GAZA CITY // When the first case of swine flu hit the Gaza Strip in December, residents in this tiny, impoverished enclave flocked to local spice traders and drained merchants' shelves of the popular medicinal herb anise.
Gazans sought out the Chinese-grown plant to mix in an age-old, tea-based concoction called yansoon, which doctors here said would help prevent further outbreaks amid rumours the territory faced a shortage of the deadly flu's traditional vaccine. Anise is a central component of the swine flu vaccine manufactured globally under the brand name Tamiflu.
With a health system crippled by the Israeli economic blockade, which the United Nations says causes unnecessary delays for the import of vital medical equipment, the residents of Gaza are increasingly turning to cheaper, more accessible methods of alternative medicine to cure their ailments.
A local beekeeper who runs a clinic using bee stings as a treatment in Gaza City said because of the blockade, he now sees upwards of a hundred patients each day. Also in the city, a pharmacist self-trained in traditional Chinese medicine said his business is growing in the wake of last year's war, in which health facilities here sustained considerable damage.
"When we're faced with the situation we have today with the healthcare system, where medicine and equipment are in short supply, and people don't have access, it's only logical they will turn towards alternative medical practices in order to get better," said the World Health Organisation's (WHO) national health officer in Gaza, Mahmoud Daher.
From his modest, two-year-old clinic in the crowded Al Sabra neighbourhood, Mahmoud Shamali, 24, prepares Ahmed Kordia, 22, for a session of traditional Chinese therapy. His speciality is hujamma, known in the West when it was used in the 19th century and before as 'cupping", a method that uses pressurised suction cups to extract what Mr Shalami said is "bad blood" from a patient's body.
"People come here for everything - back pain, muscle weakness, anxiety," said Mr Shamali. "It is cheaper than pain medications or repeated visits to the doctor, and it lasts longer."
The young pharmacist used a small utility knife to cut a series of tiny incisions at special points across Mr Kordia's back. He then placed several dome-shaped plastic cups atop the miniature cuts, and pressurised them with a vacuum he said he ordered from China and had smuggled in through the tunnels with Egypt.
Mr Kordia, lying face down on the table, grimaced as the blood poured from his back, transforming from mere droplets into rivers of blood that eventually turned the cups a bright red.
"I feel fine, I feel more relaxed now," said Mr Kordia, who is unemployed. The procedure, which he has done once a month for his chronic back pain, costs him just 60 shekels (Dh59). It is much cheaper than buying imported medicine, he said.
At the home of Ratib Ibrahim Samour, this local beekeeper and his wife, Umm Ibrahim, move from patient to patient, gripping plastic jars swarming with honeybees. Mr Samour pinches one of the bees, squirming and wings flapping furiously, with a pair of tweezers, and stings a young girl wearing a hearing aid on the back of her ear.
"I treat people for deafness, eyesight, sinus infections, pain," said Mr Samour, who opened the clinic in 2003 and has since trained his wife and two oldest children to treat people with the bees. "The venom of the bee activates the natural cortisone in the body, and this can help with many things, many sicknesses."
Kamal Ruka, from the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, needs a spinal operation in the coming months. But he cannot afford both the operation and the pain relief medication he needs while he waits for the surgery. Mr Ruka comes in every four to six weeks, he said, to be stung 15 times to alleviate the pain. It costs him just 10 shekels per session, while prescription drugs cost him 50 shekels per week, he said.
"I started coming to the clinic about a year ago, and I feel 100 per cent better," Mr Ruka said. "The pain from the bee is nothing compared to the pain I have."
Mr Samour said he often turns patients away, however, because his bee-sting method is no substitute for modern medicine. He always asks patients what their real doctor's diagnosis is first.
But because conventional drugs are often too expensive or in short supply, people are faced with no other choice but to seek out alternative healers.
According to the WHO, of the 480 drugs deemed "essential" by Gaza's health officials, approximately 20 per cent were listed as out of stock from March to December 2009.
Of over 1,100 applications made by patients to leave Gaza to Israel for specialised medical treatment, 21 per cent were either denied or delayed, says the WHO. Twenty-seven patients died in 2009 waiting to be approved.
"Because of the situation we are in after the war, and with the siege, people need this, they need my therapy," said Mr Shamali, adding people feel comfortable with him because his therapy, while Chinese, is rooted in Islam. "The Prophet Mohammed said bleeding is the best remedy," he said.
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BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
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Match info
UAE v Bolivia, Friday, 6.25pm, Maktoum bin Rashid Stadium, Dubai
SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday Spezia v Lazio (6pm), Juventus v Torino (9pm), Inter Milan v Bologna (7.45pm)
Sunday Verona v Cagliari (3.30pm), Parma v Benevento, AS Roma v Sassuolo, Udinese v Atalanta (all 6pm), Crotone v Napoli (9pm), Sampdoria v AC Milan (11.45pm)
Monday Fiorentina v Genoa (11.45pm)
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5