Gambling Your Education

I’m sure you’ve all heard it before. Lebanon boosts the best universities in the Middle East … blah, blah, and so on. Well, I think our selection of higher education has just got better when I found this in my Inbox this morning:

Poker Classes: Game Theory Lebanon

In the event you need to sharpen your hands at cards, the “school” offers you 30 one-hour classes over 15 weeks to graduate as a pro. Otherwise, if you just want to have a good time (which is the real reason why you go to university anyway), they are offering a “Poker is Fun” mini-class to cover the basics. The school’s website can be found here and I must say, I thank them for adding a link to Casino du Liban on their website. It would be quite detrimental if I gained my degree in advanced Poker and had no where in Lebanon to try my hand.

Oh, I almost forgot, applications for scholarships are open. You just need to bring in your own deck of cards and the cost of the tuition as your bet.

Check out these great posts:

• Lebanon’s Chouity Wins Big at the EPT
• Bright Light in the Midst of Darkness
• Versace’s Damac Tower Soon in DT Beirut

Bright Light in the Midst of Darkness

After over two decades of rolling blackouts, some schools have finally seen the light (thanks to donations, of course):

Lebanon’s remote northeastern district of Akkar, teachers and pupils at the Rajam Issa public school are hoping this winter will be the first when the lights stay on.
[...]
It is hoped that by the end of November their classroom lights, projectors and photocopying machines will stay on during power cuts thanks to a set of rooftop photovoltaic panels producing renewable electricity from one of Lebanon’s most abundant natural resources, the sun.

Hurray! We’ve finally jumped onto the Green Bandwagon. As you would expect, the government doesn’t give a hoot:

“The government is looking to reform the electricity sector, but mostly on the supply side. [The UNDP is] working with government entities to reduce load on the demand side. Reducing demand means the government can spend less on electricity generation,” [Jihad] Seoud said.

Imagine, the government is working on the supply side of the problem and what have they got to show for it? Nothing! Look at us waiting for a government to be formed, if we want electricity, we need to take matters into our own hands. That means we need to focus on on low-energy light bulbs and solar power for heating. We seriously cannot wait any longer for the government to take action. We need to start at home and push for action. If we cut our power bills, that will hurt the the electricity company and in return, we will have fewer blackouts. A win-win for us, a loss for the government. Who’s with me?

Check out these great posts:

• Gebran Bassil’s Power Plan Detailed
• Regulating Energy
• Gambling Your Education

An Education of Discrimination

Having attended Sagesse High School, I witnessed first-hand discrimination kids inflict on one another. Even in what was largely a (sort of) diversified group of students, mostly returning Lebanese expats, discrimination was ripe. Mockery and disassociation was the name of the game. I remember the Indian Ambassador’s children attended the school and their classmates made their lives a living hell.

The reason I bring this up is two articles that I came across.

Karim Ahmad,

the 11-year-old boy from Lebanon whose fingers have been eaten away by a rare skin disease,

is getting treatment in the US and is able to go to school, something he could not do in Lebanon.

Home in Lebanon for the Syrian boy is one of isolation and rejection due to his skin disease.
…
Unable to go to school in his country because his needs cannot be accommodated, and because of fears that the children will be traumatized by his appearance, America’s practice of “inclusion” and education for all children, is Karim’s joy.

Oh sure, we wouldn’t want to traumatize his fellow classmates with the facts of life. Not everyone is born the same and there are some people who endure disabilities and hardships in life; the last thing anyone needs is some obnoxious, nose-in-the-air brat to mention the obvious.

Apparently though, some strides are being made:

A series of children’s books launched in Lebanon to coincide with Labor Day aims to sensitize the population to the estimated 200,000 foreign domestic workers often ignored and even abused in the country.

The Arabic-language series, “Mimi and her Magic Globe,” takes young readers on a journey to the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia, home to most of the foreign laborers employed in Lebanon.

So it seems distorting discrimination starts with saying “thank you” to your maid. Unfortunately though, these things are not taught to our youths by our schools or even their own parents. Once again, the nation’s education fails to properly educate and parents fail to teach their children anything useful, except for why March 8/March 14 are bastards.

Check out these great posts:

• Class Trip Half-Way Across the Planet
• Always Looking for a Fight
• “Lincoln Street a year ago, it was like Beirut”

Class Trip Half-Way Across the Planet

Whatever happened to class trips to the museum?

A weeklong trip to Lebanon will not seem real to Wausau East High School students until they board an airplane Saturday.

Really to Lebanon? Apparently these are International Baccalaureate (IB) students who’ve been provided this opportunity by the US Embassy in Beirut.

The trip’s origin actually began in the Embassy with Richard Michaels, a cultural affairs officer and 1992 IB graduate from Wausau East. Michaels obtained a grant to fund the trip through the U.S. State Department.

I find this quite interesting because I’m an IB graduate from Sagesse High School, which is also the school they will be spending time at.

Sightseeing is only part of the students’ itinerary. They will visit five schools, including a full day of classes at Sagesse High School. IB students from the school, which is in a Beirut suburb, chatted with Wausau East students via videoconference last year.

I would have liked to head to another country when I was in high school. Instead my high school (Sagesse High School) took us to a beer factory and cigarette manufacturing plant. The good news is that the cigarette company gave us free samples!

Update – March 5, 2009: Lebanon trip opens eyes, dispels myths for Wausau East students
Update – March 9, 2009: Local high school students return from Lebanon
Update – March 30, 2009:
Wausau School Board committee members to hear details of February Lebanon trip

Check out these great posts:

• An Education of Discrimination
• Gambling Your Education
• Bright Light in the Midst of Darkness