Prof Moayad seeks to make docu film on Failaka Island
Emphasizes importance of originality in creative works
This is the third and last in a series of articles on Professor Moayad H. Hussain an art critic, writer, internet Webmaster and designer and documentary film-maker.
– Editor
fering from the moment his father and his brother were taken away. Indeed, only their return home brought back the peace of mind and the intense joy of liberation, of living a normal life again.
From the first days of the liberation Moayad joined the groups of young volunteers clearing the mess in schools for the scholastic year to begin on schedule. Seven months later when the last of the 735 wells on fire was extinguished and capped and the pollution from the burning oil stopped he felt relieved.
Consequences
At last he could see the sky cleared from the heavy strata of smoke hanging between earth and sky blotting the the sun from shining through and turning day into twilight, but the lingering effect of the pollution had lasting consequences on the health of the region. Young people began suddenly dying of heart attack, new cases of cancer and respiratory illnesses were on the increase.
The Iraqi invasion was an episode in the life of the country that radically transformed the mental disposition of the people and their behavior, but not in the way Moayad had been hoping.
Instead of a change for the better he saw people becoming more selfish and corrupt, more distant and
Lidia Qattan
The feeling of community that sparked during the invasion drawing people together for mutual support vanished in a tidal-wave of indifferance as life returned to normal.
He saw many brilliant young individuals thwarted in their expectations of serving their country in the best of their ability. Such a situation was more than serious, it was a calamity that challenged the nation to reform.
Admitting failure is synonymous with surrendering to defeat, to the annihilation of the human spirit and to oblivion. Some countries suffered much worse than Kuwait did under the Iraqi invasion, but they sprang back and became among the most advanced and powerful countries in the world.
System
Changes in the social system begins with the individual. Dr Moayad sees Kuwait having all the potentials for a revival – it has the brainpower and the means to put it to good use, but corruption in the system has been thwarting the effort of a true revival.
Observing what is going on Moayad determined to do something to right the situation by changing the way of thinking in the younger generation of graduates in particular, through a method of education that opens their mind and spurs them to look at situations in perspective “out of the box”.
It is the same method of education he enjoyed in the UK at the Birmingham University that encouraged him to analyze and discuss with his companions what he understood from lectures and give his opinion, this trained him to look at situations in a wide perspective and enhance his propensity in solving probems. He also discovered in failure the seed of success one can gain through hard work and faith in oneself. Lack of perspective inclines people to see problems too intimating to try solving them. Are such individuals who cling to a group that gives them a sense of identity and makes them feel important. In gaining power such groups may have far-reaching consequences on society and on their country.
Moayad’s personal experience abroad made him keenly aware of the drawback in the system of education in his country which relied mainly on theory and memorizing rather than practice, reasoning and research.
Education is a powerful tool, it is the mainspring in all social developments, but to be worthy and effective in shaping the mind of young people it must be a pleasant and flexible learning experience, not a boring method that dampens the student’s natural propensity for exploring and experimenting that is the prerequisite of learning.
Dr Moayad is a dedicate young professor whose objective at the Institute of Applied Studies is to make the young graduates a link in a chain of developments that can benefit society and safeguard the future of his country.
Married to a lady who shares his interest in photography and respects film is the ancestral home of his grandfather and the memories of a life it holds.
He plans to enhance its human portent by interviewing some of his uncles who lived through the transitional period: from the pre-oil era to modern times and witnessed the devastating consequences of the Iraqi invasion on the island.
Moayad’s other projects is documenting downtown Kuwait in its present state of development, for future generations to compare it with their own time.
Besides teaching at the College of Applied Studies, Moayad is the Cofounder & Manager of the Tasweer Company since 2007, and from 2001 he has been the Manager and Web Designer of the Muslimz Com Radio Station.
He puiblished three books, Al Sura Al Kabira (the big picture) an introspective view-point on social, cultural and political development in the area.
Ma Wara’ Al Fin (What is behind Art). He sees art a necessity rather than merely a recreational means. Besides giving a useful insight on lines and colours in a work of art, he emphasizes the human portent in the message of art under many forms; in the fine arts he emphasizes the importance of originality in creative works.
His third book “Modern Art from Kuwait: Khalifa Qattan Al Fawaz and His Circulism” is the thesis he presented at the Birmingham University and got his PhD in art in 2012.