Podcast: Interview with Yara Al Wazir on The Green Initiative in Kuwait
August 21st, 2009
Yara Al Wazir is a 16 year old student attending the British School in Kuwait. She created the Green Initiative, with a solid mission: “To provide a cleaner, greener, and brighter future for our earth by raising awareness with issues regarding the environment, simaltaneously providing practical and realistic solutions that can be carried out by all, regardless of age.”
Very few young people in the Gulf are aware of climate change or the need for environmental sustainability, so Yara is already off to a great start by actually creating activities to bring awareness to young people in Kuwaiti schools. Find out what she hopes to change through her Green Initiative in this podcast.
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Funny !!!
They, the West, again mocking our little heads !!!!
Satistics: The US consumes 26% of the global oil, and causes 1/3 portion of the global pollution.
New Your City radiates as much as the whole continent of Africa !!!
Shall we bring in more statistics?
and they, the West, come to our poor peaceful schools to teach us of pollution and global worming !!!
Who is the main source for the ecological disaster? Is it my camel in the desert?
We should get out of their funny discourse, and speak ours !!!
Little Yara, study more to see the whole picture clearly…. get out of the curricula they teach you at school and speak up to them and tell them: You, the West, are the source of all the devil. We are peaceful and friendly to our environment !!!
Sami, the bedouin.
Sami,
First, that is no way to address a young woman who is striving to make a difference in her society and in the world in general.
Secondly, the funding is from the British Council, not the U.S Government. The “West” is not all the same, just like the “Arab world” is not all the same or under a single guidance. This is not a political campaign, it is an environmental one, led by a local herself, targeting locals. There is nothing wrong with that.
You’re stereotyping yourself, and every Arab country. There are no “camels” that dominate us here and our lives are no longer within “deserts.” There are construction sites, trucks, hundreds of factories, lots of waste and little awareness about it. The Gulf region is amongst the most polluted places in the world, Kuwait ranking very high on that list, and a project like this is most definitely in order.
This is also not a very intelligent way of refuting an argument. The faults you’re speaking of have nothing to do with this initiative.
Absolutely false. Do you realize how much the Arab governments in the Gulf region are polluting the environments? How much people themselves are wasting and polluting? Cancer rates and health issues are escalating due to the amount of environmental crisis and lack of relevant awareness, and you’re blaming the “West”? Come on. The USA, Britain, etc created a lot of crimes in this region, anything from war to funding dictatorships, but that issue is not relevant in this case and blaming them only diverts attention away from the real crisis which is ours to think about and solve.
Someone is trying to make a positive difference in her society and you attack her in this manner, blaming the West for all this region’s ills as if no one here is polluting the environment, and then complain that no one achieves a thing. Look at how you treat each other.
Yara, please continue your hard work regardless of petty criticisms like these.
Sorry Sami, but this time I think you went too far in attacking someone whose concerns are legitimate and intentions are pure.
Yara,
I think your work is amazing. Very inspiring. Keep it up!
1- This is not in the curricula at school: that’s the point of TGI.
2- I think there’s a misunderstanding: the comment was made about the CARBON FOOTPRINT/CAPITA in the gulf.
The USA is at 19.78 metric tonnes/capita
Kuwait is at 30.92, the UAE at 35.05
I know it’s easy to blame the states, but how about acknowledging reality?
3-Do you own a camel? Do you really? Or do you own a Hummer? Several, maybe. How many fuel efficient cars do you see, compared to 4X4s and SUVs? Fuel efficiency isn’t even a topic the car salesmen mentions here!
I understand people’s cynicism and their reluctance to accept the idea that we are in fact responsible.
But really, pointing fingers is a waste of time. How about we acknowledge the shared responsability? Regardless of whose fault it is, it’s a shared planet after all and our actions affect everyone
Esra’a,
it seems that you misinterpreted my words…. the funny thing is the discourse itself but not the brave Yara !!
I am not attacking Yara at all… She is a brave girl and initiative, but it is not our fault the pollution and the global warming !!!
Please read my comment again!!
What we need is to address the whole matter correctly and not follow their discourse… the statistics say that the Industrial West, specially the state, are the most polluting factors!!
second, did your for get the greedy companies who are the main source for cancer and different diseases?
Again, Only New Yourk City pollutes as much as the whole continent of Africa!!
What we need is to create our own discourse but not to speak blindly and repeat their words !!
All the best Yara, and go ahead!!
Sami, the bedouin.
