Eighteen young women from UK, Oman, Poland, Iraq, Spain, Morocco, Finland, Jordan, Germany, Lebanon, Slovenia, Singapore and Yemen will participate in the latest Connecting Cultures desert debates.

Supported by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation, this is the seventh Connecting Cultures journey to take place in Oman.

These journeys focus on promoting intercultural dialogue between young people from the western and Arab world.

Please visit their new website, http://www.connectingcultures.co.uk/ which young people can update live from the desert via satellite phone for updates.

We've included the latest news from a few of our alumni below. 

We invite other alumni of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation to write in to us with their latest news to share on our website here!

Othman Al-Helli

On the 10^th of November 2011, MBI Alumnus Othman Al-Helli (UCL, 2008) had the pleasure and honour to meet HM Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to his residence, Goodenough College.  Othman shares his experience with us here...

I was introduced to HM Queen Elizabeth II as an Iraqi doctor studying in London. The meeting itself did not last more than three or four minutes, during which she asked where about I am from in Iraq, what subject I am studying and at which university. She appeared to be impressed when I told her that I am studying for a PhD degree on Parkinson’s disease with the aim of finding out new methods to improve the current diagnostic approaches to the disease. For the meeting, I wore my father’s abayiah (traditional Arab coat), which he kindly sent from Baghdad just few days earlier. It was heavy indeed as it is made of thick wool to give maximum warmth. Many people, including the Queen, admired the abayiah and thought it was pretty and sophisticated. For me, it represents something beautiful from my homeland, Iraq, and a dear thing from my family who suffered a lot to get me where I am today. Surprisingly, the highlight of that day was not meeting the Queen, but what happened later that day. That afternoon, I uploaded photos taken by my dear friend, Aaron Murphy. My mother saw the pictures on Facebook and rang me saying “I am very happy for you meeting the Queen and deeply proud of you representing your country. You looked so handsome, I wish to see you wedded very soon, Inshallah!”   Those words touched me deeply, like nothing else has ever done.  My mother, a village girl from the south of Iraq and a mother of ten children, is very happy for me and because of me.  She is a woman that has been giving and giving all her life without asking for anything in return, never thinking of herself or her own needs. She is a primary school graduate, but all of her children have gone to university. She is a mother whose only dream is seeing her children successful and happy. Don’t get me wrong: meeting the Queen was awesome, but my mother being delighted, happy and proud is super awesome! Her happiness made my day, my month and my year!

Tariq Al-Aabed

Dr. Tariq Al-Aabed (UCL, 2009) recently got a job through Ministry of Higher Education of Iraq as a lecturer of Radiation Oncology at the Mosul College of Medicine Department of Radiology.   Currently Tariq is the only doctor with an MSc. in Oncology from UCL who works in Iraq as a Radiation Oncologist, and he is one of just two doctors who work as senior oncologists at Mosul Oncology Hospital and who work with the hospital’s new linear accelerator, which was recently imported to Iraq.

Tariq’s clinic for cancer treatment helps treat poor patients from Mosul, North of Iraq, Baghdad, Anbar, Tikrit and Deyala.  Tariq dreams of opening of an MSc. and Diploma in Radiation Oncology course for Iraqi doctors and of opening a cancer research centre in Mosul which would be unique to the Middle East.   

Fahmia Al Fotih 

Fahmia has again been working hard over the last year. Fahmia has worked as SAVE Yemen coordinator, which helps women in Yemen deal with extreme violence. It is a fantastic charity which is helping many women across Yemen and the rest of the world.  http://www.women-without-borders.org/

In 2010, Fahmia has been twice in Vienna to the SAVE conference to show the work she has achieved within Yemen. She also participated in other related-issue conferences, in “UN, Human Rights and Women: Partnership for Empowerment and Cultural of Peace” in Cyprus as well as in “The United States and Gender, National Security, and Counter Terrorism” Istanbul, Turkey. She has conducted a ‘Mothers’ campaign to engage Yemeni mothers in combating extremism and terrorism. 

Fahmia has also started working with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as a communication officer, which sounds like a fascinating and worth while job. We are extremely proud of all that Fahmia is achieving in Yemen and we look forward to hearing more stories of success in the future.

Reem Shaath

We are pleased to announce good news from Reem Shaath. Reem has been working very hard starting up her two new businesses which opened mid last year; a luxury travel business and a vintage clothes business. It is great to see Reem doing so well. As well as running two businesses Reem has also climbed Mt Kilimanjaro last February in order to raise money for the PALESTINE CHILDREN'S RELIEF FUND (PCRF), which lasted over 7 days. Reem was the first ever Saudi women to climb Mt Kilimanjaro which is a huge achievement in itself. Reem and her 11 team trained extremely hard to walk in aide of this charity which is very dear to them all. Their fund raising efforts helped raise in excess of  $570,000.00 which will help treat 2500 children.

We wish Reem luck in all her future achievements.

The Seminar began as an informal study-group in early 1968 to promote the cause of archaeological research in the Arabian Peninsula. The success of this lead to the formation of a Society that held its first meeting at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, in October 1968 with a lecture by Peter Parr on a survey in the North-west Hejaz. The fourth Seminar held in Cambridge in 1970 resulted in the establishment of the Proceeding of the Seminar for Arabian Studies (PSAS) which was published in 1971. It was after the seventh meeting that the present pattern of publication of PSAS began. The eighth Seminar held in Oxford established the first three-day seminar in July. To date 44 meetings have been held and PSAS is in its 40th published volume.

This year’s conference was held at the British Museum from the 28th-30th of July 2011. Preparation for what will be the 45th Seminar for Arabian Studies conference is well underway and potential papers for presentation are currently being gathered for consideration by the Steering Committee.

Further information on the Seminar for Arabian Studies can be found at www.arabianseminar.org.uk.

The lecture was presented by Dr Laïla Nehmé (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Orient et Méditerranée).

The subject of this years lecture was: ‘From the Nabataean capital of Petra to the provincial city of Hegra: new insights on the Nabataeans’ in which we heard about the significant intensification of archaeological activity by the environs of Petra.

Dr Laïla Nehmé's lecture was based on her experience as an archaeologist who worked in Petra in the 1990s and in Hegra (Mada'in Salih) from 2002.  She shared with the audience an overview of both sites, exposing their common features and their differences, in terms of landscape and urban space, before focusing on the Nabataean presence in the north-western part of Saudi Arabia. Dr. Nehmé discussed the joint Saudi-French excavation project in Hegra, as well as the discoveries she has made as a result of her own excavation with her team on a rock outcrop site in the area.

The fascinating and informative lecture was followed by a buzzing reception hosted by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.  Admission to the Seminar is free and is part of the British Museums public programme.      

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is very proud of its support for the Seminar for Arabian Studies.

This journey followed the successful girls journey held January 18th - January 24th 2011 in the Sharqiya Sands in Oman.  A team of 18 girls aged between 17-24 years old, including two from Oman, two from UK, and the remainder from a variety of Euro Arab nations, including Germany, Finland, Jordan, Netherlands, Palestine and Spain.  The girls also completed a five day journey through the desert, on foot, with camels to support. Daily updates on the journey were posted on the internet by the participants. On completion of the journey, the girls addressed the opening ceremony of the UNESCO conference with Irina Bukova at the Al Bustan Palace.

Each journey has the aim of promoting intercultural dialogue between young opinion formers from the Euro-Arab region.

Mark Smith, CEO of IPADIO stated that the company was founded on a simple premise, that anyone, anywhere could make a phone call and stream that call out from a website. 'This simple founding principle is why we are so excited to have helped create the new Connecting Cultures website - because we can not only display our skills at integration of video, audio, text and social media - but also present content live from the actual wilderness experience itself via satellite phones. By literally giving voice to these leaders of the future we hope we can amplify the message of intercultural dialogue'.

People can get involved in the new website in three ways. They can;

1. Have their say on our Global Debate, either via a phone log, or via email.
2. In schools and colleges, use some of the 12 downloadable on-line lesson plans, created by Edexcel, UKs leading examinations organization, to stimulate discussion.
 3. Follow the progress of our desert journeys through our use of Google Earth and Ipadio phone logs.

Mark Evans of Connecting Cultures hopes everyone will enjoy the website, and that everyone can play a part in engaging over the important issues discussed on Connecting Cultures journeys each year.

We wish them the very best of luck and we look forward to hearing about their future endeavours!   

MODUL University Vienna is an internationally oriented organization for research and education in tourism, new media technology and public governance.

* Please apply to Connecting Cultures directly with the application form below, and please direct all queries to Connecting Cultures. 

Established in London in 2004, Connecting Cultures is recognised by the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations as one of the worlds leading innovative civic society projects addressing the issue of intercultural dialogue between young people. Endorsed by UNESCO in Paris and Doha, and working in close partnership with the Ministry of Education in Oman, Connecting Cultures takes groups of young people from the western and Arab world on intensive, five day journeys into the desert of Oman.  The aim of Connecting Cultures is to promote face to face intercultural dialogue between young people from the western and Arab world; to breakdown cultural stereotypes and misunderstanding.  In an environment where mobile phones do not work, the young people are able to engage in undisturbed face to face dialogue, identifying shared values and exploring cultural differences.  

The next Connecting Cultures journey will take place in Oman in December 14th-18th 2010.   

A team of 18 young women from Euro-Arab nations, complete strangers, will come together for 5 days roughing it in the beautiful Oman desert. Exciting, educational, enriching. Discussions on cultural differences, similarities, values and aspirations. Trekking by foot and camel, freezing nights, sweltering days, real adventure and real dialogue, and the world benefits the most; these women go home enriched, with a new perspective of themselves, the world and the future they’ll create.   

Schools globally can become engaged in the journey and desert debates by following their preparations and journey via the education section of the website. Teachers can engage their classes in global citizenship issues using the on-line lesson plans and resources, soon to be available on the website in both English and Arabic.   

A second trip for young men is being scheduled for 2011.
 
Connecting Cultures is currently seeking representatives from the Arab region and from the Euro zone. 

The ideal applicant will be someone who: 

• Is able to speak good English or Arabic - communication is the cornerstone of Connecting Cultures
• Is aged between 17-25 in December 2010
• Would be a good ambassador for their country
• Is physically fit, and mentally determined
• Has an interest in current/international affairs
• Shows leadership potential and is likely to lead others in the future; is a potential future opinion former.

* Please find the application form below.  The deadline to receive applications from young women is August 23rd 2010, and for young men the end of September.  Please apply to Connecting Cultures directly, and please refer all queries to the email as below. 

If you would like more information, please visit the website at www.connectingcultures.co.uk or contact Founder Mark Evans via email at info@connectingcultures.co.uk.       

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is the main sponsor of Connecting Cultures.    

The lecture was held after the first day of the Seminar on the 22nd July at 18:30 in the BP Lecture Theatre, British Museum.

The annual MBI Al Jaber Public Lecture is organised by the Seminar of Arabian Studies at its annual meeting as part of the British Museum’s public programme and admission is free.  

The 2010 Seminar for Arabian Studies was held at the British Museum in London from Thursday 22nd - Saturday 24th July 2010.

As its main sponsor, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation is proud to support the Seminar for Arabian Studies.

Dr. Carter’s fascinating and enlightening lecture was an insight into the world of the bygone pearling industry and the major impact that it had on the both the economy and the urban development of the Gulf, and the societies of the region as a whole.    

Dr. Carter’s expertise and passion for the subject was clearly evident as he skilfully addressed thousands of years of pearling history in the one hour lecture.

The well-attended lecture was followed by another successful reception in the East Clore Foyer of the British Museum hosted by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.  During the reception, MBI Foundation staff and invited guests had the opportunity to speak with Seminar participants and members of the public about the Lecture and the ongoing Seminar.

The annual MBI Al Jaber Public Lecture is organised by the Seminar of Arabian Studies as part of the British Museum’s public programme and admission is free.  

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is the main sponsor of the Seminar for Arabian Studies.   

The 2010 Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival in March held a range of talks, discussions, debates and readings at Oxford and events throughout the week were held in the new MBI Al Jaber Building.

Aside from regular conferences and lectures, the new auditorium is also being put to good use by the students of the College with extracurricular activities.

One of the events taking hold in the Building is a series of lunchtime concerts held by the students of the College. 

Director General Sowaine also thanked the Foundation for the donation, saying the following: "We gratefully acknowledge receipt of the proceedings of the Seminar of Arabian Studies so kindly presented to King Fahad National Library. These proceedings include highly researched articles written by internationally known scholars regarding the Arabian Peninsula which are indispensable to our research scholars. We find this prestigious gift of the proceedings an important and useful addition and a proper place will be given on the shelves in our library for the use of our readers.  King Fahad National Library deems it a great favour and generosity of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation to have been given this unique set of the Proceedings."

Upon receipt, the books were added to the Library’s existing collection of 1,300,000 items of information plus 200,000 historical documents.

For more information on the King Fahad National Library, please visit: http://www.kfnl.gov.sa/

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is proud to support the 'Britain in Palestine’ exhibition that is being organized by The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum.

The  project began with the conference ‘Palestine, Britain & Empire’ held in May 2007 at King’s College London. This conference was organized by The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum and generously supported by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.  

The Britain in Palestine project aims to:  

• Create a permanent archive of images, film, documents and oral histories relating to the Palestine Mandate which will be accessible to the public.
• Create a well-researched, high quality exhibition on the Palestine Mandate that features material from the archive, and significant items relating to Palestine from a range of public and private holdings. This exhibition will tour Britain and the Middle East.
• Create a website that will report on the project’s progress, feature items from material collected, and in the long term provide a compilation of sources for Palestine’s history.

The MBI Foundation is currently seconding its Scholarships, Conferences and Events officers Ms. Suhad Jarrar-Browne to work on the fundraising and marketing of the project, and offering other support in-kind to the project. 

The Museum has developed a significant collection of film, photographs, oral histories, documents and artefacts relating to the British Mandate for Palestine. This includes oral history interviews with members of the Palestine Police, soldiers and administrators who served in Palestine, and Palestinian Arabs and Jews with memories of British rule. The Museum also has the service records for the Palestine Police for the years 1945 to 1948.

The Museum continues to collect, through research and fieldwork in the UK and the Middle East, the historically valuable memories and personal archives that are crucial in telling the human stories of the Palestine Mandate.

The project website http://www.britaininpalestine.org.uk/ will provide updates on progress and will feature examples of material collected. 

The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum is dedicated to the public examination of the 500-year history of Britain’s colonial past. It creates and supports exhibitions, educational programmes, lectures and published resources. The Museum Trust was founded in 1986 as an independent, self-financing organisation with charitable status.  We opened public galleries in Bristol in 2002; since then the Museum has won many awards for its exhibition and educational programmes; the ‘Breaking the Chains’ exhibition, on the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, was a finalist for the British National Art Fund Prize 2008.

For further information please contact:
Anne Lineen, Project Director anne.lineen@empiremuseum.co.uk 

British soldiers march a group of Palestinian Arabs to a detention centre for questioning, 1938. During the period of the Great Uprising (1936-39), an additional 20,000 British troops were deployed to Palestine in an attempt to clamp down on Arab resistance to British rule. BECM 2006/001/563 

Spectators, including members of the Palestine Police, watch a football match at the Jaffa ground, 1940s. BECM 1998/095/011 

Two members of the Transjordan Frontier Force. BECM 1998/095/059

The wreckage of the south wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem which housed offices of the British administration. The bomb was planted by the extreme Zionist terror group, the Irgun, on 22 July 1946. BECM 2007/095/008   

University College London set the scene for a lecture by Peter Jones; Ove Arup: Engineer or Philosopher? Or what really happened at Sydney Opera House. The lecture was sponsored and organised by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation and held on 2^nd December 2009. 

From the outset, Peter Jones’ charismatic personality captured the audience with his fascinating topic: Ove Arup: Engineer or Philosopher? Peter is the first author to publish a biography on Ove Arup and was given full access to the vast private Arup archives. Peter Jones magnetized the audience with a truly fascinating insight into Ove Arup’s mind and life. He also gave us a revelatory new account of the Sydney Opera House and the character of those involved in its complex construction.

The Lecture was followed by a reception in the main foyer in UCL supported by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. Guests were invited to speak with Peter Jones to discuss his intriguing biography or ask any burning questions generated by his lecture. The reception also provided guests with an opportunity to purchase Peter’s book:  Ove Arup: Masterbuilder of the Twentieth Century.  

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation would like to thank UCL for providing such a great venue and of course especially thank Peter Jones for his enthralling lecture. The evening was an overwhelming success and highly enjoyable. Our sincere thanks to all involved.

As the leading sponsor for Connecting Cultures 2009 girls desert journey in Oman, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation will regularly be posting updates of the journey taking place 3-8 December. 

Sixteen young western and Arab women are about to set off on an expedition together for 5 days in the Oman desert, where they will engage in cultural and educational exchanges to give them a new perspective on the world, and each other.  

On-Line lesson plans designed by teachers and developed with the support of HSBC can be accessed via the website www.connectingcultures.co.uk  

Please click here and see below to read the latest participant blogs. 

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‘The aim of the five days is to send these young people home better able to make informed and balanced decisions in their respective communities’, said founder of Connecting Cultures Mark Evans. 

Maria from Lebanon December 4^th

I have arrived in the early morning hours on the 3^rd of December to Muscat, Oman.  In the afternoon, an Omani girl who participated in Connecting Cultures last year took me and the Japanese ambassador, Kyoko Ohkoshi, on a tour around Muscat.  Our most interesting stop was Souk Mutrah, which is a traditional Arabic market that retained its old entrance gate.  It was interesting to get away from the huge ‘modern’ shopping malls to buy souvenirs for our family and friends.  One thing that one cannot but notice is the kindness and hospitality of the Omani people.  It is the general feeling that you would get as soon as you land in the airport.  Today is my birthday! It has been a very unusual and exciting way to celebrate it.  Even though I am in a country I have never been to before, and I am amongst people I did not know just this morning, the birthday is going more than fine especially that the Spanish ambassador, Maria Santacruz, made everyone sing for me while we took turns introducing each other.  The desert is very relaxing and peaceful; it really is a great place to get to know the other person. Finally, I am looking forward for tomorrow’s activities.    

Maria from Spain, December 4^th

Today has been our first day, our exploration day: different country, warm atmosphere, spicy food and new people to share experiences with. At 9.30 am we left the hotel and we went to the airport to collect the last three girls arriving: Norah Alkhamis from Saudi Arabia and Tor Harmer and Liz Davies from UK. After that we started our way to the Omani desert with a feeling in common: curiosity about cultures.Just arriving you can feel something different in the air, something magic that makes you reflect about life, people, world we live in… Our home towns are very far away but under a tree next to a fort they’ve come together again. We’ve spoken about our lives while we’ve taken lunch. After that the sun was going down and on the top of a dune, we waved our flags in the air. Many different symbols, colors, traditions, smells, thoughts, sounds, opinions… Feelings that we are going to show and share with you and the world. 

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Fifth UNESCO endorsed Connecting Cultures desert journey to start in the Sultanate on December 4th.  

• 16 girls from 10 nations to spend five days in deserts of Oman on UNESCO endorsed programme

 MUSCAT, November 24th 2009: Connecting Cultures today announced details of the fifth Connecting Cultures journey in Oman. This year a team of 16 young people will spend five days in the desert of Oman, starting on December 4th 2009, on a course delivered by Outward Bound Oman/Tahaddi. The girls, aged between 17-25 years old have been identified as future opinion formers in their respective societies, and come from Oman, UK, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Morocco, Netherlands, Lebanon, Japan, Sweden and Norway. The Norwegian participant will travel to Oman from the most northerly community on Earth, Longyearbyen on Svalbard, a land where polar bears outnumber people.    

Dr. Madiha Ahmed Al-Shaibani, Secretary-General of the Oman National Commission to UNESCO said: The Oman National Commission for Education Culture and Science reaffirms its commitment to promoting cross-cultural dialogue among youth. The success of the Connecting Cultures initiative has been phenomenal over the past two years. The expeditions have indeed been a unique experience, and have succeeded in bringing youth from Europe and the Arab states together in journeys to build bridges among their diverse cultures. As we approach UNESCO’s  International Year for Rapprochement of Cultures in 2010, we hope that Connecting Cultures will expand to include more regions of the world and we hope many other partners will join this exemplary initiative to continue connecting cultures of the world!  

Mark Evans, Founder of Connecting Cultures, said: “Each year Connecting Cultures gets better and better. Last year the estimated media coverage was 24 million people, not including the coverage on BBC News Online. Oman is the perfect place to showcase Arab culture, and the desert an ideal place ideal to ensure people are in an environment where they can focus without distraction. By working as a team on a shared journey, the young people have no option but to communicate. Unlike conferences and workshops, there are no doors to hide behind, and as a result five days in the desert produces an experience of far greater intensity and learning value than any conference ever can.  We are very grateful to organizations such as UNESCO, ISESCO, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation, HSBC and KLM for their support of the Connecting Cultures initiative.”              

Connecting Cultures has twice been identified in recent years by the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC) as one of the world’s leading civil society initiatives, and in April this year presented to the UNAOC forum in Istanbul, attended by Barak Obama and Ban Ki Moon. In an effort to extend the reach of Connecting Cultures, and involve young people globally in the intercultural debate, in 2009 Connecting Cultures was able to work with the UKs leading examinations group Edexcel to create a series of 12 on-line, downloadable lesson plans for use by teachers in classrooms around the world, thanks to funding by HSBC.  

