Oh- did I mention?

...that Dan Boyarski (Head of the Carnegie Mellon-Pittsburgh School of Design) arrives in Doha tonight to participate in VCU-Q's 'Tasmeem' Design Conference next week? And he'll be siting in/TAing 2-3 of my Communication Design classes?

...that my 19-year old brother arrives tomorrow night to spend his first collegiate spring break in a dry-Middle Eastern country with his big sister? It will also be his first time in the Middle East.

...that I've been biking on Friday afternoons with a group of cyclists, through heat, sun, wind, and sand, riding on the loaner bike, which turns out to be the old bike of the renowned and sadly departed Bill Brown (CMU-Pgh and CMU-Q Bio Professor who died last July)? Or that I am signed up to bike 68 km (48 mi) from Doha to Al-Kohr in the
Bill Brown Memorial Bike Ride on his old bike this Saturday morning?

...that I've been taking two Arabic classes in the mornings, each 1 hour, each twice a week- with one class focusing on learning the alphabet (which I already learned at a class last fall in Washington DC) and the other on writing and reading sentences? (It's a little advanced and I would be entirely lost if I hadn't been working on Rosetta Stone)

...that I've been taking Spanish Level 2 classes here at CMU-Q? (The term 'taking' is used loosely here- the class meets 4 times a week and I often show up 2-3 times a week- although I only went once this week... :/ )

...that I'm giving a half hour presentation 4 times this Sunday and Monday at Qatar University's " Go Green. Change Our Future" كن صديقاً للبيئة. غير مستقبلنا Conference, presenting to a minimum total of 2,100 people?

...that the 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf' mini course starts this Monday, and that I've had numerous inquiries into the course and received enthusiastic interest? I just received an email stating that "Me and my friends want to joing this mini course so badly, but unfortunately the timing is bad since others and I have a class that starts at 2:30". I responded that if the demand was high enough, I'd consider requesting to create another section of the course... Imagine that!

So- yeah. I didn't mention any of that? Sorry- I've been meaning to blog on that for a while now... :)

Control Room

The LAS Faculty Film Series opened this evening with a showing of the documentary 'Control Room' (viewable in full-length video here). It's a 2004 documentary showcasing the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news network's reporting of the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq. It was made by an Egyptian-American woman Jehane Noujaim, who turns out is a childhood friend of fellow visiting architecture professor Rami el Samahy.

It's a very powerful, moving, and well-made documentary. I watched the first hour last week to get a sense of the film before creating a poster to advertise the film. The line that stood out to me the most was from the widow of an Al-Jazeera reported killed by American missiles. She implores the group of reporters at the press conference on her husband's death to 'please tell the truth'. Thing is- there can be many 'truths'.

Al-Jazeera's station is located across the street from LAS Building here at Education City. I recall hearing Darbi recount her visit to the Al-Jazeera TV network over a year ago and felt fear in my heart. Wait- wasn't that the network that showed bin Ladan? The network we Americans were told is the mouthpiece of the Taliban (a name I now know as derived from the Arabic word for 'student')? And they have a children's network?! What were you thinking?!

After learning more about the region, Islam, and Qatar in particular, I have no such mental fears or misconceptions about the network. It's the local and regional news station- the one that Mehran- the Georgetown CIRS director across the hall, speaks at occasionally. Or whose English-language station that Darlene- the English professor down the hall (who hosted 'Control Room' this evening) is researching with some students (they are evaluating if the newly launched Al-Jazeera English channel is producing as quality journalism as it professes). It's just a news network to me now. But after watching this documentary, I also find them to be an admirable one at that, showing realities the US networks failed to show.

(side note- I meant to end this post an hour ago- but in searching for a site for this entry, I quickly found myself treading through a variety of related topics, from Sudan baning Danes over the Muhammad cartoons, to the condemnations of John Esposito of Georgetown's work on Islam (I saw him speak recently, previewing his new book 'Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims really Think'-based on the largest Gallup pole ever), to a sites watching 'Dhimmis' and 'Jihads' and detailing the violence of Islam. Seeing how drastically this contrasts to the Muslims I work with daily and with my own research into the religion, I feel ill now).

National Geographic's Take on Qatar 4 Years Ago

In attempting to track down a printed version of National Geographic's EarthPulse project (supposedly it exists-but my sources in the States can't confirm and NG's website has not been helpful), I discovered the National Geographic page for Qatar.

The page has some standard history bits and facts and figures, but links to an article on Qatar what I believe was a 2003 issue of National Geographic (also not very clear- poor User Interface NG *tsk *tsk). The article, "Revolution from the top down: soon to be the world's richest nation, tiny Qatar--a key U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf--steers toward the modern world"
(only available in partial form on NG- the full article may be viewed on other article sites) includes additional images and media, including video on how to correctly pronounce 'Qatar'. No, it's not 'Qa-tar' as in 'guitar' (or 'Qatar Hero'- some folks back in Chicago never found that joke old) ; nor is it 'Cutter'. The best way I can describe its pronunciation in Arabic is make the make the 'Q' more guttural and also move the 't' sound from the front of your mouth to your throat. Also- the 'ar' or 'tar' is very short, so it sounds like 'ter' to English-speaking ears but still is a very short 'a' sound. That's as best as I can understand it. I plan to do my own mini-audio documentation of how folks pronounce 'Qatar' here, highlighting that even in the nation there's a wide-variety of pronunciations.

Examining Sustainability in the Gulf Region

So after the inability to launch 'Designing Sustainable Systems' at the start of the semester, I set about reworking the semester-long course into a half-semester 'mini' course (6 units). Re-titled 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf Region', it will introduce the concept of sustainability, systems thinking, sustainable issues and solutions and how those solutions may be adapted or completely rethought to the unique environment and societies found in the Gulf. (Note that it's the 'Arabian Gulf', not the 'Persian Gulf'). This course will be half lecture (me rattling on) and half research/seminar. I don't know what sustainability means to this region; that's what I hope to learn along with the students.

My course already has at least 4 registered with at least 2-3 other considering it. That's not bad- it's roughly 2-4% of the student body. One has to remember the proportions and sizes are different here, changing expectations for class sizes. 2% in PGH that would mean a course of at least 100 undergrads. By comparison, my CDF course has 18 students, or roughly 11% of CMU-Q's student body. Wow.

Below is my current description for the course to be listed on the CMU Course Schedule:

"Over the last couple of decades, humanity has become increasing aware of the complexity and interconnectedness of our world. We now recognize that our actions impact the earth around us and this in turn can affect the planet's ability to support life. The challenge of our time is to balance human growth and development with planetary limits, considering how our societies and world will be sustained into the future. This minicourse examines sustainability as it applies to the Gulf Region, dividing the course into two main parts. The first half of the class will introduce students to the concepts and principles of sustainability and systems thinking, examining how ecological, economic, and social systems interactions are crucial to a sustainable world. Using readings, movies, and lectures, we will review key environmental/social issues and sustainable solutions from around the globe. In the second part of the class, we will examine and define key issues and solutions as they apply to environments and societies of Arabian Gulf region. Students will then pick a topic to investigate further, applying the design method to define, research, and develop a unique solution to a sustainability problem faced in the region. Students will refine their findings in the form of a final project to be presented at Meeting of the Minds at the end of the semester."

The class starts next week and runs for seven weeks. We meet Monday and Wednesday for an hour and half and I'm capping the class at max. 15 students (hoping for a few less- I'll be tickled with 8-10). I'm looking forward to it, as it's a new subject for many of these students and one that I enjoying discussing. I'm also extremely interested in their findings and how that information can be used in future projects. I'll keep you updated as the class develops.