The olive tree (botanically, European Olive) is found mainly in the Mediterranean Basin from Portugal to the Levant. This spread is because of the rich red soil (Terra Rossa). In Palestine, the olive trees are mainly planted in the Central Highlands, rich with this red soil. Olive fruit has always been an essential ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine; the content of each fruit contains 20-30% oil. For example, Palestine’s most famous dish, Musakhan, could not be prepared by local women without olive oil.
The olive tree can reach a height between 3 and 12 meters; it has numerous branches with twisted and gnarled trunks and can live for 300-500 years and the oldest trees in the world can reach to 1500-2000 years. The olive tree in Palestine has essential economic, cultural, social, and national significance. It illustrates the Palestinian attachment to their land – olive trees resist the tough conditions of drought and poor soil conditions and remain attached to their place.
Many Palestinian families inherited olive trees over many generations, which parallels the protracted Palestinian history. Because of this, families gather every year in October, harvest the olive trees, and help each other in this process (“al Ouna” means help). They feel proud, bearing in mind their ancestors who were taking care of these trees before.
Olive fruit compromises the income of 80,000 Palestinian families. Almost half of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (48%) is planted with olive trees. 70% of food production in Palestine is accounted for by olive trees, and economically olive trees contribute to 14% of the Palestinian economy. Most olive harvesting (90%) is used for oil production, while the rest (10%) is used for olive soap and pickles.
People start to cultivate the olive tree as early as 3000 BC. For harvesting olive trees there are three traditional techniques:
The first technique is called al Bad. This consists of two stones, the horizontal stone known as the huge dish and the vertical stone that is placed above the other stone. A hole opening is made at the vertical stone, and a wood staff is placed inside to allow people or animals (donkey) to turn the stone to smash the olive fruits and turn them into a paste. Afterward, the paste is placed on a straw plate and then pressed by a heavy stone or mechanical pressing, where the olive juice pours out.
The second harvesting technique is called the overflowing oil (Zeit tfah), a simple method based on chemistry. This method is applied at the very end of the olive season (from the tree to the stone – من الشجر إلى الحجر ). First, the olive fruit is smashed by a big stone (Derdas). The act is called Dardaseh. After smashing the olive, the olive fruits are put in a hot pot, and hot water is added. Taking advantage that the density of olive (0.91-0.93 gram per cubic meter) is less than the density of water (0.99 g/m3), the oil flows above the water, and hence women use their hands only to grab the oil from the surface of the water.
The third method is called Al Baddudiyeh, was used before the olive picking season when farmers ran out of olives. Al Baddudieh means smashing the olives using a big stone. At first, to make it easier to crush, olive fruits are fired, then, later on, they are crushed in a hole. The paste produced out of this process is put in a straw plate then a heavy stone is placed on it to pour out the olive oil.
Olive trees encompass every aspect of daily Palestinian life. Zeit (oil) exists in every Palestinian family house stored in unique glass jars. For every Palestinian, the olive tree symbolizes permanence and resistance. It connects them back to their ancestors who worked daily on their land, taking care of it, just as a mother taking care of her children. And in the tiredness of the harvest season, they regain all their strength through the abundant amount of gathered olives.
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i've always had the strong belief that "talent" isn't real, its just practice + learning something early enough as a child.
but i'm out here trying to practice drawing, or guitar or anything and it feels like i've hit my ceiling. and so now im like ???????? is talent real? am i just being taught poorly or learning in an inefficient way? what did i fuck up!!!
i'm not trying to be the greatest artist or guitarist in the world, i'd just like to improve! i just feel like i'm stuck and not improving
Practice and learning stuff early can take you a long way. But yeah, of course talent is real?? Why would you think it wouldn't be?
Talent isnt real its an archaic way to explain why poor people are bad at something while rich people are good at something and has devolved into the general psyche as some phrenological phenomenon.
Pretty much. It's tied in to ideas like "intelligence", too, which is a really really sketchy concept on a good day.
Right, are you intelligent or did your parents give you every opportunity and environment to thrive and prosper? Its overwhelmingly the latter in my experience.
I get where you're coming from, I think you're just taking things too far. Like a lot of how good you are at something has to do with the education you got, opportunities you've received, and all that. But do you really think everyone starts with the exact same aptitude for everything? Like if you took a thousand children and gave them all the exact same training in basketball as LeBron James got. Do you really think they'd all be exactly as good at basketball as him????
Like sports are kinda outside of my point because genetics do actually matter, but being tall isnt talent. However, I do think thats absolutely true for the arts and non-physical sports. I think how people are raised and the environment theyre in has a profound effect on peoples ability.
For example take a look at the Polgar sisters, three sister raised with the specific motive to be chess grandmasters. They were all grandmasters and one was one of the greatest chessplayers ever.
And Curry is one of the greatest players ever but he plays the game differently from LeBron and part of why he does is because his father was a professional basketball player and he grew up literally in the highest vectors of the sport.
I don't want to derail my own beliefs because it doesnt matter if everyone is Michael Jordan or LeBron, I think a lot of people could play at NBA league level if the circumstances and probably rules were adjusted for the circumstance. Maybe theres someone who could be the best NBA player in a sub 6 foot league? We don't know, does that make the supposed person less talented? No, the league or the person just doesnt exist and never will because the priority in sports is also kind of fucked.
ill accept like peoples brains work differently or they have slightly different eyesight or hand eye coordination or whatever as an explanation of talent, but i dont think anyone is genetically born to like draw or play guitar or do sports well or whatever