‘We are extremely grateful to HSBC in Oman for supporting this important development of the programme’ said Mark Evans.               

"HSBC's focus on education stems from our dependence upon the skills of future generations, through adequate preparations to enhance future potential. Access to education and knowledge is key to equalize opportunity, economic growth and the development of stable societies," said Ewan Stirling, CEO, HSBC Oman.      

For those people who wish to follow the progress of the journey, the team will be using satellite technology to send out daily updates from the desert each day. The updates, and images, will be loaded onto the Connecting Cultures website http://www.connectingcultures.co.uk/, where the on-line lesson plans and young people’s blogs can also be seen.

Established in 2004, Connecting Cultures is a unique educational initiative that promotes face to face dialogue with young people from the western and Arab world via short wilderness journeys.  The aim of this dialogue is to celebrate cultural diversity, break down stereotypes, identify shared values and in so doing promote understanding and help reduce the polarisation of cultures.  Based in the Sultanate of Oman, Connecting Cultures works in partnership with governmental, corporate and charitable sectors. It is endorsed by UNESCO and works to support the key aims of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations. DHL are the main corporate sponsors of the Connecting Cultures programme.

The purpose of the Glossary is to identify and establish a consensus on the key words and phrases used in the field of human rights, in order to define precisely what is meant by the terms applied and thereby reduce the possibility of cultural and linguistic misunderstandings in the discussion of human rights between nation states.

Funding provided by the Foundation will also assist the EWC in the establishment of a new think tank to provide advice and expertise to the Executive Director and staff of the EWC in its work.  The role of the think tank will include the identification of key human rights issues and trends, and working with the EWC to enhance communication between the grass roots and contacts in the field throughout Europe and beyond.

In addition, part of the funding will go to support the implementation of a 4-year programme of training modules on human rights, democratic citizenship and intercultural understanding, aimed at teachers and other education professionals not only from Europe but also from neighbouring countries and the MENA region.

The agreement was signed by Foundation Chairman MBI Al Jaber and Professor Svein Lorentzen, Chair of the EWC Board and Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the presence of representatives from the Norwegian Ministries of Education and Research and of Foreign Affairs and from the Council of Europe.

http://theewc.org/news/view/the.ewc.has.signed.an.agreement.with.the.mbi.al.jaber.foundation/

This honour is in recognition of his services to higher education in the UK in general and to Corpus Christi in particular including the major donation to the new auditorium at the College named the MBI Al Jaber Building.

The Fellowship will be conferred at a ceremony which also marks the official opening of the MBI Al Jaber Building, on 23rd October 2009.  The citation, read by the Right Honourable Lord Patton of Barnes, follows:

“Sheikh Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber, whom I now present for admission to an Honorary Fellowship, is a highly successful businessman who has shared the fruits of his labours to promote peace and understanding between the peoples of the Middle East and to advance learning and research in relation to the Middle East at the highest level in the United Kingdom and in other countries. Through his expertise and entrepreneurship he has built up a world-wide chain of hotels, which includes some famous establishments.

He has helped to provide vision and leadership among young Arabs by providing scholarships for them to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies and other institutions of higher learning in London and has been a benefactor to University College London. Sheikh Mohamed has established The Olive Tree scholarship scheme at City University to encourage mutual understanding and to create a community of graduates committed to the pursuit of human rights and economic welfare.

It is for his support for Corpus Christi College that we especially honour Sheikh Mohamed today.  He has made possible the construction of the most important building to be constructed on the main site in three hundred years, the MBI al Jaber Building.
I present a man of the highest distinction in business and educational philanthropy.

Admission by the President
You are at once a humane supporter of education and a promoter of peace and understanding. Your services to Corpus Christi College are of the highest distinction. Acting on my own authority and that of the College, I admit you to its roll of honorary fellows.”

Other Honorary Fellows of this ancient college include illustrious persons from all walks of life such as the novelist Vikram Seth and the statesman William Waldegrave. World famous tenor, Dr. Ian Bostridge, is also an Honorary Fellow of Corpus and will give a recital at the opening ceremony.

Photo by Simon Chapman Photography

http://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/p/Emeritus-Honorary-and-Foundation-Fellows/

The opening of the MBI Al Jaber Building marks the culmination of a project started in June of 2007, when the MBI Al Jaber Foundation announced its pledge of £1 million towards the project. The new Building has been built into the bastion of the ancient City wall, and preserving the original features of the bastion such as the arrow-slots and embrasures of the bastion, cuts an impressive sight on the campus amid the College’s ancient beautiful buildings and many picturesque gardens.

The MBI Al Jaber Building, which holds a 150-seat lecture theatre and two seminar rooms, will provide a state of the art venue for drama, musical performance and lectures. The auditorium has modular seating that can accommodate various smaller events and meetings.  Large picture windows bring natural light into the auditorium and sliding glass screens to the foyer open to the first floor terrace in front of the Building which provides views of both the Cathedral and the colleges' gardens.  The Handa Terrace, donated by Mr Haruhisa Handa, is the Building’s rooftop garden boasting beautiful views across Christ Church Meadow to the river.

The building has already received favourable reviews from architectural historians and Sir Tim Lankester, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, England, noted that it was "the most important building on Corpus’s central site in the last 300 years."

In 2005, the Foundation previously made a grant to help the College with the architectural competition for the design of the building: /projects/corpus-christi---a-new-building-

Corpus Christi College was founded in 1517, with an aim to advance understanding and encourage new ways of thinking.  Its small tight-knit community consists of 240 undergraduates and 115 graduate students and a staff of 40 academic Fellows, distinguished teachers and researchers in their fields. For more information on the College: http://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk

Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, in conversation with Professor Michael Worton, Vice-Provost of UCL, discussed a wide range of subjects, from philosophical, economic and personal perspectives. Topics included social responsibility as the motivation for philanthropy, the power of literature and the MBI sponsored Kitab fi Jarida programme, the general encouragment of the human philanthropic impulse, the paramount need for transparency rather than mere regulation of financial institutions in the present economic climate, and the MBI Al Jaber's view of the role of calculated risk-taking for young entrepreneurs in business. He made very clear the close connections between all of this and his own daily business life and personal outlook.

During the conversation, Professor Worton cited the recent report by the Centre for Social Cohesion ‘A degree of Influence’ praising MBI Al Jaber as an example of best practice, as his MBI Al Jaber Foundation donates to universities without conditions and not to promote any personal or business agendas. MBI Al Jaber commented further on this by emphasising that his motivation stems from a sense of responsibility towards elevating educational levels in the Arab world as a key issue towards development and peace, as well as bridging the gap with the rest of the world.

During the reception which followed, courtesy of UCL, MBI Al Jaber gave sufficient time for every single guest who approached him to discuss the subjects raised earlier and also other topics of interest.  The lecture and reception were attended by MBI Alumni and staff, UCL students and staff, other UK universities students and staff, and representatives of diplomatic missions in London.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0911/09110402

Our support for this project adds to the previous grant that the MBI Al Jaber Foundation gave in 2005 to support the Connecting Cultures Arctic expedition and to the Desert Safari in 2007 and to the 2008 Girls Desert Journey.  

This year, Connecting Cultures will take 18 young strangers, western and Arab women, on an expedition together for 5 days in the Oman desert, where they will engage in cultural and educational exchanges to give them a new perspective on the world, and each other.  

Connecting Cultures hopes to engage thousands of young people on this journey through its interactive website that shares blogs, diaries and videos from the students and a series of downloadable English and Arabic lesson plans for teachers to use in the classroom developed in partnership with UNESCO. 

In Istanbul at the UN Alliance of Civilisations Market Place of ideas for innovative projects on April 6^th 2009, Connecting Cultures was identified as one of the world’s most innovative civil society projects in the field of intercultural dialogue. 

Connecting Cultures’ 2009 desert journey is also endorsed and supported by the UNESCO office in Doha and ISESCO.  

Established in 2004, Connecting Cultures is a unique educational initiative that promotes face to face dialogue with young people from the western and Arab world via short wilderness journeys.  The aim of this dialogue is to celebrate cultural diversity, break down stereotypes, identify shared values and in so doing promote understanding and help reduce the polarisation of cultures.  Based in the Sultanate of Oman, Connecting Cultures works in partnership with governmental, corporate and charitable sectors. It is endorsed by UNESCO and works to support the key aims of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations. DHL are the main corporate sponsors of the Connecting Cultures programme.

Further information on Connecting Cultures including more on this year’s journey can be found on their website http://www.connectingcultures.co.uk/.  

The talk, which will be in the form of a conversation with Vice-Provost Professor Michael Worton returns to some of the topics previously addressed in March 2006 when MBI Al Jaber spoke on ‘Educational Reform and the Culture of Democracy in the Arab World’.  

‘Education, Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy in the 21st Century’ takes place on Thursday 22 October 2009 in Room 106 Roberts Building, UCL at 7 pm and will be followed by a reception.

Those interested in attending should contact our Conference Organiser, Ms. Suhad Jarrar-Browne, at events@mbifoundation.com by 9th October 2009.

Peter Jones is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and former Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh. He is the first researcher to have had full access to the vast private Arup archives, and is the author of the first biography of Ove Arup. In July 2009 UCL signed an agreement with global firm Ove Arup to boost collaboration and training in a number of fields including design, engineering and sustainable development.   

The MBI Jaber Foundation wanted to make sure that its 2008-2009 scholars had a memorable and proper goodbye.  

We were taken on a wonderful tour of one of the prominent historical sites in the city of London—Saint Paul’s Cathedral—followed by an amazing and emblematic afternoon of English tea.

On a day of very “English weather,” MBI Foundation staff along with the wonderful staff at Saint Paul’s Cathedral gave us a VIP tour of the enormous cathedral. 

From the very first step inside, we were instantly engulfed by a feeling of complete amazement.  We could not take our eyes off of the exquisite sculptures, walls and domes.  Our lovely tour guide escorted us through various rooms and the more we explored the more it felt as if we were travelling through time. 

Learning about the history of every piece led to a continually deeper feeling of isolation from the outside as if we were no longer in present day London—the city that is the very definition of modernization. Behind each step we took there was a story—stories of those who sacrificed everything to secure the cathedral for generations to come.  A feeling of respect mixed with the sheer sanctity of the place, at times, kept us from breathing so as not to ruin those special moments.

To our surprise and excitement we were taken to the sections of the cathedral where scenes from the well-known films of Harry Potter and The Madness of King George were filmed! Then, it was time for some exercise as we climbed nearly 300 stairs to the top of the cathedral.  Upon arriving at the top, visitors were greeted by a spectacular panoramic view of London.  Each step was indeed worth it as we were able to take amazing photographs.

Following this incredible experience, we were treated to the excellent hospitality of the luxurious Threadneedles Hotel and a very traditional English tea. The hot tea and the delicious snacks made it a perfect time to relax after our visit to Saint Paul’s Cathedral.  As we took the time to unwind, the scholars took turns sharing their experience throughout the year and talking about their future plans.  Time flew by so quickly and before we knew it, it was 5pm and then time to leave.  Kisses and hugs went round with the hope of another meeting before everyone journeyed home.

All I can say is thank you MBI Al Jaber Foundation and its staff.  You were not just a staff who took care of the most minute details and requests throughout the year, you were also friends.  You allowed us to come talk to you, even about personal concerns, and were always there providing us with a feeling of assurance and safety.  Thank you very much.

The 2009 Seminar was once again held in the British Museum in July and was another success for the annual meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies and for its main sponsor, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. 

Throughout the 3-day forum, specialists, scholars, students and general enthusiasts had the opportunity to learn about and discuss new developments in archaeology and humanities in the Arabian Peninsula with friends both new and old.  

In addition to its ongoing support and contribution, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation staff was present for the duration of the event, getting to know participants and talking with them about the Foundation and its many activities.  

• Contributed by Dr. Ardle MacMahon of Seminar for Arabian Studies 

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international forum which meets annually for the presentation of the latest academic research in the humanities (including archaeology, epigraphy, ethnography, language, history, art etc.) on the Arabian Peninsula from the earliest times to the present day or, in the case of political and social history, to the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922).

It is a three-day event, normally held in July, and is currently hosted by the British Museum. The Seminar attracts scholars, students and interested individuals worldwide but predominately from the UK and Europe (France and Germany in particular), the Arabian Peninsula and North America. The attendance at the Seminar is regularly between 150-170 participants and approximately 45 papers are presented.

The Seminar began as an informal study-group in early 1968 to promote the cause of archaeological research in the Arabian Peninsula. The success of this lead to the formation of a Society that held its first meeting in October 1968 with a lecture by Peter Parr on a survey in the North-west Hejaz. In January 1969 five papers were presented at a one-day seminar held at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and summaries of these were published in the Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology.

It was not until the fourth Seminar held in Cambridge in June 1970 that the Proceeding of the Seminar for Arabian Studies (PSAS) was established and published in 1971. This first volume included seven papers of the twelve read at the Seminar. It was after the seventh meeting in Cambridge that the present pattern of publication of PSAS was established. The eighth Seminar held in Oxford established the first three-day seminar in July.

To date 42 Seminars have been held and PSAS is in its 39th Volume.

This year’s Seminar for Arabian Studies was held at the British Museum from the 23rd-25th of July 2009. This year sessions included: Prehistory & Surveys, Bronze Age to Iron Age in S.E. Arabia, Islamic Arabia, Landscape & Food Resources, Arabic & Modern South Arabian and South Arabian Ethnography. On the 24th of July there was a Focus Session on ‘Current Fieldwork in Qatar’ and a Special Session on ‘The Development of Arabic as a Written Language’.    

The topic of this year’s lecture, held after the first day of the Seminar of Arabian Studies, was ‘Ancient Arabia and the Written Word’ by M.C.A. Macdonald (University of Oxford, UK) held on the 23rd July at 18:30 in Stevenson Lecture Theatre, British Museum.

The lecture was immediately followed by a reception in the West Clore Foyer of the British Museum.  During the reception, guests were invited to enjoy canapés and refreshments provided by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation as they mingled and discussed both the enthralling and informative lecture and the in-depth sessions of the ongoing 3-day seminar.  MBI Foundation scholars, staff and invited guests had the opportunity to speak with Seminar participants and interested members of the public.

Gauging by the overflowing auditorium and the buzzing reception, the event was an overwhelming success.  Thanks to both the catering staff at the British Museum and the staff of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, it was a most thoroughly enjoyable and educational evening.  

The annual MBI Al Jaber Public Lecture is organised by the Seminar of Arabian Studies as part of the British Museum’s public programme and admission is free.  

An excerpt from the section on SOAS donations highlighting our Chairman and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation in the report, A Degree of Influence: The funding of strategically important subjects in UK universities, is below.  

For more information and to download the full report, please visit The Centre for Social Cohesion website.

• SOAS donations as an example of good practice

Donations from the MBI Al Jaber Foundation and Mehraban Zartoshty serve as an example of how beneficial foreign funding can be for universities provided that clear safeguards are put in place and the donor receives no oversight over academic output. 

"The arrangements governing the donations by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation to SOAS in 2001 are an example of how foreign funding can be used to positively enhance education without threatening an institute’s academic integrity. Al Jaber donated money yet received no oversight as to how his money was to be used, nor any influence over any academic output. His donation appears to be purely a good will gesture to promote education. The relationship between the LMEI and SOAS is made fully clear in documents submitted by the LMEI to the Charity Commission. The LMEI’s Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 July 2007 say that:

The London Middle East Institute (LMEI) is governed by a Board of Trustees and chaired by Professor Paul Webley, the Director and Principal of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and including three representatives from the academic staff of SOAS, one each from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the University of London and the British Academy, and two members who have relevant business/professional interests. The Articles of Association for the LMEI require that the SOAS members of the Board be elected by SOAS academic members of the LMEI… The LMEI was developed from the specialist regional expertise of SOAS and continues to draw on a number of its resources. The charity is however administratively and organisationally independent. Membership oversight and representation is secured through an annual general meeting of the SOAS academic members of the LMEI and its Research Associates of whom there are 10… The LMEI’s core professional employees worked closely with a large number of volunteers who staff its Advisory Council and the Editorial Board of the Middle East in London magazine. The Advisory Council meets 3 times per year, in the same week as the Board of Trustees meeting. It helps to implement recommendations made by that Board as well as advising on programmes and fund-raising initiatives. The Editorial Board continues to oversee all aspects of the production of the magazine. Over 80 individuals drawn from academia, government, the professions, business, the media and communities with Middle Eastern links were directly involved in the operations of the LMEI.

This arrangement makes clear that the donor has no ability to influence the composition of the LMEI’s board of trustees, and it also proves multiple levels of oversight through its independent advisory council and through SOAS itself.  In addition, there is evidence that SOAS’s governing body has also discussed the implications of the creation of the LMEI and ways to ensure that its creation would have no negative consequences for SOAS. During the meeting of the SOAS governing body on 12 December 2003, the possible effects that the LMEI could have on SOAS’s reputation were discussed. The minutes report that the governing body were told that any such risk was

minimised by having the Director and Principal [of SOAS] as Chair of the Board and four SOAS staff in total as members of the Board. Members noted… that the LMEI could appoint academic staff on a part-time fixed term basis but that all appointment procedures for academic staff were in line with SOAS appointment procedures.

Membership oversight and representation is secured through an annual general meeting. After founding the LMEI, Al Jaber became Vice Chairman of the International Advisory Board of SOAS. When the creation of the board was announced in the SOAS Annual Review 2003-2004, the then Director and Principal of SOAS Colin Bundy stated ‘the School looks forward to the collective counsel of its distinguished members in the years to come’.

Yet despite Al Jaber’s close personal involvement with both SOAS and the LMEI, there is no evidence that he has sought to influence the academic output or activities of either institution or to promote his political opinions or to influence government policies – and indeed the international advisory board gives him no direct role in the running of SOAS."

Simcox, Robin. A Degree of Influence: The funding of strategically important subjects in UK universities. The Centre for Social Cohesion, 2009. Pgs. 86-88.

"E-TOURISM: INNOVATION AND GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES" 

The Journal of Information Technology and Tourism (JITT) Workshop Series, El Gouna, EGYPT, 15 December 2009

Endorsed and supported by MBI Al Jaber Foundation partner MODUL University 

SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS, WORKING PAPERS and FULL PAPERS

The Workshop is part of an on-going series of conferences focusing on e-Tourism. The Journal of Information Technology and Tourism (JITT) will consider top papers presented in the conference for publication. To encourage submissions, authors may submit full papers of 10-20 pages, working papers of about 10 pages and extended abstracts of three-four pages.

To encourage widespread dissemination of the proceedings and scholarly endeavours on e-Tourism in Africa and the Arab world, final accepted submissions will be freely available on the conference website. In addition, authors will hold full copyright privileges of their work. Submissions may be qualitative, quantitative, or conceptual, and may be works in progress.

All submissions, English and Arabic, will undergo a double-blind review by the scientific committee.

• Submissions of full papers, working papers and extended abstracts: 20 Sept, 2009 • Notification of Acceptance: 15 October 2009 • Final submissions: 15 November 2009

Submissions should include:

1. Title page including complete contact information of author(s): name, affiliation, postal address, phone, fax, email and website.

2. As a rule, submissions, particularly full papers, should include the following sections:

a. Introduction and Research Objectives b. Literature Review c. Methods d. Main Results e. Conclusions

3. Submissions should follow the JITT guidelines available at http://ojs.modul.ac.at/index.php/jitt/about/submissions

WORKSHOP REGISTRATION FEE: There is no fee for submitting manuscripts; the JITT Workshop costs US$100 for academics and US$75 for students.

For an additional US$250, Workshop registrants can enjoy the opening ceremony on the evening of 14 December, all conference activities on 15 December, two days with Half Board Accommodation (Breakfast and Dinner), and arrival/departure meet and assist from the Cairo airport. Details for The 2nd Annual Arab International Conference on eTourism and eMarketing are at http://ioeti.org/ioeticonference/.

If interested, workshop registrants with an accepted paper enjoy about a 25% discount – US$ 1150 (single room) or US$ 1300 (double room) – for the Arab International Conference on eTourism and eMarketing. This price includes the workshop, all conference activities, five days with Half Board Accommodation (Breakfast and Dinner), and arrival/departure meet and assist from the Cairo airport.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION: Please label your submission as a Full Paper, Working Paper or Extended Abstract and email Arabic submissions to Professor Karl Wöber and English submissions to Professor Daniel Fesenmaier. For general questions in Arabic please contact Hanine Lakkis and Professor Jamie Murphy for questions in English.

The 2nd Annual Arab International Conference on eTourism and eMarketing:

The JITT Workshop will be in concert with the Arab International Conference on eTourism and eMarketing, held from December 14 – 18. This conference will educate and update the travel and tourism industry with sound eMarketing and eTourism strategies to improve sales and reduce expenses.

This boutique conference focuses on applying Internet technologies in tourism and hospitality, particularly in developing countries. The Arab world and Africa have the advantage of learning from and leapfrogging developed areas in the management and implementation of Internet technologies in hospitality and tourism. The conference aim is to share knowledge, experience and ideas that encourage and facilitate innovative and in-depth analysis of systems that enable scholars and practitioners, especially in Arab and African countries, to implement Internet technologies effectively.

