hello everyone because this is my first
time at Ted I've decided to bring along
an old friend to help break the ice a
bit yes that's right this is Barbie
she's 50 years old and she's looking as
young as ever but it also like to
introduce you to what may be an
unfamiliar face this is fuller fuller is
the arab world's answer to Barbie now
according to proponents of the clash of
civilizations barbie and fulla occupy
these completely separate spheres they
have different interests they have
divergent values and should they ever
come in contact well I got to tell you
it's just not going to be pretty my
experience however in the Islamic world
is very different where I work in the
Arab region people are busy taking up
Western innovations and changing them
into things which are neither
conventionally Western nor are they
traditionally Islamic i want to show you
two examples the first is for Shabaab it
means for youth and it's a new Arab TV
channel few clips from across the globe
do USA I am not afraid to stand alone I
am not afraid to stand alone if Eliza
rule
Oh
advanced
going people
for Shabaab has been dubbed Islamic MTV
its creator who's an Egyptian TV
producer called Ahmed Abu Heba wants
young people to be inspired by Islam to
lead better lives he reckons the best
way to get that message across is to use
the enormously popular medium of music
videos for Shabaab was set up as an
alternative to existing arab music
channels and they look something like
this that by the way is haifa wehbe
she's a Lebanese pop star and pan-arab
pin-up girl in the world of for Shabaab
it's not about bump and grind but it's
not about fire and brimstone either its
videos are intended to show a kinder
gentler face of Islam for young people
to deal with life's challenges now my
second example is for a slightly younger
crowd and it's called the 99 now these
are the world's first islamic
superheroes they were created by a
Kuwaiti psychologist called niya film
etawah and his desire is to rescue Islam
from images of intolerance all in a
child friendly format the 99 the
characters are meant to embody the 99
attributes of Allah justice wisdom mercy
among others so for example there is the
character of Nora she is meant to have
the power to look inside people and see
the good and bad in every one another
character called jamie has the ability
to create fantastic inventions now the
99 is not just a comic book it's now a
theme park there's an animated series in
the works and by this time next year the
likes of Superman and Wonder Woman will
have joined forces with the 99 to beat
injustice wherever they find it the 99
and for Shabaab are just two of many
examples of this sort of Islamic
cross-cultural hybridization we're not
talking here about a clash of
civilizations nor is it some sort of
indistinguishable mash
I like to think of it as a mesh of
civilizations in which the strands of
different cultures are intertwined now
well force Shabaab and the 99 may look
new and shiny there's actually a very
long tradition of this throughout its
history Aslam has borrowed and adapted
from other civilizations both ancient
and modern after all it's the Quran
which encourages us to do this we made
you into nations and tribes so that you
could learn from one another and to my
mind those are pretty wise words no
matter what your Creed thank you
traffic is a global epidemic us traffic
is creating forty-five percent of the
world's air pollution in the UK time
wasted in traffic costs twenty billion a
year would you pay for cleaner air and a
faster commute Stockholm put it to a
vote I voted for is yes I voted for it I
vote for it we're not old enough to know
we have to do something in stock on cue
improve the environment and to get a
better flow in the traffic we put a
price on taking your car into the
central parts of stock on and we call
that congestion charges if you start a
system like this and it doesn't work on
the first day then you will be in big
trouble it must be perfect from day one
there are 18 m two gates to the city
each is equipped with cameras pictures
are taken of the rear and front license
plates these pictures are sent to a
central system that identifies the
license plates and make sure that the
right person pays to the right passages
one of the obstacles we overcame was the
OCR the optical character reading of the
license plate we went out ibm's global
organization and the R&D centers and
find a very good software we could use
and we managed to implement it in two
months time this is the heart of the
system rule images and passages are
being processed over nine to nine
percent of all pictures are correctly
identified
no it's nice this is how it should be
all the time behind me you can see the
traffic and the clock is 6pm before we
have the congestion charge in the
traffic was chewing up at this time of
the day Jessie them no idea I think it's
a good idea because I think that we
should take care of the environment in
the CD the traffic went down with about
twenty two percent under the air
pollution was about fourteen percent
better it's a huge international
interest from different part of the
board from the United States from Latin
America from China and its really
pressure to tell people not what we are
planning to do what what we actually
have done in Stockholm I voted for it
yes I did not my husband so the I did I
think he is not thinking like me for the
future I'm thinking for the children and
the grandchildren