders to build churches and other structures, he said.
The giant rock monuments suggest
that even our Stone Age ancestors had a
sense of posterity and permanence, said
Magnus Andersson of the Swedish National Heritage Board in an email.
The new tomb also shows that this
particular spot, with its dramatic cliffs
overlooking the Baltic Sea, has inspired
people in many different ages, he said.
“The scenic place on the ridge must
have attracted people in all times,” he
said. “It shows that people over a long period build their monuments and perform
their ceremonies on the same sites.”
MECCA: Millions of pilgrims arrive this week in
Mecca for Islam’s annual Hajj pilgrimage, which starts
on Wednesday, with Saudi authorities warning they will
stop any disruptive protests over the conflict in Syria.
The Grand Mosque, the focal point of the Islamic
faith, was already teeming with joyful pilgrims at dawn
on Monday, wearing the simple white folds of cloth
prescribed for Hajj, many of them having slept on the
white marble paving outside.
“I feel proud to be here because it’s a visual message that Muslims are united. People speaking in all
kind of languages pray to the one God,” said Fahmi
Mohammed Al-Nemr, 52, from Egypt.
Hajj must be performed at least once in their lifetime by all Muslims capable of making the expensive,
difficult journey, a duty that applies equally to Sunni
and Shi’ite Muslims at a time of tension between Islam’s main sects. Saudi leaders have emphasized it is a
strictly religious occasion and they are prepared to deal
with any troublemaking.
“If anything happens it will be brought under control,” Interior Minister Prince Ahmed said on Saturday
after attending a Mecca march-past where troops paraded water cannon, teargas launchers and even truckmounted machine guns.
Authorities are keenly aware of past episodes of
violence at Hajj, such as in 1979, when attackers seized
the Grand Mosque, beginning a two-week siege that
left hundreds dead. Despite Saudi Arabia, which is
mostly Sunni, locking horns with regional rival Iran,
which is mostly Shi’ite, over the conflict in Syria and
other disputes, the minister played down the risks of
politically motivated disruption.
“I don’t think there will be any repercussion on
the security of the pilgrimage as a result of what is unfortunately happening in Syria and elsewhere,” Prince
Ahmed said.
Birthplace Of Islam
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, has backed
rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, an
ally of Iran, at a time of already tense relations between
Riyadh and Tehran. Assad and Iranian leaders have
both accused Turkey and Gulf Arab countries of arming
the rebels, while Riyadh has accused Tehran of stirring
unrest in Bahrain and instigating protests among Shi’ite
Muslims in Saudi Arabia.
Iran has denied those charges and both sides have
said they are keen to avoid trouble during Hajj, mindful of 1987 clashes between Iranian pilgrims and Saudi
security forces that led to hundreds of deaths.
In the years since, Saudi authorities have tolerated
small protests by Iranians in their part of the massive
camp where most pilgrims stay. Prince Ahmed said
Tehran had assured Riyadh that Iranian pilgrims would
cause no disruption this year.
However, Egyptian cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi last
week called on Muslims to ostracize Iran and Russia
during Hajj over their backing of Assad, stoking an already tense atmosphere.
In his Friday sermon the imam of Mecca’s Grand
Mosque, Saleh bin Abdullah Hamid, also railed against
the violence in Syria, calling on God to “be against the
forces of oppressors” there. Pilgrims said they were
praying for an end to the fighting.
“I pray for the Syrian Muslims to be saved from the
oppression they are being subjected to,” said Abdullah
Abdulrahman Mohammed, 69, from Iraqi Kurdistan, a
father of 12 who had just performed Friday prayers.
Rites
Last year nearly 3 million pilgrims performed the
Hajj, with roughly a third from inside the conservative kingdom. The Saudi authorities said there have
so far been 1.7 million arrivals from abroad and about
200,000 from inside Saudi Arabia.
Mecca’s merchants, famed across the Arab world,
are already doing a thriving trade as pilgrims stock up
on souvenirs such as prayer beads and mats, Qurans,
dates, gold and zamzam water, pumped from a holy
well. “The first time I saw the Kaaba I cried with joy.
I prayed for myself and all Muslims,” said Nafisa Rangrez, 36, from Gujarat in India, who had waited five
years for a Hajj visa.
