Eye opener

Seems like I’ve got a lot to talk about for this one, but this week has been an eye opener for me. A lot has taken place this week, but I’ll break it down in a detailed list.

I’ve seen the ‘humanity’ or extreme lack thereof in the youth. If they say that the future lies in their hands, then it has just become our undoing. The youth of this generation and even before can’t even prioritize what’s important as they are just focused on being cool and don’t give a shit of what’s happening. If 2012 does unfold, they won’t have a chance to make “big money” as they dream – they might just be facing the ultimate judgement. Just yesterday, I decided to observe One Day Without Shoes as part of TOMS Shoes global movement of raising awareness for those people around the world who don’t have any form of footwear. I had even sent out an email to the entire community, encouraging them to participate.

Imagine young children who walk barefoot across uneven rough land strewn with trash, some of which would be sharp. It’s an open invitation to bruises and cuts, and possibly infections. If we can’t show our support, then why do people choose to sensationalize it only for it to die down after a furore?

“Oh, I’ll get my dress dirty.”, “Who cares?”, “Why should I even bother?”, and more would be kind of responses one would get. “My feet will hurt,” and “just give them money!” are the most obvious ones. Firstly, your feet have to hurt because those who don’t have them are one’s suffering. Second, anyone can give money, but how many of those charity channels are really being honest esp. when you look at the number of charities popping up when a natural disaster takes place (take Haiti and Chile as an example)? I learned that charity begins at home, not just by giving money. It has to come from the heart. I realized just how complacent the youth have become because of all the luxuries that have spoilt them. Even parental guidance plays a role as they never instill the old ethos about how people suffer. If this keeps up with every spoilt teenager entering college and their eyes don’t open up to reality soon enough, life as we know it will be perpetually consumed by all the conflict and wars that we are waging – on terra-forma and the digital cyber plane.

Even with all the jeering I was secretly getting along with the so-called ‘sympathy’, I still stuck to my commitment and successfully clocked 12 hours barefoot. I will take this opportunity to thank those who I felt that they helped observe One Day Without Shoes:
[CMUQ] Saleh Al-Khulaifi, Keghani Kristelle
[NUQ] Moza Al-Derham, Fatma Al-Nasr

Here’s the list with their details

1. The Dean’s “Six Quotes from Six Years” finally culminated into a nice balance between humor, historical reflection and even professional counseling. I know it because I tweeted the key moments of it, especially his so-called six quotes. It was a nice trip down memory lane, as I remembered all that has unfolded infront of my eyes over the years since I came to this college in 2005. In an instant, plenty of things whizzed by in head for the years we spent in the first two homes.On another note, something spectacular did take place following the dinner reception. Shakir and Florent we’re having a nice conversation about the Dean’s successor, but he’s the Interim Dean until a permanent one can be found. Trust me, for those of you who missed it…..you probably wished you were there. I doubt they can recollect any of those details if you were to ask them now – or I might be proven wrong but won’t have that same level of attention that it had on Wednesday.
2. In other news, I didn’t get to watch the Student vs. Faculty/Staff football game that took place yesterday – it ended in a tie when I heard it from one of the players. A nice way to have the Dean play as a sendoff to his tenure here at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. David Guetta was also in town performing to his One Love tour, but they raised the age to 21. Big loss for those who bought the tickets earlier. For those who went, and I know some of whom who could have gone, they think the party life is more important than to see the one man who ran the college you study.
3. I’ve been thinking of starting a technology blog to help simplify anything new to those who don’t have a techy brain to understand the details. Many people are soo absorbed into it but they don’t understand the details. I’m thinking of doing the entries here but categorize them and tagged them as needed. I’ll have to think more as to how to effectively make it compelling for those to read it.
4. My bucket list keeps growing from my previous post, but I’m not going to add more entries until I’ve shrunk them down to something more manageable. Luckily I submitted the Orientation Application 1 minute before midnight. this will make 5 years on the team if I make it – the same number of fingers that make up my hand.
5. A new aquatic park is opening up in Qatar, and that also in the weirdest of places – on the road to the industrial area but accessible from the Villagio mall. We’ll see how it fares when it opens this coming June, although it was meant to open this calendar month.

If there’s anything that I’ve noticed when writing this entry is this:

There is a lack of collegial pride amongst the youth here, but students in America are shaped in positive ways if they show some college spirit. it doesn’t mean that you give up your identity and beliefs. If people don’t enjoy their time in college, they have worthlessly outcasted themselves as introverts. Wit the college growing, more and more students will be segregating themselves culturally or so. When the time comes to leave, they won’t be around their friends tow ork with as they’ll have to work with people they don’t know. Now is the time to mix yourselves up, or you’ll regret it later in life.

By now, you’re probably thinking that this must have been the longest entry on my blog. I’ll leave that for you to judge. But I won’t waver from putting out the truth even if it means that I have to go that extra length to do so. If people do not wake up from the fantasy that they have embellished with reality, then they will be in for a stark surprise when that collapses infront of their eyes, and they reality they will see will be grim as film noir with a dark tone of a graphic novel adorned with violence and corruption – they will be the victims of their own story that ends into a tragedy.

3 more weeks of classes and summer will be upon us.

Till next time!