JEDDAH: As people across Saudi Arabia and the world prepare for Eid Al-Adha, it is the perfect time to teach your children about the spirit of giving. Charity and the distribution of food to the needy are key components of this Islamic holiday and so, this year, follow these top tips to get your loved ones involved in helping the less fortunate.
Children’s personalities and characteristics can be shaped early on and encouraging them to show empathy and generosity from a young age is important, according to Dr. Reham F. Gassas, a family therapist at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh.
“Giving to others and being part of the community is an important role for a child to learn in order to be an effective part of her or his community,” Gassas said, before adding that it teaches children to “empathize with each other, be caring and be understanding of the feelings and needs of others.
“Our religion and culture teach us to love for others what you love for yourself. The child will observe their caregiver… giving their attention, time, money, food and clothes to others,” which will help the child understand the importance of charity, she added.
Simple acts of kindness
Children learn by example so it is important to teach them that charity is not just about giving away money and material items, it is also about being kind and compassionate.
Paying it forward with small acts of kindness can help to teach children about the value of giving their time and energy to another person. For young children, teaching them to be kind to elderly members of the family and the wider community — with a smile or helping them find a seat — can go a long way in instilling a sense of compassion in them.
Encouraging your child to complete one random act of kindness a day — such as leaving a greeting note on a friend’s desk at school, picking a flower for a family member or buying sweet treats for their playground friends — will help to make them understand that small things count.
Caring for creatures
Allowing your children to take care of a pet or a stray animal is a great way to teach them about responsibility and compassion.
Instead of buying your pet from a store, head down to your local adoption agency and allow your child to choose a rescue animal. It is important that kids learn about the ramifications of owning a pet and seeing first-hand the plight of some animals in such shelters is a good way to teach children about making a lifelong commitment to their pets.
If adoption is not an option, leaving food on the corner of the street twice a day teaches young children to share and be kind to animals. Keeping a bowl of fresh water for birds or filling a bird feeder with seeds in a nearby tree is a form of charity as well.
Why not create a handy chart of feeding times on the fridge? Asking young children to stick to a regular schedule and share the responsibility of feeding an animal with their siblings will teach them to care for another living being in an adult manner.
Spending time with the needy
Parents can encourage their older children to be giving by asking them to help distribute food and drink at their local mosque or charitable establishment, for example. Asking young children to create and give away trinkets and jewelry out of material found at any craft store is also a good way to help children understand that time and effort is as important as money when it comes to giving charity.
Visiting local orphanages and homes for the elderly or disabled is also an eye-opening experience for young children. Kids can provide gifts from their own toy collections and spend some time playing with less fortunate children or simply make an elderly person’s day by chatting with them for an hour or so.
If you wish to take part in local charity events or volunteer your time, it is important to make sure the charitable organization is licensed and the event has proper government approval.
Volunteering is an important way in which your child can learn about working hard in order to give back to the local community. Many charities across Saudi Arabia hold fundraising functions, simply give them a call and find out if they need volunteers for the day.
Nada M.N., a freshman at King Abdulaziz University, enjoys volunteering at various events and has been encouraged to do so by her parents who hope that such efforts will go a long way in building up the local community.
“I love spending time at these events because I get to meet so many people, we are all goal-oriented individuals and being a part of any event makes me feel like I am a part of an entity, one that serves to provide joy, and sometimes charity, to those in need,” she told Arab News.
“I remember my older sisters participating in the distribution of goods in Ramadan and I’ve always wanted to do what they did. They would come back home tired but the stories they would tell us of how much joy they brought to the faces of those in need were priceless.”
Gassas agrees that encouraging a child to take on some form of volunteering or charity work will ensure “more social justice” in society.
It will result in “a child who grows up to become a responsible member of this community. A member who puts the interests of others in their mind (before they make a) decision and someone who advocates for others and ensures that the community gives attention to those who are less fortunate.”
This Hajj season, teach your kids about charity
This Hajj season, teach your kids about charity
The 2025 Grammy Award nominations are about to arrive. Here’s what to know
- The 2025 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 2 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles
NEW YORK: The 2025 Grammy Award nominations are just around the corner — who will compete for the top prizes?
