Author: Lesley Pocock, Chief Editor

This edition of the Middle East Journal of Business focuses primarily on the topic of medicine and society, from multiple viewpoints.

Dr Abdulrazak Abyad, a regional and global expert in aged care and family medicine, has provided a comprehensive overview of Health Care Services for the Elderly in the Middle East. The article will assist policy makers and planners to cater to the future needs of aging populations.

We have another short article from Dr Safaa Bahjat from Iraq, looking at the many medical needs of the country in order to restore proper medical services and to allow Iraq to contribute to the rest of the region and the globe. He calls for the setting up of a Regional Center for Disease Control.

Many other individuals and groups are working on public health projects in the region and our pictorial essay, entitled SWISH, centres on the work of Dr Jean Palnet of  Australia, who has been instrumental in setting up sport and leisure facilities for blind and disabled people of the region, particularly in the Gaza Strip. SWISH, is the name of a plastic ball with a bell inside, which allows blind men to play table tennis using their aural senses.

While Jean would also be a suitable candidate for our heroes section, our hero for this edition is a personal friend and one of the great characters of our time – Dr Manzoor Butt. The inimitable Dr Butt, from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, is a one man relief organisation and his many interests include: welfare of impoverished people, women’s health, public health, water quality, road safety, disaster relief as well as the care of his patients at Maqbool Clinic, situated in one of the poorer areas of Rawalpindi.

To complete our medicine and society focus an article from Dr Michael Ellis looks at ‘Quality of Life’. Quality of life encompasses all aspects of human existence including economic, social and justice issues as well as the more obvious factors determining quality of daily existence.

Dale Allen Pfeiffer has presented an article entitled Eating fossil fuels where he looks at energy issues and observes that world oil and gas reserves are as much as 80% less than predicted and reveals how little real thinking has been devoted to the host of crises certain to follow; at least in terms of publicly accessible thinking.

And finally we look at the Development of a Flexible On-line Arabic Language Training facility, which aims to improve business and other relationships between the Middle East and the rest of the world through better and easier communications. This article was contributed by Mr. Abdel-Hakeem Kasem, School of International and Political Studies, Faculty of Arts, Deakin University.

Lesley Pocock
Chief Editor