Syrian children return to school amid deep economic crisis

Syrian children return to school amid deep economic crisis

Emirati astronaut says Arab world has a young audience ‘thirsty to learn more about space’

ABU DHABI: The Arab world has a young audience “thirsty to learn more about space” and “it’s our (astronauts’) responsibility to deliver the knowledge to them in an interesting way,” Emirati astronaut Sultan Al-Neyadi told The Guardian on Saturday.

Cited by Emirates News Agency in an interview with the British newspaper, Al-Neyadi, 42, said there was an apetite in the Arab world for wanting to know more about space and it was an obligation to “deliver these findings (about space) to them in an easy way … especially the youngsters ... I would love to be a source of information, a source of inspiration for them. So it’s really a big responsibility.”

The Guardian commented: “Deep and soul-stirring, the songs of the late Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum have been played countless times in taxis and coffee shops across the Arab world. Now, thanks to the musical tastes of a pioneering Emirati astronaut, they have found their way to the sterile white halls of the International Space Station.”

Al-Neyadi said that he wanted during his mission to bring a taste of Arab culture to space. “Everybody is watching us; everybody