Nominees will be announced during a video stream live on the Grammy website and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel on Friday at 8 a.m. Pacific and 11 a.m. Eastern, kicking off with a pre-show 15 minutes earlier.
A host of talent is on deck to announce the nominees, including Gayle King, Jim Gaffigan and a long list of past Grammy winners: Brandy Clark, Kirk Franklin, David Frost, Robert Gordon, Kylie Minogue, Gaby Moreno, Deanie Parker, Ben Platt, Mark Ronson, Hayley Williams and last year’s best new artist recipient, Victoria Monét.
Only recordings commercially released in the US between Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024 are eligible for nominations, so don’t expect to see album nods for Future’s “Mixtape Pluto” (though Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Don’t Trust You” is very likely to score a nomination), George Strait’s “Cowboys and Dreamers,” Tyler, the Creator’s “Chromakopia,” or “Warriors,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first full post-“Hamilton” musical with Pulitzer finalist Eisa Davis.
There’s plenty of unknowns going into the announcements: Will Beyoncé and Post Malone receive nominations in the country music categories following the success of their massive albums “Cowboy Carter” and “F-1 Trillion,” respectively, even though they are megastars previously not directly associated with the genre?
Will Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” the biggest song of the year that combines his country twang with the familiar sample of J Kwon’s 2004 rap hit “Tipsy” dominate?
The 2025 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 2 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Prison break: Monkeys escape from South Carolina medical research facility
- Alpha Genesis provides primates for research worldwide at its compound
- Alpha Genesis $12,600 in 2018 after dozens of primates escaped
Forty-three monkeys escaped from a compound used for medical research in South Carolina but the nearby police chief said there is “almost no danger” to the public.
“They are not infected with any disease whatsoever. They are harmless and a little skittish,” Yemassee Police Chief Gregory Alexander said Thursday morning.
The Rhesus macaque primates escaped from the Alpha Genesis facility Wednesday when a new employee didn’t fully shut an enclosure, Alexander said.
The monkeys are females weighing about 3 kilograms and are so young and small that they haven’t been used for testing, police said.
Alpha Genesis employees “currently have eyes on the primates and are working to entice them with food,” police said in a statement issued around noon Thursday.
The company usually handles escapes on site, but the monkeys got outside the compound about 1.6 kilometers from downtown Yemassee, Alexander said.
“The handlers know them well and usually can get them back with fruit or a little treat,” Alexander said by phone.
But rounding up these escapees is taking some more work. Alpha Genesis is taking the lead, setting up traps and using thermal imaging cameras to recapture the monkeys on the run, the chief said.
“There is almost no danger to the public,” Alexander said.
People living nearby need to shut their windows and doors so the monkeys can’t find a place to hide inside and if they see the primates, call 911 so company officials and police can capture them.
Alpha Genesis provides primates for research worldwide at its compound about 80 kilometers northeast of Savannah, Georgia, according to its website. The company did not respond to an email asking about Wednesday’s escape.
In 2018, federal officials fined Alpha Genesis $12,600 after dozens of primates escaped as well as for an incident that left a few others without water and other problems with how the monkeys were housed.
Officials said 26 primates escaped from the Yemassee facility in 2014 and an additional 19 got out in 2016.
The group Stop Animal Exploitation Now sent a letter to the US Department of Agriculture asking the agency to immediately send an inspector to the Alpha Genesis facility, conduct a thorough investigation and treat them as a repeated violator. The group was involved in the 2018 fine against the company.
“The clear carelessness which allowed these 40 monkeys to escape endangered not only the safety of the animals, but also put the residents of South Carolina at risk,” Michael Budkie, the executive director of the group, wrote in the Thursday morning letter.
Trump victory renews interest in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and other fictional dystopias
- Margaret Atwood’s dystopian classic about a country in which women are brutally repressed has been high on the Amazon.com best seller list
NEW YORK: “The Handmaid’s Tale” is selling again.
Since President-elect Donald Trump clinched his return to the White House, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian classic about a country in which women are brutally repressed has been high on the Amazon.com best seller list. “The Handmaid’s Tale” was popular throughout Trump’s first term, along with such dark futuristic narratives as George Orwell’s “1984” and Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” both of which were in the Amazon top 40 as of Thursday afternoon. Another best-seller from Trump’s previous time in office, Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” was in the top 10.
