Mahmood's Den

Caesalpinia pulcherrima Dwarf Poinciana, originally uploaded by malyousif.

Wishing you a peaceful and fabulous Friday my friends.

It’s not just the psychology of chocolates and flowers that entrepreneur and Huda Radhi is an expert at, it’s also the passion she has for both. Discovering such a brand by chance on a business trip, she didn’t allow anything to stop her from bringing that joy to her native country Bahrain.

Through this interview, Huda shares with us the ups and downs of her business and offers us some insights into the love of the finer things in life.

Like a lot of Bahraini men and women, Mrs. Fatima Mohammed takes pride in her work and judging by the feedback of her return customers, she does so very well indeed.

She attributes her success in her chosen profession to how she treats people; with respect and a huge heart. That’s what sustains her in the difficult job she chose, one that she inherited from her father, a taxi driver, and one of the first Bahraini women to conquer that traditionally male dominated profession.

Laggards trying to catch up

A recent issue of Science, the weekly journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was devoted to research into “Ardi” or Ardipithecus ramidus, a 4.4m-year-old hominid species whose discovery deepens the understanding of human evolution. These latest studies suggest, among other things, that rather than descending from a closely related species such as the chimpanzee, the hominid branch parted earlier than previously thought from the common ancestral tree.

In much of the Arab world, coverage of the research took a different spin. “American Scientists Debunk Darwin”, exclaimed the headline in al-Masry al-Youm, Egypt’s leading independent daily. “Ardi Refutes Darwin’s Theory”, chimed the website of al-Jazeera, the region’s most-watched television channel. Scores of comments from readers celebrated this news as a blow to Western materialism and a triumph for Islam. Two or three lonely readers wrote in to complain that the report had inaccurately presented the findings of the research.

The response to Ardi’s unearthing was not surprising. According to surveys, barely a third of Egyptian adults have ever heard of Charles Darwin and just 8% think there is any evidence to back his famous theory. Teachers, who might be expected to know better, seem equally sceptical. In a survey of nine Egyptian state schools, where Darwin’s ideas do form part of the curriculum for 15-year-olds, not one of more than 30 science teachers interviewed believed them to be true. At a private university in the United Arab Emirates, only 15% of the faculty thought there was good evidence to support evolution.

The strength of religious belief among Arabs partly explains their reluctance to accept the facts of evolution. Until recent reforms, state primary schools in Saudi Arabia devoted 31% of classroom time to religion, compared with just 20% for mathematics and science. A quarter of the kingdom’s university students devote the main part of their degree course to Islamic studies, more than in engineering, medicine and science put together. And despite changes to Saudi curriculums, religious study remains obligatory every year from primary school through to university.

Such choices carry a cost that goes beyond ignorance of Darwin. Arab countries now spend as much or more on education, as a share of GDP, than the world average. They have made great strides in eradicating illiteracy, boosting university enrolment and reducing gaps in education between the sexes.

But the gap in the quality of education between Arabs and other people at a similar level of development is still frightening. It is one reason why Arab countries suffer unusually high rates of youth unemployment. According to a recent study by a team of Egyptian economists, the lack of skills in the workforce largely explains why a decade of fast economic growth has failed to lift more people out of poverty.

The most rigorous comparative study of education systems, a survey called Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) that comes out every four years, revealed in its latest report, in 2007, that out of 48 countries tested, all 12 participating Arab countries fell below the average. More disturbingly, less than 1% of students aged 12-13 in ten Arab countries reached an advanced benchmark in science, compared with 32% in Singapore and 10% in the United States. Only one Arab country, Jordan, scored above the international average, with 5% of its 13-year-olds reaching the advanced category.

Other comparative measures are equally alarming. A listing of the world’s top 500 universities, compiled annually by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, includes three South African and six Israeli universities, but not a single Arab one. The Swiss-based World Economic Forum ranks Egypt a modest 70th out of 133 countries in competitiveness, but in terms of the quality of its primary education system and its mathematics-and-science teaching, it slumps to 124th. Libya, despite an income of $16,000 a head, ranks an even more dismal 128th in the quality of its higher education, lower than dirt-poor Burkina Faso, with an average income of $577.

