Showing posts with label the power of knowledge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the power of knowledge. Show all posts

Sarah Palin and the Hillbilly Palm Pilot

, , 9:01 AM | 0 comments

Sarah Palin wrote her notes on her hand during the recent Tea Party Convention in Tennessee. You can see written that it says:

Energy
Budget (crossed out and replaced with "tax") cuts
Lift American Spirits

Review: Pecha Kucha Night Kuwait, 3rd Edition

, , , 5:15 PM | 0 comments

First of all, I must commend the event organizers for Pecha Kucha last night. Hosting the event along the sea was an amazing experience, and I really appreciate the lighting, tables, musical accompaniment and buffet that followed. Hats off for sure. The tech people, however, were slacking off a bit as the sound system went in and out on some speakers and it seems some presentations did not load correctly.

Unfortunately, I did not get a copy of the programme line-up with biographies on the speakers, so I am having to remember all the speakers from memory which is not my strongest suite, but I will try.

One immediate realization was the low number of speakers set to present: only 2/3 the amount of the first Pecha Kucha. While the organizers did a good job of filling the time with a musical performance (such a rarity in Kuwait!) during an intermission, all of us need to pitch in to work harder on brainstorming and volunteering for future presentations.

On to the presenters, Farah Behbehani did an intelligent presentation on several different themes and ways of turning around simple observations, steps, letters, characters or numbers into something more creative.

She showed how she noted us how she had tracked the different movements of two tango dancers over a two minute period (I believe?) and turned it into a chart, which sounds reminiscent of a very cool idea by one of my favorite musical artists M.I.A. who turned charts on economic and human development (child mortality rates, unemployment, etc) and turned them into a phrase: SUM LIFE and then made it neon and incorporated it into the stage design of her concert tour. That's the kind of out of the box thinking Kuwait needs!



Her work on the alphabet tree was also quite intriguing and her presentation made me leaving the event definately wishing I could get a copy of the book she made for her master's thesis. Great opening.

Next came blogger and Spaniard-despite-the-nam, Ismael Abedin who provided us with a photodocumentation of his experience moving to Kuwait from an expat's point of view. The title of the presentation was called Streetlife in Kuwait and attempted to look at a neglected side of Kuwait, the spaces in between buildings which tend to be dismissed as negative space rather than having a merit or culture of their own.

However, mid-way through his presentation he began to take a different tone, focusing on pollution of the desert, mistreatment and discrimination of other nationalities, the youth problem, and it might have come accross too preachy for citizens to stomach coming from a non-Kuwaiti.

Dana al-Hasan spoke passionately, but it seemed to be more of a premonitionary tip-of-the-tongue tangled abstract urban nebulous concept that she had a hard time concretizing into a definition and examples to make her ideas more tangible. I did not really get an understanding of what she meant to convey and her one example of turning an Macy's into an Opera House went so quickly that I think it did an injustice to her presentation by making the audience more confused than giving a clarificaiton.

Fared Abdel I believe was the guy who shot photographs of children around the world. The photographs were beautiful but I did not understand the presentation since it was an Arabic, and its really unfortunate for me. I wish I knew Arabic better. My suggestion to him is that he does a project on bedoon children here in Kuwait. He has the skills and talent and the experience.

Mr. Loaay Ahmed's presentation was fascinating but unfortunately it was a bit overshadowed due to the fact that the first presenter had also showcased calligraphy artwork. However, his cross-pollination of cultures relating Chinese characters to Arabic, and his detail of the history of the origins of our alphabet characters in daily objects (a subject I am very interested in) I really appreciated. It was only a few weeks ago that I was looking up the pictorial history of the alphabet letters on the internet.

Lastly, TEDDY B and his fuzzy wuzzy goodness! Wow! Excellent presentation, infusing the event with the emotional appeal that it really needed and leaving people empowered by demonstrating how the simplest of acts (one photo a day) by the most unlikely of small heroes (a teddy bear) can go so far and be seen by so many people. It was amazing!!!! Also, the marketing campaign of distributing teddy bear shaped business cards was a nice touch. Which one of those nice people passing them out is Teddy B? Or was the person behind Teddy B in the audience? Was she the voice heard in the presentation? The mystery certainly adds to the allure. One small thing though: no shout-outs to fellow fierce, plush homie Turtle T? Where's the love?