While we are not the primary cause of pollution in the world, we still contribute a lot of it. The amount of plastic bags, cans, bottles that are unrecycled and that have been burried into the sea has caused some areas here to be in extremely unsanitary conditions.
When it comes to pollution itself, Western companies contribute to that often as you say, but we also have our wonderful state-owned companies creating factories in the middle of resident cities and “dirty electricity” through the misplacement of electrical poles which is causing people diabetes and other more critical diseases. Water is also a major issue and people have developed skin diseases in some places due to the dirty waters that don’t get filtered properly.
I think Yara is still creating her own discourse by speaking up herself, especially at such a young age, and spreading this important message to her own people. If she managed to find organizations who were able to help and support her, that’s fine. I don’t think anyone else is hijacking this effort at all.
Yara,
You are great… I am so sorry if offended you in any way !!
You are smart girl, sharp and courageous !!!
I was all the time talking of the source of the disaster (which you have to study carefully) that relies heavily on the Modern industry and the greedy companies !!! just think how many scandals of cancerous products they export to you happened in the past few years… shall i mention facts of numerous shipments that were retured to their source from the Gulf Sea?
Never mind Yara….. No, I dont have no car at all, but my family has some sheep for living and a donkey !! We are very, very downearthy people fighting for our bread and freedom
All the best Yara
Sami, the bedouin
Yara, I really admire your work, and I especially appreciate how you got Sami in trouble.
You’re right to focus on the environment. If some of the predictions come true, we are all “dead men walking” if we don’t find a way to protect our environment, even if it means re-looking as some of the basic assumptions we’ve made in our modern lives. For example, maybe it’s not so smart to run our economies on fossil fuels?
I am working on a project that you may be interested in, and that you are welcome to join, as an equal partner. Several universities in the region and beyond will be collaborating to educate the brightest kids on science, and particularly on the environment. The program will begin with internet based courses, along with face-to-face lab work, and summer programs as well.
We will also collaborate on scientific research related to the environmental issues endemic to the region, such as water shortages and the like. For example, my friend at the Technion of Israel just discovered a way to grow fruits and vegetables using 2/3 less water. Believe it or not, his plants look better than regular ones. They are specially designed for drought conditions.
As we develop scientific solutions to our environmental problems, we want the scientists to partner with entrepreneurs, so that this research is used to create jobs and profits, for a new Palestine, and for all the countries of the region that want to participate.
It is a bold plan, but we’re starting to raise money for it. I like it because it is a neutral pathway to peace. It is a way of bringing people together to work on common issues, like the environment, and hopefully, once they get to know one another, they will see that they share more in common than divides them.
I would love for you and your friends to be a part of it, and if you wish, I could send you additional information.
Keep up the good work. We are all proud of you. And we depend on you, and your generation, to be smarter than we are when it comes to this precious jewel we call earth.
Sami, there are many htings one must consider when claiming ‘pollution’; visual, noise, air, water, etc.
While New York may be one of the cities with the worse noise pollutions, it actually emits less than 1% of the USA’s CO2, despite it housing 2.7% of the population.
Mind you, CO2 emissions isn’t the most accurate way to measure environmental impact as it only takes into account CO2 emissions and ignores other greenhouse gases and other factors. A more accurate way would be comparing ecological footprints. Kuwait and the UAE have the highest eco-deficit/capita in the world, followed by the USA
And fyi, the USA’s emissions are about 30% of Africa’s
I do however agree that consumerism has us consuming our resources to death. We’re always buying things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like – there’s no denying that.
Wars. They’re serious issues too. It pollutes the air, water and contaminates the land (not to mention displaces thousands, which leads to urbanisation) Are the west to blame for that? Sure. But who are we to cast blame and point fingers?
I applaud your family for not owning a car, kudos to them!
Nissim, I find your project very interesting. I just visited the website and I loved the ‘buy hope’ idea. The red cross in Germany (ithink it was Germany) had a project around christmas of 2008 where they literally sold ‘hope cards’!
Contact details for me are on the tgi website, I look forward to hearing about your project!
Oh, and Sami, check this out: http://www.breathingearth.net/
Nissim,
Am I “troubled”?
Fine, rest happy and smile to yourself for this new discovery.
My belief cant be shaken that the WEST is the source of all the devils on earth and they, FUNNY, come to teach us how to clean their shit !!!
Sami, the bedouin.