The conference format will support in-depth discussion and collaboration, with separate tracks in Arabic and English. As such, each session will include extended presentations (20 – 30 minutes) and time for further discussion. In addition, participants should receive the final papers prior to the conference in order to support informed discussions. Papers, in Arabic or English, are invited on e- Tourism in general and especially in Africa and the Arab world. Conference topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Information search • Management information systems • Decision support systems • Revenue and yield management • Online marketing information systems • Forecasting systems • Online marketing research • B2B networks • Search and Web 2.0 • Search engine marketing • Mobile marketing • Tourism Portals • Destination marketing • eTourism technology • User technology adoption • Location based marketing • Search engines • Search engine optimization • Mobile search • User experience/User modeling • User generated content (text, photos, video) • Benchmarking • Program evaluation • Data mining

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is proud to have been one of the major sponsors of the Edge of Arabia exhibition at its opening in the Brunei Gallery last year. Edge of Arabia features the work of 17 contemporary artists from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, male and female, who explore the complex and diverse identities of 21st century life in the Middle East through their art, and present a unique look inside contemporary culture in the Kingdom.

This will be the first time that artwork by Saudi artists is displayed at the Venice Biennale, a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years.   

From the 5th of June to the 2nd of August, the exhibition will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 10am to 6pm at the Palazzo Contarini dal Zaffo, next to the Accademia Vaporetto stop. Admission is free.

On June 5th, the private view, scheduled at 8pm, will be preceded by an informal press conference with artists and curators at 4pm.  

For a map and directions, please visit www.edgeofarabia.com/gallery-information/.

The exhibition is being organised by the award-winning Offscreen Education Programme.   For further details of the project, please visit www.edgeofarabia.com.

The conference, held in SOAS, University of London, was organised by the London Middle East Institute, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in London and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Various sessions were panelled by world scholars, speakers, human rights specialists and lawyers, educationalists, academics, Muslim Imams as well as diplomats.  

The day opened with a welcome from Prof. Paul Webley, Director & Principal of SOAS, an address by HE George Boomgaarden, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany and an address given by the Rt Hon. Hazel Blears MP, Secretary of Sate for Communities and Local Governments.

The sessions and presentations were well attended by participants from diverse age groups, ethnicities and professions; both Muslim and non-Muslim men and women. The audience interacted well with the panels and speakers on various topics.  “The German Experience: the ‘Islam Conference’ as a model for dialogue” looked at how mosque communities foster integration, the legal perspective of Islam in Germany and the specific role of German foreign policy in such integration.  The session on “The British Experience: engaging public institutions”, which addressed topics ranging from accommodating Muslims in Britain to the application of Sharia law in the UK and the engagement with Muslim communities, included the very interesting presentation “Chaplaincy: creating opportunities for successful integration of Muslims in public life”, by Dr. Sophie Gillian-Ray, founder of the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK, whose research project is on Muslim chaplaincy in Britain.

The intensive day was finished by the “Panel Discussion: Enduring Controversies, Lessons Learnt” and concluded with a discussion of the need for a modern interpretation of the Quran to suit our times and more integration between immigrants and their new societies as well as the need for better understanding of cultural issues and more efforts from governments on the legal levels. The elimination of stereotyping is crucial to achieve successful integration. 

For more information www.lmei.soas.ac.uk

Summit  Event: Careers in Middle East Recruitment Summit

Location: London

Date: 25 May 2009

Roles & Companies: Graduate to senior management careers across different functional areas with top multinationals such as Eli Lilly, Lafarge and Zain

Requirements: Applications are welcome from candidates with work authorisation for at least one Middle Eastern country and a fluency in Arabic.

Application Deadline: 30 April 2009  

For more details and to apply, please visit www.careersinmiddleeast.com  

What you can expect:

·Pre-scheduled interviews with leading domestic and multinational companies for the Middle East Region

·Exclusive access to company decision makers to arrange ‘on-the-spot’ interviews·         Company presentations, round table discussions and workshops

·An excellent chance of receiving a job offer

·The opportunity to network with like minded professionals 

Why you should attend:

The Careers in Middle East Recruitment Summit in London is one of the world’s most exclusive recruitment events for major companies from this region wanting to attract talent back into their home countries. With a single application candidates will be able to gain unprecedented access to this exclusive network of employers illustrating the uniqueness of the event.  

Not able to attend the summits?

Don’t miss out on other exciting career opportunities. We work with over 200 top employers throughout the year, all looking to attract talent for their operations in the Middle East.

Register your details on our website today and gain access to all our opportunities across the ME region.

- Download PDF (292kb)

Due to the current state of the economy, there was much discussion at the conference about the role of women in the banking sector.  After the sudden hit to the world economy, it was suggested that women can be as good or even better in making sensible hard decisions in senior positions in corporations, partly because research has noted that women tend not to make fast irrational decisions but rather tend to make decisions which are circumspect and calculated.  

The conference was full of inspirational women: some who have broken barriers in their field and some who have helped women find their skill and then encouraged them to enter the workforce.  

Princess Loulwa Al -Faisal Bin Abdulaziz gave a motivational speech addressing the situation in Saudi Arabia for women entering into entrepreneurialism. She avowed that women have the necessary skills and knowledge to start their own business and be as equally qualified as men in the workplace despite cultural boundaries that still exist. Reform in the law now allows women to have businesses under their own name and open bank accounts but more needs to be done. There are still banks and companies that refuse to work with women unless they have are accompanied by a man to do the work on their behalf. Therefore, she concluded that it will take time for society in Saudi Arabia to understand, accept, acknowledge and allow women to be part of the entrepreneurial workforce. 

Nasreen Fatema Awal, a managing director in Bangladesh, is one of the first and only women to hold this position in her country. Despite all the resistance she faced, she achieved her ambition which is an inspiration for all women to work harder to achieve their goals and to not let any obstacles stand in their way. 

PR guru Lynne Franks is the founder of Seed, an organization that helps women work and live by the feminine principles of sustainable co-operation and mutual in a male dominated workplace.  She organizes workshops for women to inspire and encourage them to take that first step in achieving their goals and aspirations.   

The Forum concluded with the hope that with the investment that is being put into women’s entrepreneurship and through open dialogue and communal support, there will continue to be change for the better in the role of women in the workforce worldwide.  

Cineforum brought women together from all walks of life & all cultures to advance the leadership of Muslim women in mainstream society for one day conference of interactive & inspirational exchange.   

The conference, held in the Royal Society of Art in London and organised by the Fair Knowledge organization, featured sessions paneled by world scholars, speakers, media professionals, mentors, spiritualists, human rights and political activists, educationalists, as well as diplomats.

The parallel sessions included films, workshops and mentoring sessions and were well attended by participants of all age groups, both Muslim and non-Muslim women as well as men. The audience interacted well with the panels and speakers on various topics such as women as peace builders, Muslim women in the media, British politics, positive presence and image, as well as the need for modern interpretation of the Quran to suit our times. 

As well as attending sessions and workshops, Suhad and Fahmia watched two of the films. The ‘’Bass Player’’, a short film exclusive to the conference, told the story a young Muslim girl named Salima and her journey into the music world along with all the challenges she faced from the society around her due to either stereotyping or Islamophobia. The film ‘’Pray the Devil Back to Hell’’ tells the story of the Liberian War and the remarkable role that the Liberian women played in ending the war and bringing peace to their country.  

The intensive day was finished by the magnificent Lebanese pianist and soprano Hiba Al Kawas who flew in from Abu Dhabi especially to participate in this significant forum.  She shared a musical film called ‘’Lady Light’’ and performed live, thrilling the audience, even those who didn’t understand the Arabic songs which brought some listeners to tears of nostalgia. 

For more information http://www.fairknowledge.co.uk/

We’ve posted a few excerpts from blogs on the conference and its panel sessions to share with our readers…  

Please feel free to email us at info@mbifoundation.com with any blogs, posts or articles.

SOAS Arab Media Conference

Tue, 03/17/2009 - 4:23am

As I sit in a Heathrow waiting lounge, a belated welcome to my friend Brian Katulis, who will be guest-posting from the UAE and Kuwait this week.  I've just finished a fascinating conference on the Arab media at SOAS, which was a particularly interesting experience after a few days at the Al-Jazeera forum. Khaled al-Shami, media columnist for al-Quds al-Arabi and more recently of the independent Egyptian al-Hewar TV, nicely captured one theme of debate with his remark that there is too much politics in the Arab media, and too much media in Arab politics.  Read more on Marc Lynch's blog here   

Arab Media Today @ SOAS

Published March 18, 2009 Egypt 

I am just back from a quick trip to London to speak at a conference organized by the London Middle East Institute, which is part of  SOAS.  Check out Marc Lynch’s roundup here.  My talk was an expansion of my article from the last Arab Media & Society on social media in the Gaza conflict.  I expanded it a bit to talk about the larger uptake of Facebook in the Arab world, particularly Egypt.  A few people have asked me for my paper (which I haven’t actually written yet) but I did clean up my presentation notes a bit. 

Read the notes and more on Friday in Cairo, a blog by Will Ward 

Blogging and social networking dominate conference on Arab media

By Susannah Tarbush

A ONE-day conference on new Arab media held in the Brunei Gallery of London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) last week gave the audience the opportunity of hearing from some of the leading bloggers in the Arab world in person.  

They included the Egyptian human rights activist Wael Abbas, who blogs at Misr Digital; Ali Abdulemam, described by the New York Times as Bahrain’s “most notorious blogger”, and Tunisian investigative journalist and human rights campaigner Olfa Jami. There were two Jordanian bloggers: Naseem Tarawneh, author of the “Black Iris” blog, and Mariam Abu Adas who started her “Driven by Curiosity” blog in 2004 when she was living in Saudi Arabia. Tarawneh was a co-founder of the Jordanian citizen media site 7iber.com which Abu Adas now runs. 

Titled “Arab Media Today: new audiences and new technologies”, the conference was organized by the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) at SOAS. It was supported by the Media Outreach Center of the U.S. Embassy in London and the MBI Foundation of Jeddah-based businessman and philanthropist Mohamed Bin Issa Al-Jaber. Read more on Susannah's blog the tanjara 

Effat University is a leading private higher education institution for women situated in Jeddah, and is the living legacy of Queen Effat's vision for education. The university provides an interdisciplinary environment, conducive to research and life long learning. 

Under the new programme, scholarships will be offered to a number of outstanding Saudi nationals who wish to study an undergraduate degree at Effat University.  This is part of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation’s vision of the advancement of the education of women in the Arab world.  Students will be able to choose from the range of disciplines offered by the University, and on graduation the best students will be eligible to apply for the broader Foundation Masters’ Degree programme in the UK.  

For further information on Effat University: http://www.effatcollege.edu.sa/

Undergraduates from such institutions as the College of Tourism and Antiquities of King Saud University, the Prince Sultan College for Tourism and Administration in Abha, and the Prince Sultan College for Tourism and Administration in Jeddah are being encouraged to apply for MBI Al Jaber Foundation Scholarships to study for an MBA in Tourism Management, which is just one of the range of MODUL courses supported by the Foundation.

It is hoped that the collaboration will extend to granting undergraduate scholarships within the Kingdom in the area of tourism, giving support to the role of the tourism industry in building bridges between cultures.  

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation jointly with the US Embassy Media Outreach Centre sponsored the one-day Arab Media Today conference held on the 16^th of March 2009 at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

The conference, which was organised by the London Middle East Institute, provided insight into today’s media scene in the Arabic-speaking world. It investigated and highlighted how the new technological advances have re-defined the media across the region by edging away from the government-controlled traditional media outlets into the satellite TV channels and internet-based media.   

The speakers and panellists participating in the conference, including academics, journalists, media professionals, bloggers and other Arab media watchers, presented in-depth discussions and analyses on understanding the Arabic speaking audience, the old and the new media impacts and the political blogging across the region.

A full session was dedicated to discuss the emerging Arab blogosphere. Six bloggers from Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Bahrain, Lebanon and Syria talked about their experiences with blogging. They shared with the audience their successful stories on raising the bar by tackling political, religious and social issues and ideas not delivered by traditional media outlets:  but it was apparent that they still have to find ways around government censorship and to protect their personal safety. 

The conference was concluded by a dinner for participants, giving them an opportunity to reflect on the day and exchange views.

Naomi Sakr of the Arab Media Centre, University of Wesminster, introduces the speakers.

Jihad Fakhreddine from Gallup discusses media audience research in the Arab world.

From left to right; Mariam Abu-Adas, Jihad Fakhreddine, Dina Matar and Imad Karam respond to questions from the audience.

Photos by Fiona Wholey, SOAS

While the development of on-line media in the Arab world has been slower than elsewhere, websites, on-line forums, and blogs are becoming increasingly significant.  

Speakers and panellists will include academics, journalists, media professionals, bloggers and other Arab media-watchers. 

The conference will be divided into three sessions, each devoted to a specific broad area, which will be introduced and moderated by a specialist in the field, and include presentations of relevant information and analysis, followed by interactive debate.  

The Arab Media Today: new audiences and new technologies  

9.00am-5.00pm, Monday 16^th March 2009 

Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, Brunei Gallery, SOAS  

Admission Free – All Welcome  

Pre-registration Required: Tel. No. 020 7898 4330; E-mail: lh2@soas.ac.uk 

A full programme will be available at: http://www.lmei.soas.ac.uk/home/index.cfm?navid=6.  

Please direct any queries to Louise Hosking, Executive Officer, at: lh2@soas.ac.uk

In addition to outlining MBI Al Jaber's contribution to the city in the realm of business, including his famous hotels, Mr. Haeupl pointed out the numerous educational initiatives of MBI Al Jaber and his MBI Al Jaber Foundation, which contributes to a better understanding between people of the Middle East and the rest of the World, especially with Europe.

In Vienna, the Foundation supports Arab students to study at Modul University Vienna as part of its scholarship programmes, and MBI Al Jaber personally has also provided scholarships to young Austrian citizens of Vienna allowing them to study in the international atmosphere of MODUL.

MBI Al Jaber Foundation Scholars were treated to an evening at the Sahara Sounds concert at the Bloomsbury Theatre, UCL.

The concert, a fundraising event for the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, was part of a magical night as a room of the University was transformed into an old ‘Aladdin-style’ market filled with exotic ornaments for sale, Moroccan mint tea and Lebanese food, a henna tattoo artist, belly-dancing costumes and the sound of music by the man of the hour himself: Abdullah Chhadeh.  

The night started off with people enjoying the Souk. The room was buzzing with enthusiasm as everyone ate ethnic food, drank unfamiliar red-looking tea called Karkadeh, and tried on belly-dancing costumes, hats and jewellery. The night was running smoothly and then it was time to go into the theatre for the concert to begin.  

As we sat waiting for the concert to begin, we tried to picture what Abdullah would look like; then there he was, not at all what you would expect an Arabian musician to look like! He had a long ponytail, western clothes and a ‘bold’ sense of humour! As soon as his fingers hit the strings on the Qanun, an angelic sound filled the room - it felt like magic. Abdullah was talented and professional, playing in great harmony with his band members playing the cello, tableh, violin, accordion and triangle. Each look with their eyes at one another indicated a certain beat with their instruments.

The pieces Abdullah played were not only entertaining but also insightful, as he conveyed the message of peace, love and social life through his work with songs named after Gates in Damascus, Syria. For example, one song was called Bab Sharqi (Eastern Gate), and another Bab Alsalam (Peace Gate). Other songs were named after our feelings, such as Kaif, a song that spoke about our mood, how it changes and how it makes us feel. Abdullah said that he chose music to convey the message of peace and love because it is a universal language that everyone can understand.

Not only was the concert magical, it was remarkably amusing as well as Abdullah used humour to explain each song and involve the audience in small conversation. As he played he asked the attendants to sing along with him and his band, which created a warm, cosy and fun atmosphere. We can honestly say that the concert was a big success; but you don’t have to take our word for it, the audience showed their great appreciation with a standing ovation. 

Some of Britain’s top writers – novelists, poets and children’s authors – were invited to the fair to take part in events with their Egyptian counterparts.

Unlike the book fairs in London or Frankfurt the Cairo Book Fair is open to the public and is one of the largest cultural events in the Middle East attracting over 1.5 million visitors.

This year the British Council delivered the UK Guest of Honour programme at the 41st Cairo International Book Fair with UK partners The London Book Fair, The Publishers Association (PA) and the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG).

There was a rich and varied programme of events spread over ten days celebrating the ‘full circle’ of the literature world from writers to publishers to readers which included:•55 speakers from both the UK and Egypt including acclaimed authors Anthony Horowitz, Dame Margaret Drabble and Ben Okri.

 •11 panel discussions, 14 Literary cafes, an evening of poetry readings, two musical performances and three days of crowd-gathering street theatre.

•A delegation of 20 top UK publishers who were able to build networks and have discussions with their Arab counterparts.

•A conference on encouraging young readers opened by First Lady Suzanne Mubarak and attended by 200 policy makers, librarians and teachers with representation from the National Literacy Trust, Reading Agency and Book Trust. 

The programme proved an enriching experience for both the local audience and the UK authors who helped deliver it.   

http://www.britishcouncil.org/egypt-arts-culture-cairo-book-fair-speakers.htm 

All alumni are invited to apply for a grant in the amount of up to $10,000. Deadline for the submission of proposals is the 30th of January 2008.

Who Can Apply :

All MBI Foundation Alumni are eligible to submit a proposal for funding for a specific project to The MBI Al Jaber Foundation. Projects are required to meet the agreed aims of the Foundation. We welcome the ingenuity and initiative of our former scholars!

How to Apply:

Projects should be submitted to The MBI Al Jaber Foundation via post or email to projects@mbifoundation.com. They should include a full proposal with costs, and applicants should be prepared to give a presentation to the Director and, if necessary, the Trustees.

Proposals will then be submitted to the Trustees for consideration and approval.

We are looking for proposals from applicants that will use this opportunity to help not only themselves but, most importantly, the people with whom they live - that is, their country, their region, their community.

For further information or any inquiries, please email projects@mbifoundation.com.

MBI Al Jaber, a dedicated philanthropist who has supported several other higher education institutions in Britain, has played a leading part in promoting understanding between students from conflict areas in the Middle East.

Commenting on the gift, Sir Tim said “This very generous gift goes a long way to completing the financing of our auditorium building, the single most important capital project on Corpus’s central site since the completion of the New Building in 1964. We are tremendously grateful to Sheikh Mohamed for his generosity.”

This Saturday the 13^th December, a special ‘End of Exhibition Christmas Gathering’ will be held at the Brunei Gallery from 10.30am to 5.30pm, to celebrate the success of the remarkable Edge of Arabia exhibition that brought to us eye-opening contemporary art from Saudi Arabia, which portrayed the country’s culture in a differing way to the one we typically see.  

The gathering will be hosted by the organisers, and the artists themselves, providing an excellent opportunity to meet them and to personally discuss their artwork and the ideas behind their creations.  This might be the end of this exhibition, but we hope to see similar exhibitions in the future, with artwork that reflects the way of life and culture in the Middle East, and the talent and inspirations of its artists.  

Everyone is welcome, please spread the word, and visit www.edgeofarabia.com for more information on the gallery and how to get there.   

Please also visit the Edge of Arabia shop online at http://edgeofarabia.myshopify.com/ to buy books, prints and more from the exhibition. 

This year’s new scholars joined the MBI Al Jaber Foundation staff, including Director Carolyn Perry, at a special Christmas party for their first taste of an English Christmas.  The evening was also attended by last year’s outgoing scholars, who the Foundation bid farewell. The students had the chance to share their experiences with each other during an evening filled with good conversation and seasonal food provided by SOAS catering. Towards the end of the night, the students were presented with ‘Christmas’ and ‘Farewell’ presents on behalf of the Foundation. It was a warm and lovely gathering and an evening enjoyed by all.

MODUL University, an MBI Al Jaber Foundation partner institution, has also contributed to international conferences and events such as the International Conference on sub-national tourism activity that was held last year. Along with the UNWTO, the European Travel Commission (ETC) and European Cities Marketing (ECM), MODUL also promoted a two-day event on tourism and strategic marketing planning in September of last year.

MODUL currently benefits from all the rights and obligations of affiliate membership, including participation in the activities of the UNWTO and promotion of its activities and events in the UNWTO newsletter and the international calendar.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO/OMT) is a specialized agency of the United ‎Nations and the leading international organization in the field of tourism. It serves as a ‎global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how.‎  UNWTO plays a central and decisive role in promoting the development of responsible, ‎sustainable and universally accessible tourism, paying particular attention to the ‎interests of developing countries.‎  The Organization encourages the implementation ‎of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, with a view to ensuring that member ‎countries, tourist destinations and businesses maximize the positive economic, ‎social and cultural effects of tourism and fully reap its benefits, while minimizing its ‎negative social and environmental impacts.‎  Its membership includes 160 countries and territories and more than 350 Affiliate ‎Members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations ‎and local tourism authorities.‎  Direct actions that strengthen and support the efforts of National Tourism ‎Administrations are carried out by UNWTO's regional representatives (Africa, the ‎Americas, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia) based at ‎the Headquarters in Madrid.‎  UNWTO is committed to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, geared ‎toward reducing poverty and fostering sustainable development.‎ http://www.unwto.org/aboutwto/index.php

For further information: http://www.modul.ac.at/2008-12-modul-university-vienna-accepted-affiliated-member-unwto

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is proud to be one of the major sponsors of this pioneering exhibition organised by Offscreen Education. Edge of Arabia features the work of 17 contemporary artists from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, male and female, who explore the complex and diverse identities of 21st century life in the Middle East through their art.  These artists are participating in the first comprehensive exhibition of contemporary Saudi art shown in the UK and a unique look inside contemporary culture in the Kingdom.

