ONE EXPAT FAMILY'S EXPERIENCE IN SAUDI ARABIA
Date Palm is an important food crop in arid lands, especially the Middle East. Why not get a seat at the 7th International Date Palm Conference, held this year in Abu Dhabi, Emirates? The place, Emirates Palace Hotel, will be sure to impress for 3 days this March. The website link for all information concerning …
Look out world, here comes a new movie set in a terrifically scenic and stunning location, Al Ula, Saudi Arabia! Kandahar is Hollywood's first go at filming in an increasingly welcoming region for tourism and international business. The movie's director is Ric Roman Waugh, and the release date has not yet been set. Read the …
Continue reading "AlUla is backdrop for new Hollywood movie ‘Kandahar’"
Looking online for some information about Middle East wild crop relatives, I ran across this article published in 20 Dec. 2017 in natureasia.com, (nature middle east section). It's entitled, Shaking up salt-friendly agriculture, written by Sedeer El-Showk. High salt-tolerant crops grown in the Middle East are a new focus for scientific study and genome sequencing …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6Kz_OcOgvE Just found a great youtube video on much of what my "Agroforestry in Arid Environments" review paper is about. It is done really well and describes desertification, greening projects in Africa, China, Mongolia, and Saudi Arabia, sand drift, agriculture, etc. North America is not represented here, but this video gives a nice view on …
Tantora festival is back this year at AlUla, Saudi Arabia! It is a time to celebrate arts, music, sports and culture in this most beautiful desert environment. Set to perform to an already sold out concert this coming Friday, is Alicia Keys! She will also be leading a panel on women's empowerment the day after. …
Continue reading "Alicia Keys to perform in sold out concert Feb. 11th in Al Ula 2022"
Living in Saudi Arabia became a catalyst that began my interest, starting with dust storms, in learning about desert ecosystems and agriculture. The environment being so foreign to my past experiences living on planet earth, was something I wanted to understand better. Through reading many scientific articles relating to desert environments, heat extremes, desertification, sand …
This past semester as a graduate student was challenging, but I learned so much from the professor and class, besides the readings and lectures. I wanted to bring some of what I had learned while living in Saudi Arabia to the class, as well as learn about what other areas of the world are doing …
Day two of our AlUla sightseeing: we arrived at the meeting place in the parking lot off the highway, for "Experience AlUla" ticket holders, and boarded the tour bus bound for Dadan and Jabal Ikmah sites. This is all on one ticket, and included two separate places to visit. The tour takes about 2 hours. …
Continue reading "AlUla –Dadan and Jabal Ikmah, March 2021 (3 of 4)"
Just yesterday there was a news article that really caught my attention. Aljazeera reported on the water crisis in Iraq. We've discussed food insecurity within this blogsite, however water insecurity and resources in a changing climate, are also pressing. Water insecurity leads to food insecurity in the land where there is either drought, overuse of …
Continue reading "Water Insecurity for Some Middle Eastern Countries"
There are many ways people are using trees, shrubs and grasses, to combat desertification of dry, arid land. Saudi has the technology to try new approaches in areas that require a lot of input of resources; seeds, plants, fertilizer, water, labor, to make a more biodiverse landscape. A new article in Arabnews.com, describes briefly how …
Date Palms & Camels 