Exams

I just finished my first exam in my masters program. This was a mid-semester exam and what can I say? I look forward to the day when a genius scientist will stand up and say exams are not good for human beings health or they are not appropriate measurement of students' performance so stop them. Bottom line is that this was not my best exam. I mean when an exam is two hours long and you hardly manage to finish just 5 or 3 minutes from time then you know it was not good. Anyway am not gonna cry over spilt milk. Its past so to hell with it. But seriously is there any other invention to substitute exams I mean they just stress you and mess your mood for no good reason. Oh ya I forgot to say this; you know its my first exam here in this university and I did not know what to expect but as much as the exam shocked me something else also did. The way it was conducted. We had an invigilator (last time i heard this word was in high school). The invigilator was actually not the lecturer but a real invigilator and we had to put our bags and cellphones at the front of the class. Man are we in primary school or what. I thought by now we know how to do exams and abide by the universal rules we were tought for years.

Give me a break.

Catching up

Ok now that I made it to one of the fastest growing cities if not the fastest in the World; I am proud that I made it here. Not just because am in Dubai but for starting my masters degree that I really wanted to do for the last three years or so. I was a little bit skeptical at the beginning about the standard and reputation of this university (Wollongong University http://www.uowd.ac.ae/) and I was actually hesitant before coming here but it is a nice university with very good reputation. I must say I was impressed and my expectations well met if only we did not have to do exams :(
Dubai however, I am not sure about it. We can spend hours and books writing about the good things here but I feel there is something missing. I do not know what is missing but off lately I have been thinking about it and may be Dubai is still in the process of being made and it did not mature yet. So it is going through this painful process of growing up. Just think about the cycle of a product as it gets launched then it grows till reaching market maturity and then either stays up there or fall. Hopefully Dubai will stay up there! I guess it would if plans are implemented wisely.
On a different issue; did you hear the news lately from Turkey? Muslim girls can wear the scarf (hijab) in university now. Wow great! this is ridiculous. If we ignore the fact that the population of Turkey is predominantly Muslim can we ignore that noble value of freedom? Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of political choice, lub lub lub we hear these a lot from some big mouths mostly in the West when it can be used against nations in the middle east and north Africa. I don’t know why we did not hear any of it about the Turkish issue. I mean why can’t a young educated lady have the freedom of choice? It has been said millions of times that Hijab for Muslim girls is not just a symbol or fashion. It is mandatory for our Muslim sisters to dress modestly according to a clear code addressed very clearly in the holy Qur'an. What on earth is wrong with that?
Anyway I guess Turkey has been trying hard to join the European Union and therefore, has to meet certain standards because the EU will not allow a non "democratic" country to join. Plus other things like economic reform, secularism, etc. I dunno what’s the world is coming to. Instead of promoting coexistence we are fueling and starting conflicts for no reason.