Arab Knowledge Report 2009 Now Available

, , 7:18 PM | 0 comments

A report by through joint sponsorship and support of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation (MBRF) and the United Nations Development Programme/ Regional Bureau for Arab States (UNDP/RBAS) aimed at:

The Arab Knowledge Report 2009 examines the current state of Arab knowledge. It derives its legitimacy from the pressing need for information about knowledge performance in the region at a time when the importance of knowledge for the realisation of the many new prospects it has opened up for all areas of society is increasing
Still a bit confused? So am I, and I have not read it yet, join me in reading it here.

Kuwait Times Roundup

, , , 8:43 PM | 0 comments

Kuwait environment 'highly polluted'

"Kuwait is one of the most polluted countries in the Gulf region, with its marine life, atmosphere and soil degrading to alarming levels, said Dr Hamad Al-Mutar, Head of Kuwait's Green Peace Organization and a Chemistry professor at the Kuwait University....Dr. Al-Mutar pointed out that Umm Al-Haiman area is considered the most-polluted area in the country, noting that the Environment Public Authority (EPA) had previously informed the Cabinet about the area's unsuitability for inhabitation due to it close proximity to oil refineries in Al-Shuaiba...Furthermore, Dr. Al-Mutairi indicated that the 'Umm Al-Qawatti' area, located in the northern part of the country, has been used by the Kuwaiti Army as a 'dumpster' for unloading waste. It is also contaminated with Uranium, which has been responsible for the rising cancer rates in the country..."

Protest at book fair censorship

"Kuwait's leading liberal movement has vowed to defy state censorship placed on books by staging a sit-in on Oct 31. This demonstration will mark a protest against any ban on publications during the upcoming book fair. It will be organized by Kuwait later this month. "Burning books is equal to burning people," said Dr. Mohammad Al-Hasan, Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Forum movement during a seminar that was organized by the forum under the title 'Censorship Protects Ignorance,' which was held at the diwaniya of Abdullah Al-Nibari in Dahiyat Abdullah Al-Salem on Tuesday. Al-Hasan held the government accountable for what he described as 'intellectual terrorism' by imposing strict censorship on various kinds of publications, including books.."

Indonesia bans maids recruitment to Kuwait

The Indonesian Labor Ministry has temporarily suspended deployment of Indonesian housemaids to Kuwait. The decision was implemented in Jakarta by the Indonesian Ministry of Labor at least until the issues of some 600 runaway housemaids are resolved. We are sad to issue this decision, but it is for the greater benefit of our workers," said Indonesian Ambassador to Kuwait and Bahrain, Faisal Ismail, as he spoke with the Kuwait Times yesterday about the new development. " We currently have around 600 runaway housemaids at our embassy. They have issues that need to be resolved, and although the government of Kuwait has been very helpful, until their concerns are resolved we have to temporarily suspend deployment," said ambassador Ismail.

Green Caravan Film Festival 2009!

, , , 8:12 PM | 0 comments

There will be an environmental film festival here in Kuwait happening on October 28-29 in Al-Madain Cultural Centre and presented by Equilibrium, and environmental services company based in Kuwait. I am very excited about this!


The program can be found by clicking here. I plan to see both the 6:30 screening on Wednesday and Thursday. You can sign up to be a GCFF volunteer by sending an email to volunteer@thegreencaravan.com. This is a great initiative and I hope to see you there.

Kuwait Blogger's Workshop

, 5:16 PM | 0 comments

Host:
Safat Bloggers of Kuwait
Type:
Meetings - Convention
Network:
Global
Date:
Monday, September 28, 2009
Time:
7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location:
Marina Hotel
Street:
gulf street, marina crecent
City/Town:
Kuwait, Kuwait
Phone:
96566189918
Email:
exzombiesm@gmail.com

The South in Doubt: Obama and the Birther Movement

, 11:20 AM | 2 comments

I have been pretty captivated by the growing birther movement in the United States surrounding the legitimacy of Barack Obama's birth certificate. A horribly outdated and hypocritical rule (look at Governor Arnold in California), in order to qualify as President of the United States, one must be born on U.S. soil. According to an article in the Washington Monthly, a new Research 2000 poll conducted for Daily Kos asked people if they thought Obama was born in the United States, with either a yes, no or I don't know response. Here are the results graphically by region. I'll leave this post with a great quote from an article on the subject by Bill Maher in the Los Angeles Times:

"So far, the reaction from Democrats is to laugh this off, and I understand why. If you seriously believe that President Obama is an African sleeper spy, get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead.

But we live in America, and in America, if you don't immediately kill arrant nonsense, no matter how ridiculous, it can grow and thrive and eventually take over, like crab grass or reality shows about fat people....