The issues addressed are as much personal or domestic as they are global. The artists have chosen not to focus on negative perceptions of the Middle East or artistic and intellectual clichés associated with the region and instead present a contemporary world view that is as unpredictable as it is beautiful.

Posters advertising the exhibition have been displayed in London Underground stations since the beginning of October. These posters, along with the distribution of leaflets and flyers, have provided publicity for the project to ensure a good and broad-based attendance throughout the exhibition.

Edge of Arabia will run from the 16th of October 2008 to the 13th of December 2008.

The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday, 16th October and an Education Day is being held on Saturday, 18th October, with  relevant schools, colleges and universities across the UK participating.

For further information and a complete showcase of the artworks, please visit http://www.edgeofarabia.com/

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is proud to be one of the major sponsors of this pioneering exhibition organised by Offscreen Education. Edge of Arabia features the work of 17 contemporary artists from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, male and female, who explore the complex and diverse identities of 21st century life in the Middle East through their art.  These artists are participating in the first comprehensive exhibition of contemporary Saudi art shown in the UK and a unique look inside contemporary culture in the Kingdom.

The issues addressed are as much personal or domestic as they are global. The artists have chosen not to focus on negative perceptions of the Middle East or artistic and intellectual clichés associated with the region and instead present a contemporary world view that is as unpredictable as it is beautiful.

Posters advertising the exhibition have been displayed in London Underground stations since the beginning of October. These posters, along with the distribution of leaflets and flyers, have provided publicity for the project to ensure a good and broad-based attendance throughout the exhibition.

Edge of Arabia will run from the 16th of October 2008 to the 13th of December 2008.

The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday, 16th October and an Education Day is being held on Saturday, 18th October, with  relevant schools, colleges and universities across the UK participating.

For further information and a complete showcase of the artworks, please visit http://www.edgeofarabia.com/

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is proud to welcome our new tranche of students to the UK. To welcome our new group, the scholars were invited to a reception at the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.

The focus for this year’s postgraduate scholarships has been the Yemen. The successful applicants, now in London to begin their courses, come from a variety of academic backgrounds including Medicine, English Language, Political Science and Economics, and have been accepted at some of the UK’s most prestigious universities including the London School of Economics and University College London.

MBI Al Jaber Foundation scholarship programmes in London include payment of course fees, travel, stipend and accomodation, and covers a twelve-month period.

For anyone interested in taking part in this worthwhile cause, please feel free to arrive on the day. Registration will take place at 1.00pm at Jubilee Gardens (next to the London Eye). The nearest tube station is Waterloo Underground Station, from here you can cross Westminster Bridge over to the South Bank where you will see Jubilee Gardens on the left. Please arrive at 1.00pm so that you can register, collect your Bridgathon goody bag/ t-shirt and meet other participants ready for a 1.30pm start.

For more information on this event or to sponsor Othman, please visit www.uclh.nhs.uk/nhdf or contact Othman directly via email on o.al-helli@ion.ucl.ac.uk.

MBI Al Jaber Foundation wishes the NHDF and all participants the best of luck!

The generous £1m gift of Mohammed bin Issa Al Jaber (reported in 2007) has since been supplemented by gifts from Mr Haruisha Handa (who also subsidised the Choir’s tour of Japan – see page X) for the installation of a rooftop garden, and in June the Wolfson Foundation made a gift of £100,000 towards the project.  The College was also delighted by the support of Professor Anna Balazs (Visiting Fellow, 2000), whose generosity will see a professional quality grand piano installed in the new Auditorium.

I would be very grateful if you are planning to attend, and have NOT done so, please fill in and return a Registration Form as soon as possible. The Registration Form can be found at http://www.arabianseminar.org.uk/Reg-Accomm-form2008e.doc or by request to this e-mail address. Although registration is not necessary to attend the Seminar it will help the Seminar keep its records up-to-date.

The other reason for this e-mail is that all Accommodation has now been allocated. However, it is still possible to find accommodation by special arrangement. Accommodation will not be in Ramsay Hall, as previously advertised, but will be at Schafer House (168 – 182 Drummond Street, NW1 3HZ. Tel: 020 7387 1286 & Fax: 020 7383 3920). The cost is still £37.00 per night (bed & breakfast) per person in single bedrooms. Please note that Schafer House is a student residence, not a hotel, and for those who prefer to make their own arrangements a list of hotels can be found on our webpage, however, the Seminar bears no responsibility for these.

**Seminar at The British Museum**
**Thursday 24th - Saturday 26th July 2008**
**www.arabianseminar.org.uk**

Seminar for Arabian Studies,
The British Museum,
c/o Middle East Department,
Great Russell Street,
London,
WC1B 3DG,
England.

e-mail: seminar.arab@durham.ac.uk

Project Details

The SEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES is the only international forum which meets annually for the presentation of the latest academic research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula (including archaeology, epigraphy, ethnography, language, history, art etc.) from the earliest times to the present day or, in the case of political and social history, to the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922).

Papers read at the Seminar are published in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies in time for the Seminar of the following year. The Proceedings therefore contains new research on Arabia and reports of new discoveries in the Peninsula in a wide range of disciplines.

The Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies is edited by an Editorial Board formed from members of the Steering and Editorial Committee of the Seminar, under St John Simpson and Dr. Lloyd Weeks, the Editors-in-Chief. All correspondence concerning the PSAS should now be addressed to them, via St J. Simpson, Department of the Ancient Near East, The British Museum, London, WC1B 3DG. Email: email: ssimpson@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

At 18.30 on Thursday 24 July a Special Lecture will be given in the BP lecture theatre organised by the Seminar as part of the British Museum's public programme. It will be the third of our annual Special Lectures, which we have now entitled the MBI Al Jaber Lectures.

This year the lecture will be: Cartography and Cantatas: Arabia and the European Enlightenment - Professor Dan Potts, Sydney University.

Please visit http://www.arabianseminar.org.uk/seminar2008.html for further information including a provisional programme, abstracts and speaker details.

At the beginning of 2008 the Foundation provided funding towards the updating of the Computer Room at the School with new computers and ancillary equipment. This continues the support given by the Foundation in the previous academic year.The Training Centre, teaching English and Computer Studies has been operating on the island for 7 years.

In the academic year 2007/08 a total of 120 students received training in English at 5 different levels with a further 18 students took part in Computer classes. With the rapid growth of the tourist industry the demand for places at the school continues to outstrip supply. As well as finding employment as tourist guides, in the hotel industry and within Government departments a number of students have already gone on to higher education at Universities in mainland Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Our support for this project adds to the previous grant that the MBI Al Jaber Foundation gave in 2005 to support the Connecting Cultures Arctic expedition and to the Desert Safari in 2007.

Please read the daily progress reports from the 2008 Girls Desert Journey below, sent via their Inmarsat connection.

Expedition Reports

Day 1, February 7th 2008

All the group arrived safely in Muscat last night and this morning. We are now sitting around the fire in the centre of the Sharqiya Sands, listening to Arabic music and enjoying a spectacular night sky. The day has been spent travelling from Muscat to Ibra, and then into the sands where we arrived late afternoon. On arrival the young people took part in various teambuilding activities in an effort to discover more about each other. They have been asked to consider what the word “Culture” means to them during the course of this evening, and the plan for tomorrow is to develop what they come up with and identify the key ingredients essential for intercultural debate. The camels will arrive mid morning, and we will head off deeper into the sands just before lunch.
Mark Evans

Day 2, February 8th 2008

After a zero degree night, a walk up the golden dune was the perfect start to the day. After breakfast, we formed a circle where the team gathered for a bonding exercise. Seventeen girls from eight countries gave a personal definition of what they believed culture meant. Meanings ranged from culture being a unique tradition experienced by a society which could be carried along through different times and areas. Although culture is a main factor of conflicts between nations, we all agreed that it should also be an instrument to understand others and improve on.

A forty minute camel ride was the next program on the agenda. The relaxing ride through the glamorous sceneries and bright blue skies gave the poetic setting to reflect upon nature’s beauty as well as the five most important things which affects our life today. Stopping for a short break under the shade of a lonely tree, the most important game of the day took place. We were divided into two teams where the main objective was to record the fastest time for the “connecting cultures” group. This was to take place in four rounds and tallying each groups time. Strategies and competitive planning submersed both teams, which de-focused(?) us from the goal of the game. Instead of aiming to better our overall time, we focused on beating the other team.

Discussions followed our activity where we all agreed that in today’s world, nations and societies focus on a narrow sphere of bettering themselves rather than the world at large. Following lunch, we set out through the Wahiba desert and towards our camp.
Rifaa Al-Harthy: Oman

Against a background of sand, tents and camels I have a moment to rethink the first day in the dessert. Thousand Nights or in Arabic: Alf Leila, was the place where we woke up and shared the first beautiful moment of the trip; watching the sun come up behind the dunes. That’s all we needed to quickly forget the night, where the temperature declined to 0, we were freezing. The fact that we are all strong women is proven; we survived the test! I can’t wait for the other challenges that are ahead of us.

A good breakfast, keeping our diaries up to date and packing; the only things standing in our way, let’s begin this amazing trip! Parallel to these activities, the eight camels that will be our transport for the coming days arrived. All fired up and ready to go eight of us got on the camels where the other half of the group followed by foot along with two cars containing everything we will need during our stay in the middle of nowhere.

At four a clock we arrived at our camp where everything was already arranged to receive us. At what time we arrived actually doesn’t matter. That’s one of the first lessons we learned; in the dessert time plays no role.

What a great contrast with our normal lives where time plays an enormous role. Rethinking this first day I’m seated next to one of the tents. The perfect moment to make one mental picture after the other. In no way can you catch this scenery in a photograph. I’m thankful for being one of the seventeen girls that’s part of this trip. The group is formed by ambitious, multi-talented and divers - in the broadest sense of the word – women. Using different tasks helps us share our experiences, perceptions and knowledge. We all view the world in a different way, sharing this views with each other hopefully will make us more aware of the fact that we are all just a little part of mankind. History has proven that focusing on the differences will only make us move away from each other and constantly misunderstand each other. Being in the dessert with a multicultural group of women we are far away from the internet, mobile phones and television. Now that we are away from everything that could possibly destract us, we can finally focus on each other. In the end communication forms the base for cultures to connect.
Rachida Abdellaoui, Morocco-Netherlands

Day 3, February 9th 2008

On the evening of the second day, whilst sitting round the camp fire, our next activity was to talk about our country and cultures for five minutes to the rest of the group. A few worried faces suggested that five minutes would be difficult to fill. However, one hour later, we had covered just two out of our ten countries. And having so much more to learn from each other, we carried on talking late into the night.

We woke up after a slightly warmer and comfortable night and began our trek once again either on foot or camel, whilst either just chatting to one another or discussing the cultural issue we had been given earlier in the morning. After a few more toilet stops behind the sand dunes (or as Aisha referred to as the ‘rest-dunes’ instead of ‘rest-rooms’) we arrived at a beautiful lunch spot. With a well needed shade set up by the Bedu, we played an enjoyable but terribly frustrating game where we had to pass as many tennis balls as possible from one area to another with a set of complicated and restricting rules applying! After looking at how we had organized ourselves, the game left us pondering: what is leadership? We discussed this along with our main discussion for the day: what misunderstanding do different cultures experience and why?

After lunch, we picked up our bags (and those who were lucky enough hopped on their camel) and set off for the last stretch to our campsite, where we are looking forward to an exciting evening and the end of another extremely cultural day!
Corinne Timmis, UK

On the night of the 8th we all gathered we all gathered round the warmth of the fire in the pitch dark of the desert night, following the connecting cultures logo, discussing each of our cultures, and contributing by adding comments and questions by others. Initially each of us froze in panic at the thought of giving a 10 minute presentation about the country which we represent. An hour later, we weren’t even half way through. Each group was eager to share their bit of the world with the rest.

It was our turn to talk of our heritage and the nation which we represent. To the delights of others, we began by singing with pride our Saudi national anthem. Following this we discussed various aspects of our country with our group and welcomed the many question others had that were addressed to our country. The cultural exchange of the 17 girls lasted through the late hours of the night. With the great insight with which we gained, we lost track of time and it seemed that the shimmering stars were calling us to bed. Upon the morning of the 9th we were given the objective to think of three misconceptions of our culture during the day’s trekking and camel ride. Again, we were surprised by the amount of reflection that resulted in more than just three misconceptions. As all the representatives were gathered under some shade after the trekking we managed to collaborate many ideas, of which some had overlapped across countries.

With the knowledge we have gained and our endless discussions we desire to share and learn more, wishing this was not ending in a just a few days.
Fatema Abuidrees and Mona Mughram, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Day 4, February 10th 2008

This day was our third, but for us it does not feel like merely any day for it held some of our happiest moments. We had a wonderful time and had a fantastic night. Maybe the desert was barren and the sky black but the earth was sparkling like happy gold. We danced together on the notes of love and friendship this night. For us, this was the best experience we could have had – we forgot sadness and remembered joy; we forgot about hate and remembered love; we forgot about pain and remembered hope. This was how we spent our evening and it will remain as such within us.

We will remember what all these wonderful people, the Bedouin crew and all the girls, have done from acceptance, songs and food. We were even able to sleep this night due to our joy. We both sat, Noor, Widad, Fatima and Mona joined us. We gathered around the campfire but the true fire was inside us, aglow with love – we spoke too of love, that’s why we felt warm not cold; we felt safe not fearful.

A new glorious day dawned, it was too filled with love and security. These will remain the fondest days and nights of our lives and we will remember you, the most beautiful people we had the opportunity to get to know. And we will always remain grateful to you, Mark.
Bushra and Ola Shebli, Jordan

Saturday we stayed at a Bedouin camp, where we got the opportunity to share food, dance and singing with our hosts. We were all tired after three days full of impressions and exchange, but still wanted to stay up to have time to feel the Bedouin’s hospitality. The different food that some of us are used to eating at home got its first victims, so we all had an early night.

Sunday started for the first time on time. As it was our last full day in the desert everyone wanted to get the most out of it. We came to discuss very important and interesting questions, like what causes misunderstandings between our cultures and how to avoid them. As most of the time it is unbelievable that we agree on most on the issues. But even though the game we played in the afternoon sun didn’t work out at first as we wished. We realize how difficult it is to actually get all our thoughts into action. It showed us that our ambitious talk doesn’t automatically lead to the desired goal. Communication seems so normal to us, that we never question it. However, in the end we did a good job and are a step further. Learning is a process and needs time to settle.

After lunch and a little nap we moved on towards the camp we are going to stay at night. Under the unique sky full of stars we get a little closer back to the real world and its problems.
Susi Teutsch, Austria

Day 5, February 12th 2008

Around 5 p.m. we arrived at the camp and took some wonderful photographs in the sunset. Some of the girls were on the camels while the others were on the sand dunes. While we were waiting to enter our tents, Mr. Mark told us to enter his tent because he had a surprise for us. When we entered the tent Lisa, Meredith and Mr. Mark told us that we had to make a funny video of this trip as memorabilia. After that we got out of the tent and started planning for the video. Hafren was the one who wrote our ideas and one of the ideas was to sing our national anthem at the same time, whilst maintaining its comprehensibility.

We then sat around a table and enjoyed each others company. It was our last night together under the twilight and we wanted to enjoy each others company to the maximum.

Our guide Jabir and the other guides showed us at the bonfire how to make bedouin bread. The fresh cooked bread was then served with honey. It was amazing! Dinner followed. Despite the lack of resources, we always had a variety of food to eat. It was these generous gestures from strangers that made our journey even the more delightful. We then sat around the bonfire again sharing stories and wishing the night would never end. It was then that Noor stood up and gave the sweetest speech; thanking everyone for the lovely experience we all shared together in the last couple of nights. She then passed around beautiful silver gifts as tokens to remember her by. It was truly a touching moment with a few of the girls quickly wiping their tears away. We then continued through the night, some girls entertaining us, with their mesmerizing voice, in beautiful songs. At the end, a few girls decided to brave it out and sleep outside by the fire.

We woke up and had our warm breakfast then we had final game. Following the lessons we learnt, through effective communication we were able to complete the task effectively. This was the greatest reward on our last day. We then started our bumpy walk back to the camp where it all started.
Noor, Widad and Alia, Oman

This October a new generation of artists are being invited to London to take part in the first comprehensive exhibition of contemporary Saudi art ever to be staged in the UK.

‘Edge of Arabia, Art and Identity in the Land of the Prophet’ will feature the work of 15 leading Saudi contemporary artists, male and female, whose work explores the complex and diverse identities of 21st century life in the Kingdom. The work is both modern and Islamic, capturing a historic moment of rapid change in Saudi Arabian society and its relationship with the wider world.

The exhibition will run from 13th October 13th December at the SOAS Brunei Gallery, University of London. It is supported by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Culture, the University of London, the British Council, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation amongst other bodies.

Curator Stephen Stapleton describes the work in the exhibition as pioneering and unexpected. “The artworks we have chosen are not what you might expect from what is perceived as one of the world’s most conservative societies. The results are as educational as they are inspiring and I can’t wait to see how a London audience reacts.”

The issues addressed are as much micro and domestic as they are global. The artists have chosen not to focus on negative perceptions of the Middle East or artistic and intellectual clichés associated with the region and instead show us a contemporary world view that is as unpredictable as it is beautiful.

The contemporary art scene in Saudi is nascent which makes this exhibition a ground-breaking event. Many of the artists combine their creative life with full-time or part-time employment:

Ahmed Mater Al Ziad Aseeri, is a practising doctor in the Southern Arabian city of Abha. He uses X-rays and medical notation in his work, exploring his beliefs in the world of modern medicine in relation to his Muslim faith.

Manal Al Dowayan is a female photographer, brought up on the compound of Saudi’s largest oil company, whose bold, uncompromising photographs explore her dual identity.

Abdulnasser Gharem is a policeman and an artist; he uses both video installation and performance to explore the impact of consumer culture and environmental change in the birthplace of Islam.

Edge of Arabia Artists: Faisal Samra (Bahrain), Ahmed Mater Al-Ziad Aseeri (Abha, KSA), Abdulaziz Ashour (Jeddah, KSA), Manal Al-Dowayan (Dhahran), Yosef Jafa (Maccah, KSA), Mahdi Al Jeraibi (Maccah, KSA), Shadia Alem (Jeddah/Paris), Raja Alem (Jeddah/Paris), Ayman Yossri Daydban (Jeddah, KSA), Reem Al Faisal (Paris), Abdulnasser Gharem (Khamis Mashet, KSA), Al Ruzaiza (Riyadh, KSA), Lulwah Al-Homoud (London & Riyadh, KSA), Sameer Al Daham (Riyadh, KSA) and Mohammed Farea Ali (Riyadh, KSA).

The Timeline for Curriculum Enrichment is a research-based project by the FSTC, who are working in collaboration with Dar El-Hekma College, Jeddah, and affiliated with the University of Manchester, University College London, and London Southbank University.

FSTC is a UK based educational, non-profit organization which has been formed to popularize, disseminate and promote an accurate account of Muslim Heritage and its contribution to present day science, technology and civilization. The 1000 years which are sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages were, in reality, a time when the Muslim civilization outperformed the rest of the world with its knowledge of science and technology. As part of its mission, the Foundation has offered to train students from Dar El-Hekma in research methods and timeline development so that they may participate in helping to serve the Foundation’s mission.

In July, FTSC provided 7 Saudi females from DAH with the opportunity to undertake an intensive three-week course in the UK. Subjects included Islamic Science and Technology, Mathematics and Astronomy, Physics and Mechanics, Medicine and Life Sciences, Social Sciences and Architecture. The students first arrived on 21st July, where they stayed in Manchester and attended an array of seminars delivered by participating scholars. They then moved to London for the second half of their stay, where they continued with their learning and were also given personal tours of UCL museum collections. This included a private visit of the Petrie Museum of Egyptology which is being managed by Carolyn Perry, Director of MBI Foundation, who also took the students to the British Museum for a tour.

The Summer Programme concluded on August 8th with presentations made by the students, for which they received formal certificates from FSTC, who expressed their deepest appreciation for the students’ fervour and dedication in promoting Islamic Heritage and History.

President Pottering thanked MBI Al Jaber for his efforts towards the advancement of education in the Middle East and for supporting projects aimed at building bridges between Europe, the broader Middle East region and the wider world.

President Pottering is shortly to visit officially the region due to his respective particular interest in it.

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is sponsoring a two-day conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the British withdrawal from the Palestine mandate, to be held at King’s College London on 14th/15th May 2008.

Leading international speakers, academics and historians will discuss and debate one of the most violent conflicts of the second half of the twentieth century and beyond.

The events and consequences of this history will be considered in relation to themes of religion, gender, imperialism, violence, governance, decolonisation and memory, each illuminating wider currents in imperial history.

