Apartheid is not synonymous with 'Freedom of Expression'

Universities should be emblems of enlightenment, temples to reason, and sanctuaries of free speech and freedom of thought. They should be houses of tolerance, where tenants of different beliefs and ideologies can find safe haven, and be granted the expression to live as they see fit, whilst developing a greater understanding of integration and culture. Universities should provide a platform where intellectual reasoning allows for opinions to be condoned, or condemned, yet still be expressed and discussed

Alas, though, my understanding of the role of Higher Education institutions was slightly confused after I read Polly Toynbee’s piece on the Guardian.

Ms. Toynbee’s article starts with the unbiased, unassuming condemnation of “sexist eccentricities” of religions; this includes men sitting with other men, and women with other women. This is apparently the misogynistic way that “Muslim speakers” exercise their superiority over women.

Just a quick clarification:  although Muslims were pioneers in many fields such as Algebra, Chemistry and Medicine; unfortunately, they were not the inventors of "gender segregation", and cease to be the only group requesting such facilities. The BBC did an interesting piece on segregation within the Haredi Jewish communities a while ago. Moreover, many Universities brag about their international, multicultural student bodies; many students might come from culturally diverse backgrounds, where the inter-gender etiquettes would be viewed as far more conservative than they are in the West. 

 Whilst “segregation” is a practice more commonly used to refer to gender interactions within orthodox faiths, it is a practice that is engrained within society and has been practiced in some shape or form without contention for decades. A war on the right for sexes to sit separately is a war on single sex toilets, single sex schools, single sex university accommodation, single sex hospital wards, single sex sports teams etc. Although some teenage boys might wishfully campaign for changing rooms to become gender neutral, I would still argue that this autonomy is a right that both genders would happily fight for. 

So the position I am defending is one of complete freedom AND accessibility to all parties involved, and I feel that UniversitiesUK came with a reasonable compromise. If a large group of people request segregated seating facilities, then as long as all parties are under the same conditions (women or men should not be forced to sit at the back) AND there are facilities for those who stringently refuse to abide by those rules (mixed seating facilities); then I sincerely fail to understand where sexism or misogyny fit in to the argument. If the idea of an event that even has the option of segregating is so abhorrent, then it is perfectly within our capacity not to attend, or to walk out of such events. I’m not particularly fond of satanic cults, so I simply choose not to partake in their activities. It seems highly hypocritical for one to preach about freedom, whilst impinging on the freedom of a large portion of the British community. 

Does freedom mean that we have the right to express according to our beliefs, or does it mean we are confined to Polly Toynbee’s interpretation of what sexism and oppression are? If one feels comfortable sitting next to a member of his or her own gender, and we are to deny this concession, then are we suffering from a problem of ‘Gender Apartheid’ or ‘Benevolent Dictatorship’?

Al Madinah free school is a very convenient example of gender oppression on Polly's part. I probably wouldn't enrol my daughters in a school if I feel that the seating arrangements would disadvantage them, but I do think this is a petty issue being used as a distraction; al Madinah is facing closure due to a lot of serious issues, and its teachers' dress codes is likely the least of its problems. One Muslim faith school that Polly strategically missed out was the number 1 ranking school in the country.

After years of student activism, I have still not sided with a position on the “No Platform Policy”; however, the notion of banning gender specific seating, or enforcing it for that matter, seems preposterous to me in a country that values Freedom of Expression the way we do in Britain. 

I would, in turn, like to call for “secular neutrality” within Higher Education institutions. Although, without fairness, justice and sensitivity towards religious, as well as irreligious beliefs, are we not left with a secularism reminiscent of the tyrannical communist Albania?

Out With The Old, In With The New; Educational Reform

The final close of the Hammamet Conference 2013 brings with it a host of ideas, summaries and reflections. Today was a more emotional day for me personally, as I got to build deeper and more human connections with people; more personal stories were shared, and more confidence was mustered to contribute whatever 2 cents I have picked up in my life thus far.