Pro-Trump books also were selling well. Former first lady Melania Trump’s memoir, “Melania,” was No. 1 on the Amazon list, and Vice President-elect JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” was in the top 10. Donald Trump’s photo book “Save America” was in the top 30.
At Barnes & Noble, “Fiction and non-fiction books that feature fascism, feminism, dystopian worlds and both right-and-left leaning politics rocketed up our sales charts with the election results,” according to Shannon DeVito, the chain’s director of books. She cited “Melania,” “On Tyranny” and Bob Woodward’s latest, “War,” which covers the responses of Trump and President Joe Biden to the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
DeVito also cited “a massive bump in dystopian fiction,” notably for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “1984.”
First artwork by humanoid robot sells for $1.3 million
REUTERS: A portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching $1,320,000 on Thursday.
The 2.2 meter (7.5 feet) portrait “A.I. God” by “Ai-Da,” the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist, smashed pre-sale expectations of $180,000 when it went under the hammer at London auction house Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale.
“Today’s record-breaking sale price for the first artwork by a humanoid robot artist to go up for auction marks a moment in the history of modern and contemporary art and reflects the growing intersection between A.I. technology and the global art market,” said the auction house.
Ai-Da Robot, which uses AI to speak, said: “The key value of my work is its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies.”
Ai-Da added that a “portrait of pioneer Alan Turing invites viewers to reflect on the god-like nature of AI and computing while considering the ethical and societal implications of these advancements.”
The ultra-realistic robot, one of the most advanced in the world, is designed to resemble a human woman with a face, large eyes and a brown wig.
Ai-Da is named after Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer and was devised by Aidan Meller, a specialist in modern and contemporary art.
“The greatest artists in history grappled with their period of time, and both celebrated and questioned society’s shifts,” said Meller.
“Ai-Da Robot as technology, is the perfect artist today to discuss the current developments with technology and its unfolding legacy,” he added.
Ai-Da generates ideas through conversations with members of the studio, and suggested creating an image of Turing during a discussion about “A.I. for good.”
The robot was then asked what style, color, content, tone and texture to use, before using cameras in its eyes to look at a picture of Turing and create the painting.
Meller led the team that created Ai-Da with artificial intelligence specialists at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham in England.
Meller said Turing, who made his name as a World War II codebreaker, mathematician and early computer scientist, had raised concerns about the use of AI in the 1950s.
The artwork’s “muted tones and broken facial planes” seemingly suggested “the struggles Turing warned we will face when it comes to managing AI,” he said.
Ai-Da’s works were “ethereal and haunting” and “continue to question where the power of AI will take us, and the global race to harness its power,” he added.
@AIGOD_Aida
A portrait of renowned English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching $1,320,000 on Thursday. the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist,
Three charged in One Direction singer Liam Payne’s death
BUENOS AIRES: Three people have been charged in relation to One Direction singer Liam Payne’s death in a fall from his Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month, Argentine authorities said on Thursday.
The 31-year-old’s death shocked the world, and raised questions about how he had fallen.
A 911 call from a hotel employee the day Payne died warned that he had been acting aggressively and could have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
An autopsy revealed the former boy band member had traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system when he died, a prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Thursday.
Payne’s body was handed over to his father, Geoff, over the weekend and flown back to his native England. Over the past few weeks, Geoff had been seen alongside longtime One Direction bodyguard, Paul Higgins, at the CasaSur hotel where his son died.
Those charged in Payne’s death include a suspected drug dealer, a hotel employee who may have provided Payne with the cocaine and a person who was close to the singer, the authorities said.
All are accused of playing a role in giving Payne the drugs, with the hotel employee accused of giving Payne cocaine at least twice during his stay and the alleged drug dealer believed to have provided it twice more two days before his death.
The person who was visiting with Payne is also charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death,” authorities said.
None of those charged were named, but will be notified and are prohibited from leaving the country, according to the statement.
The investigation into the circumstances of Payne’s death will continue, prosecutors said, adding that they were still trying to unlock the singer’s broken laptop.
Witnesses had told local media that they saw Payne smashing his laptop in the hotel lobby.