The conference aims to bring to together a range of Arab, Jewish and British perspectives. Drawing upon the extensive oral, photographic and document collections of the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum. Extraordinary personal testimonies will also be presented, culminating in a discussion on the human experience of this episode.

The conference is being organised in a partnership between King’s College London, the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.

Media in the Arab world are now thought to be of great significance for politics, as attested to by the efforts of numerous actors to impact the news agenda. Governments, both regional and extra-regional, political parties and organisations, and influential commercial interests vie with one another through the Arab media to impact audiences. Editors, producers, journalists and other media professionals are not just tools in the hands of those who own or control media outlets, but themselves contribute to the shaping and implementation of news agendas. The Arab media, in sum, is increasingly an arena of contestation between various governmental and non-governmental forces. Surprisingly, remarkably little effort has been made to identify these actors, their methods and the outcomes of contestation between them.  

The purposes of this one-day conference are to seek some preliminary answers to the questions of who sets the Arab news agenda, how they do it, and what consequences this media has, especially on Arab politics. In one day no definitive answers can be provided. What will be offered are selective case studies through which broader issues and trends can be illustrated. Every effort will be made to ensure that different interests and viewpoints are represented on panels. The panels themselves will combine presentations of information and analysis relevant to the topic, as well as interactive debate. Participants will include media professionals and analysts, as well as representatives of interests engaged directly with the Arab media.

9.00am-4.30pm, Monday 12th May
Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS
Admission Free – All Welcome

Pre-registration Required: Louise Hosking Tel. 020 7898 4330; E-mail: lh2@soas.ac.uk

The conference took a long view of the past and the future of Middle Eastern Studies, both internationally and within the UK. Topics addressed by an international panel of speakers included:

1. Has the academic discipline of Middle East Studies contributed to public understanding of the Middle East in the UK and elsewhere?
2. How might the sources of funding (government or private) for Middle Eastern Studies influence the research agendas of Middle Eastern Studies?
3. How has the discipline's focus changed through the expansion of academics in the field, both from the Middle East and elsewhere?
4. What is the future of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, particularly in the light of the so-called War on Terror?

Speakers examined the interdisciplinary range of Middle East Studies, addressing the concerns of archaeology, political science, history, economics, anthropology, Islamic Studies, sociology and other contributing disciplines.

Speakers included:

• Amina Wadud (Virginia Commonwealth University)
• Bobby Sayyid (University of Leeds)
• Fawwaz Trabulsi (Lebanese American University)
• Juan Cole (Univeristy of Michigan, former president of MESA)
• Lisa Cooper (University of British Columbia)
• Tony Wilkinson (University of Durham)
• Sir Roger Tomkys (Chair of the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce)

The conference was very well attended with around 130 participants, and the proceedings will be published.

Students were invited along with their guests to attend the reception held in order to celebrate their successful applications for MBI Al Jaber scholarships. Professor Paul Webley, Director of SOAS and Professor Michael Worton, Vice-Provost of UCL also attended along with Carolyn Perry, Director of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.

As the gathering was held so close to the Christmas holiday, gifts for the students were presented by Mrs. Perry. A fine selection of canapes and refreshments were provided by SOAS catering.

Nowhere in the world is higher education expanding as rapidly as it is in the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Accompanying expansion of tertiary education has been a growing awareness by GCC decision makers of challenges confronting higher education and alternative approaches to dealing with them. One such challenge has been to link higher education more effectively to job markets and economies in general. In addition, higher education also plays a key role in shaping the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of young adults, hence a determining one for the future of societies and polities.

The GCC countries also face many operational questions. Given the importance of higher education and the range of policy options available, each GCC country has come up with its own, distinctive approach. For that reason and because of their direct knowledge of the subject, policy makers from the various GCC countries will be key participants in the conference.

The conference will investigate how the different GCC states are responding to the challenges of shaping higher education to meet economic, social and political objectives. It will do so by first providing an overview of the current state of tertiary education in the Gulf; by then identifying the common objectives of higher education and specifying what the policy choices are and issues involved with the implementation of those objectives; and will conclude by examining how different GCC states have constructed policy mixes for their tertiary educational sectors.

The conference highlights will include welcoming remarks from Professor Paul Webley, Director of SOAS, an address by the GCC Secretary General H. E. Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah as well as sessions on the Objectives of Higher Education, Implementing Higher Education and National Policy Responses to Higher Education Challenges featuring prominent speakers from institutions of higher education in the region.

Proceedings of the conference will be published by Saqi Books

Admission: £10.00; concessions and students free (to include lunch and refreshments).
Please register to ensure availability.

Further information and conference registration:

Applications had been invited from Iraqi nationals to apply for full scholarships to undertake a Masters’ Degree, and after a good response and shortlisting, interviews took place in the region.

The successful candidates are now taking up places at UCL, Westminster and SOAS, and are studying a wide range of subjects from medical sciences to journalism and financial law.

The MBI Scholars were chosen not only for their academic prowess, but for their desire to return to their country and make a contribution.

The interview panel, which included Iraqi academics and representatives of the Iraq Higher Education Organisational Committee, remarked on the high quality of all of the candidates.

The Olive Tree scholarship scheme at City University aims to support talented young Israelis and Palestinians during their degree studies, to encourage mutual understanding and to create a community of graduates committed to the pursuit of human rights and economic welfare.

Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber is a founding patron and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation a sponsor.

The project will also will empower the relationship between young women leaders and NGOs sector. The project will stimulate and assist 10 women’s centres in the middle governorate to empower women’s networks through which they will put into practice their newly acquired skills.

Young women leaders will also have the opportunity to stimulate the Palestinian democratic debate by the organisation of community campaigning activities to empower their political participation. The SVF in coordination with 10 women’s centres will work with university students’ councils with the objective of building a future democratic leadership based on full women participation in the political and social life by undertaking a series of special community activities for women such as training, summer camp, hall town meetings discussions and media outreach.

The project will reach the potential trainees in the middle areas of the Gaza Strip. 

The Seminar has been running for over 30 years and attracts participants from all over the world. Over three days, papers on all aspects of pre-modern Arabia are presented, and the latest research on the region debated. The resulting proceedings are published, providing an indispensable resource for all scholars interested in the Arabian peninsula.

Seminar for Arabian Studies 2005 - Facts and Figures

• 150 participants from 13 + countries (e.g. Japan, US, Saudi, UAE, Yemen, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, India etc, etc)
• 35 papers given over three days.
• Largest and most important yearly academic meeting on Arabian history archaeology in the world.
• Proceedings of the SAS circulation is increasing, published every year on time and it is the key forum for new academic work.
• Visits from numerous ambassadors and cultural attaches now standard.
• Two Saudi students funded to visit directly by MBI money. The SAS hope to continue such visits where they think they will help a young worthy scholar from Arabia who would not otherwise be able to attend.
• The rest of the funding is put towards editing and production of the Proceedings of the SAS.

MBI Al Jaber, a dedicated philanthropist who has supported several other higher education institutions in Britain, has played a leading part in promoting understanding between students from conflict areas in the Middle East.

Commenting on the gift, Sir Tim said “This very generous gift goes a long way to completing the financing of our auditorium building, the single most important capital project on Corpus’s central site since the completion of the New Building in 1964. We are tremendously grateful to Sheikh Mohamed for his generosity.”

Friday 25th May 2007

Bloomsbury Theatre, 15 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AH

Starts: 7.30pm

We are proud to announce that MBI Scholar Mohammed Qeshta will be taking part in a traditional and contemporary Palestinian dance and music performance taking place at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London on Friday 25th May 2007 at 7.30pm.

Nabeel Yasin’s story is a fascinating one. In 1994, in exile from his beloved country, the ‘poet of Baghdad’ published a volume of poetry including Brother Yasin, (written in 1974 and published to great acclaim in Egypt and the Lebanon) and its follow-up, a work which reflected the experience of exile. The following year, a single copy of the work was smuggled into Iraq. The poems spread by stealth, involving considerable courage on behalf of those involved, and becoming part of a body of work that represented the silent fight against the regime. His story has been told by author Jo Tatchell under the title ‘Nabeel’s Song’.

The event at UCL marked Dr. Yasin’s first public appearance since his return to Iraq, and in addition to the readings the audience had an opportunity to hear about this experience at first hand and then to meet the poet himself at the reception following.

In May 2007 the Foundation hosted a dinner to mark the London Middle East Institute conference on ‘The Pan-Arab & Western Media: An Unbridgeable or an Overstate Gap?’ at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

The conference, sponsored by the Media Outreach Centre of the US Embassy in London, was designed to investigate the nature and magnitude of the alleged gap between the pan-Arab and western media. With the increasingly central role played by the media in shaping public opinion and impacting upon the strategies of political elites, public debate on such issues is vitally important.

In order to explore and reveal any differences between realities constructed by the pan-Arab and western media, and to do so with an appreciation of the substantial variations within both, journalists discussed aspects of their respective coverage/analysis and contemporary Middle East issues. They did so in three panels, each organised around a specific issue – these panels enabled both participants and the audience to hear for themselves whether or not journalists approached such vital issues from deeply different perspectives or at great variance.

Two briefer panels were devoted explicitly to the media, and a summary panel inclusive of different viewpoints drew upon the evidence provided in previous panels to try to answer the key question of whether or not the gap between the pan-Arab and western press is unbridgeable or overstated. All panel moderators were academic specialists on the Middle East and/or the media and the panellists included leading figures from the Arab and British press.

Panellists, moderators and sponsors were able to continue their discussions after the conference at the dinner hosted by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation helped to fund the recent Connecting Cultures ‘Desert Crossing’ programme which has been set up in order to promote inter-cultural dialogue and understanding, and to show that young people are capable of achieving great things when they work together.

On February 9th, a group of teenagers from seven nations and five continents, set out on their 8-day journey across the Sharqiya Sands, 100km of desert in the Sultanate of Oman.
The group, who come from Britain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan and Fiji, walked 20km each day using camels for support.  They each kept a diary of their experiences:

‘After just three days in the desert my opinions and thoughts have changed from viewing this landscape as harsh and lifeless to seeing it as the vast, beautiful and majestic land that it is………It has become clearer everyday through … discussions that in the things in life that count, one's values, goals and ambitions, we are all very much alike’.
James Danvers, British

‘Everyone became friends on day one…….We are trying to learn about each other's cultures. We are learning about leadership; working as a group; planning; communication and of course mutual understanding. All this helps us overcome the language barrier. I am learning a lot from everyone here…….I will put it to good use in the school where I teach and with my boy scouts troop in my city of Jizan in Saudi Arabia’.
Waleed Gadry, Saudi Arabian

‘I was delighted to be a member of a connecting cultures programme.  I have learned plenty of important information about other cultures and customs.  No one doubts that live contact between youths from east and west will perfectly bring different kinds of views closer………After we communicated, we found no differences between us, and we have the same goal, which is permanent and global peace’.
Raid Abuyaseen, Jordanian

And a final word from Mark Evans, the trip organizer:

‘In over 20 years of running youth expeditions, I have never witnessed the degree of learning that is going on out here, both about themselves as individuals, and importantly about each others' cultures’.

Through wilderness expeditions, the Connecting Cultures initiative aims to enhance cultural awareness, and promote mutual and environmental understanding between the young people of Saudi Arabia, Great Britain and other nations.  

Our support for this project adds to the previous grant that the MBI Al Jaber Foundation gave in 2005 to support the Connecting Cultures Arctic expedition.

The course surveys the art and architecture of Medieval Islam from the era of the Prophet Mohammed in the 7th century AD to the beginning of the 16th century. It includes the artistic achievements of the major dynasties from the Ummayads to the Mamluks with a geographical spread from Spain to India. Museum visits will be included.

For more information see this pdf, or check the Morley College website:

The Roundtable, which looked at restructuring relations between the Western and Islamic Countries was co-hosted by Strategic Foresight Group and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung and was endorsed by the League of Arab States.

Over two days, government ministers and officials from NGO’s across the world discussed such issues as the institution of a semi-permanent conference on the Middle East Peace, the creation of a Dialogue and Engagement Initiative in which a group of Western and Islamic leaders pursue specific conceptual and practical issues for building confidence between Western and Islamic countries, and an Arab and Islamic Renaissance Initiative.

In our complex and interdependent world, vulnerable to disruption, few things are more important than the quality and credibility of leaders. Visionary and effective leadership is a compelling imperative at the level of governments, the corporates and civil society. A number of leadership development projects and programmes have been launched in various parts of the world, at a total cost in excess of ten million dollars. What is lacking, however, is any strategic thinking or framework to ensure that these initiatives are effective. Scarce resources have, in some instances, been wasted.

The journey towards forming and implementing a global strategy for leadership development is going to be a long one. The Global Leadership Workshop is the first step on that journey. Small as it is, the Workshop can be a catalyst to bring about a major long term change in how the world goes about developing tomorrow’s leaders.

The purpose of the Workshop is to give participants the opportunity to explore together the needs and requirements of a global strategy for developing tomorrow’s leaders. It is hoped that at the end of the two day Workshop there would emerge a number of practical realistic outcomes including a series of regional seminars which would locate leadership training and development in particular contexts – these contexts might be the Middle East; the Far East, Russia and the former Soviet Union Countries, Africa and Latin America.

WORKSHOP FOR GLOBAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
ST GEORGE’S HOUSE, WINDSOR CASTLE
SEPTEMBER 2006

It was widened to Basra University, Iraq, in 2004 and to Mosul, Baghdad and Basra in 2005. It is based in Cambridge, where Colleges offer free board, lodging and logistical support and academics offer their help as mentors.

Strengthening links with the UK

This year the Scheme also had a further grant from the MBI Al Jaber Foundation for additional travel costs in widening links to other UK institutions to assist academics who for political and economic reasons have lacked access to academic contacts, research contacts and facilities, and up-to-date literature and other materials to update themselves and their research and teaching and to build and strengthen links with the UK.

Impact on research training and research programmes

Outcomes should include changes in teaching materials and methods in Iraq which will have an impact on research training and research programmes. It is also hoped to develop the possibility of post-doctoral visits and exchanges between the Iraqi institutions and Cambridge (and other HE institutions in the UK). In addition, Cambridge University and the Economics dept, Keele have been collecting redundant books, periodicals and equipment which they now know can be of use to their Iraqi colleagues to assist them to restock looted facilities.

The Scheme continues in 2006 with a further grant from the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.

World-first collaboration

This world-first collaboration of Iraqi and European actors and musicians wove together new Arabic and English texts with Stravinsky's evocative music and new compositions by Ahmed Mukhtar. The MBI Al Jaber Foundation played host to the Motion Group in their offices for the months leading up to and during the production, and also helped to bring actors and musicians from Iraq.

Baghdad

Andrew Steggall directed veteran British actor Julian Glover, together with Martin Marquez and Ciaran McMenamin, three talented Iraqi actors, Deaa al Deen, Falah al Flayeh and Alaa Rasheed, and nine musicians who joined the onstage action. Andrew Steggall hopes to take the production, in a modified form, on a tour of the Middle East, and indeed plans at some point to take it to Baghdad.

The exhibition, which showcased the work of Vaseem Mohammed, is the second in a series sponsored by us. Through the collaboration of the Foundation, the artist and the church, we are using art in an interfaith context in order to build bridges between various communities.

Tolerance and respect

Vaseem uses Arabic calligraphy in his work, principally (but not exclusively) from the Qur’an. The paintings are displayed in a Christian church as a symbol of tolerance and respect for the two different religions. The sight of the beautiful Arabic calligraphy in the church was a moving experience for people of several faiths (and none!).

The project has an interesting background: Vaseem grew up within sight of the church and attended youth club there. St. Botolph’s has a history of reaching out to the diverse communities that surround it, and the Rector, the Revd. Dr. Brian Lee, is not only a valued minister, but a Common Councillor of the City of London, known for his work with the homeless community and inner city schools.

Relevance

Following the events of 7 July 2005, when the church was used for triage and as the operations centre for the emergency services following the Aldgate bomb, last year’s exhibition (The Light of Hope) had even more relevance than we had at first planned. The 2006 exhibition is timed as a commemoration of those affected by the bomb and as a beacon of hope for the future.

“The heritage site of Tyre is under threat.

“UNESCO has already launched two urgent appeals to the belligerents to ensure that the hostilities spare the site and its surroundings, which are part of the ancestral heritage of humanity, and avert the total destruction feared by all.

“I am compelled to renew this appeal and extend it to the other cultural and historical heritage sites of the region, which are also facing serious threat.

“My compassion goes first to the men, women and, especially, the children, who are experiencing the ordeal of fire, shelling and despair. Nevertheless, we must also think about our immense responsibility towards sites such as Tyre, Baalbek, Byblos, Anjar, the Holy Valley and the Forest of the Cedars of God, in Lebanon, and the Old City of Acre in Israel. All these names – names that stir the imagination - are symbols of the encounter of religions and cultures that are universally recognized as our common heritage.

“This is why - in keeping with The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954), and by virtue of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), conventions of which both Israel and Lebanon are signatories - I solemnly request that all necessary measures be taken to safeguard and protect these cultural properties of inestimable value. We must ensure that they survive to be handed down to future generations, just as previous generations handed them down to us.

“Naturally, as soon as the situation permits, UNESCO will help assess the situation of these sites and lend its expertise for their rehabilitation.”

It was also supported by the Arab-British  Chamber of Commerce and attended by Nancy Dell'Olio, Chair of Truce International.

The event took place at the Goals Soccer Centre in Wimbledon and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation sponsored a squad – sadly they did not win – but we congratulate all who took part.

This summer, ‘A’ Team Arts, a Youth Art organisation based in Tower Hamlets, London has focused on Islamic art to give the inspiration for their summer our fashion course 'Hands On Fashion'. Carolyn Perry, administrator of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation, and Islamic Art specialist, took students on a tour of the British Museum’s Islamic Gallery and also the contemporary exhibition of Middle Eastern artists called ‘Word into Art’. With gallery visits for inspiration, students were then taken through all of the stages required to design and create an outfit for a catwalk collection. The programme works with young people aged 13-19. As well as learning skills in sewing and garment construction the students use different textile techniques and methods.

The results will be shown in the internationally renowned Alternative Fashion Week which takes place in London in March 2007: watch this space!

An online version of the exhibition was built in partnership with Birzeit University, Palestine.

The exhibition was based largely on the collections of the British Museum but complemented by a number of loans and demonstrates the imaginative ways in which artists across the Middle East and North Africa are using the power of the written word in their art today.

Word Into Art includes wonderful examples of calligraphy transforming writing into art, books of poetry, and works which reflect current issues facing the modern Middle East.

Our Director Carolyn Perry contributed to the education programme of the exhibition.

The book, commissioned by HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal and sponsored by MBI Al Jaber, is composed of material originally gathered together for an exhibition in the grounds of Curzon House, home of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in London.

In addition to the more well-known figures such as H. St. John Philby and Wilfred Thesiger, the book also profiles the contributions to the study and recording of the early Kingdom of lesser-known explorers and travellers, including some formidable females. Beautiful early photographs and delicate watercolours form the illustrations for the book, which also includes excellent maps of the travellers’ journeys and short accounts of their visits to the peninsula.

The book is published by Stacey International. Anyone interested in purchasing the book can do so through their website.

The Scheme is part of a wider long-term programme started in 1981 to offer facilities to embattled academics (at that time in Central Europe). It was widened to Basra University, Iraq, in 2004 and to Mosul, Baghdad and Basra in 2005. It is based in Cambridge, where Colleges offer free board, lodging and logistical support and academics offer their help as mentors.

This year the Scheme also had support from the MBI Al Jaber Foundation for additional travel costs in widening links to other UK institutions to assist academics who for political and economic reasons have lacked access to academic contacts, research contacts and facilities, and up-to-date literature and other materials to update themselves and their research and teaching and to build and strengthen links with the UK.

We hope to see outcomes such as changes in teaching materials and methods in Iraq which will have an impact on research training and research programmes. We also hope to develop the possibility of post-doctoral visits and exchanges between the Iraqi institutions and Cambridge (and other HE institutions in the UK). In addition, Cambridge University and the Economics dept, Keele are collecting redundant books, periodicals and equipment which they now know can be of use to their Iraqi colleagues for shipment to Iraqi universities as soon as possible to assist them to restock looted facilities.

Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber is the Founder and Chairman of MBI International and patron of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. A successful self-made businessman, he devotes much of his time to promoting education and democracy throughout the Arab world. In 2005 he was nominated as UNESCO Education, Tolerance, and Cultures to build Peace and Democracy Special Envoy.

The interview was introduced by Professor Malcolm Grant, President and Provost of UCL, who discussed MBI Al Jaber's life works in context of UCL’s global perspective.

Professor Michael Worton, UCL Vice-Provost (Academic & International) then led the interview with MBI Al Jaber with some searching questions about Middle East politics, education and culture.

MBI Al Jaber's positive and proactive stance was nowhere better reflected than in his views on educational reform in the Arab world. His work with UNESCO into this area aims for an updating of the curriculum and wide retraining of teaching staff to ensure that acquire the education that they need to compete on the global stage, ensuring that Arab nations are not held up by what he called an “illusion of wealth” – such as money from foreign aid or oil supplies – but by a true wealth embedded in the education and skills of the nation.

