The co-operation Between Washington State and Middle East to fight the Same Enemy

     First of all, both Americans and Arabs raise an aim “Rust never Sleep”. They try in this time to find the best solutions to fight that disease that attacks wheat. Wheat one of the agriculture pillar where affected by so many diseases. This kind of war needs a real team work which may not cause the fallen of that pillar. These diseases included ordinary diseases (Stripe rust) and the interference of insects (Hessian fly). That was found in both Washington state and Middle East land, so the studies always come to find solutions to the problem to heal the patient, also to see the differences that we may apply it in the Arab land, to increase the production ability.

                                             

     To know what this kind of disease, stripe rust is one of the most spread diseases all over the world especially with the places of a cool temperature that may infect the wheat and destroy it leafs and the consequences lead to a general weakness and that will effect on the productivity of the wheat. Stripe rust used to spread throughout the air and it can travel throughout miles. Stripe rust seems to be like a bright yellow-orange stripes arranged between leaf veins. That will effect on the yielding process and on the productivity of it. Stripe rust is the major disease that affects the wheat crop across the entire state. WSU works on genetic resistance and fungicide application to fight this type of disease. The most useful form of technology is genetic resistance, but at times fungicides are needed to control this disease. The most preferred way is genetic resistance and you can’t imagine what the situation could be without it. “In some areas of western Washington, yield losses of up to 100% can occur due to stripe rust”, that what is found in WSU researcher on a research built on wheat. Also for the Middle East the effect was in its large scope that what Aleppo meeting in Syria concluded that it is about 40% of wheat’s farms destroyed by the same disease. "These epidemics increase the price of food and pose a real threat to rural livelihoods and regional food security," said Mahmoud Solh, director general of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). This reduction on the productivity of the corps will effect entirely on the shape of economy especially for the Middle East because its countries which agriculture represents one of the important issues for commercial and it may cause an inner and outer effect on the economy.

      So many studies were built to create a new generation of wheat that which contained a highly resistance from that disease. One of these is the (Eltan) a type of wheat which has a highly resistance from stripe rust and from dry which represent about 20% of crops in Washington (Carter, WSU Research center). Murrow College had arranged a meeting with two Jordanian Professors who show to us how the co-operation looks like. They talk how WSU tried to transfer the ideas and new ways of technological treatment. The only way and the easiest one is to send professors to share the Jordanian Professors in Jordan or the farmers about the best ways to deal with this kind of disease. One of these ways is used as a cure is the Crop-Duster which is an agriculture airplanes used to spread the chemical materials on the crops to released or at least cure it from the diseases. The use of low rates of nitrogen fertilizer will not give the disease a long period to stay.” Moderately resistant varieties (such as Stephens winter wheat and Alpowa spring wheat) that provide adequate rust resistance in eastern Washington can have substantial yield losses (5–20%) in western Washington” Carol, WSU, and there are so many other ways about how to deal with it.

                                             

        Now the connection is increased between Washington and the Middle East through out ways of communication and exchange programs between WSU and Middle east. This mutual exchange of information will definitly take the problem out from its roots. So the Arab in the middle East try to catch up with American solution through out education and practical researchs on the best solution that can fit in their land.

By:

Mohammed S. and Melad M.

  Dangerous Road to Graduation

It was a regular school day morning last year, when 20 buses carrying Christian university students left the Iraqi town of Kara Gush. A local church provided these buses daily to more than a thousand Christian students studying at the University of Mosul 32 kilometers from Kara Gush. They were taking the students to their classes that morning, too. Halfway to the University of Mosul two bombs exploded twenty seconds apart from each other. The bombs killed Radeef Mahruk and wounded 144 students. One of these students, Sandy Shabib, died from her injuries in Erbil Hospital eight days after the attack. My brother, two of my cousins and I were also injured in this attack. I will never forget that day for the rest of my life: sound of the bombs, broken glass, students screaming, and blood everywhere!