All Muslims must face towards the Kaaba, the huge
black cube at the center of the Grand Mosque, five
times a day for prayer, making a visit to the sanctuary a
powerful experience. Pilgrims must circle it seven times
when they arrive in Mecca. Wednesday is the first official day of the pilgrimage, with Muslims following a set
form of rites laid out by the Prophet and culminating
on Friday with the Feast of the Sacrifice, Eid Al-Adha,
a holiday across the Islamic world.
“I would love to live here for the rest of my life.
There’s no such place in the entire world. This is a
blessed country,” said Ziad Adam, 23, a theology student from Kenya. Saudi Arabia’s king is formally titled
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the ruling
family has long based its claims to reign on its guardianship of Islam’s birthplace.
Over the past decade it has spent billions of dollars expanding the Grand Mosque and building new
infrastructure to avert the stampedes and tent fires that
marred past pilgrimages with hundreds of deaths. The
last deadly stampede was in 2006, when 360 people
were crushed to death. -Reuters
SIVECO Romania attends Kuwait EduTech Conference 2012
BUCHAREST: SIVECO Romania, the leading Romanian
software house, took part in the 2012 Kuwait EduTech Conference, held on October 9th-10th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, in
Kuwait. Under the title “Vision in eLearning within the GCC
area”, the company presented the successful implementation of
newest technologies in its eLearning solutions for offering an
enhanced learning experience in the GCC countries.
SIVECO Romania is an active player in the Gulf region,
developing large-scale projects for modernizing the education
system in the UAE, Kuwait and Oman, as well as countries in
Europe, North Africa and the CIS area.
The eContent solutions provided by SIVECO Romania are
among the richest and most attractive collections of educational
content in the world, comprising more than 39,000 Reusable
Learning Objects, for tens of teaching subjects. As the countries
in GCC area seek to modernize the education system by means
of introducing cutting-edge approaches, SIVECO Romania meets
these demands by having adapted its extensive digital repository
in both Arabic and English, as well as for the local subjects.
The team of experts from SIVECO Romania created and delivered during 2008 - 2011 an extensive repository of more than
7,000 interactive learning objects, perfectly translated and localized for the United Arab Emirates culture and curriculum.
“We are proud to see that our eLearning solutions bring
real benefits to the entire pre-university education system in the
United Arab Emirates. The attractive and modern presentation of
the digital interactive lessons not only helps the teachers to save
time and effort in preparing classes, but it also encourages students to develop new skills and to learn faster, in a more pleasant
manner.” declared Alexandru Cosbuc, Deputy Vice President for
International Projects within SIVECO Romania.
Apart from eContent solutions, SIVECO Romania implemented in Kuwait the AeL Learning Management System, which
is a modern platform for training and educational content management, providing full functionalities for all the participants in
the educational process: students, teachers, managers of institutions, administrative staff, as well as parents.
In addition, based on its recognized success in implementing eLearning solutions, SIVECO Romania is currently running
several pilot projects in the Gulf Region, namely in Oman, Saudi
Arabia and Qatar. In Oman, there have been developed and implemented over 200 eLearning objects, the AeL Learning Management system, as well as training sessions for teachers.
SIVECO Romania has recently expanded its activities in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for implementing its innovative eLearning solutions and providing added-value services within
complex IT projects, carried out for both public and private sectors.
The eLearning solutions developed by SIVECO Romania
cover a very broad area: from the creation of interactive educational content, to the development of eLearning platforms
and educational portals and is addressed to a very varied public:
pupils, teachers, students, employees, decision factors from the
education system, etc.
Meat-loving Thais turn vegetarian for festival
BANGKOK: Thailand is not an easy
country in which to be vegetarian. But
once a year the country’s avid meat eaters lay down their spicy meat stir-fries in
favor of vegetables and meat substitutes.
During the annual ten-day “Tesagin
Kin Pak” vegetarian festival, yellow flags
representing Buddhism and good moral
conduct flutter in the wind above entire
neighborhoods, while tiny mobile street
carts with a lone yellow flag advertise
vegetarian-friendly food. Glistening tofu,
noodles with bean sprouts, desserts made
with sesame and ginger and steaming hot
vegetable broths abound.
“I give up meat to cleanse the spirit
so that my family will prosper,” said Ploy
Sudham, who owns an art gallery on the
outskirts of Bangkok’s Chinatown.
Every year during the ninth Chinese
lunar month, the country’s Thai-Chinese
community - often third or fourth generation Chinese who grew up in Thailand but
are brought up with Chinese customs observe ten days of abstinence.