The countries of the Arabian Peninsula are frequently dismissed as having no democratic systems compared to most other regions of the world. President Bush has pursued the action in Iraq by proclaiming that democracy and freedom must be adopted both in Iraq and throughout the wider Middle East. This forms the basis of U.S. efforts to counter the conditions which breed international terrorism.

It has been argued that the Arabian Peninsula countries need to provide a system of democratic representation which takes fully into account their own history and culture. Can their firmly established tradition of rule provide the basis for the evolution of an Arab form of constitutional monarchy? Should the West be seeking to encourage national indigenous evolution rather than working to impose Western systems, albeit offering Western experience where relevant?

Papers will be delivered on reform and strategic issues in the Arabian Peninsula by leading scholars and experts in the field. A selection of the proceedings will be published by IMEIS in a dedicated volume. The conference proceedings will operate under the Chatham House Rule.

Noura Mansouri, a former student at Dar Al Hekma College in Jeddah, and recipient of an MBI Al Jaber Foundation scholarship was among the guests of honour at the 20th birthday of the Cambridge International Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) celebrations.

The event was hosted by University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), the exam board which first developed IGCSE. Guests included representatives from original and present Cambridge IGCSE schools from across the globe, together with students past and present, and members of the original development team.

Today, Cambridge IGCSE is the most popular international qualification in the world for 16-year-old students - nearly 100,000 students from nearly 2,000 schools sat Cambridge IGCSE examinations in 2004/05.

Noura Mansouri is now a PhD student at Queen Mary College in London, and spoke at the event about the value of the Cambridge IGCSE qualification:

"IGCSEs give you choice and shape your personality. They helped me improve my skills and capabilities, and understanding on how to cope better under pressure. They were also a very efficient preparation for future study, allowing me to focus on my chosen subjects and also gain a recognized English language qualification, essential for study overseas."

The College was in need of a building in which it could host lectures and seminars of international standing. Corpus decided in May 2004 to demolish the New Music Room and to replace it with a much larger building, able to seat up to 150 people – the most important building to be constructed on the site in over 300 years. This was reflected in the College’s decision in 2005 to hold an international competition through the RIBA to find an architect capable of designing a modern building that would fill this substantial gap in our provision of facilities to students and academics. Their brief was to select a scheme that both meet the College’s functional needs for the auditorium and which would blend in with Corpus’s unique “wild” garden. The key objective was to design a building whose flexibility would ensure continual use. This would mean that as well as a home for lectures and seminars, it would have to serve as a stage for Corpus’s talented student actors and musicians, both for performance and rehearsals for outside events (such as the production that we take to Edinburgh each year).

Generous Contribution

Recognising that international competitions of this type are expensive to manage, and MBI Al Jaber generously contributed £10,000 towards the cost.

 From 105 submissions a short-list of six designs was selected and following presentations from each architect, Rick Mather was chosen by a Jury Panel, chaired by Emeritus Professor Jim Griffiths, working with the assistance of an adviser from the RIBA. Mather has extensive experience of designing successful buildings in Oxford, notable among them the ARCO and Sloane Robinson buildings at Keble. He enjoys a first-class reputation designing masterplans (the current refurbishment of the Ashmolean, for example) and this is reflected in the sympathetic layout he has produced for Corpus. Provisional costings have been undertaken and site-surveys commenced and the architect is now in preliminary discussions with the local authority planning department to ascertain their views on our proposals for this Grade 1* historic site.

The Corpus scheme envisages the construction of a new building on the existing New Music Room site. The current building will be demolished and the ground will be excavated to the level of the Christchurch gardens on the other side of the ancient city wall. The bastion of the city wall will form the outer wall of the auditorium and it’s original features, such as the arrow-slots will help to ensure that much of the “feel” of that part of the College site is retained. A further enhancement will be a wide window at ceiling height that will offer views up to the rose window of Christchurch Cathedral. The northern wall of the building will extend through the existing boundary wall to form an entrance from the Fellows’ Garden (most of which will be retained). This will allow the auditorium to link to the existing Old Lodgings Building and, in particular, the Rainolds Room to bring some of our existing seminar space into its ambit and offering even greater flexibility of use. The scheme also provides for a roof-garden, with views down to the river. This will augment the College’s existing gardens and offer additional space for private study in the warmer months (the garden is already used heavily by students when revising for exams).

Within the auditorium itself there will be provision for up to 150 people seated in theatre style and removable seating will allow us to offer a number of options for smaller groups. Additionally there will be two smaller seminar rooms. Included within the scheme are storage space for equipment and musical instruments and a sophisticated heating and ventilation system to ensure that the building can be used comfortable throughout the year. High quality audio-visual and lighting systems are also specified.

With the help of MBI Al Jaber, Corpus is now able to realise its vision and put in place the final piece of the jig-saw that will complete the college site, five hundred years after the first stone was laid.

Vaseem grew up within sight of the church, thus it was a natural venue for a show of his paintings. The unusual facet to the exhibition was provided by the fact that Vaseem’s work features Arabic calligraphy, including verses from the Qur’an. St. Botolph's was the centre of operations following the July 7th bomb at Aldgate and, though the exhibition had been planned as interfaith activity prior to the tragedy, it gained extra poignancy in the light of those events.

"a beacon of hope"

The Rector of St. Botolph’s, the Revd. Dr. Brian Lee, remarked “This exhibition, as its name suggests, stands as a beacon of hope for our common future. For years this place has stood at the cross roads of all the major waves of immigration into this country. We value our close links with the local Muslim community, and I hope this exhibition will be a symbol of learning, tolerance and solidarity.” 

The exhibition was a great success, and all partners are planning another for July 2006.

Demand outstripped capacity

In the academic year 2004/5, demand outstripped capacity, and a classroom-bulging 120 students enrolled at the STC!. A grant from the MBI Al Jaber Foundation very much helped the expanding activities of 2005/6, which saw 115 students registered, and in addition, at the request of the local authorities, a special class started to help secondary school teachers on the island improve their English teaching skills. Also at the request of the Soqotran authorities, another class was started for hotel workers, immigration and customs officer and airport personnel.

Remarkably, given this level of activity, STC also helped raise funds to assist fishermen to replace equipment destroyed in the Tsunami disaster and to help a Bedouin community to construct a primary school.

A living tradition

Arabic calligraphy is taught today in the same way that it has been for over 1000 years, and it takes years of study. One must start as an apprentice, tutored by a master who is himself part of a chain of calligraphers traditionally going back to the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib, well known for his mastery of the art.

Making of the Master highlights this living tradition by displaying the ijaza or calligrapher’s certificate of the master calligrapher, Hasan Çelebi and those of a number of students who have graduated from him including HRH Ali bin Nayef of Jordan.

Those interested in learning more about Arabic calligraphy might like to read:

• Derman, U. Letters of gold: Ottoman calligraphy from the Sakip Sabanci Collection, Istanbul. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1998
• Ja’far, M. Arabic calligraphy: naskh style for beginners. British Museum Press London 2002
• Mansour, N. The ijaza in Arabic calligraphy (written in Arabic). Dar Majdalawi publishing, Amman 2000
• Safadi, Y. Islamic calligraphy. Thames and Hudson, London 1978
• Schimmel, A. Calligraphy and Islamic culture. New York University Press, New York 1990

The two young women had won the right to represent their country at this international event and it was their first visit to the UK.

“One of the best experiences I have been through"

Eleena Al-Hakimi has this to say: “One of the best experiences I have been through is the English Union speaking competition. From this experience I have learned a lot and gained so many friends from across the world. Nasrin is one of my best friends, whom I met in this programme and shared my room with her. Moreover, I got the opportunity to learn about the political situation and who are the decision-makers of the country. Not only this but also I had the chance to visit wonderful places in London. At the end of my experience I would like to thank the organisation who gave me this opportunity.”

The Foundation is a corporate member of the English Speaking Union, and Alumni can use several of the facilities at Dartmouth House.

Multi-media to promote literacy skills

A group of twenty-one educators, researchers, and media specialists from Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Palestine, and Lebanon joined Sesame Workshop staff and representatives of Sesame Street’s Jordanian, Palestinian, Egyptian and Israeli coproduction teams at the Dead Sea, Jordan, to discuss an array of issues related to the use of multi-media to promote literacy skills. In addition to their geographic diversity, the meeting participants reflected a range of professional backgrounds including: linguistics, media production, education, research, and developmental psychology.

Building on more than two decades of Sesame Workshop media projects in Arabic, the conference provided an opportunity to coalesce the expertise of advisors on this subject, while also serving as a unique forum for individuals from various countries to meet and share their related experiences and their challenges, projects, and plans for developing Arabic-language media interventions.

Dynamic dialogue – exchanging ideas

During the two days of meetings, presentations, and continual discussion, the conference participants engaged in a dynamic dialogue – exchanging ideas, opinions and plans for new innovative projects and proposed partnerships. Funding for the conference came from two sources: the MBI Al Jaber Foundation and from an anonymous donor. The conference succeeded in meeting its stated objectives, identifying several issues and serving as a springboard for future media-based literacy interventions.

In March 2005, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation sponsored a conference at Wilton Park, England on building participatory governance and representative institutions in the broader Middle East and North Africa.

The conference addressed such questions as:

• What are the options for promoting participatory governance in the Middle East?
• How can transparency and accountability be best protected?  
• What constitutional reform is necessary? 
• How can legislatures be strengthened? 
• To what extent have political parties developed? 
• What should be the role of business? 
• What measures are needed to ensure the inclusion of minorities?  
• How will US policy to promote reform develop under the next administration?

The final report of the conference can be downloaded (pdf) from the Wilton Park website.

Q. What did you learn about yourself and others during the expedition?

The expedition was exciting and if anyone goes on it they will learn a lot about themselves, about how to be patient and about other people. Initially I was afraid of various things, but soon learnt that I was capable of dealing with most situations. I am now aware of and like nature more than before, can make good relationships with British people who often had the wrong information about my country. The best part of this expedition was sitting around the fire exchanging information about our cultures.
Abdullah Al Shalhoub, King Faisal School, Riyadh

I've discovered that I can live and travel in the Arctic, and have found out a lot about my stamina and that I am capable of going further than I thought. I've also learnt that I can easily make friends; something which I'm sure will be useful in later life. I've learnt about Saudi Arabian culture and Islam and that my new friends are some of the nicest people you could meet, and when push comes to shove they can do whatever they set their minds to.
Dickon Cole, Windlesham House School, West Sussex

I have learnt that I am capable of more than I thought. I can walk long distances, build shelters and have overcome things that frightened me. I have found out what my capabilities are, and the whole experience of sharing this adventure with other people has been of benefit to my body and mind, and has taught me the value of teamwork.
Sultan Al Qahtani, King Faisal School

That I take lot of things for granted at home! I have found that I can push myself further than I thought. I found the boys from Saudi Arabia fascinating, and admired how they adapted to the many things that they had never done before. The highlight of the trip was the visit to the glacier, and meeting people from a different culture.
Tommy Fitzalan Howard, Windlesham House School, West Sussex

The last two weeks have taught me many things. I was scared of many things, but now I am brave. I can really do anything if I want to, and can tolerate hunger and thirst. To anyone who is thinking about going on a connecting cultures expedition I would say go � it is exciting, it will change you and build your confidence. The best things I have learnt about are teamwork and the beauty of the Arctic.
Mohammed Al Saleh, Kingdom School Riyadh

I have found out that I can climb mountains and walk long distances with a rucksack, that I am able to sleep on rocks without tents, and have learnt how to build shelters from both wood and rocks. I met new people from different nationalities who taught me new things and who have become my friends. If they have the chance I would advise anyone to come on what is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Mohammed Al Rajhi, King Faisal School Riyadh

He notes that Arab nations have already set the growth in IT as one of their major strategic goals for the coming period, realizing that if a nation needs to be internationally recognized then it has to rise and strengthen its IT foundation to make advances in all other areas easier and faster.

Chairman of the Court of Governors, Vice-Chancellor, fellow students, ladies and gentlemen,

May I first offer my sincere and humble thanks for the honour you have paid to me today, and I am sure that I speak for my fellow honorand, Sir Eric Richardson, in wishing the University and all who study and teach in it, every success in the future. Never has there been a greater need for study, sound learning and genuine understanding.

Westminster has long had a strong international tradition, and this has been demonstrated today by the awards to graduates from many countries. As the world becomes more complex and more inter-dependent, there is a risk that people will fall back on comfortable stereotypes, branding groups who are in some way different - by colour of their skin, religion or language - as good or bad, friend or enemy.

I am an Arab, proud of my traditions and history. The region I come from is much in the news, at the top of the international agenda and likely to stay that way for some time. Unfortunately, most of the news is bad, and I am saddened that so much focus should be on events that may well have occurred but are in no way representative. The information revolution has not yet led to a revolution in understanding.

As an Arab I have been conscious since my early years of the great contribution of Arab civilisation to learning - in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Granada, right across the vast area that was the early Islamic Empire. This was a tolerant civilisation, where Moslems, Jews and Christians lived side by side; where Jewish scholars wrote in Arabic and where Christian craftsmen decorated beautiful mosques. Baghdad was known as the City of Peace.

Our travellers roamed all over the known world, a Moroccan - Ibn Battuta - reaching Beijing. Our greatest Political Scientist - Ibn Khaldoun from Tunis - described the threat of Big Government. Great advances were made in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, geography.

And we are a people that has always been proud to trade and do business. Indeed, our Prophet was himself a businessman and married the first business woman of Islam. We believe that business-people have a major role in society, creating jobs that give dignity to the worker, and paying back to society the benefits they have accumulated.

I am, as you have heard from the Vice-Chancellor, a businessman, with interests in three continents. But I am also a student, and it was the opportunity to study with scholars in London that first retained me here in London.

The reason is simple. If we do not know where we come from, we cannot understand where we are; and if we do not know where we are, we cannot know where we are going.

I have a passion to understand the origins of the current problems that we face. I need that understanding for my business, for the future of my family, and to satisfy my curiosity. And if I, a successful businessman, need to learn from those who have studied the evidence and scorned the propaganda; then how much more important is it that the politician, the diplomat, the journalist and the general public should be educated too. And so I have attempted to repay the teachers and make my contribution to a saner world by supporting educational reform, funding scholarships and assisting those who are willing to listen as well as speak.

People created today's problems - ignorant people, often fired up by information that is biased and usually plain wrong. And people can solve the problems. No danger is unavoidable, no problem too difficult to resolve. Who, twenty years ago would have believed it possible that the Soviet Empire would crumble, China achieve two-figure growth rates, or Northern Ireland fall quiet?

There is nothing unique about my part of the world. We Arabs, whether Moslem or Christian, and our neighbours in Israel are not a hopeless case. The Semitic peoples have been the greatest of travellers, a truly globalised people for hundreds of years. It is my conviction that with true knowledge, understanding and tolerance we can work together to bring about peaceful reform and progress, laying the foundations of a prosperous and peaceful environment for our people, and giving them the chance to enjoy the benefits that are accepted as normal here in the West.

Like you, I have made a major commitment to learn. I hope that as you now go out into the world entering your chosen professions and occupations, you will make a new commitment to keep studying - for the world changes at a dizzying pace - and to make your own contributions to a better world. DonÍt leave it all to the politicians. It is too easy to blame them. Whether as doctors, teachers, artists, journalists or - as in my case, in business - we all have important contributions to make. Westminster University has given you the best possible foundation for that endeavour.

This is your century, and I wish you every success.

Entertainment was provided by ‘Zaman E-Salam’, a quintet consisting of Israeli Arab and Jewish Israeli musicians.  Founded symbolically in Southern Spain, they perform both original and traditional songs in Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish.

Enabling Iraqi Delegation

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation had previously given a grant to the 49e RAI which took place at The British Museum, London from 7 to 11 July 2003.

The Foundation’s support enabled the contribution of nine Iraqi delegates who travelled from Baghdad and Mosel to take part in the conference. The delegates from the Departments of Antiquities and Heritage included the Directors of the National Museum Dr. Donny George and Dr. Nawala al-Mutawalli, and the Ministry of Information was represented by Dr. Muayyad Sa’id Damerji.

Highlighting the current situation

A special session of the conference was devoted to highlighting the current situation in Iraq with regard to cultural heritage, and the losses caused by the looting of museums and archaeological sites were described by recent visitors to Iraq from UNESCO and academic institutions.

As last year, discussions were generally led by Professor Peter Jones, former Director of the Advanced Study in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Edinburgh University.  He developed the theme of "conversation", the art and practice, and this theme was expanded in the course of the individual seminars.

On Saturday evening we dined in New Hall: Anne Lonsdale, Pro Vice-Chancellor for External Affairs and President of New Hall was our hostess. This gave us the opportunity to discuss co-education.

Our weekend closed with a stimulating session on interfaith led by Kate Adair who had recently completed an internship at the Foundation on this subject.

As the result of over 20 years of civil war, the population of the Nuba Mountains in western Sudan was reduced by about three quarters and its developing social services structures were decimated. The area is remote, lacking in adequate water and food resources, without government services and populated by a variety of tribes with different religions, the majority of whom are Muslims. Declaration of ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains in January 2002 revived hope among the Nuba and allowed TFS to expand its educational projects from Khartoum to Southern Kordofan province.

TFS regards education as a human right

TFS regards education as a human right and takes its lead from what marginalised and disadvantaged people say they need: what the Nuba say they need above all else is education. It soon became apparent that TFS would need a sub-office in Kadugli, capital of the Nuba Mountains, if they were to adequately monitor their projects. These concentrate on education of women and children and educational support projects such as school feeding, medical assistance, eye glasses, solar lighting and various types of training.

The MBI grant has enabled TFS to continue their work in the Nuba Mountains and to open a small TFS sub-office in Kadugli. A community based women’s organisation known as Ru’yu is partnering with TFS in this venture.

Sponsoring women’s literacy classes

TFS have paid the salaries of six teachers in three self help basic schools in the NM, sponsored eight women’s literacy classes, and operated their Medicine Box project at three different locations. The TFS solar project, which provides lighting for students, installed two solar lighting panels.

When it was discovered two years ago that 60 students in the only girls secondary school in the Nuba Mountains were hungry and anaemic because their parents could not afford to feed them away from home, TFS began to provide the students one meal a day through the TFS Breakfast Project. In 2004/5 TFS fed one meal a day to over 100 young women attending the girls’ secondary school in Kadugli. They have also continued to fund a project to resettle graduated university scholars in the Nuba mountains as teachers and humanitarian workers. Some 20 young women have benefited from this programme.

Oriental Setting For Reconciliation

The dinner was held at The Oriental Club on Monday 17th November 2003. Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, Minister of State at The Foreign and Commonwealth Office spoke on the current situation in the Middle East and Canon Andrew White, Director of the Centre at Coventry Cathedral spoke on the work undertaken by the ICR in the region.

Injaz Lebanon is a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, the world’s largest and fastest growing organization of its kind, linking the private sector with education.

Since 1919, JA Worldwide has reached more than 70 million students in six continents and it currently operates in nearly 100 countries with programs translated to more than 30 languages.

Through age-appropriate curricula, Junior Achievement programs begin at the elementary school level, teaching children how they can impact the world around them as individuals, workers and consumers. Junior Achievement programs continue through the middle and high school grades, preparing students for future economic and workforce issues they will face.

All Junior Achievement programs are field tested in classrooms and regularly updated in response to comments from teachers, students and volunteers. The results of these evaluations are used to revise and improve the instructional materials.

As regional and world leaders meet at Sharm el-Sheikh, he feels fully vindicated in his early public support for the Coalition by the course of events since then. He said today, "The educational programmes we support, including this important programme at City University, are in line with our consistent and longstanding commitment to democracy and the regional peace process".

The new scholarship programme was announced at the Cass Business School launch on 7th May 2003 by David Rhind, Vice Chancellor of City University. It is designed to bring together some 20 Palestinian and Israeli students taking degrees in business, finance, law and other studies at the University. In addition, they will take part in a broad programme of cultural and social activities aimed to encourage dialogue and understanding.

MBI Al Jaber's pledge is part of the £1 million the scholarship programme has raised so far from two founding sponsors. Besides MBI Al Jaber, Mr Derek Tullett, Chairman of the international brokers Tullett Ltd and a long-time supporter of City University, has also pledged to fund the scholarship. MBI Al Jaber also recently donated in the region of £4 million to the Dar Al-Hekma Private College for Girls in Jeddah.

MBI Al Jaber is a well-known regional moderniser and businessman, and is committed to education as the key to progress and stability in the region. In February 2003, well before the war on Iraq, he wrote to Mr Bush, Mr Cheney, Mr Powell and Mr Blair in support of action against Iraq.

In a second letter to President Bush on March 25th when many doubted whether the US Administration had taken the right position, he wrote, "I am writing to you today, to re-affirm my admiration for your difficult but necessary decision to go to war. History will demonstrate how right you were in making that difficult choice .... all forward thinking Arabs know that change must be imposed if there is to be progress, freedom and stability in our part of the world."

MBI Al Jaber is patron of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation which offers scholarships to students from across the Arab world wishing to study for Master's degrees at partner institutions including SOAS in London, INSEAD in Paris, the American Universities in Cairo (AUC) and Beirut (AUB) and others.

