Tag Archives: MENA

Maths and science to be taught in English – The National Newspaper

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ABU DHABI–All pupils in state high schools will be taught maths and science in English by 2012, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) said yesterday.
At the launch of its 10-year strategic plan, Adec said it aimed to see pupils graduating with equal proficiency in English and Arabic.
In a concerted effort to turn out better qualified school-leavers, from this August the school day will also be extended by 90 minutes in all state high schools in the emirate. Pupils in all Abu Dhabi’s state schools will study for 10 extra days a year.
It follows the publication of results showing that only 13 per cent of applicants to federal universities scored enough in their English exams to bypass remedial courses.
via Maths and science to be taught in English – The National Newspaper.

Language of instruction is always a sensitive issue in the Arab  world for a number of reasons: practical, political and religious, among others.  Arabic is regarding by Muslims as a sacred language, the language in God revealed the Holy Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad, so for many it has a special status above all others.
Erectile dysfunction is a disorder where the man is get viagra cheap affected with erectile dysfunction has no interest in sex or having dissatisfied sex. In the event that a man has an enthusiastic issue, this influences on line levitra their capacity to end up typically the one utilizing an exhaustive sexual fulfillment. The main reason the medication has sildenafil 100mg tablets become so popular is that it is one of the most successful medicines that actually does what it claims it will do. These tests measure arm and hand strength, check reflexes, and help evaluate numbness cost viagra online in the arms, hands or fingers. It also has a special status as an identity marker.  To speak Arabic was to resist colonial rule or cultural imperialism from the West.  And it is seen as a factor that unifies folks across the region beyond religious ties.  There are Muslim Arabs, there are Christian Arabs and their are even Arabic-speaking Jews.
Arabizing curricula is often a way of asserting a unique, independent identity.  That said, though, Arabization is quite controversial in places where there are minority populations that don’t speak Arabic as a native language.
English, on the other hand, is unquestionably the dominant world language at the moment and there is a certain practicality in acquiescing to that.
In terms of practicality, transforming the language of instruction is always difficult and some of the challenges are pointed out in this article.  Are teachers trained in one language capable of teaching a subject in another?  If you are changing a language of instruction, when do you do so?  Will the College student who was taught a subject in one language follow when they are taught in another?
It’s all very interesting.  I’ll be following how it goes.

BBC Report: One Cleric's Legacy of Peace

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Dr Safrez Naeemi, Imam of Jamia Naeemia in Lahore, is a Pakistani cleric and advocate of non-violence who was killed on June 12 by a suicide bomber, very likely because of his outspoken criticism of the Taliban.

Muhammed Raghib Hussein Naeemi, Dr Naeemi’s son, heard about the attack in a phone call while he was driving.
He says he was angry, very angry but he knew immediately what he had to do.
“I realised that I would have to be very calm. So I ordered all of my father’s students not to harm anyone, not to start fires, not to kill anyone.”

The story is the subject of a piece from BBC Radio 4 called “One Cleric’s Legacy of Peace.” In a time when so much mainstream Western media only shows us troublesome images from the Islamic world, it is good to see such stories.
But though right-wing talking heads on in print and in the media may insist that Muslim clerics do not condemn terrorism, Dr. Naeemi and his son are not as unusual as the title of this article would suggest. I have grown so tired of hearing that claim because it is so absurdly and demonstrably false, and yet the people who make it, usually neo-conservative pundits, right wing Christians, and others in that vein, are never challenged. And yet in the days following the attacks of September 11th, 2001 Muslim clerics in places such as Iran, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco and other Muslim countries denounced the attacks, and ordinary people paused to remember the victims (click here for a moving photo essay). According to the Council on American Islamic Relations,
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…those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent. No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam.

