Entertainment
Precautions in place as UAE reports first Mers virus case
Precautions in place as UAE reports first Mers virus case Olivia Olarte-Ulherr / 12 July 2013 Those closest to an 82-year-old Emirati man who has become the second UAE resident to be diagnosed with the deadly novel coronavirus are being tested, the Abu Dhabi Health Authority says. The patient has multiple myeloma as a result of the coronavirus, also known as the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (Mers-CoV), and is currently in the ICU at one of the hospitals in Abu Dhabi. This is the second case of the Mers-CoV infection in an Abu Dhabi resident but the first case to be diagnosed within the UAE. In March, a 73-year-old Abu Dhabi man died in a German hospital from the Sars-like virus. Last month, the Lancet medical journal reported that the deadly disease had its origins in the UAE and Qatar after tests showed that the Abu Dhabi man died of similar strain of the virus to the Doha man who was treated in Germany six months prior. Health Authority — Abu Dhabi (HAAD) customer service and corporate communications director Dr Jamal Mohammed Al Kaabi told Khaleej Times the authority was doing tests on “everybody around the patient”. “Since December last year, we requested hospitals to monitor the situation and it is through this monitoring that we found out about this patient,” he said. The HAAD was coordinating with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and other authorities in the country and had taken the necessary measures as per the international standards and recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO). “We are doing everything required by the WHO,” Al Kaabi stressed. In December 2012, the HAAD issued a circular to all healthcare providers on the necessary notification and reporting mechanisms of any suspected coronavirus cases. That included clinical assessment, isolation and collection of specimens for laboratory tests. Samples taken from suspected cases, such as bronchoalveolar lavage, tracheal aspirate, pleural fluid or sputum, should be kept on ice and sent to the Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) laboratory for analysis. SKMC is the testing centre for the Sars-like virus in the emirate. Any suspected cases of coronavirus infection should be notified to HAAD, Al Kaabi said. MoH officials Khaleej Times spoke with on Friday said they were not able to make further comment at this stage, but state news agency Wam reported the MoH had made an assurance the virus was not presently a public health concern and did not require a travel ban. The ministry also added that it was “monitoring the situation closely to ensure the health and safety of everyone,” Wam said. The new case brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases of Mers-CoV infection worldwide to 80. — olivia@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Musical strokes
Musical strokes Olivia Olarte-Ulherr / 12 July 2013 He is not your typical artist. Ako, Filipino — a blindfolded nation. He does not shy away from attention nor does he shun everyone out in his creative moment. Tom Alvarado is exactly the opposite. He is gregarious, loves to entertain and involves his audience as he sings while painting his creation. Dubbed as the “Filipino Singing Painter” by Philippine ambassador Grace Relucio-Princesa, Alvarado’s fame snowballed overnight after appearing at last year’s celebration of the Philippine Independence. He impressed the ambassador with his own rendition of Filipino singer, Freddie Aguilar’s, Bulag, Pipi’t Bingi (Blind, Mute and Deaf) while painting a portrait of a woman on canvas, rhyming each stroke with the lyrics and dramatically finishing off with the Philippine flag. The portrait, Alvarado’s “mother painting”, is now kept on display in his gallery in Dubai that also serves as his office. This year, Alvarado has been invited once more to showcase his talent and display his artworks at the Philippine embassy. This time, he interpreted Anak (Child), also by Freddie Aguilar, and painted a mother and child on canvas. Asked how he prepares for his show, Alvarado said he doesn’t. “I don’t practice. I think about what I want to do and paint on the spot,” said the 50-year old quirky artist. A businessman by trade and mindset, Alvarado has denied his innate talent from flourishing in the early years, focusing instead on entrepreneurial ventures and jobs that offer a more stable income. But his aptitude came to fore one day. While working as a security guard in a municipality, he passed off the time sketching a portrait of the then Philippine president Corazon Aquino in coloured pastel. His creative work did not go unnoticed and he got promoted as the provincial artist, painting murals on local stage productions. Despite this breakthrough and the opportunity to work on his art, which centres on abstract and surreal themes, his economist side came back knocking. And sure enough, he traded his burgeoning painting career into a different artistic and enterprising path – as handicraft artist. “I went into handicraft in the 90s and started exporting Christmas decors from paper mache. I dabbled in mixed media using poly