In addition, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation supports a variety of academic and educational projects which promote better understanding between the peoples of the Middle East and the wider world, especially in Europe but also in the United States and elsewhere. Support for the peace initiatives in the region is a key concern of the Foundation.

In addition to seminars on topics such as  “Do History and Culture Matter?” , “ Globalization and Political Identity”, “The Importance of Cultural Heritage”, and “The Role of the Leader” social activities included a walking tour of Cambridge, punting,  visits to Grantchester and Ely Cathedral.

The group was also treated to a showing of rare manuscripts from the Parker Library.

Dr Bruce Ingham of SOAS presented Mohamed for his degree and spoke as follows -

"Sheikh Mohamed's widespread business interests in the service sector and particularly in the leisure and resort industries, initially in Saudi Arabia and later as Chair of a world-wide concern, have brought him into contact with the community, and especially the younger generation, from a variety of countries.

These contacts have produced in him a keen desire to work for the benefit of the people of the Arab world particularly through strengthening human resources through education and cultural enrichment and to promote positive interaction between the Arab world and Europe."

The 2005 Connecting Cultures expedition will be to the Arctic wilderness of Svalbard which, at 80 degrees north, is just 500 miles from the North Pole. In July 2005 four boys from Windlesham House School in the United Kingdom, and six boys from Kingdom and King Faisal Schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will spend two weeks living and travelling in this Arctic wilderness.

Over the years, the project-based part of our work has increased, and we have supported a range of activities with like-minded institutions. The focus of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation’s project department is on educational and cultural projects, and we concentrate on forging partnerships rather than simply giving grants and we strive to create an environment in which we can bring people together in the name of greater understanding and awareness of one another’s cultures.

We recently caught up with a couple of the organisations that have been awarded grants from us in the past to find out what they are doing now and how Foundation support has helped them:

Vaseem Mohamed

In 2005 and 2006, the Foundation sponsored two art exhibitions featuring the art work of artist Vaseem Mohamed at St. Botolph’s Church Aldgate in London.  Vaseem grew up within sight of the church, thus it was a natural venue for a show of his paintings. The Unity and the Light of Hope exhibitions, portrayed Vaseem’s work which features Arabic calligraphy, including verses from the Qur’an, and the paintings were displayed in a Christian church as a symbol of tolerance and respect for the two different religions. Through the collaboration of the Foundation, the artist and the church, we created an interfaith context in order to build bridges between various communities.

Over the years, Vaseem's work has evolved, always picking up and shedding influences, yet his most distinctive feature appears to be ever-present, namely his childhood appreciation of form, colour, and texture. Foundation support has introduced Vaseem to a network of people throughout the years, and the Foundation has also exhibited Vaseem’s work in their offices on numerous occasions, where we are still fortunate enough to have work on display. 

Vaseem regularly exhibits his art and also works on commissions. Vaseem’s latest work is called “The Familiar & Unfamiliar Territories” which exhibited in The Changing Room Gallery (behind The Willam Morris gallery) last July.  Vaseem has an exhibition in Oman (Muscat October 2010) and will be travelling this spring to research and then return to London to produce a collection of work that reflects the historical city and its country.  The Foundation continues to support Vaseem’s efforts now and in the future by offering him encouragement, support and sponsorship. http://www.vaseemmohamed.com/

Society Voice Foundation/ Ibrahim Natil

In 2006, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation supported Society Voice Foundation for Community and Civil Work, a non-profit, non-governmental and non-partisan organistion established in Gaza in 2001 with a mission to empower the Palestinian civil society by designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating a series of community actions, through a grant made towards “Empowering Women in Gaza”. 

Through this project, Director of SVF and MBI Alumni Ibrahim Natil aimed to build the leadership capacities and knowledge in political participation, legislation, democratic governance of 90 young women leaders, by training young women aged 18 to 25 in the principles and techniques of political and social participation, and women’s rights.   

The Society Voice Foundation now has three different offices in Gaza Strip and the West Bank and has cooperated with more than ten reputable donors in the last four years such as OFID, European Commission, Care International, WWDP, TIRI, Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development, Westminster Foundation for Democracy and MEPI.

In 2007, SVF implemented a project with the European Commission entitled "Empower Women's Political and Social Participation in the Gaza Strip.” Currently, SVF runs three different projects:  “Increase Process of Public Monitoring, Accountability, Transparency of Municipality Services”, “Empower Future Young Leadership on Parliamentary Work and Monitoring Corruption” and "Psycho-Social Support for Gazan Children”. SVF seeks to continue and develop its operations in the Palestinian territories to contribute to the development of the Palestinian society and its social change process.  http://www.svacc.org/

On the 10^th of November 2011, MBI Alumnus Othman Al-Helli (UCL, 2008) had the pleasure and honour to meet HM Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to his residence, Goodenough College.  Othman shares his experience with us here...

I was introduced to HM Queen Elizabeth II as an Iraqi doctor studying in London. The meeting itself did not last more than three or four minutes, during which she asked where about I am from in Iraq, what subject I am studying and at which university. She appeared to be impressed when I told her that I am studying for a PhD degree on Parkinson’s disease with the aim of finding out new methods to improve the current diagnostic approaches to the disease. For the meeting, I wore my father’s abayiah (traditional Arab coat), which he kindly sent from Baghdad just few days earlier. It was heavy indeed as it is made of thick wool to give maximum warmth. Many people, including the Queen, admired the abayiah and thought it was pretty and sophisticated. For me, it represents something beautiful from my homeland, Iraq, and a dear thing from my family who suffered a lot to get me where I am today. 

Surprisingly, the highlight of that day was not meeting the Queen, but what happened later that day. That afternoon, I uploaded photos taken by my dear friend, Aaron Murphy. My mother saw the pictures on Facebook and rang me saying “I am very happy for you meeting the Queen and deeply proud of you representing your country. You looked so handsome, I wish to see you wedded very soon, Inshallah!”   Those words touched me deeply, like nothing else has ever done.  My mother, a village girl from the south of Iraq and a mother of ten children, is very happy for me and because of me.  She is a woman that has been giving and giving all her life without asking for anything in return, never thinking of herself or her own needs. She is a primary school graduate, but all of her children have gone to university. She is a mother whose only dream is seeing her children successful and happy. Don’t get me wrong: meeting the Queen was awesome, but my mother being delighted, happy and proud is super awesome! Her happiness made my day, my month and my year!

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Tariq Al-Aabed: "A Doctor with Big Dreams"

After Dr. Tariq Al-Aabed (UCL, 2009) received a distinction in his MSc., he completed training in Dresden, Germany and then returned back to Iraq with his family. 

Tariq recently got a job through Ministry of Higher Education of Iraq as a lecturer of Radiation Oncology at the Mosul College of Medicine Department of Radiology.   Currently Tariq is the only doctor with an MSc. in Oncology from UCL who works in Iraq as a Radiation Oncologist, and he is one of just two doctors who work as senior oncologists at Mosul Oncology Hospital and who work with the hospital’s new linear accelerator, which was recently imported to Iraq.

Tariq’s clinic for cancer treatment helps treat poor patients from Mosul, North of Iraq, Baghdad, Anbar, Tikrit and Deyala.  He is currently hoping to start a PhD programme in Radiation Oncology in order to facilitate the opening of an MSc. and Diploma in Radiation Oncology for his colleagues and Iraqi doctors to get a degree in Oncology and also to aid his pursuit of opening a cancer research centre in Mosul which would be unique to the Middle East.   

Tariq’s course at UCL saw him study at five different European countries, including the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany. Tariq’s training included visits to many organisations related to Oncology such as EORT, ECCO, SIOP and ESTRO in Brussels, and workshops including the EURATOM CARDIORISK workshop in pathology department of Technical University of Munich.  The most important event for him during this time was meeting with Dr. Adamos Adamou, the Chair of the ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) Developing Countries Task Force and Member of the European Parliament, in the European Parliament.  

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Fahmia Al- Fotih and SAVE in Yemen:

Empowering Women to Counter Extremism 

Since her graduation, Fahmia Al-Fotih, one of our Alumni from Yemen, has been working hard on vital issues in Yemen such as women empowerment and how to utilise it to tackle extremism that mostly affects women. Fahmia joined Sisters Against Violent Extremism (SAVE Yemen), an organisation that recently brought together a group of women from human rights groups, academic institutions, the press,  and university students, to discuss how Yemeni women can become involved to face extremism and terrorism.

Congratulations Ammar Al Naimi!

MBI Scholar Ammar Al Naimi has just gained a distinction in his Masters’ Degree from UCL.

Ammar, who is from Iraq, completed a Masters’ Degree in Prenatal Genetics and Fetal Medicine in September. The research undertaken for his dissertation is to be published, and will be useful for families undertaking certain fertility procedures.

Ammar is currently helping our new Iraqi scholars to settle in to life in London.

The list is not exhaustive - should you have queries about any of these or other Alumni please contact us at alumni@mbifoundation.com.  

Antar Abdellah
(SOAS 2002/3)
Antar is at present the Professional and Organizational Advisor in a multinational project funded by USAID for developing the quality of education in Egypt. He is also the convener of the translation certificate programme at South Valley University language centre and in a year, he will be applying for a promotion, for an Associate Professorship in Education.

Previously he was a lecturer in TEFL at Qena Faculty of Education, South Valley University, Egypt, teaching TEFL, curriculum analysis, translation and linguistics. He has a PhD in Education (course design and language teaching methods) and recently celebrated the arrival of a daughter, Minnatallah. Antar's MA thesis from SOAS is published online on the site of the WORLD ARABIC TRANSLATORS' ASSOCIATION (WATA). His first book entitled 'Novice Translators' Guide', was displayed at the Cairo International Book Fair. He recently published another book called 'Horizons of Translation', as well as five papers on the internet and in national and international conferences. He has also published several other articles in the field of linguistics and translation. Ibrahim

Ibrahim Abdel Rahim
(INSEAD 2003/04)
Consultant at McKinsey & Company, currently working on a project in Dubai.

Rola Abdul-Latif
(SOAS 2003/2004)
Rola works as a Research Officer at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), a non-profit organization that supports democracy and elections around the world. Her role is focused on conducting research such as public opinion polling and other survey work to support IFES programs worldwide.

Ghina Abiad
(AUB 2002/03)
Working as a systems engineer in the IT & Development department at BLOM Bank, the largest bank in Lebanon.

Afaf Adwan
(SOAS 2002/03)
Had difficulties returning to Palestine and after a stint living and working in Cairo as a manager for Ramattan News Agency Afaf accompanied her fiance (now husband) to the US.

Amer Afiouni
(INSEAD 2002/03)
Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company in Dubai.

Khalid Alansari
(SOAS 2001/02)
Head of Environmental Planning in Qatar Petroleum. He works in Mesiaeed Industrial City which is administered and managed by Qatar Petroleum.

Tariq Al Abed
(UCL 2009)
Upon graduation, Tariq went back to Iraq for a few months and then won a  scholarship from the Technical University of Dresden/Carl Gustav Carus faculty of medicine, Dept. of Radiation Oncology & Radiation Biology in Dresden city in Germany, as part of his MSc. distinction for 5 months. Tariq hoped that with this radiotherapy training and FRCRO part 1 exam he would go back to Iraq and work on one of three machines that were imported to the country during the old regime but have never been installed. This important training will provide Tariq with the technical skills to operate these machines and he will be one of the first oncology radiotherapists in the country qualified and trained in Europe to help the many cancer sufferers in Iraq. Our congratulations to Tariq who recently got a job through the Ministry of Higher Education of Iraq as a lecturer of Radiation Oncology at Mosul College of Medicine/Dept of Radiology.  Tariq is the only doctor at Mosul Oncology Hospital with an MSc in Oncology from UCL working as a Radiation Oncologist.

Rana Al Akhal
(LEAD 2002/04)
Rana is Managing Director of her own NGO, developing a National Youth Policy, Strategy and Action Plan for youth in Jordan as a joint project between UNDP and the Government of Jordan.

Fahmia Al-Fotiah
(University of Westminster, 2008/09) 
Fahmia is back in Yemen after finishing her MA in International Relations. As a journalist and with her new specialisation in this field, Fahmia will carry on contributing to the development of her country and the empowerment of Yemeni women. Upon her return to Sana’a, Fahmia has joined the NGO SAVE  as the local coordinator for Yemen. Fahmia’s experience as both a journalist and a teacher make her a valuable contributor to SAVE Yemen and SAVE Global. Fahmiya is participating in a SAVE Conference in Vienna in early March 2010, with 25 women from all over the world, where she will present a paper about SAVE Yemen activities. SAVE Yemen will celebrate Mothers' Day in a different manner this year as they are planning a mothers' campaign to engage Yemeni mothers in combatting extremism and terrorism, a topic on which Fahmia just completed pilot research. http://www.women-without-borders.org/news/163

Fadel Al Hababi
(Westminster 2000/01)
Working at Central Laboratory and Blood Bank in Riyadh as a specialist in the Virology Department. He is involved in two main research work areas: remote sensing for Rift Valley Fever Virus in Jazan Region in Saudi Arabia and the clinical complication of Rift Valley Fever Virus on vision. Both research projects are funded by the King Abdulaziz for Science and Technology City. Fadel's MSc dissertation has been published in the Clinical Virology Journal, ref: F. Al- Hababi, W. Tong, Talal Salam; the Significance of 'anti HBc only' in the Clinical Laboratory. Journal of Clinical Virology 00 (2002) 1- 8. He is currently in Berlin for two months at the Robert Koch Institut of infectious disease training in special molecular virology work.

Ammar Al Naimi
(UCL 2004/5)
Ammar is currently living in Frankfurt, working as a Junior doctor. He has started his training in gynaecology and has been nominated as a Fellow in the SOLE Breast Cancer Research Project.

Muzna Al-Quaiti
(SOAS 2002/03)
A huge congratulations goes out to Muzna who recently got married! Muzna has taken a year’s leave from Dar Al Hekma College in Jeddah where she is a lecturer of Contemporary World History and also English Language Proficiency classes. She is now is Cairo with her husband for a few months and during this time, she hopes to take some history and art courses which will prove beneficial to her line of teaching, work and personal interest.

Samah Al-Safady
(Goldsmiths 2003/04)
Samah is now the Head of Princess FADWA Centre at the King Fahad Academy for Special Needs and Learning Support in London. She has appeared on two live TV shows discussing Special Education. She currently lives in London with her husband and two daughters Sarah and Eman. Samah previously held a post at Dar Al Hekma College.

Farouk Al-SalihSafady
(LSE 2008/9)
On his return to Yemen, Farouk obtained a contract with IFAD/UNDP in Sanaa.

Sulaiman Al-Shandoodi
(LSE 2000/01)
Deputy Director of International Affairs at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman.

Saifedean Ammous
(LSE 2003/04)
Won a scholarship to study a PhD program in Sustainable Development in Columbia University. On complection of his PhD he has returned to the region and remains in academia.  

Jihane Assaf
(AUB 2002/04)
Finished his MBA and is now in the United Arab Emirates.

Dania Sami Assi
(AUB 2002/04)
Dania is now in Philadelphia on a program organized by the US State Department for leaders in the Middle East. She was selected along with 36 other women from the Middle East and North Africa region. The participants will be in the US for six months, where they will each have one month executive education at Wharton to be followed by the opportunity to intern in a US firm.

Majida Awashreh
(SOAS 2000/01)
Senior Civic Engagement Specialist at one of the American Relief and Humanitarian Organizations in Palestine, called the Cooperative Housing Foundation. Majida is currently responsible for implementing the civic engagement program with a project called Local Democratic Reform, which focuses on strengthening the capacities of Palestinian local governments as well as promoting public participation and oversight among civil society. This project will see the launch of 4 civic programs after Ramadan: strengthening communication mechanisms between public-local councils; national campaign on good governance; shadowing local youth councils and hosting the first ever conference on the partnership between local government, the private sector, and civil society.

Majida formerly worked with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in Palestine on April 1st 2007. She was a project advisor for a new project entitled Local Councils and Civil Society Development Program, a new program launched in January 07 which is expected to go until 2014. She was the first local or international woman to assume such a high post in the GTZ Palestine office.

Previously Majida was Senior Grants and Capacity Building Officer for a USAID-funded project called "Civil Society & Democracy Strengthening Project" or TAMKEEN for short which is the Arabic equivalent for "strengthening". It was a 6-year, 32million dollar project that expired at the end of March 2007.

Shaswar Baban
(Westminster 2007/08)
After completing a Masters degree in Mobile, Personal and Satellite Communications, Shaswar returned to Iraq (Kurdistan area). He is currently looking for a job. However, as he is very ambitious and full of great ideas, he is hoping to continue studying and begin working towards his PhD soon.

Ahmed Badawi
(LSE 2000/01)
Research Associate at SOAS and an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Development and Peace, University of Duisburg-Essen where he is Project Director: Beyond Managing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Toward a New People-to-People Agenda (Grant from the United States Institute of Peace). He is the author of numerous articles in journals and working papers on politics in Palestine. As a PhD student at Humboldt University in Berlin, he is also working on his PhD thesis, tentatively titled "Political Economy of Development, Economic Theory and the Dynamics of Policy Failure: A Prospective Evaluation of US Governance and Democracy Promotion Policy in the Arab World".

Lobna Ben Salem
(Westminster 2000/01)
Lobna is now the proud mother of two girls, expecting her third child in a few months. She is still teaching English at the University of Tunis and has recently started a very ambitious research project concerning women's literature of the third world. She is the first in the academic circle to have undertaken this kind of research. She participated in a conference in March 2005 at the University of Sousse.

Achraf Cherkaoui
(INSEAD)
Working at McKinsey.

Heba Mohamed El Araby
(AUC 2002/2004)
Heba is a Marketing Communication Manager for one of the main Leasing companies in Egypt – CORPLEASE (Corporate Leasing Company Egypt S.A.E). Heba joined the company in March 2007 and managed from that time on to change the corporate image of the company and to initiate various marketing activities. By initiating the establishment of a Marketing Communication Department, she added to the awareness of the market of leasing as a whole and CORPLEASE in particular. Previously Heba was Marketing Manager at the Modern Sciences and Arts University (MSA University). She was responsible for all marketing activities related to the university and building the image of the university in the minds of the parents and students as the best providers of British Higher Education in Egypt.

Mohammed El-Hammuri
(Westminster 2002/3)
Regulatory Operations Specialist at Etisalat Telecommunications Corporation in the UAE.

Yasmine El Mehairy
(Westminster 2003/04)
Yasmine returned to Cairo after she finished her degree and joined ITWorx, one of the largest IT service providers in the region where she was keen on introducing many of the concepts she learned during her experience in the UK. After a while, she wanted to utilize her skills in a growing company, so Yasmine joined OpenCraft, a small IT services company that believes in and promotes the open-source and free software movement. In 2009 she moved to ‘Al Masry Al Youm’, Egypt’s largest independent newspaper as the web portal project manager where she and her team launched the new interactive portal. With that project over, she is currently working as a freelancer.  Yasmine has also been active on starting a small home business of handmade greeting cards that was launched in October 2008 and the project has became profitable. The cards, currently available to order on Facebook as well as in three locations in Cairo, include occasion-specific cards for birthdays, Christmas, new babies, etc. and Egyptian and Arabic cards as well as generic cards. Further information on her cards is available on her website http://zewwcards.blogspot.com/. 

Adham Fahmi
(LSE 2001/02)
Working in an IT company called Information Technology & Services Co. (ITSC) in Egypt as a Project Manager with responsibilities in Bill Collection, Telecom, Money Transfers, and Security. He is also studying to become a Chartered Financial Analyst. Adham's LSE dissertation is in the process of being published in Arabic by The Alliance for Arab Women (NGO). The Title in English is Human Capital, Gender & Development: a Critique of Egypt's Software Industry.

Rana Feghali
(SOAS 2000/01)
Has recently left her job with Risk Advisory Group in London after previously working at Asharq Al Awsat newspaper as an Assistant researcher/translator.

Rania Hadra
(SOAS 2000/01)
After a spell working in Khartoum, with the United Nations Advance Mission in Sudan as a Political Affairs Officer, Rania is now at the UN in New York.

Ingy Hammad
(SOAS 2001/02)
Won a Fulbright grant for a Teaching Assistantship at the University of Illinois, USA as part of Ingy's PhD studies. From May, Ingy will be back in Cairo, as assistant lecturer at the Department of Linguistics, Helwan University.

Roua Hijazi
Economist for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Basel Jebril
(SOAS 2001/02)
Working for Kolmar Petrochemicals at the Middle East Trading Department, London.

Mardiros Kaloustian
(INSEAD 2002/03)
Previously worked with Booz Allen Hamilton, an international consultancy, in the Beirut office. He is now located in Paris working as an Associate Director for a company called Invus. He and his wife have had a daughter called Anna.

Hassan Kassouf
(AUB 2002/04)
Preparing for a Geology Conference in Madrid in June 2005. He has had a summer internship with a Canadian petroleum company in the United Arab Emirates and in the oil fields of the Yemeni desert.

Laith Kawther
(Westminster 2007/08)
After finishing his Masters in Journalism at Westminster, Laith has returned to Iraq and is working as a Producer for the BBC.

Abdalla Ahmed Fekry Mahmoud
(AUC 2002/04)
Currently pursuing an MBA at AUC. He is also working as a Security Consultant at IBM-ISS. He has published and presented papers at conferences.

