Category: Life & Style

Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker detained in Manus Island, Papua New Guinea has won Australia’s richest and most prestigious literary prize, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award 2019. The Guardian columnist has won the top prize for his non-fictional work “No Friends But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison” sweeping $100000 for Victorian Prize for Literature and another $25000 for first place in the category of fiction.

Boochani wasn’t allowed to attend the award ceremony which was held on 31st Jan 2019, as he was detained in the Manus Island and has been denied entry into Australia since 2013. The most surprising part of compiling his work is that he wrote the whole book on his mobile phone and sent it to Omid Tofighian bit by bit for over five years to translate it.

Boochani was among 600 refugees who were detained in the Manus Island although Australia had already closed its regional processing center there in 2017.

Speaking to Guardian, Boochani described receiving the award as “a paradoxical feeling” from a country that has kept him locked up for last 6 years. He added, “My main aim has always been for the people in Australia and around the world to understand deeply how this system has tortured innocent people on Manus and Nauru in a systematic way for almost six years.”

The Human Rights Law Center of Australia congratulated Boochani through twitter, calling his novel “an Australian story that as a nation we cannot be proud of, but it’s a story that cannot be ignored”.

Other award winners for 2019 included Kate Lilley for her poem “Tilt”, Kim Scott for Taboo, Elise Valmorbida for her fiction “The Madonna of the Mountains”, and Kendall Feavor for “Drama with The Almighty Sometimes.” Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina won an award in the young adult category for “Catching Teller Crow.” Victoria Hannan’s unpublished work, Komoko, also won the award.

On Friday, 22nd Feb 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the distinguished 2018 Seoul Peace Prize in recognition to his efforts in international cooperation and promoting the economic growth in the world’s fastest growing large economy.

The award committee had assessed over a hundred candidates proposed by over 1300 nominators worldwide. It is awarded biennially to the individuals who have contributed to the harmony of mankind, reconciliation between nations and to world peace.

The Seoul Peace Prize Foundation presented the award to him at a grand ceremony. The life and achievements of Prime Minister Modi were also presented through a short film screened at the event. The Seoul Peace Prize Award Committee recognized the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the growth on Indian and world economies and acknowledging ‘Modinomics’ for reducing the economic and social disparity between the rich and the poor.

Being the 14th recipient of the prestigious award, he dedicated the award to people of India and donated the prize money of $ 200000 to government’s ‘Namami Gange Programme’ to effectively reducing the pollution and conservation and rejuvenation of river Ganga.

PM’s corrective measures to make the government cleaner through his initiatives for anti-corruption and demonetization were also lauded by the award committee. Past laureates include distinguished personalities like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and esteemed international organizations like Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam. Prime Minister Modi expressed his gratitude for the prestigious honor.

The 61st Annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles with all its glam and glitz on 10th Feb 2019. The largest and star-studded music awards show celebrates and honors the best in the music industry. Proclaimed as the most distinguished musical night, international singers, enthusiasts, and fans gathered to witness what is considered to be the Nobel Prize of Music.

The award ceremony is hosted by R&B singer Alicia keys, which is the first female host in the last 14 years, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Due to the fierce competition, the Recording Academy had expanded its General Field to accommodate eight nominees each. The General Field includes Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

Main winners of the Grammy Awards 2019 are as follows:

• Album of the Year: Kacey Musgraves, “Golden Hour”
• Record of the Year: Childish Gambino – “This Is America”
• Song of the Year: Childish Gambino, “This Is America”
• Best New Artist: Dua Lipa
• Best Pop Solo Performance: Lady Gaga, “Joanne” (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?)
• Best Country Album: Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves
• Best Rock Performance: Chris Cornell, “When Bad Does Good”

The United Arab Emirates recently launched the “Golden Card” Permanent Residency Scheme for expatriates. The scheme, launched by the UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, is meant to pursue and attract wealthy individuals and exceptional talents such as doctors, engineers, scientists, students and artists from all over the world.

Dubai’s ruler took to social media and stated, “We want them to be permanent partners in our journey. Residents are an indispensable part of our country. The first batch of 6,800 investors with Dh100 billion worth of investments will be granted the “Golden Card.”

According to General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA), the department has started issuing permanent residency to the first batch of qualified individuals from over 70 countries.

The scheme of “Golden Card” comes after the last year’s announcement that the country would grant five or ten year residency visas to investors, entrepreneurs, doctors, scientists, and outstanding students to facilitate business and investment environment. The scheme offers a permanent residency with a slew of unprecedented benefits.

The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the initiative of the Government of Malawi at the launch of the world’s first and only malaria vaccine through a part of a landmark pilot program. After the combined efforts of over 30 years Malawi has made the vaccine available to children in Africa. In the coming weeks, Ghana and Kenya will also introduce the vaccine. WHO coordinated the pilot program with a collective effort from health ministries of Malawi, Ghana, and Kenya and other partners including non-profit organizations, and GlaxoSmithKline, the vaccine developer.