Yara,
That’s a great saying !!! It lead me to think that the companies, all the copmpanies, sell you actually not the product itself, but the dream of it…. they have their own psychologists. social researchers, anthropologists to study the society, any society to sell them the dream !!
Just like the zionists, deceive us, the gullible arabs and sell us the dream of peace while actually aiming at full surrender and sharing us our money… I dont buy their dreams and live my reality !!
Go ahead, and study carefully all the aspect, and the most important dont be deceived by the well canned productes of “peace” and “grean” nature… they are very, very tricky in packing the dream of “peace” with golden and silver ornaments that bewilder the gullibles with their shimmering lights of “peace” “brotherhood” globalism” and the tricky stuff !!!
All the best Yara,
Sami, the bedouin.
Hi Yara,
and here it’s pretty comfortable to use public transportation and bikes. So my husband and I don’t own a car because we don’t need it. Also, gas and taxes for cars are very high, so instead of spending all that money for a car, we spend money on trains and subaways every now and then (+ buy new bikes when the old ones got stolen). On a bike you’re one among many, so it’s not very dangerous. Still, I have been to cities (for example Cairo or New York) where I really wouldn’t want to ride a bike + where it’s close to impossible to get around by public transportation. So how does all that work in Kuwait?
I think it’s very encouraging to see your enthusiasm! It’s great to see that there are more and more people world-wide who care and make a difference, even though we still have a long way to go. So keep up the good work and I wish you all the best with it!
After reading the comments I would like to know if in Kuwait it is even really “possible” to live comfortably without a car. I live in a bigger city in the “evil West”
I’ve noticed here that people become more environmentally conscious when the government gives incentives. For example there are grants for building environmentally-friendly or for using renewable energies. That way, the government gets people to invest money in for example making their homes energy-efficient. This also seems to work for small things, for example there are nearly no cans anymore since we have a deposit on cans (people don’t want to spend that money and are too lazy to bring the cans back to the shops to get their deposit back – so they just don’t buy them anymore). Also, plastic bags aren’t free – suddenly people don’t use them anymore but bring their own bags. (You’re probably pretty well aware of these issues…)
But I guess the first step is raising people’s awareness about these issues…. It’s great what you’re doing!
Nissim, TGI’s website is: http://thegreeninitiative.wordpress.com
Mina, honestly speaking, I can’t imagine Kuwait without a car (unless i consider taxis!). Public transport in Kuwait is limited to buses. Some of the lower-class migrant workers (i.e cleaners, office cafeteria people, etc) do ride bikes.
I totally get what you mean about gas and taxes; we don’t have taxes and gas is cheaper than water. That’s why the streets are filled with SUVs, 4X4s and hundreds of other fuel inefficient cars.
But I get where you’re coming from and how you don’t own a car. I spent a month in England this summer and the only time I got in a car was from the airport to home – aside from that I relied on trains and my trusty feet! The town was small, everything was within 40minutes walking distance and it was all fine, but I’ll admit the weather encouraged walking, unfortunatley walking in 45C + weather in Kuwait isn’t always fun.
As far as I know, the government doesn’t offer subsidies for green business/homes/thinking. Maybe with time, and with them realising how great it would be they’ll start
Thanks for the encouragement!
TGI’s (temporary) website is: http://thegreeninitiative.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/yaraw
Yara, I will be getting in touch with you shortly. Thanks for the website. My partners and I are putting the details of our project together, even as we speak, and I will keep you posted as to any progress. We are in the process of trying to secure a Palestinian partner, and will know something in a few days. Wish us luck.
Hey Yara, thank you a lot for your interesting answer! I think it’s interesting how weather conditions and status can help determine what is deemed acceptable or not. Over here, of course a lot of cars are used as status symbols, like unfortunately in most places, but at the same time, especially for the educated middle class, it has become some kind of status symbol as well to say that certain things (like owning a car) aren’t done anymore, like you can afford to not do them (for example living in a city where this is possible is more expensive than living in the countryside). Bikes used to be for lower classes over here as well, at least in certain regions, but it is even ‘chic’ now to use them – and some people have really fancy bikes! We don’t have to deal with weather that is that hot, you’re right about that – we do have to deal with the other side – rain, wind, snow…. But of course it’s a lot easier to protect yourself from than from a burning sun!
Once people ask more for certain facilities, those will start to be created! What you do for that, for changing the mind set, is probably the most important step!
I would be curious to know what you think about the use of nuclear energy. This is a very debated topic here and people have lots of different ideas about it. Is this being discussed in Kuwait at all?