Don’t block results of non-paying students : MoE
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 25: With the approach of mid-year exams, Ministry of Education has called on private schools with all educational levels to avoid blocking the results of students due to nonpayment of school fees, reports Al-Qabas daily.
According to a circular sent by the General Department for Private Education to the directors
Audience at the final talk of Nuqat Regional 2019 by Bassem Youssef
of Arab and model schools, the ministry has implemented several steps to ensure the results of students during the first and second semesters are not blocked, and if the student has to repeat the exams for certain subjects.
The circular stressed the need to notify the students’ guardians about the results of the examinations their students sat for, and sign the report in order to allow them to submit grievances.
Meanwhile, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has started taking steps to loan $11 billion to finance the projects of its subsidiaries, reports Al-Rai daily quoting sources.
Sources said Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) has obtained approval from the High Purchasing Committee in KPC to deal with Clifford Chance LLP for submission of legal consultancy services to the debt programs of KPC at a total cost of $6.799 million under a three-year contract. Sources explained KPC’s plan was laid down after getting approval of the Cabinet earlier of this year to loan KD16 billion.
Bassem Youssef drew in huge crowds at the close of talks at Nuqat’s Regional Conference on Saturday evening. Day three of the conference, held at the Amricani Cultural Centre, with the theme of ‘The State of the Elastic Mind: New Mindsets for Old Barriers’ focused on exploring the ‘pragmatic how’ featuring practical and grounded discourse on the future through the experiences and learned wisdom of speakers from diverse backgrounds, all affirming that rewiring of mindsets yields change.
Multidisciplinary Environmental Engineer Ziad Abi Chaker, in his talk Zero Waste is not science fiction shed light on some technological advances in re-manufacturing waste products to revolutionize urban life, rejuvenate organic agriculture, create local jobs and simulate local economies.
Chaker, who specializes in building Municipal Recycling Facilities on the communal level, strived to shift the perspective of the public from looking at waste as a problem to looking at it as a resource. He noted that pollution is nothing but resources we are not harvesting. He shared how his environmental and industrial engineering organization Cedar Environmental had utilized an elastic decentralized model of waste management as opposed to the rigid traditional model of isolated dumpsites. In moving away from a problem paradigm towards a resource paradigm, Chaker stressed that zero waste was achievable. He presented several solutions such as the building of local factories for composting that would help communities to produce class A top quality fertilizers.
He stressed that the ubiquity of plastic cannot be denied and prevention is not the solution for our plastic pollution woes. He recommended a regulatory framework and push towards understanding how different types of plastic behave and setting up structures for market applications. He shared successful commercial examples of the same, like planting roofs and bartering systems. He ended his talk by encouraging the audience to be architects and not victims of the future.
Education entrepreneur Seif Abou Zaid who focuses on building education ventures that make education more personalized and 21st century relevant, presented a talk on the topic, ‘Progressive Education Practices in the Arab World’. He shared with the audience lessons learnt from his personal experience at the Mavericks schools and other education startups, and explored the opportunities and challenges that face advocates of progressive education in the region. He championed micro-schools as the future of learning and noted that parents had an important role to play in taking a leap of faith towards non-traditional models of learning.
Social entrepreneur and coffee farmer Mokhtar Alkhanshali in his talk titled, ‘Love, Coffee, Yemen: A Story of Hope, Fueled by Coffee’ discussed his incredible journey of creating a business with social impact at its core and attempting to transform Yemen through empowering its farmers.
Growing Up between Brooklyn, San Francisco and Yemen. On his way to a career in law, his path was dramatically altered after a cup of coffee that changed his life. Alkhanshali, who comes from an ancient lineage of coffee farmers, set out to trace back his roots and set out on a path of discovery exploring Yemen from the North to South and learning about when and how the world’s first coffee was cultivated in his home province of lbb over five centuries ago. He described how issues of political instability and the spread of the drug Qat, have greatly declined what was once the world’s leader in coffee. He spoke about the challenge of entering a market stuck in its ways and convincing people within it to improve and change for their own good and the good of the world.
In 2013, after Alkhanshali began focusing on his family’s roots as coffee farmers in Yemen. Seeking to reverse Yemen’s nearly lost art of coffee cultivation, he founded “Port of Mokha”. He explained to the audience how combining his knowledge of specialty coffee production, progressive infrastructure strategy and community organizing, he helped reverse the declining quality of Yemeni coffee and re-establish it as the one of industries most treasured origins. Most impactful was when he recounted his harrowing escape from war torn Yemen with his first coffee samples, how he hired a fisherman to take him across the Red Sea in a small fishing boat with two suitcases of coffee and the clothes on his back, towards Dijibouti. Upon his return, in a blind cupping at Specialty Coffee Association of America in Seattle, Port of Mokha coffee was awarded a 90+, beating out many coffees from world-renowned farms. Alkhanshali reiterated the power of social entrepreneurship to uplift economies and stabilize conflict countries.
