'Scientific shopping'...!

Anis Albasha

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the mall with my son to buy new slippers for him. I did not expect that our trip would be also a good opportunity to have a science-fun time for both of us! Educational researchers assure that 'science starts at home'. While that's absolutely true, science can also be found in fun places like the commercial center in the city where I live.

It was one of the cold days of February, as the famous song says, when my son and I went to the Mall in order to look for new slippers , Hausschuhe' in German, for him. I already knew that buying any kind of shoes for my son is not going to be an easy task because he belongs to the 5-7- age group. Since this group covers a wide range of children, this size is quickly sold out. Therefore, we left home early in the morning and I was prepared to spend a long strenuous day moving from one shop to another. I even took a book and some snacks with me!

Once we entered the mall, we saw that certain areas of its concourse were occupied with different sets of objects and tools. In fact, we used to see different small exhibits in this mall where different themes are displayed depending on the season. For instance, when the autumn arrives, we see different kinds of crops placed in scattered miniature farms in the hall. In Christmas time, the hall would be filled with Christmas decorations, trees, etc.  But on that day, the purpose of those wooden and metal installations in the hall wasn't obvious to me, so I told my son: “why don't we go and find out about that?”, and that was the beginning of the 'scientific fun' we both had.

I found out that the main theme of the exhibit was 'the senses'. The purpose of all the installations in the hall was to help children finding out by themselves about that concept through different kind of games and activities.  Next to each set, there were instructions in both English and German explaining the purpose of the game or the activity and how it works.

In the first modular exhibit I saw a banner stand with a photo and a short biography of the German carpenter, pedagogue and artist Hugo Kükelhaus. According to the Wikipedia, 'Kükelhaus (1900-1984), is regarded as a harbinger for infant toy designs that fulfill the requirements of developmental psychology. He gained international recognition for his design of 30 "Experience stations" at the German Pavilion of the Expo 1967 in Montreal. His ideas are relevant for contemporary theories of intelligence, educational technology educational and the design of learning environments'.    

 My son and I started to check the installations one after another. For example, in one exhibit there are different kind of materials such as rocks, woods and wool placed in a number of boxes and children can touch the contents of each box with their bare hands so they can get the different feeling of each texture.

Moreover, there was in another sector a big metal cylinder for steam rings in which 
children can watch how the string rings move and how far they come. 

My son was so excited by all the games and the activities. I have read once that young children are more engaged with things they can see, touch, manipulate and modify. This concept was obvious to me when I watched my son moving from one set to another trying to figure out the purpose of each one.

Among all the activities, what sparked my son's interest, and mine too, was the optical trick of the invisible body or what is called the 'Head on a platter'; a person goes under a glass table placed in a booth and people who stand outside the booth can only see his head which protrudes from a hole in the middle of the table while the rest of his body magically disappear!

 He was fascinated by that trick in particular though he tried all the activities more than once. But he would always came back to that one and tried it over and over. He even asked me to go under the table and he tried to take a photo of me while doing so but the photo was blurry because of his laughter when he saw my head coming out of the table.

While playing with my son, I was really impressed by the efforts that have been exerted to make that exhibit. I’ve noticed how everything was simple yet attractive enough to captivate kids' attention and motivate them.

  It wasn't until much later when I had realized that we didn't buy the thing we came to the mall for, the slippers! Even though, my son was very excited earlier about getting new slippers, he totally forgot about them and wanted to continue trying those scientific activities.

Ultimately, we, parents,  play a crucial role to prepare our children for a world vastly different from the one in which we grew up. However, it may be difficult for many parents to introduce science to their children through attractive activities and that's why parents should avail every opportunity that could help them in this area.That is why I’m so grateful to the clever idea of mixing shopping with learning and science with fun in a way that helps children create a growing understanding of the value of science in early age. Surely, it begins at home, but one might learn about science even when he is on his way to get new slippers!

Waiting for the camels!

Rasha Almaqaleh                                                                                                            

Like many people around the world, I enjoy watching American movies and series. I admire how the directors pay so much attention to the details and how they turn a fiction into something that feels almost real. However, whenever they shoot a scene ‘supposedly’ in an Arabic country or depict the Arabian culture in their films or series, their idea about the everyday life in the Arab World seems naive and unrealistic.  It is obvious that their references are not accurate or they are seriously outdated.

Let’s take the third episode of season 7 of ‘the mentalist’ as an example. For the record, I like Patrick Jane so much. He is quite a character and I was sad to see him in that episode looking like a fool!