Eating meat, having sex, drinking alcohol and other habits thought to be vices
and pollutants of the body and mind are
cut out entirely by the truly devoted, who
also wear only white. The belief is that
nine gods come down from heaven to inspect the earth and record the good and
bad deeds people commit. The festival
began over 150 years ago on the popular tourist island of Phuket, some 840 km
(521 miles) south of Bangkok.
Legend goes that a wandering Chinese opera troupe fell ill with malaria
while performing on the island but after
sticking to a strict vegetarian diet and
performing rituals to two Emperor Gods
the troupe made a full recovery.
Locals, impressed by what they took
to be a miracle, began eating a strict vegan or vegetarian diet once a year.
Its sister festival in Bangkok’s Chinatown or “Yaowarat,” one of the earliest Chinese communities in Thailand, is
equally deserving of a visit. The crowded
roads and winding alleys are pure chaos
with their honking taxis and a handful of
aggressive street hawkers. But during the
festival, vegetable mania takes hold and
reaches almost comic levels. -Reuters
Vatican names seven saints
including first Native American
VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict created seven
new saints on Sunday including the first Native
American to be canonized, as the Roman Catholic Church reaches out to its global flock to rebuff
encroaching secularism. The celebration of figures
who had suffered to promote the faith comes as the
Church begins a drive to reclaim flagging congregations in former strongholds in the face of sex abuse
scandals and dissent against Church teachings.
Thousands of pilgrims from around the world
converged on St. Peter’s Square to witness the ceremony recognizing the saints, who included Kateri
Tekakwitha, a sixteenth-century convert known as
“Lily of the Mohawks”.
The crowd included hundreds of pilgrims from
the United States’ 2.5 million-strong Native American population, of whom 680,000 are estimated to
be Catholic, a legacy of the success of early missionaries in converting indigenous people in America.
Among them was a 12-year-old boy who survived a potentially fatal flesh-eating virus, which
the Vatican attributed to miraculous intervention
by Saint Kateri.
Many pilgrims waved the flag of the Philippines
and held portraits of Pedro Calungsod, killed doing
missionary work in 1672, who became the second
Filipino saint. Others in traditional German dirndl
dresses and leather shorts cheered as Pope Benedict welcomed them in his native tongue.
Portraits of the new saints, including French Jesuit Jacques Berthieu, Italian priest Giovanni Battista Piamarta, the Spanish nun Carmen Salles y
Barangueras, and German laywoman Anna Schaffer hung from the marble facade of St. Peter’s Basilica, and the crowds cheered as each name was
called.
“Saint Kateri, Protectress of Canada and the
first Native American saint, we entrust to you the
renewal of the faith in the first nations and in North
America! May God bless the first nations!” Pope
Benedict said in his homily, in which he alternated
between French, English, German and Italian.
Saint Kateri, born in 1656 in what is now New
York to a Mohawk father and an Algonquin mother,
impressed missionaries with her devotion, taking a
lifetime vow of chastity and punishing herself by
placing hot coals between her toes and sleeping on
a bed of thorns.
When she died at the age of 24, witnesses said
smallpox scars on her face disappeared, and people
reported seeing visions of her. This began a centuries-old tradition of veneration culminating with
her canonization, bolstered by the survival of the
Native American boy in 2006.
Jake Finkbonner, now 12 and recovered, travelled to Rome for the ceremony with hundreds of
his Lummi tribe, from devout indigenous communities across the United States and Canada.
Spreading The Word
Dressed in fringed and beaded regalia with an
arctic fox fur collar, Judy Arnouts of the Odawa
tribe, whose native name is Bedaben, meaning
Blessing of New Day, said the canonization of Saint
Kateri was a boost to the Native American community. “Our cultural and spiritual history needs to be
upheld, celebrated and taught to our younger generation,” said Arnouts, 68, who had travelled from
Michigan to present Pope Benedict with a woodburned cedar log she had made, a traditional craft.
Aida and Romy Javier, wearing Hawaiian garlands of flowers around their necks, were among
scores of pilgrims who had travelled from the island to see the canonization of Marianne Cope, a
German-born woman who founded a hospital in
Hawaii in the 19th century.
Five of the seven saints were important figures
in the Church’s history of missionary work, pointing to a theme for the Church as it enters what Pope
Benedict has proclaimed a “year of faith”, aimed at
countering the rise of secularism.
The canonization ceremony came in the middle
of a three-week meeting of hundreds of bishops at
the Vatican on the theme of the “New Evangelization”, an effort to rejuvenate the Church and win
back lapsed believers. -Reuters