Saudi Gazette reports that the government of Saudi Arabia is taking interest in what it sees as a rising incidence of iodine deficiency in children. This can have a profound affect on the mental development of children as well as lead to adult disorders like goiters. Iodine deficiency is rare among peoples living along coasts due to their consumption of sea foods, naturally rich in iodine. Inland areas, though, are prone to chronic effects unless measures – such as adding iodine to table salt – are taken. This is exactly the step the Saudi government is considering.
Iodine deficiency affecting students’ learning
JEDDAH – The ministries of Education and Health have expressed concerns about the rate of iodine deficiencies amongst Saudi schoolchildren which can cause mental retardation and goiter. The ministries are now launching a campaign that will free the Kingdom’s citizens from the disease.
Under the campaign, a Ministry of Health team and directors of education will probe the rate of iodine disorders IDD among school children and discover the number of families using iodized salt.
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This article caught my eye as I’d just finished reading Salt: A World History, which I highly recommend. While everyone understands the importance of salt to human survival, I was surprised to learn what an important role it played in politics, war, and economies since prehistoric times.
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March:01:2012 - 11:16
Hi…yeah I think people were listening to that Mariam Nour (Lebanese chick) who told ppl to stop using table salt and use rock salt. thanks Mariam Nour…She also had ppl nuts over eating out of canned goods.thanks Mariam Nour…I don’t know if she is still around anymore…
I take my rocks in a hot bath but use my iodized salt b_tches…sorry excuse that….
Saudis need to be putting it into the bottled water…if possible…we aren’t getting our flouride either Yo!
March:02:2012 - 03:52
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/02/rick-santorum-meet-hamza-kashgari.html#commentAnchor_nyr_2000000001531223
In “Rick Santurum meet Hamza Kashgari” I found the commenters posting some thought provoking comments. In particular two stood out to me:
1. An American Muslim stating that burning Qurans is actually the proper way to dispose of them (I knew that from my learning); however, it should not be done in a pile of garbage.
“While I agree that what is happening to Hamza is horrible… and as a Muslim (albeit an American raised one), I don’t even see how what he said was so offensive (or even slightly offensive to be honest)… your characterization of the Afghan riots being solely about the Qur’an burnings show that you’re not paying attention to the reality of the situation in Afghanistan. The Qur’an burnings on a pile of garbage were the straw that broke the camels back. In interview after interview, the Afghan people have said it’s about the killing of their children as well. A recent report suggested that drones kill innocent men, women, and children about 20-30% of the time. That’s a heck of a lot of dead innocent Afghans. We kill a few kids… we kill an entire family…and we apologize. We disrespect their holy book not by burning it (which is the correct way to dispose of a Qur’an), but by burning it on a pile of garbage. We apologize. Glenn Greenwald in “Salon” covered the situation far better. http://www.salon.com/2012/02/26/the_causes_of_the_protests_in_afghanistan/singleton/”
“applaud your writing skills. you began by elucidating in extremely articulate fashion the idiosyncrasies of current American politics concerning constitutional and religious opportunism, and so seamlessly transitioned into pedaling xenophobia, and spewing neo-orientalist bile veiled in shiny liberal Rhetoric. Ask yourself why the Saudi public is starved of quality education, and why they are bombarded with propaganda and indoctrinated. The answer is that an intellectually neutered population costs less to rule, and won’t realize the royal family is usurping oil revenues that they are entitled to. All to satisfy the one particular “Democracy”, that keeps the tyrannical Al-Saud in power.”
How this is all related to salt were the words in the latter’s post “starved” a “neutered population”. Please pardon my manners for bringing up such topics at the dinner table.
March:02:2012 - 04:23
I usually come in threes but can come in fours… can you believe this I found on youtube
Mariam Nour and Quadafi were lover?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiSnG77J4GE
March:02:2012 - 10:54
Sparky .. I wonder what Galyna Kolotsytskaky would think of that video.
Now that would leave the taste of salt n her or MS Nour’s mouth, one would think. Or would it?
March:02:2012 - 10:57
Suzan is “Aunty May”
March:02:2012 - 12:27
Hi Aunty May…I think she would definitely stop nursing him for sure! Oh he is no more!