The casualties could be much higher that day, if a local shop owner, Radeef Mahruk, didn’t sacrifice his life to save us. Nobody knows now how Radeef sensed the buses were going to be attacked but witnesses said that right before the bombs exploded he ran out of his shop and waved at the buses trying to stop them from approaching bomb-filled vehicles parked on the side of the road. Radeef’s bravery and selflessness caused him his life but saved the lives of many students in the buses. I didn’t see him running towards us but to this day I can still see his burning body on the street. Radeef is our modern-day Christian martyr. That day wasn’t the first time when Christian students from the University of Mosul were attacked. During 2009-2010 school year, there were two other attacks that wounded eight students.

In fear of new attacks, the church providing the transportation for the students has decided to stop the service after the bombing on May 2, 2010. This made it impossible for hundreds of students to get to their classes every morning. In 2011, about 48% of the Christian students at the University of Mosul had to postpone their school for one year. I was among only 20% of the students who decided to return to the University and was able to continue taking classes. After terrorists attacked Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad two months later, we started receiving new threats and I was forced to stop going to the university. It became too dangerous.

The Ministry of Education and Scientific Research has suggested the Christian students stay and study at home and only come to the university to take exams. We sent several representatives to the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research in Baghdad to ask them to build a university in our town so we don’t have to take the dangerous road to the University of Mosul every day. They agreed to open a new department of the University of Mosul’s College of Education in Kara Gush only for freshmen. I am in my fourth and final year in college, so the new department wouldn’t allow me to finish my education in my town. Next year I will have to transfer to another university located in a safer but, unfortunately, more remote location. I am not the only student who will have to find a new alma mater. About 10% of the Christian students currently studying at the University of Mosul have transferred to different universities to get their diplomas. About 7% had to drop out.

It is not easy to be a Christian in Iraq. Not only are Christian students attacked by the Islamic radicals for their religious beliefs. Other Christians are in constant danger as well. My family knows this firsthand. In 2007 I lost my father. One day he was kidnapped by a terrorist group demanding $20,000 ransom. Even though my family paid the money, they killed him two days later.

My family’s story is similar to many other Christians’ stories. In 2003, there were approximately 1.5 million Christians in Iraq out of a total population of 28 millions. Since then about half of them have fled the country due to the violence and insecurity they were facing every day. Those Christians who stayed in Iraq, including my family, live in a constant fear of being kidnapped, raped, tortured, or killed by Islamic radicals attacking us because of our religion.

I wish one day Christians, Muslims, and other religious groups could coexist in Iraq. I also hope that my family can live without the constant fear of being killed because of our beliefs. I want our government to see and treat each of us as citizens of Iraq without separating us into the followers of different religions. This separation harms not just Christians but Muslims as well because there are so many different religious groups within Muslim religion. I hope that I and students of all religions can go to any university without any fears and finish their education.

The Five major reasons why we could find polarization in US:

Community:

The American community consists of so many different people, which made it to be under the term of polarization. These differences in the community lead to a different ideas, logical views, and even in the way they look at to each other. This collection of the people (white and black, different religious sides, political tendencies …etc.) leads the people to be in as opponents and the outcome is the polarization.

Immigration:

It may consider one of the most important factors in making collections in side any community. The immigration from different countries brings different ideas, new political theories, opinions and new social views. So, Immigration leads to establish so many sides inside the one community each side represent a theory, group of ideas and different way in tackling with the matters.

Media Polarization:

Media is an important section in the life now a day which should represent the people as a whole, but unfortunately it serves the side that supports it. It is always in the side of these political sides that it serves which may be who made this channel and who is responsible for spending money on it. So the job of the media may exceed only polarization to reach to a fact that it may be one of the factors that works for increasing polarization inside the community. Its dangerous way through out what it spreads and broadcasts to the people and it surely serve one side and getting out the main purpose that it made for which is  to serve the people not to serve one political side. So we have to be careful from such a kind of media because it may cause a war between the people and not only polarization.

Economic:

Also economic plays an important role inside the community and with the idea of polarization. Some of the communities have two economical sides either too rich or too poor and that what we see in America that there are so poor people and so rich people and the level which is in between represent a low rang compared with them. So the rich will represent a side which is the controlling one but they are little in number compared with the other side of the poor people who are large in number but without any powers which is the power of money. So this harsh treatment to the poor people leads to a serious polarization.

Political fragmentation elite:

US is showed their political parties in two major sides, they are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party with a third minor side. That leads to separate the sound of the people into two major sides and lead to a real polarization.