The vaccine, known as RTS,S, is the only of its kind that has demonstrated positive results in significantly reducing malaria in children. Malaria, is one of the world’s leading killers, and has resulted in the death of 250000+ children in Africa. Children under the age of 5 are most affected due to its life threatening complications.

The Nobel Foundation has announced the names of winners of 2019 Nobel Prizes.

The Nobel Prizes for 2019 in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economic sciences, peace, and literature have been announced. The awards are recognition of work that advances each of the respective fields. A medal, certificate and a cash award of about $ 900,000 are given to the winners.

Some of the winners include the following:

2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology is bestowed upon William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza. The trio won the prize for identifying molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying levels of oxygen.

2019 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. James Peebles receive half of the award for his work on theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology. The remaining half is shared between Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of an exo-planet orbiting a solar-type star.

2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is shared between John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. They won the prize for developing and advancing lithium-ion batteries.

2019 Nobel Prize in Literature is shared by Austrian novelist and playwright Peter Handke for his influential work that, with linguistic ingenuity, has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience, and by Olga Tokarczuk for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.

2019 Nobel Peace Prize is bestowed upon Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his work to bring an end to a long running border dispute between his country and neighboring Eritrea.

In September 2019, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for the first time, started offering tourist visas. It is for the first time that the ultra-conservative country has opened its gates for holidaymakers. This diplomatic move is a part of a push to diversify its economy away from oil.

The initiative of starting tourism is one of the focal points of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform program to prepare the biggest Arab economy post-oil-era. The announcement came at a critical time when the country witnessed a devastating attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure.

Ahmed al-Khateeb, the tourism chief of the country stated that ‘Opening Saudi Arabia to international tourists is a historic moment for our country’.

Initially, the country will accept online tourist visa applications from 49 countries and will also ease its extremist and strict dress code for foreign women.

With this move, the government hopes to draw 100 million annual visits by domestic and foreign tourists that in turn will contribute to 10% of gross domestic product.

The Kingdom has splurged billions in its attempt to create tourism industry from scratch and will generate up to one million tourism jobs.

The UAE has announced the name of its research based AI University as Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) after Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of UAE Armed Forces. The Crown Prince has long emphasized for the UAE’s development of human capital through knowledge and scientific thinking to take the nation into the future. The establishment of MBZUAI is based on the UAE’s vision of sustainable development, progress and overall well-being of humanity.

Graduate students, businesses and governments will benefit and work for the advancement in the artificial intelligence vertical. A new model of academia and research in the field of AI will be introduced by the university offering students and faculty members access to some of the world’s most AI systems that will, in turn, help in releasing its potential for socio-economic development.

As per the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and Association of Tennis Professionals rankings, Naomi Osaka of Japan and Novak Djokovic of Serbia continue to be World’s Number 1 tennis players. The recent ATP and WTA rankings were announced before 2019 Wimbledon Championships.

In an unchanged top 20 WTA rankings, Naomi Osaka has retained the World’s Number 1 spot by being 252 points ahead of World’s Number 2 Ashleigh Barty of Australia. Similarly, for the men’s championship, Novak Djokovic leads the men’s ATP raking ahead of Rafael Nadal (French Open winner 2019) and former World’s Number 1 Roger Federer. Men’s top ranking remains unchanged even after Rafael Nadal claimed the Roland Garros title in the final with a victory over Dominic Thiem. The results for 2019 Wimbledon Championships have also been declared. It is a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom.

The defending Gentlemen’s singles champion Novak Djokovic retained his title, while the defending Ladies’ singles champion Angelique Kerber lost in the second round to Lauren Davis. Simona Halep won the Ladies’ Singles title.

Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah beat French pair Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin to win the Wimbledon men’s doubles final. Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strýcová won the women’s doubles title, defeating Dabrowski and Xu in the final.

The 61st Annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles with all its glam and glitz on 10th Feb 2019. The largest and star-studded music awards show celebrates and honors the best in the music industry. Proclaimed as the most distinguished musical night, international singers, enthusiasts, and fans gathered to witness what is considered to be the Nobel Prize of Music.

The award ceremony is hosted by R&B singer Alicia keys, which is the first female host in the last 14 years, held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Due to the fierce competition, the Recording Academy had expanded its General Field to accommodate eight nominees each. The General Field includes Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

Main winners of the Grammy Awards 2019 are as follows:

Album of the Year: Kacey Musgraves, “Golden Hour”

Record of the Year: Childish Gambino – “This Is America”

Song of the Year: Childish Gambino, “This Is America”

Best New Artist: Dua Lipa

Best Pop Solo Performance: Lady Gaga, “Joanne” (Where Do You Think You’re Goin’?)

Best Country Album: Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves

Best Rock Performance: Chris Cornell, “When Bad Does Good”