This past week I have been down with the flu. Bed ridden except for a few essential outings, I was climbing the walls as the week drew to a close.
And to add a state of anxiety to a head-cold victim, I have a very important engagement coming up in a few days for which my preparations haven’t been completed yet. So what does a columnist do during these awful days?
Well, inbetween bouts of sleeping or downing lots of orange juice and Vitamin C, I read my e-mail.
And surprisingly my column on expatriates last week drew the largest number of responses from readers, including, I might add, a couple of hate mails.
Apparently, a number of people misunderstood my message.
But that’s OK, folks.
In sickness, I am quite forgiving. The next thing one does is read the newspaper.
India’s venture into space with their GSLV satellite is to be admired.
For long, people in this part of the world have thought of Indians simply as drivers, cooks, or street-cleaners. But the facts are otherwise.
Indians boast of a higher number of Ph.D’s than in all of the Arab world.
And not simply Ph.D’s either. There are medical doctors, scientists, and some pretty savvy computer programmers, not to mention shrewd businessmen and a few Nobel Prize winners.
Now, if they would only come up with an effective and simple cure for the common cold! They must be doing something right in their educational system. Maybe it’s time we turned to them for guidance.
Our school curriculum is just a mishmash of nonsense that is measured in its affectivity by the numbers it churns out, rather than in the quality of teaching.
No wonder violence in schools is on the rise.
Everybody is frustrated: from pupil to teacher to parent.
Meanwhile, those holding responsible posts in the Ministry of Education either fail to notice, or pretend it doesn’t happen. Joseph Estrada and his escapades are an amusing diversion.
And strong sentiments seem to be held in both camps, those that think he is guilty of plunder, while others who believe he was set up.
But then again, does one have to look very far?
Plunder is commonplace in Third World countries.
And surprisingly, it is just as common in the Western democracies, only on a less gigantic scale.
Way back, LBJ took stuff off the White House back to his ranch in Texas.
This was much before Clinton and his misappropriation of government artifacts.
Or Mitterrand for that matter! And as for us here, we seem to be doing a lot of drum-beating about Israeli transgressions daily.
We launch protests among ourselves, we hold fruitless summits, and we warn a lot of people.
But that’s all we do.
A lot of drum-beating, and very little action.
Who are we fooling? That’s all folks.
Time for another dose of OJ and Vitamin C.
— Tariq A. Al-Maeena ([email protected])