In that episode, Jane and Lisbon go to Beirut to gather information about an international supplier of weapons and explosives; Jan Nemic, a Slovakian national who is trained by the “Russian mob” and the CIA thinks he is involved in an imminent terrorist operation against the U.S.A.

  It is important to mention that the filming locations of the episode are in the U.S. and the footage from Beirut was provided by a freelance photographer.

Anyway, when Jane and Lisbon arrive in Beirut, strange and irritating background music is played. That music is played in every scene in Beirut as a special effect which apparently aims to make the viewers get a ‘real’ feel of the Arabic ambiance. Even though I’m an Arab and I grew up with the Arabic music and my ears are very well tuned to it, that background music feels so weird to me. It is something I’m not familiar with, probably because it is ‘ancient’ and perhaps it is taken from the old ‘Arabian nights’.

I’m not really sure because I had never heard it before. One thing is for sure though: the Arabic music has significantly changed since then and that background music is kind of irrelevant.  It makes you think that a semi- naked female dancer is going to jump up at any moment to do some belly dancing.

In addition to the odd out-of-date music, here come the decorations of the hotel where Jane and Lisbon stick around during their stay in Beirut. The hotel is hypothetically located in downtown Beirut, yet the interior decoration seems as part of a Caliph's Palace back in the seventh century. The arabesques are excessively scattered all over the walls, there are old lanterns in the hotel’s lobby, and Eastern carpet runners are laid along all the stairs.

When Jane lies on the palatial bed, surrounded by all the arabesques, I felt like he is the Caliph, if only the Caliph wore a suit and used a Smartphone.

Moreover, when Jane and Lisbon arrive in their room, Erica serves tea in an old Arabic style in which the tea is poured from a traditional Arabian tea pot called Dallah, and served in small cups. I cannot imagine that modern hotels or households still use that classical style of serving tea anymore or at least very often. It is probably still used in Arabic desert tents by tribesmen. When I watched that scene, I felt like Jane, Lisbon and Erica are sitting in a Bedouin tent in the desert, not in a modern hotel downtown Beirut.

Another funny thing is when Lisbon asks Erica “do you speak Lebanese”? That question seems so weird to me because there is no such a thing in the Arab world as the Lebanese language. Although, we have a variety of dialects in the different Arabic countries, we never call them ‘languages’ and we never ask a question such as “do you speak Yemeni or Lebanese?” Instead, we refer to the different dialects by saying: “They speak Arabic with a Yemeni accent or a Lebanese accent’ and so on.

Furthermore, in that episode, one side of Beirut is showed and it is not the tourist side, of course. The scenes were mainly filmed in crowded dirty wet streets and poor neighborhoods. When you look down, you can see weeds on the grounds and when you look up, you find cables crossing over each other between old buildings. Even though, that side does exist in Beirut, the tourist side is huge and part of the real deal, too.  

Another unrealistic thing is the apartment where the Slovakian smuggler lives in. It is an old apartment filled with antiques! The sofa, the coffee table, the small desk and chairs are so old that it gives you the feeling of being in a museum, not in an apartment.

One of the things that I really enjoyed is the way they pronounce the word Manakeesh. It is so cute and funny. It was obvious that there was no Arabic consultant among the crew at all!

Another proof of the absence of Arabic guidance, the scene of the police catching the Slovakian criminal. It is normal at the beginning, but not until someone decides, all of a sudden and with no reason, to shout the Arabic words “ya habibi”! These words basically mean ‘my love’ and it is used in different contexts depending on the situation, but I can’t see that scene as one of them!

And to finalize the Arabic touch in that episode, the final scene on the rooftop has to be about celebrating ‘the end of Ramadan’ with fireworks. Cool thing, right? Yeah, why not?! But ironically, on of the first scenes in Beirut includes people eating and drinking during the daytime. There is also another scene for guys smoking on the street. So how could it be possibly Ramadan while locals are not fasting?!

Overall, when Americans film something about the Arab World, it seems that they desperately seek something extremely bizarre and hugely different to the modern life they are familiar with. I understand that and I appreciate their search for authenticity and originality and I admit that there are indeed huge cultural differences between East and West. But, thanks to globalization, I guess that Americans sometimes are looking for things that do not exist anymore. And if they want to shoot something about the everyday life of Arabs, they should at least avoid coming up with scenes that make viewers feel that a camel might jump up from the screen.