I hardly ever come out in defence, let alone support, of an Arab ruler. So, this man must have done something to really deserve what I am about to say about him.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktum, announced what the BBC called one of the largest charitable donations known today. Sheikh Mohammed said this morning that he will set up a fund named after himself with the aim of furthering human development and creation of a knowledge based society in the Arab region. The 10 billion (yes with a B) dollar fund will aim to create educational opportunities and facilitate research and knowledge creation in a region which produces less books than Israel and spends a hundred times less of their GNP on research and development activities.
The fund itself is an important tool to sway attention to a fact we largely ignore in the Arab region. Our compatriots are not able to contribute as much as they should to world knowledge. We need the tools to change the current situation. In many countries the situation is caused by the lack of sufficient funding to educational research. For example, in Palestine 2% of the Ministry of Education's University allocations are earmarked for scientific research, while all other funds cover running expenses and salaries.
However, we should not be led to believe that these 10 billion are going to lead us to the top of the world. There are huge investments and bold steps that need to be taken by the governments of Arab countries before any development of this sort can materialise. Educational systems which are feeding us mere propaganda should be developed and imporved to allow for critical thinking and analysis. Universities should become hubs of research and development rather than their current state which can classify them as "large schools". More importantly there should be an emphasis on the additions each individual can make to us rather than the rigid concern of maintaining the existing systems.
I would love to see the goals of the fund materialising, but in our situation we need more than just money.
5 comments:
its very nice and refreshing to know your blog, keep up the good work :-)
suck it
u fucker still writing your opuses. I wonder if it's worthwhile to sell you out to hamas guys. Say we gonna let them know that you're anti islamic and pro zionist. so they gonna make u suffer and ur fucking writing will come to a happy end.
or maybe we 'll force you to squil or your fellow palis.
think what is better for you , be killed by hamas or work for erets israel. just don't forget to turn a tap off here.
btw, ur fucking ramala is full of sell outs who can give us info about anybody and anything for just 500 NiS to put humus on their table
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