resin which I form as angels and fruits. I stayed in the export business for about seven years,” related Alvarado, who managed to break the Asian and European market. However, China’s emergence into the market with cheaper products has halted his chance of progressing further. “I am goal-oriented. I planned to get married at the age of 25; at 30, I said I will be a millionaire and I achieved those. Now at 50, I hope to conquer another milestone,” said the artist. And he did. Not only was he a successful entrepreneur, having his own home decorative painting business – Candor Decor – in Dubai, he is also the first, if not the only Filipino singing painter in the UAE. Two careers that he balances very well. As a businessman, he hopes to pass on his talent in mural painting to his younger employees and open-up branches across the UAE and give his compatriots employment. As a painter, he plans to focus on his art fully this time around. Alvarado said he compares his strokes with that of Pablo Picasso’s surrealism with his somewhat distorted representation of his imagination. Bayanihan — a nation’s undying love for colours. — Supplied photos The self-confessed “weird” artist said he does not have any usual subject but expresses what is in his mind, including its clutters. “My art has one trademark, the eye, which you’ll find in all of my artworks. This symbol eye is the spirit, which means that I can observe everything,” explained Alvarado. What characteristics can you consider have brought you to where you are now? “Being humble and simple,” Alvarado said simply. olivia@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Mursi backers defiant
Mursi backers defiant (AFP) / 12 July 2013 Tens of thousands of supporters of ousted president Mohammed Mursi gathered on Friday vowing to keep fighting for his reinstatement, as rival rallies defending his overthrow underlined Egypt’s bitter divisions. Supporters of Mohammed Mursi wave national flags during a rally outside Cairo’s Rabaa Al Adawiya mosque on Friday. — AFP The rallies come as Germany called for the release of Mursi, who is being held in a “safe place, for his safety” and has not yet been charged, according to the foreign ministry. Holding Egyptian flags and Korans, protesters gathered out-side the Rabaa Al Adawiya mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City neighbourhood, chanting against the military and pledging allegiance to Mursi. “We will continue to resist. We will stay one or two months, or even one or two years. We won’t leave here until our president, Mohammed Mursi, comes back,” influential Islamist leader Safwat Hegazi told the crowd. Hegazi demanded the reinstatement of Egypt’s first freely elected president, immediate parliamentary elections and a committee to oversee a plan for national reconciliation. Mursi supporters set up a field kitchen to cook Iftar for demonstrators. Thousands also massed in support of the ousted president outside the University of Cairo, watched over by a heavy security presence. Despite the turnouts and defiant mood, the gathering has been increasingly out of step with political developments as the interim authorities press ahead with forming a new government and Gulf states help support the faltering economy. The Muslim Brotherhood, the influential Islamist group from which Mursi emerged, is now in tatters, its leadership detained, on the run or keeping a low profile following Mursi’s July 3 overthrow by the military. Pro-Mursi protesters arrived from across the country to join hundreds already camped out at the Rabaa Al Adawiya mosque. The anti-Mursi camp also called huge rallies after Friday in Tahrir Square and at the Ittihadiya presidential palace, with a mass iftar planned at sundown. In Tahrir Square, several dozen demonstrators gathered under a scorching midday sun, adamant that their numbers would rise later. “It is because of the heat and Ramadan, when we have a fast. During the day, people stay at home but this evening, people will come to Tahrir,” Gamal, 48, said. The rival rallies have raised fears of more of the violence that has shaken Egypt since the army removed Mursi after millions of demonstrators demanded his resignation. In the worst incident, clashes at an army building in Cairo on Monday killed 53 people, mostly Mursi supporters. The Brotherhood accuses the army of “massacring” its supporters, while the army says soldiers were attacked by “terrorists” and armed protesters. On Friday, gunmen in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia killed a police conscript and wounded an officer when they tried to stop a vehicle the armed group was travelling in, MENA reported on Friday. The gunmen escaped, but security forces were tracking them down, Ismailiya police chief General Mohamed Eid told MENA. The restive Sinai peninsula, home to Egypt’s luxury Red Sea resorts, has been hit by a surge of violence, with militants killing a police officer in a rocket attack on a checkpoint early on Friday, officials said. A Coptic Christian man was found decapitated on Thursday five days after being kidnapped, and on Wednesday, two people died in an attack on a security checkpoint in the Sinai. Continue reading
