United States of America — that is, the president of its republic is elected for a term of four years by popular vote, and it is the president who appoints his ministers, who are responsible to him. A long time has passed in Colombia without anything occurring to trouble the calm of public order, and it is the object of the world's admiration for the advancement of its sons.
The visitor to Bogotá (the capital of Colombia) notices that the number of its bookshops exceeds the number of its cafés or restaurants. In the capital you may see the deputies, when they have finished their sessions, gathering in groups in literary clubs to read poetry aloud, falling into heated argument over its interpretation; and when they have done with that, they pass on to philosophy, whose inquiry has no end. They have a particular passion for the discussion of cultural and literary subjects, and so we find the Colombian people taking a special interest in things of the spirit and bearing an unsurpassed hatred of materialism.
It happened that a visitor to Bogotá met an ordinary man in that city, and the Colombian greeted him straightaway with the questions: Where were you born? Which city do you prefer? Have you been to Russia — and what do you think of Dostoevsky?...
In Colombia today there is a number, though a comparatively small one, of Lebanese emigrants who have been able to win for themselves high literary and material positions.
The Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah Society has issued an appeal, of which this is a summary:
The Al-Nahda An-Nisaiyah Society of Beirut is holding an industrial and agricultural exhibition in the city of Beirut, in the courtyard and garden of the School
of Arts and Crafts, on the twentieth of June 1946; the exhibition will last until July 20, 1946. In it our society will display what Lebanon and Syria produce in the industrial and agricultural fields.
As for our society's purpose and its sole aim in holding such an exhibition at the present time — now that the war has laid down its burdens and we have begun to see and hear of our markets being flooded with all manner of foreign imports — it is to work earnestly and sincerely for the effective protection of the country's products and of the working hands behind them, and consequently to invigorate them and lend them support by means of wide publicity for them, acquainting the various classes of consumers with them, whether here or abroad, and informing them of their merits, their nature, their quantities, and the level of their prices, and everything it concerns the consumer to know about them — in a word, to facilitate their sale here and in the neighboring countries by every road and every means, in full cooperation with all the authorities and economic bodies.
An important notice: Should you be prepared to take part in the said exhibition, we request that you inform us now, before the end of this March, at the following address: (Ibtihaj Kaddoura — Beirut), of your desire to take part, the kinds of goods you wish to display, and the space that the display of your products will occupy, so that your name may be entered in the exhibition's register and the necessary space reserved for you. In any case, for any further clarification, it is hoped you will apply to the above address.
In the section "Eyes and Ears" in a previous issue we spoke of the birth of a two-headed baby girl in England. We have lately received a photograph of this strange newborn, which you see below. She was born to an English woman married to an American soldier, in one of the hospitals of Birmingham. The baby had two heads, two necks, two stomachs, and two pairs of lungs. Each head breathed and ate separately, and often
one would smile while the other cried. The baby lived 50 hours and 35 minutes, and then died. The birth of such strange creatures is attributed to a defect in the division of the embryo's egg: had the division taken place correctly, the woman would have borne twins. The Birmingham baby, however, differs from others of her kind in that she was born in the eighth month and lived two days and more, whereas such newborns usually die immediately upon delivery. — al-Hayat
Esther Attieh
Distinguished Licensed Midwife