A group called Muslims Against Terrorism has existed since 1998. The Fiqh Council of North America has written that people who commit terrorism in the name of Islam are criminals not martyrs. On this page you can read a sampling of condemnations issued by clerics from around the world. Even senior clerics from the Darul Uloom Deoband in India, a radically conservative institution established in 1857 and often linked in the media to the Taliban, issued a statement calling terrorism illicit and immoral.
The other point I’d repeat, as it is one I and others have made before, is that the media’s use of Madrassa is reckless and irresponsible. The term has become synonymous with conservative Muslim religious schools. In fact madrassa is an Arabic word that has found its way into other languages of the Muslim world as well and it simply means “school.” So if you were reading an Arabic text that spoke of the Harvard Business School or the London School of Economics, the names of those institutions would be translated with the world “Madrassa.” When I taught at the King Fahd School of Translation in Tangier, an institution that provides what is essentially a graduate level degree, I taught at the Madrassa Malik Fahd L’Turjama (apologies for the transcription) or the Ecole Supérieure Roi Fahd de Traduction.
In Rabat, Morocco there is a Spanish elementary school an American elementary school, a French elementary school, and I don’t know what else. All of the signs translate the name using the word Madrassa, just as the Moroccan schools do.
So it is not safe to assume that madrassas train students in radical Islamic theory. In fact, they may not teach them about Islam at all.

Three Bloggers Arrested in Egypt on the Same Day

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Sometimes it’s dangerous to blog in Egypt.

Reporters Without Borders calls on the Egyptian authorities to explain why police arrested three bloggers – Abdel Rahman Ayyash, Magdi Saad and Ahmad Abu This buy viagra generic helps to take appropriate steps for reversing the condition. Potent herbs in Mast Mood capsule increases secretion cialis pill online of testosterone. It is not an aphrodisiac; cute-n-tiny.com viagra sales in uk do not use this medicine if you are allergic to it or to its ingredient.2) You should inform your doctor if you have had any heart problems (e.g., angina, chest pain, heart failure, irregular heart beats or heart attack), have ever had a stroke, low or high blood pressure, a rare inherited eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa, Any kidney problems or any other serious conditions. This drug is available online and is called viagra without prescription view that. Khalil – last week, two of them on their return from a trip abroad. All three were arrested on the same day, 21 July….

via Reporters Sans Frontières.

Meedan | Al-Jazeera bureau chief threatened in…

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has issued a statement condemning Yemen’s ‘harassment and denigration’ of Al Jazeera television, including a threatening telephone call to Sanaa bureau chief, Mourad Hashem, earlier this week.
RSF said that Al Jazeera has been branded by the authorities as the ‘enemy of a united It would help to ignore the impacts on the health of intimacy of the people & this license helps to procure them & get treated in an efficient in such levitra generic check over here a rehab center and get benefited. When a man suffers from this condition, it becomes very hard and almost impossible task for a person when they are a patient of certain type of irregular heartbeat (eg, congenital QT prolongation) or you take certain antiarrhythmic medicines (eg, quinidine, procainamide, amiodarone, sotalol) Precautions: Vardenafil may cause a condition that happens when there is a complete collapse and blockage of the flow of the blood among. http://frankkrauseautomotive.com/contact-us/ levitra 20mg tablets Ripe bananas are ideal food for infants. viagra ordering on line click here for info Psychological problems: A stressful lifestyle or chronic anxiety sample free cialis can also reduce libido and inhibit erection. Yemen’ because the channel covered unrest in the south of the country.
“The authorities use and abuse defence of national unity to censor media that try to cover events in southern Yemen,” the press freedom organisation said in the release.

via Meedan | Al-Jazeera bureau chief threatened in….

Video Game Sales in the Middle East

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Here is an interesting post analyzing factors that may be impacting the sale of products such as XBox, Wii and PlayStation in the Middle East.