Noura Mansouri
(Queen Mary 2003/04)
Noura is at the writng up stage of her PhD dissertation. Her working title is: "Carbon Management for Sustainable Development: An Examination of Potential Technological Transition Paths of the Saudi Arabian System of Innovation to a Cleaner Energy Economy" at the School of Engineering and Material Science at Queen Mary, University of London. Noura is married and has a daughter, Aya. She is now living in Jeddah.

Sara Mansouri
(City 2003/04)
Sara is an Investment Analyst Associate in Hedge Funds working for NCB Capital in Bahrain. Presently she is also undertaking a 5 week training course with Goldman Sachs. Previously Sara was an Associate Executive at NCB (National Commercial Bank) in Saudi Arabia working in two divisions: Treasury Management and Risk Management.

Talar Markossian
(AUB 2002/04)
In the first year of a PhD programme in Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Talar has a Graduate Research Assistantship along with her studies.

Mohab Meshreki
(AUC 2003/04)
Research Officer at the Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre, National Research Council of Canada. Mohab has graduated with a PhD Degree in 2008 McGill University in Mechanical Engineering.

Heba Mostafa
(AUC 2002/04)
Heba Mostafa has been a lecturer at the American University in Cairo, teaching a course titled Foundations of Design and Color at the Department of Performing and Visual Arts since February 2006. She has also been teaching at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology’s department of Architecture since February 2004. Heba is going to attend University of Cambridge, Department of Architecture to pursue her PhD, starting in October 2007.

Heba was a participant in the 2nd International Conference for Mediterranean Architecture at Misr International University in 2003 with a paper titled “Designing in a World of Shifting Paradigms: Early Islamic Design Processes and the Formulation of Responsive Architectural Design. She was also a participant in Cairo University’s Department of Architecture 3rd annual Conference in 2005, titled “Appropriating Architecture and Taming Urbanism in the Decades of Transformation” with a paper titled “Urbanism in the Bigger Picture: Contextualizing the Message of the Islamic Urban Code between Isfahan and Istanbul in the 16th and 17th c.”

Salma Nagy
(LSE 2003/04)
Since her graduation, Salma has been working for Shell Egypt mainly focusing planning and economic valuation of new oil and gas projects. she has now been promoted to a regional role covering the Levant region as well as Egypt.

Fouad Michel Nakhle
(AUB 2002/04)
Fouad is a public sectior account manager for Microsoft Lebanon.

Ibrahim Natil
(Westminster 2001/02)
Ibrahim is currently undertaking a PhD in politics at the University of Coventry. He is Director of the Society Voice Foundation, and NGO in Gaza which has just signed a contract with European Commission to implement a one year project "Empower Women's Political and Social Participation in the Gaza Strip". SVA aims to build the leadership capacities and knowledge of political participation, legislation, and democratic governance of 600 young women leaders. Ibrahim’s primary role is that of being responsible for conducting a preliminary analysis on current legislation and its impact on honour killing crimes. He manages a Committee which recommends either amendments to existing legislation or a new draft law criminalizing honour killings and all forms of violence against women.

Sherine Mahmoud Negm
(AUC 2002/04)
Currently doing her PhD in POLS at Cairo University.

Rita Obeid
(LSE 2002/03)
Associate in Mergers & Acquisitions for Citigroup.

Mary Pandazos
(AUB 2002/04)
Since 2005, Mary has been working at the University of Balamand (UOB) as a Medical School Assistant to the Dean in the Faculty of Medicine & Medical Sciences.

Ahmed Hosney Radwan
(LEAD 2002/04)
Dr. Radwan graduated from the Imperial College of London in 2004 as part of LEAD cohort 10 and is now a partner of a private consultancy company working in the field of Architecture & Urban Planning and Studies working on projects mainly in the Middle East. He achieved his PHD Degree in Architecture in 2007. Having previously worked as an Assistant Professor of Architecture teaching in Helwan University, MIU & AUC, Ahmed is now working as an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the College of Fine Arts. Ahmed has been involved in the architectural design of many projects in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, KSA, Jordan, Iran and Ethiopia.

Alaadin Rady
(INSEAD 2002/03)
Alaa is now Managing Director of Emmaa Financial Services. On leaving INSEAD, Alaa became a consultant for Bain & Company, based in Paris but dealing with the Middle East market. He then spent six months travelling doing development work all over the world. In Maniapure, a city in the Amazon basin in southern Venezuela, he led a camp for 60 local children and 9 adults teaching crafts, sports, and educational topics. He then travelled to Mongolia on a cultural restoration project in Baladan Bairavan, restoring some of the cultural heritage buildings. He moved on to Africa traveling in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland, working on an environmental development project saving and breeding lions that are now endangered species in Africa, and lived with some indigenous tribes, which he considers a superb cultural exchange experience. Alaa then went on to work with Master Foods (Mars Company) as a Market Manager for Algeria, starting up a business from scratch. After two years and the successful startup of operations in this new market, Alaa moved to Mozambique where he took part in a project to attract foreign direct investments to the north of Mozambique with an NGO called TechnoServe. He returned to Egypt in February 2007 where, with 4 partners, he started a boutique investment bank and strategy consulting firm called Enmaa Financial Services.

Monette Saade
(Westminster 2002/01)
Working as a Project Manager in Heritage Management for the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. She has previously worked at the American University of Beirut as an Archaeologist, at the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism on the All Seasons Magazine as an Editor and at the InterContinental Phoenicia in Beirut as an Administrative & Training Manager. She also assists her town in developing a tourism plan.

Abdurrahman Khaled Saif
(Westminster 2008/09)
Abdulrahman received his MA with Merit from Westminster University in Journalism Translation.  For more details (in Arabic) please read an article in Al Thawra Yemeni Newspaper about his achievements.   The article talks about Abdulrahman’s achievements as the first Yemeni researcher to complete such a degree. His thesis, titled ‘’ The Basis of Making a News Item’’ discusses the main principles of Arabic-English translation of news and focuses on the importance of the journalist 's knowledge of customising the news when translating. http://althawranews.net/detailes.aspx?newsid=29539

Ahmed Mohamed Salih
(Nottingham 2004/2005)
Head of the Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical College, Duhok University in Iraq. The Medical Microbiology Division was established in 1994 in the Medical College in Duhok. Ahmed got the position of Head of the Department shortly after his return from the UK and the completion of his MSc. He has researched bacteria causes of otitis media in children and antibiotic sensitivity of the bacteria isolated from patients with otitis media.

Ziad Shaaban
(LSE 2001/02)
Ziad is working in Dubai for EFG Hermes. He joined EFG after 4 years at JPMorgan in London as a credit derivatives trader and is now running the credit desk at EFG. He has also finished his CFA charter.

Reem Shaath
(LSE 2001)
Reem is the Vice President of Business Development, Saudi HRD. Here she has been mostly involved in upgrading the HR & Management Consulting services which they offer, introducing new training products and tools, with a strong focus on psychometric testing and assessment centres. By doing this she has opened many channels for the training & development of women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Prior to this, Reem worked in HR for PepsiCo International.

Reem has also been heavily involved in promoting and raising funds for a project called the "Arab Digital Expression Camps", aimed at children aged 12-15. These camps, which take place during the summer, aim to teaching Arab children on how to express themselves 'digitally' through different tools, be it graphic design, sound & music, digital video or animation. The main idea behind it is to develop the skills of Arab youth so that, through the use of advanced digital technologies, they can create their own ideas; ideas that reflect their culture, identity and hopes.

Abdulmonem Sulimon
(INSEAD 2003/04)
Abdulmonem, of Sudan, graduated with an MBA and is now working in the UAE as a Strategy Manager for a company called Limitless.

Zainab Taki
(Westminster 2007/08)
Zainab graduated in 2008 with a Masters degree in TESOL, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, at the University of Westminster. Her reason for choosing this topic is due to the fact that Zainab feels communication entails a lot more than just language: it takes into account body language, habits and belief systems. Zainab's goal is to improve English language teaching methodologies in Iraq, in a way that prepares Iraqis to function effectively in any English-speaking country. She has now returned to Iraq and is hoping to become an English teacher, utilising her experience in England and her broader knowledge of the language and culture to enable her to teach English from new angles and using reformed methods.

Nadine Usta
(SOAS 2003/04)
After three years of working for Arab Advisors Group, a research and consultancy company which specialises in the communications, media and technology markets of the Arab world in Jordan, Nadine is now working as a Media & Telco Consultant for a consultancy firm in London focusing on projects in the Middle East. She is currently working on a project that aims to build high-quality, low-cost housing in the Middle East and Africa, starting with Jordan.

Sayeeda Walker
(Kings 2003/04)
She is as an instructor at Dar Al Hekmah College, Jeddah. She is pursuing further studies in the field of health.

Sharia Walker
(Kings 2003/04)
Working at Dar Al Hekma College, Jeddah.

Tarek Younis
(SOAS 2001/02)
Regional Representative and Head of Music for a British theatre company that aims to promote the building bilateral ties between the UK and the Middle East through theatre and cultural interaction. He is also Music Composition and History lecturer at Jordan University's new Faculty of Music, a consultant Ethnomusicologist for The Information and Research Centre at the King Hussein Foundation in Amman, and other institutions. He also organizes concerts.

Sophie Zanoon
(SOAS 2002/03)
After working for some time in higher education in Saudi Arabia, Sophie joined the British Council in Dubai and from 2007 - 2008 worked as a Project Manager for Schools and also for Social Partnerships. Sophie’s remit stretched across all the UAE and she was involved in many Educational projects including linking schools in the Gulf and the UK through the Connecting Classrooms Project. She also planned and sponsored a seminar with an Arts charity for children named ‘START’ to invite a UK artist to the region to give a seminar on the Artist as an Educator.

She was involved in the planning of the Springboard project, which targets women’s personal and professional self-development and publicised, ran the UAE sections of the student art expedition ‘Offscreen’ and assisted in the ministerial visit to the Moving Young Minds Seminar. Sophie later organised a competition to select UAE delegates for "Learning from the Future" held in Dubai April 2008. In September 2008, Sophie moved to Al Ain to work as Head of Operations with a British Organisation, SSAT (Specialist Schools and Academies Trust) and is managing the setting up of their new office.

Yasmine El Mehairy
(Westminster 2003/4 ) 

Yasmine returned to Cairo after she finished her degree and joined ITWorx, one of the largest IT service providers in the region where she was keen on introducing many of the concepts she learned during her experience in the UK. After a while, she wanted to utilize her skills in a growing company, so Yasmine joined OpenCraft, a small IT services company that believes in and promotes the open-source and free software movement.

In 2009, she moved to ‘Al Masry Al Youm’, Egypt’s largest independent newspaper as the web portal project manager where she and her team launched the new interactive portal. With that project over, she is currently working as a freelancer.  

Meanwhile, Yasmine has been active starting a small home business making handmade greeting cards that was launched in October 2008.  The project has now became profitable and Yasmine hopes that one day her greeting card business will grow big enough to become a full time job. The cards, currently available to order on Facebook as well as in three locations in Cairo, include occasion-specific cards for birthdays, Christmas, new babies, etc. and Egyptian and Arabic cards as well as generic cards. Further information on her cards is available on her website http://zewwcards.blogspot.com/. 

Yasmine says: ‘I have been trying to enjoy as much as I can of the wonderful things life has to offer. I enjoy reading, photography and cooking from various cuisines. I still have a passion for learning and I am currently enrolled in a distance learning degree in Islamic Studies: my next step is to learn more about Arabic calligraphy.” 

Read excerpts and letters from some of our alumni about their experiences as MBI Scholars and how the Foundation has influenced their lives.

For me, the MBI scholarship was an eye-opening experience; I started experiencing a bigger world than my close circle which made me question and evaluate many things I took for granted thus broadening my perspective and increasing my tolerance. In a nutshell, MBI helped make me who I am today.

- University of Westminster Scholar, 2004

I'd like to tell you that I passed my exams with a distinction grade. This success would not be achieved without the great help of the MBI Foundation and the support of the kind staff of the Foundation. This success is not only mine, it's yours as well. Thank you so much. Please convey my regards and deep thanks to all MBI Foundation members.

- Yemen Scholar, 2009

I am writing this letter to show my deep appreciation for your kindness and your generosity which is being shown in the right time of my need for this scholarship after being disappointed from all other organisations which I have been in touch with. Your generous support is helping me to fulfil a lifelong dream of going to MODUL University in Vienna to study a Master of Business Administration in Tourism Management.

There are times in one's life when one finds himself in a helpless and hopeless situation, and it is then that the crucial and timely support makes a major difference and appears as a small ray of light in a dark tunnel. It is this guidance and the confidence placed by you in my ability that has shown me the correct direction to follow and come out of this tricky situation.

In the past also, you have been very supportive in the most trying times to many peoples and students and to the Arab world to develop many sections, where you could have been a mute spectator but being actively involved, you have displayed a very humane nature.

Your mentoring has meant a great deal to me and I look forward to your continued support. I would once again like to acknowledge your help with a deep sense of gratitude. Thank you again for your generosity and support. I promise you that I will study harder and harder to achieve my goal.

- MODUL Scholar, 2009

The programme changed my life with all its encouragement and support throughout my year at SOAS during my Masters.  I can never voice my appreciation enough for all the MBI did for me during my year of study., from academic support to even seeing me through the smallest daily details of my life whilst studying. Today I am a more motivated person because of MBI’s help and recognition.

- SOAS Scholar, 2003

It's an opportunity that changes you forever. On a professional level, it allows you to interact in a prestigious academic environment and on a personal level interact within an international milieu with a multitude of cultures for you to be exposed to. Your personality becomes richer more open and you become better equipped for future work challenges. It gave me the opportunity to develop my skills and education in the fields of management and policy development. It opened up career opportunities and gave me the chance to live in the world's most cultural and lively countries.

I would like to thank Sheikh Al Jaber for giving me and other Arab youths the opportunity to study in such acclaimed academic institutions. I have tried to use this experience for the advancement of the Arab world and contribute to its growth until it reaches the enlightenment era which we will aspire to experience once again.

- University of Westminster Scholar, 2001

The MBI Al Jaber Foundation Scholarship Programme opened great opportunities both on the personal and professional sides. It gave me access to top-notch career prospects and exposure to the financial sector, which would hopefully benefit my country when I go back.  It also gave me the opportunity to live in London, which is a unique multi-cultural and diverse society.  I hope I can someday give back a fraction of what the MBI has provided me, and help others get the same opportunities – I am working on it!!

- LSE Scholar, 2003

The Foundation gave me a much needed opportunity to study at an institution with an intense yet nurturing environment. As a result of the generous support, I was able to pursue an active academic life, through publishing and teaching. It also gave me the opportunity to delve deep into my field, putting extra time, money and effort into my thesis and going the extra mile because I was so well financially supported. It has deeply impacted my personal and professional life and was instrumental in placing me in a position to get an acceptance to study at Cambridge University; an opportunity that I hope will benefit my field and country upon my return.

- AUC Scholar, 2006 

It gave me an opportunity that I might have never had, helped me broaden my horizon and decide what I want to do with my life.  Doing my masters and interacting with many international students, helped me get a more focused view of the world, our strengths and weaknesses in it as Arabs and what we as Arabs and me as a person should do to make our lives in general, our area and countries in specific, better.  I found the inner strength and belief in my capability as a person to change the world to the better through research, building bridges and finding solutions that we as academics and researchers might see that could be oblivious to others.

- AUC Scholar, 2004

It is very honourable from your part to consider supporting ambitious, devoted and educated students like ourselves, in my case, words of gratitude and thanks would not actually describe the extent to which your scholarship has motivated me to be able to give more, learn more and be a better person to myself, my family and my country. Being a 23 year-old student who struggled her way through university aiming to reach a higher level of education and thought, such a nice and thoughtful gesture as yours would make me feel encouraged to pursue even higher education.  I hope to be able to achieve all my dreams, and I am sure that I can, as long as there are still people like yourself who appreciate the beauty of youth and knowledge. I also hope that one day I’ll even be able to help others in their education, because now I know how a student feels when he knows he is appreciated.

- AUB Scholar, 2002

We are proud of our scholars, and are publishing their dissertations in order to highlight their achievements and to make this important body of work as accessible as possible. 

Whilst the MBI Al Jaber Foundation and its Alumni are happy for others to use these dissertations as a resource, we ask you to kindly respect the intellectual property of the scholars and to credit them appropriately.  If you would like to contact them to discuss their work in further detail, please email info@mbifoundation.com and we will pass on your request.

Invitation for Alumni to Submit Dissertations:

If you have not yet already done so, please submit your dissertation in Word or PDF format to info@mbifoundation.com so that we may add it to our online Alumni Library*.

* Please note that upon submission, your dissertation will be available for viewing by the public unless you specify otherwise.

2009

The Cultural Learning Needs for Iraqi Students of English
(pdf 5886kb)
Zainab Taqi - MA Teaching English to speakers of Other Languages
University of Westminster 2008

2008

Design and Implementation of a Scheduling Algorithm for the IEEE 802.16e
(Mobile WiMAX) Network (pdf 824Kb)
Mr Shaswar Baban - MSc Mobile, Personal and Satellite Communications
University of Westminster 2008

Application of Non-Uniform Sampling in Sensor Networks Communications (pdf 2666Kb)
Mustafa T. AbdulRazak- MSc Mobile, Personal and Satellite Communications
University of Westminster 2008

2006

Private Military Companies: Pillars of a New World Order? A Study of the Effect of Neo Liberal Policies on International Relations (pdf 749Kb)
Sherine Mahmoud Negm - M.A. (Political Science)
The American University in Cairo. 2006

The Ceremonial-Urban Dynamic of Cairo from the Fatimid to the Early Mamluk Period (pdf 565Kb)
Heba Mostafa - M.A. (Islamic Art and Architecture)
The American University in Cairo. 2006

2005

Reputed Authenticated Routing for Ad Hoc Networks Protocol (Reputed-ARAN) (pdf 897Kb)
Abdalla Ahmed Fekry Mahmoud - MSc (Computer Science)
The American University in Cairo. 2005

2004

Fuel Cell as a Potential Disruptive Innovation - A Case Study of Saudi Aramco (pdf 2.79Mb)
Noura Mansouri - M.A. (Technology Exploitation and Management)
Queen Mary, University of London. 2004

Promoting Health and Healing Through Food: Contrasting Macrobiotics and Conventional Orthodox Perspectives. (pdf 420Kb)
Sayeeda Ihsan Walker - MSc (Health Education and Health Promotion)
Kings College London, University of London. 2004

Women and Leadership: A Female Private Institute for Higher Education, Al Nour College, In Saudi Arabia. (pdf 245Kb)
Sharia Walker - M. A. (Education Management)
Kings College London, University of London. 2004

2003

The Contribution of the Lebanese Banking Sector towards National E-Readiness. (pdf 677Kb)
Ghina Omar Abiad - M.B.A.
The American University of Beirut. 2003

Analyst’s Recommendations: A Prophecy or Fallacy (pdf 523Kb)
Fouad Michel Nakhle - M.B.A.
The American University of Beirut. 2003

2002

The Future of the Israeli Arabs in Israel. (pdf 219Kb)
Ibrahim A. Natil - M. A. (Diplomatic Studies)
The Diplomatic Academy of London, University of Westminster. 2002

If you have any questions for Mounzer or any comments on his diary entries please feel free to send them to us at info@mbifoundation.com. 

1 April 2010

Now comes a new stage in my life, the studying has begun.

I came to Vienna to pursue my MBA degree at MODUL University thinking it will be a usual studying college life; coming every day to the university for lectures, but I was wrong about that.

The MBA Programme at MODUL is a very pleasant one that is designed for working professionals. Students follow intensive courses for four to five days only every month. Study at MODUL is built upon doing research and writing essays rather than taking exams only. The MBA students should submit assignments which are results of deep thinking and research rather than studying certain material for exams.

I find this system is great, however, it leaves me with problem, which it is a lot of spare time. I want to find a solution for this issue, but I don’t know how!  It’s no one’s fault of course, this MBA program is wonderful for students who work and live in Vienna. However, in my case I am away from home, new to the country with very few friends I made at the university and above all  as a student I am not allowed to work in EU because I have a student visa.

Some of the MBA students live and work in other countries and fly to Vienna to attend the courses while others live and work in Austria.

I have been contemplating taking the same step. I might be able to find a job in my country or any other Arabic country and attend only the course which lasts for four or five days per month. However,  it is not an easy step to take. My employers might not allow me to work on this basis or might give me a prorata payment which would not be enough to cover the monthly traveling costs plus day to day living expenses.

Another difficulty for me is communicating with Austrian people who come across as very reserved compared to people back at home. I might be wrong about that, but in my Arab world, people are open and I feel I can communicate easily with them, without barriers, I find my people are more easy going. However, Austrian people are very polite and gentle.

But these things always happen, when it comes to differences among cultures.

There is a German saying with the meaning: different countries, different habits.

I still feel lucky to have made new friends at college, Arabs and non Arabs. Also the spare time I have allows me to discover Vienna and enjoy its beauty, reading and visiting its wonderful libraries, doing sports along the Danube river, and meeting friends.

So, in this way I want to find solutions for my temporary problems but I will never give up finding the solutions or my studies.

1 February 2010