Lou Dobbs has been saying recently that people are asking a lot of questions about the birth certificate. Yes, the same people who want to know where the sun goes at night."

Fox News Confuses Egypt with Iraq

, , 2:35 PM | 0 comments

From the 965Loft blog, Fox News makes a major blunder on a country whose invasion they fully endorsed and obsessively covered.


Al-Watan Daily: "World Bank warns Kuwait over education standards" by Nasser AlـOtaibi

, 8:43 PM | 0 comments

"The World Bank has raised concerns over Kuwait''s current education system and warned that the perpetuation of the existing structure may render the country''s high school certificates unrecognized by major academic institutions in the future.


The warning came as part of the observations raised by the bank with regards to the overall education system in the country. The World Bank recently opened a bureau in Kuwait to provide the government''s various institutions with technical advice.

Sources close to the Ministry of Education revealed to Al Watan that the World Bank has based its findings on the short school hours, reportedly arguing that such timings are out of sync with international standards. The sources added that the total number of school days in Kuwait is calculated at about 170 per year.

They added that the relatively short school day in terms of hours "can negatively impact on the quality of education," noting that the World Bank has made a number of recommendations, including prolonging school day hours to meet international standards, "or else Kuwait''s academic certificates may not be recognized by timeـhonored universities."

"The ministry, however, hasn''t taken any decision concerning the recommendations, particularly with regards to the proposition of prolonging the school day," the sources added, noting, nevertheless, that the ministry is serious about improving education standards.

They pointed out to the fact that the ministry had gone a long way in keeping abreast of advanced education systems through major projects and added that the new educational blueprints are aimed at advancing education at all levels, including the primary, intermediate and secondary stages.

They insisted that the ministry spares no effort in maintaining quality in education in order to bring about meaningful development in the country, while ruling out the prospect of protracting the school day.
Meanwhile, a committee tasked with looking into the recently reported leakage of high school examinations will be submitting its report next week, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Moudi AlـHomoud said Thursday.

"Once the report is submitted, the probe results will be made public. The ministry will then have nothing to hide," AlـHomoud told reporters following a meeting of the Parliamentary Educational, Cultural and Guidance committee.

The exam leaks were reported just prior to the examinations, and the Ministry of Education immediately set up a committee to investigate the issue.

Also during the committee meeting preparations and arrangements for the coming academic year were reviewed, including facilities, textbooks and technical equipment, the minister said.

Asked about segregation between male and female students at universities, she said the student segregation law was being enforced and "nothing new has happened in this respect."...(for link to article, click here)

Review: Pecha Kucha Night Kuwait, 2nd Edition

, , 5:13 PM | 3 comments

In life, elements are most often judged as parts of a whole and this exactly why the inaugural session of Pecha Kucha Night Kuwait earlier this year seemed to gel. PKNK1 seemed to have a common thread tying many of the presentations together: the loss of identity and social cohesion in an urban landscape dominated by a myopic vision of modernity. PKNQ81 announced itself loudly with its statements, its pleas for change and call to action, all the while balancing the larger picture with targeted ideas for innovation.


This larger mission was notably absent at PKNQ82. Although the quality of many of the artists who presented was impressive, there was no symbiotic interaction of ideas between them. Moreover, the artists did not seem as concentrated on engagement of the audience (although some made a good effort) and instilling them with the values to which they wish to draw attention.

Ahmed Al Refaie: Digital Artist (www.owaikeo.com)
A meticulous painter with a penchant for drawing cyber-pirate-mermaid women with uncanny resemblance to Angelina Jolie as well as urban landscapes of the imagination. An impressive array of work, but I would have liked to seen the paintings in person in a gallery to spend enough time examining all the detail work. He himself seemed to acknowledge the frustration of viewing his work through 20 second slides as it did not do justice to the most probably pain-staking long nights spend coloring on the drawing board. I would have liked him to open up a little bit more about his motivation for his subjects and common themes.

Raffi Armoudjian: Architect (The Integrated Architectural Experience)
Unfortunately, I believe this speaker had a great amount of interesting messages to deliver to the audience, but his attempt to squeeze as much information as possible into each slide made so that the delivery was overly rushed and at some points, a bit unintelligible. This is really a shame because I think he had some very opinionated and worthy ideas and points. I did catch in his conclusion that more emphasis needs to be placed on teaching children through education softer skills about how to be creative, a productive member of society through innovation and how to learn to appreciate and recognize art.