Well aware that their school systems are doing badly, Arab governments have been scrambling to improve. In an attempt to leapfrog the slow process of curriculum reform and teacher training, many have taken the easy route of encouraging private schools. In Qatar, for instance, the share of students in private education leapt from 30% to more than 60% between 1999 and 2006, according to the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Syria has licensed some 20 private universities since 2001; 14 are up and running. Yet their total enrolment is dwarfed by the 200,000 at state-run Damascus University alone. Oil-rich monarchies in the Gulf have spent lavishly to lure Western academies to their shores, but these branch universities are struggling to find qualified students to fill their splendidly equipped classrooms.

Not to be outdone, Saudi Arabia has launched King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a city-sized institution with an endowment of $20 billion. Intended as an oasis of academic excellence, it enjoys an independent board and is the kingdom’s only co-educational institution. This augurs well for the Saudi elite, but one fancy new university will do little to lift the overall standard of Saudi education. And it has been attacked by religious conservatives. A senior cleric who decried the mixing of sexes at KAUST, declaring that its textbooks should be reviewed by religious scholars, was forced to resign from government office.

Source: The Economist Print Edition

I don’t think I need to comment on this, other than to point you to what I have previously written about our education, or lack thereof.

Communal Bath, originally uploaded by malyousif.

My favourite thing in my garden is the simple bird bath I placed just outside my study. I get hours of joy just watching birds and insects using it in various ways.

Have a wonderful Friday my friends.

Gulf Broadcast, originally uploaded by malyousif.

My life. My friends. My joy. My sanity!
gulfbroadcast.tv

"Wat Aroon" the Temple of Dawn, Bangkok, Thailand, originally uploaded by malyousif.

This is a really beautiful temple I visited while on a recent video production job in Bangkok recently. The place is awe inspiring and should most definitely be on a list of “to visits”.

Have a wonderful weekend my friends.

You might have heard of Bader Models at some point if you are at all interested in aviation. You might have also heard of him if you are a property developer and wanted to commission top-of-the-line physical scaled model of your development, so would yacht designers and manufacturers. If; however, you haven’t, then this is your chance to listen to the guy behind the global success: Bader Murad…

From humble beginnings in Business, Murtadha is slowly transforming Bahrain into a more beautiful place and he’s achieving some good successes.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was meeting Bahraini inventors. Involved in technology with a vision to create a manufacturing culture in Bahrain. These people – 2 out of the original 3 arrived for the Bahraini Views interview – have morphed their hobby into a viable and successful business. Now their devices are used in several countries in the Middle East and beyond and their expertise is sought from various companies around the world.

If you enjoyed this episode, please visit the Bahraini Views YouTube Channel and enter your comments and suggestions.

Over the last few months I’ve been developing a concept to showcase the various successes Bahrainis have achieved. I wanted to specifically feature “unnamed” Bahrainis so that they would have credibility and might be more ready and touchable role models for a lot of aspiring compatriots. I say this and give all due respect to “named” Bahrainis of course, those must be included in the future as their contribution is certainly worth highlighting too.

We’ve done a lot of research on who should be featured, what metrics to use to qualify them and what age group we should include and whom to target. All very difficult things indeed to grapple with, and the last thing we want to do is go political. My idea essentially is to provide an inspiration for people to emulate and hopefully achieve success on their own.

Eight “episodes” have been created out of the 26 we have been contracted to do. We have a lot more names to consider to include in the initiative; however, we would really welcome your suggestions and nominations.

The episodes will start airing on Bahrain TV’s main Arabic and English channels from today. I am told that they will air immediately before the main news programs at 3PM, 8PM, 12 midnight on the Arabic channel and I think 7PM and 11PM on Bahrain Channel 55. The release schedule is two episodes per week, which means we have to go into overdrive to identify, interview and film many more candidates!

I hope you too find these features inspirational. Stay tuned.

I’ll be off to Bangkok tonight for a week on a production job for one of our clients. If you know any places where you think I should film in Bangkok which you think should be incorporated in the corporate video we’re making (at least for the intro part), please let me know by entering a comment.

No, I’m not going to feature the seedy side, so save those comments!

The parakeets are back, originally uploaded by malyousif.

I notice that the rose-ringed parakeets are slowly coming back, it must be their nesting season again as we see 5 or 6 at breakfast every morning. This guy was checking out an old nesting site but left in a huff with his mate when I went out to take some pictures!

Have a wonderful Friday my friends.