Subzero Blue

Numbers On Tunisian Youth

For about three years, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has been conducting a survey of around 10,000 young people ranging in age from 15 to 25. The survey encompasses five areas of focus: youth and participation; youth, identity and the values scale; youth and development; youth and the information society; and youth and the Tunisia of tomorrow.

Some of the numbers that came out of this study are very interesting:

– More than 72% of respondents said they refuse to engage in politics or join political and social parties.

– Only 16% said they belong to NGOs.

– Only 9% follow domestic media regularly, while 22% do not follow it at all.

– 92% of Tunisian young people reject religious extremism, and they regard the religion they identify with to be “the Islam of moderation and the middle way”.

– 59% were optimistic about the future.

– 69% refuse to work within the short-term contract system.

– More than 71% of respondents view their physical health as good, but 81% say they find it hard to practice sports due to limited time and insufficient areas designated for sports.

– Only 13.7% said they have good knowledge of the Internet.

Another study, the results of which were published by the National Office for the Family and Population, produced some equally interesting numbers:

– Aversion to marriage has risen to 65% in 2006, as compared to 35.9% in 2001.

– The percentage of single women rose from 80% in 2001 to 85% in 2006 within the 15 to 29-year-old age group, and from 16% to 20% during the same period within the 30 to 49-year-old age group.

[Source: Magharebia]
[Via: HouBlog]

First Arab Nominated for Holocaust Honor

Tunisian man is first Arab to be nominated for holocaust honor for risking his life to save Tunisian Jews from Nazi persecution.

At the height of World War II, Khaled Abdelwahhab hid a group of Jews on his farm in a small Tunisian town, saving them from the Nazi troops occupying the North African nation.

Now, Abdelwahhab has become the first Arab nominated for recognition as ”Righteous Among the Nations,” an honor bestowed on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazi persecution.

[…]

… Abdelwahhab, the son of an aristocratic family was 32 when German troops arrived in Tunisia in November 1942.

[…]

Abdelwahhab served as an interlocutor between the population of the coastal town of Mahdia and German forces…

When he heard that German officers were planning to rape Odette Boukris, a local Jewish woman, he gathered her family and several other Jewish families in Mahdia — around two dozen people — and took them to his farm outside town. He hid them for four months, until the occupation ended.

[…]

Abdelwahhab still has to be approved by the Yad Vashem commission that grants the honor. Since the war, Yad Vashem has conferred the status on 21,700 people, including some 60 Muslims from the Balkans. But no Arab had ever been nominated.

[Source: NY Times]

[Thanks to Jimbo for the link]

You 2.0: How To Become A Self-Starter

An interesting and motivating article on Psychology Today, under the name “You 2.0” shares tips on how to become a self-starter and radically improve your life.

The article kicks off with this:

You may feel bound to your timid demeanor, your stifling job, or your rancorous relationship, but there is one realm over which you unquestionably have control: your own head.

I totally agree with that, and I think that any change, no matter how big or small it is, starts from within your own head, from how you think of things and how you perceive them.

The whole article is really worth reading, but to sum it up, the main points to change and improve your life are as follows:

– Ask yourself: Is the problem in you or your world?
– Overcome your fear of failure
– Embrace risk and novelty
– Create a new internal vision of yourself
– Expect and try to even enjoy discomfort to reach your goals

For the full article and more details, read: You 2.0 – (Psychology Today)

[Via: LifeHack]

Globalization vs. Culture: The Loss Of Identity

A good friend of mine and I were chatting earlier today when the subject turned to how so many countries and people are losing their identity.

This is a true problem that I’ve been seeing all over the world, and the main reason behind it is unfortunately Globalization. I’m no anti-globalization activist or anything, in fact, I’m totally for globalization, economically and industrially speaking, but we can’t neglect the negative effects it has on culture and society.

In this globalized world, cities are becoming clones of each other, and people are converging into fake stereotypes; gone are the unique cities that carry so much history and culture in every corner, lost are the enriching cultural differences and specificities that make a society uniquely what it is; London looks like Paris which looks like Madrid; Restaurants serving this or that country’s traditional food are drowned out by the huge fast food chains, beautiful traditional clothing is lost between the new bulk-made looks created by the big brands, people look alike, eat alike and dress alike whether they’re in New York, New Delhi or Cairo.