Bassem Youssef, easily the main draw of the day, shed light on the importance of reinventing oneself, by sharing his personal journey from surgeon to political satirist. What does it mean to adapt to a completely unfamiliar territory, physically and creatively? The talk allowed the audience to envision where they can go if they change their mindset as Youssef discussed how his career shifts have been influenced and how his mind adapted to each shift.
Youssef, who marks his first visit to Kuwait, shared that the theme of the Elastic Mind, attracted him to the conference. He noted that while many people may evaluate themselves as progressive and open-minded individuals, we underestimate the impact of our upbringing and social conditioning and are sometimes unable to realise the rigid moulds and boxes that we live in. While the young often brandish the older generation as rigid, they too are guilty of living in their comfort zones.
The comfort zone provides insulation from the stress and anxiety of change. Youssef shared that individuals who choose to move out of their comfort zone are the truly radical. He described his own journey of living a risk-free life in the medical profession towards which he had devoted 19 years of study. But life took a different turn with the Arab Spring. Whatever the positive and negative outcome of the revolution, Youssef shared that it undeniably pushed people’s lives outside of the comfort zone.
In 2011 when Youssef, who was a heart surgeon ready to leave to Cleveland, started a 5-minute show on YouTube satirizing the state run media which was spreading lies and conspiracy theories in the wake of the Arab Spring. That developed fast into a fullblown TV show with millions of followers. Youssef shared how he had to abandon the God-complex that comes with being a doctor and learn from people younger to him.
Youssef was soon dubbed the Jon Stewart of the Arab World as the host of popular TV show Al-Bernameg – which was the first of its kind political satire show in the Middle East region. Al-Bernameg became the most watched show in the history of Egyptian TV with an average of 40 million viewers every week and received wide acclaim around the world with coverage in some of the biggest media outlets, topping it off with Youssef’s appearance on the Daily Show with his idol Jon Stewart not once but four times. Stewart also made the trip to Cairo to support his protege and was a guest of his show.
He shared an honest view of the behindthe-scenes impact of the show and confessed that it had had a profound psychological impact on him. The pressure of having 40 million people have an opinion on what he put out was intimidating and extremely stressful “Nobody tells you what to do after you become successful”, he shared.
In addition to this, he had to deal with cyber-bullying for 7-8 years. Youssef was popular with the people but not so much with the different regimes. Harassments and threats continued pushing him to flee to the United States where he now lives in Los Angeles. Post show, Youssef reveals to have felt both sad and comforted, liberated psychologically but faced with a new challenge of reinventing his career as a satirist, comedian and a storyteller in a different country and a different language that is not his own.
Youssef described his journey of letting go of his ego and past glories to reconcile himself to the idea that he was a ‘nobody’ in this new arena. He described to the audience the mixed reactions and failures he encountered at the start. From starting over to selling out shows again, Youssef shared that he has enjoyed the learning experience and encouraged other to do the same. He informed the audience that the human nervous system is not made for rigid repetitions but for an elastic outlook. Our bodies change at a cellular level whether we like it or not, and we must change our mindsets as well, lest we die in a body that is not ours anymore.
When he is not touring around doing his live performances he is hosting his podcast “Remade in America” or working online changing people’s eating habits through plant-based whole food diet. Youssef has written the best-selling book “Revolution for Dummies” and was the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary “Tickling Giants” In recognition of his success, Youssef was named among the Time Magazine most influential list for 2013.
A discussion panel titled “Multidimensional Cities” was moderated by Abdulatif Al Mishari – a member of the Kuwait 2035 Vision Committee at the Supreme Council of Planning and Development and a member of the High Committee of the Master Plan and Mega Projects. The panel of experts included Nasser Al Mujaibel – Assistant Professor of Media and Mass Communication and Member of the Supreme Council for Planning, Chris Wan – Head of Design Management, Sustainable Real Estate, Masdar City, and Nasser Khraibut – Deputy Director General for Planning & Design Public Authority for Housing Welfare. They exchanged thoughts on the multidimensional solutions cities can offer as byproducts of their inhabitants and understanding who and what they serve.
Columnist Ali Khajah, interviewed Abdulwahab Al Essa, founder of Boutiqaat, on revitalizing once booming Kuwaiti industries, as well as how reshaping prevalent views, from business structures to social norms, can affect the economy. Writer and producer, Jassim Al Qames, hosted Social Media Influencer, Bibi Alabdul Mohsen, Producer and Director, Hamad Al Najjar, and Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director, Beattie + Dane, Anes Al Rayes in a discussion panel on disruptive content, and how at times does not provoke or engage thinking despite grabbing mass attention. Also, the challenge of creating enticing yet relatable content.