Dr. Shurooq Amin: Artist. Poet (Ekphrasis: the Missing Link between Art and Poetry) (www.shurooqamin.com)
One of my favourite presentations. This is a poet (ok and artist) who has talent and is clearly passionate about what she does, bringing a rare confidence, vision and steadfastness to her belief in the presentation's idea of blending poetry with art. The poems she chose for each piece of art (some of which she wrote herself) were beautiful and well-suited for the pieces of visual art--much more than my skeptical self was originally expecting. In short, she sold me her idea, and elegantly in the process.

Nada Alshammari: Graphic Artist (Kuwait Narratives: Short Sharp Shocks)
Too much theory without any demonstration of the discourse in the Kuwait context. It seemed to be that the presentation was to be on spontaneous artistic use of public space in Kuwait-otherwise known as graffiti art. But where is all this graffiti? This was the great phantom in the discussion. I would have liked to see more about how she is certain that there are rumbles and stirs of people in Kuwait beginning to create short, sharp shocks in this manufactured, non-improvisational, cut-and-paste landscape.

Samer Mohammed: Student, Kuwait University (Architecture in Media and Influences)
Very interesting presentation, but like Ms. Danah's, it came off more as a book report. Nonetheless, this is a topic I find interesting, especially with his mention of Blade Runner and Los Angeles as maximum city (for anyone who has read City of Quartz by Mike Davis). But I would have liked to know what the role of the media is in influencing Kuwait's architectural vision and urbanscape.

Danah Al Rubabah: Student, Kuwait University (Behind a Woman's Face)
The title of her presentation had me transfixed and anticipating the presentation from the beginning, but I was disappointed to find out that the topic was simply an encyclopedic book report about a female artist (daughter of Mohammed Bushanaq. To put it simply, PKN is an inappropriate platform for such a presentation. She brought nothing of her own to the topic, it was more likes he was reporting as a spokeswoman for this artist. Furthermore, I never really understood why she was so enamored by the artist in the first place.

Bassem Mansour: Artist. Designer (Intention and Intuition: Its just a game)
My intuition was simply not potent enough to grasp the artist's intention, although my curiosity was piqued by his analysis of architecture and feelings of security.

Nofal Abdelali: Architect (Towards a New Pedagogy through Architecture: Educational Facilities in Kuwait)
Again, a visual presentation of an artist's portfolio, without the wind of a great, single idea behind it. Plus, the projects he presented had little to do with Kuwait in particular.

Monstar Co-Owner and Creative Director of Threplusone.com (Fun Things for Fun People)
His high-set bar of a title definitely lived up to expectations, this guy came out onto the stage with the perfect amount of energy needed to really wrap up the event in a positive, enthusiastic way. A great coda to the evening for sure. And all though he seemed to have many spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness thoughts ping ponging around the room--somehow it worked for him. His fetish for burka ladies will surely not go unforgotten. The great thing about this speaker is that he was able to sell his idea, with enthusiasm, confidence, but also look like he was having fun in the process. He almost doubled as a stand-up comedian.

Pecha Kucha Night No. 2

, 10:53 PM | 0 comments

Review will be up shortly

Call for Independent Radio in Kuwait

, , 7:17 PM | 4 comments

I wonder if the title is as elusive and mythical a creature as Pegasus, Yedi or the Minotaur, but I have to say that I am aching for a radio revolution in Kuwait. I have the unfortunate circumstance of having coworkers who insist on playing 99.7 at all working hours.


Besides the songs being BAD, they also rotate the same 40 songs without respite. It sounds like someone left an ITUNES gym workout playlist on by accident. Will independent radio come to Kuwait? Do universities have their own radio stations? Is there an interest in this? What happened to the art of music selection by DJs?

This Is What Censorship in Childrens' Schoolbooks Looks Like

3:57 PM | 0 comments

Here are some before and after pictures from the good ole' black felt-tip jumbo pen from school books here in an elementary school in Kuwait.  

In a high school textbook on world history, I also once saw a half page photo blocked out by a piece of green construction paper that had been glued onto the sheet.  When I squinted my eyes and held it up to sunlight it was the following iconic image of the Holocaust.  Also, all mention of Israel is blotted out.  

Regardless of where you stand on the Palestine/Israel issue, you really cannot teach World War II accurately without mentioning the Holocaust.  Secondly, why keep people so ignorant on the very issues they themselves consider so important?  This is a rhetorical question.    





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