We’re losing one of the things that count the most: our identity, the uniqueness in us, that which makes us special and allows us to stand out from the crowd.

Again, I’m all for cultural exchange and value it dearly, and I, more than anyone else, treasure the notion of a global citizen, but still that doesn’t mean letting go of our unique cultures to adopt a unified fake money-driven one.

10 Unconventional Diet Tips

Kyle from LifeHack has published a list of 10 diet tips, that aren’t what you’re used to reading in diet programs. I think the list is quite interesting and could work for a lot of people looking to lose some weight.

The list goes as follows:

– Buy a digital scale
– Weigh yourself everyday
– Drink 8 glasses of water everyday
– Make your diet public
– Don’t diet on the weekends
– Don’t sacrifice your life for your diet
– Make the small changes
– Gain perspective by understanding the fractions
– Rationalize your workouts
– Have a red flag weight

For more details, check the full post: 10 Unconventional Diet Tips: How to lose 50 pounds in three months.

The Guardian

Upon recommendation from my friends at the DVD rental store, I saw the movie “The Guardian” last night, featuring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher.

Personally, I wasn’t planning on renting the movie until they told me what a great movie it was. I’m a big fan of Kevin Costner and his movies, I actually think he’s one of the best actors out there, still some of his latest movies haven’t been as good as I expected, and always quite long. With that in mind, and the fact that I wasn’t expecting much from a movie about coast guards, I didn’t feel that keen on watching it.

Fortunately, the movie turned out to be a lot better than I expected, and I really enjoyed it. It is long too, but it’s good enough that you don’t really feel the time.

The movie is about two interesting characters: a legendary rescue swimmer and a high school swim champion with a troubled past who enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard’s “A” School, how the relationship between them develops and how they both learn some hard lessons about loss, love, and self-sacrifice.

My score for this movie is: 7.5/10

Want To Be A Manager?

After some years of work experience, some people’s natural professional progression or aim is to become a manager, sometimes it’s a decision they have to take, and some other times it’s something that the company wants because they believe in them, even though it wasn’t something they were planning for.

Erin Malone from Boxes and Arrows shares some excellent insight and ideas about the various things you need to consider when moving into management.

The post is from a designer’s point of view, but it applies to everyone from every field really. I’ll try to sum it up for someone from the IT field, with my experience in management in mind.

– You can

Racists Have Lower IQs

Studies going back over 50 years have repeatedly arrived at the same conclusion — racists have lower IQs than non-racists. The average intelligence quotient (IQ) of all members of the human race is 100 on the Stanford-Binet scale, as illustrated in the bell curves in the figure below. The average IQ of racists is up to 4 IQ points less than this.

The reasons this is true are not entirely clear. Does racism attract the unintelligent or do the unintelligent default into racist mentalities?

[Source: Students and Youth Against Racism]
[Via: Hou-Hou Blog]

BBC Plans Online World For Children

CBBC World The BBC, through CBBC, the channel for 7-12 year olds, will be launching an online virtual world for children, quite similar to Second Life.

CBBC World, as it will be called, will offer youngsters a safe environment to explore, and provide them with different zones offering CBBC content.

As in Second Life, children will be able to create virtual versions of themselves on-screen, called avatars. Their characters can then move around CBBC World.

They will also be able to take part in games, animations, videos and music, create their own content and send their work to other CBBC World users or upload it to a gallery, where the best will be used on the CBBC TV channel.

It is expected to go live in the summer with a full launch in the autumn to coincide with the CBBC relaunch.

I’m not quite sure how successful this project will be, but it could be good to have a children’s alternative to Second Life, still there has to be a lot of work to ensure the safety of the children using it.

[Source: BBC News]

What My Birth Date Means?

I came across another one of those thingies that tell you what this or that means based on nothing but pure bullshit, and here’s what it says my birth date (March 11) means:

Spiritual and thoughtful, you tend to take a step back from the world.
You’re very sensitive to what’s going on around you, yet you remain calm.
Although you are brilliant, it may take you a while to find your niche.
Your creativity is supreme, but it sometimes makes it hard for you to get things done.

Your strength: Your inner peace

Your weakness: You get stuck in the clouds

Your power color: Emerald

Your power symbol: Leaf

Your power month: November

Whatever, whatever, whatever!

[Via: And Far Away, Sand Monkey]