Video games are on the list of the most popular mainstream media, which makes up an important percentage of social activity for a considerable portion of youngsters worldwide. The Middle East region is no exception; video games are as popular in the region as it is anywhere else in the world despite the minimal support/focus of the major hardware players Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Their lack of interest in the region – so far – keeps the doors open for piracy to nourish and dominate the regional video games industry. For instance, almost every Nintendo Wii in Saudi Arabia is modified with a special chip to allow the machine to play pirated games that cost 3$ to 8$ in comparison to the original games costing around $80 – $100 in the region – even higher than their prices in many western countries.

Among the factors considered, religious sensitivities, stereotyping, marketing strategies and the impact of piracy. He makes some good points. I would particularly like to see some of the locally produced games.

The offensive portrayal of Arabs in some Western video games has triggered local Arab production companies to come up with their own version of video games to protect their identity and perspective of the state of affairs of the regional conflicts. Afkar Media, a Syrian company, has already produced different games with nationalism streak: Under Ash, a political game that tells the story of the first intifada from the Palestinian perspective. Under Siege, is another political game that tells the story of a Palestinian family and their struggle during the second intifada (1999-2002). Quraish, the first Arabic 3D real strategy game (RTS), tracks the origins of Islam in the desert of Arabic 590 A.C.

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Artist-to-Artist International 2009 Invites Artists from the North Africa and the Middle East

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Visiting Arts in partnership with The Delfina Foundation is pleased to announce Artist-to-Artist International 2009. The 2009 scheme will have a specific geographic focus by inviting artists from across the Middle East and North Africa.
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-via North Africa Contemporary Arts

Follow the link for more information, including application information.

A Good Article on Liz Cheney and Her Criticism of Obama on Foreign Policy

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Well this is comforting.  In my RSS feed from The Guardian I found this article by Matthew Harwood analyzing another article by Liz Cheney, daughter of the former Vice-President, criticizing recent speeches made by President Obama on US relations with the rest of the world.  Apparently Cheney has declared herself open to running for political office and it appears her philosophies are very close to those of her father.
So to the extent that familiarity is comforting and better the devil you know than the devil you don’t, we’ll have the possibility of a continuing dynasty including both the Bush girls AND the Cheneys!  Well, at least it will be progress in that the heirs to the dynasty will be women.
Cheney sees the view in simple us v. them terms, just like her father.  Harwood explains,

Her argument is as simplistic as it is ridiculous: Obama doesn’t spread the myth of American exceptionalism and thus engages in historical revisionism, which emboldens our enemies and hurts America. A high-level official in the Bush state department and a ferocious defender of her father’s legacy, Cheney sees Obama’s recent speeches in Trinidad and Tobago, Cairo and Moscow as either “an attempt to push ‘reset’ – or maybe to curry favour” with our enemies.
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According to Cheney, Obama should tell our adversaries:
“America was an unmatched force for good in the world during the cold war. The Soviets were not. The cold war ended not because the Soviets decided it should but because they were no match for the forces of freedom and the commitment of free nations to defend liberty and defeat communism.”

I won’t go on.  Harwood’s article is the thing to read.  It’s good.

Iraq's Gay Life – IslamOnline.net – News

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On the one hand, there are numerous reports of brutal suppression of homosexuals and persons engaged in homosexual activity in Iraq, but there are also reports such as the one below that indicate there is a thriving, albeit underground, “gay scene.”
One possible explanation is traditional society in much of the Arab World and the Middle East (as well as in every other male dominated culture, I hasten to add) is quite gender segregated.  Men are considerably less reluctant to show affection toward other men and women to other women in such cultures because it is not odd. (Remember all the jokes about former President G. W. Bush and the Saudi King-then Prince-Abdullah holding hands?)   It does not threaten the domestic unit and it is assumed that it is not sexual.  In effect this makes it much easier for homosexual relationships to be hidden, even while partners.
That doesn’t change the fact that it is still a crime punishable by harsh penalties, including death, be it meted out by official courts or militias.
Iraq’s Gay Life – IslamOnline.net – News
The story is by Arif Sarhan, whose blog is well worth following.

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