Today was a solutions oriented day, complementing yesterday’s joyfully pessimistic ‘issues oriented’ day. The morning started with a few more sessions on educational reform. In this sector, I found there to be the largest amount of overlap with issues in the UK. Each country will have specific issues, and solutions that they need to just get on par with equivalent global systems, yet Education as a whole needs reform in my humble opinion

Conclusions from the workshop were as follows: -

1)   Involvement of students in entrepreneurship

2)   Narrowing the gap between graduates and the job market, through better transferrable skills

a.     Students don’t see the link between what they learn, and what they need after university

3)   Introducing more creativity and innovation

4)   Bringing professionals to speak about important issues like taxes, governments, policies etc. to get a more holistic understanding of the world

5)   Better training for teachers, better development for teachers.

6)   Educational reform means we should think about 21^st century learning, instead of copying 20^th century models.

a.     Technology advances so fast that what students learn might become obsolete by the time they enter uni…their teachers are 15-20 years behind the students. How is education supposed to keep up? TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

7)   Apprenticeships and more vocational programs

8)   National curriculum AND local flexibility to change the curriculum

a.     National curriculum should be strongly followed in the early years, and then slowly move towards flexibility in the later years of education

The session was fascinating, but much of it was too general to be concrete, yet too specific to be applied universally. Just to recap, the 6 participating countries in this conference are Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and the UK. My personal solutions, many of which I have believed for some time now, and some of which came from today’s discussion are: -

1)   TEACHERS

a.     Quality of teachers

                                              i.     Make the standard sky high, subsidise their salaries, give them massive incentives TO teach, encourage schemes where professionals can spend a year or so teaching and then go back to their professional jobs, encourage schemes where teachers can spend a year or so in the private sector and teach from experience with a better knowledge of what skills students really need

b.    Accountability

                                              i.     Less focus on exam results. This causes teachers to become results focuses, rather than student-welfare focused or student-benefit focused. Compare with Finlands model which is less exam oriented, more personally catered towards individual needs yet one of the most successful education models

2)   SYSTEMS OF LEARNING

a.     What is the purpose of a classroom? Is it JUST to absorb information, or is it to develop knowledge, life skills, social skills etc.?

                                              i.     MOOCs and KHAN academy model of learning ONLINE, at home, on videos which can be replayed so each student can take their own time

                                            ii.     Classrooms should have more time for discussion, analysis, projects, INTERACTION with the teachers. Why solely be taught economic models that are failing IN THE MIDST of a great recession? (my solution for increasing creativity and innovation)

3)   EXTRA CIRRICULARS

a.     Develop a well-rounded individual. Education is about more than the classroom

                                              i.     Encourage integration with other students/wider society

                                            ii.     Competitions, sports, science fairs, spelling bees, plays, music, clubs, societies, youth parliaments, MUN, anything and everything

4)   ENCOURAGE SOCIAL SCIENCES   

a.     Do this by any means necessary. If we want an analytical, reflective society, we need people to get out of Engineer, Lawyer, Doctor ONLY mode

Phew! I’m sure everyone had a blast reading that summary. This was the session I attended fully, and although we had a plenary review of the conclusions from other workshops, this is the only one I will share. Other topics included Active Citizenship, Diversity and Dialogue, and Trust and Accountability.

The topic of Art and Culture was also explored, with some fascinating presentations about its importance. The universality of Art has the power to break social barriers, and lead the way forward for an integrated youth. It is also a reflection of a society that wants healthy entertainment, and Egypt was used as a successful model of promoting Art and Culture even in troubled political times.

A review session, and a few closing remarks brought the conference to an emotional end. I can genuinely say I have learnt so much. Most participants outshone me in every discipline imaginable, and it was truly humbling to be amongst such a gathering. I did have the initial feeling that my uneducated, inexperienced contributions would be worthless; however, as the day progressed, I realized that there was an overemphasis on jargon and listing political institutions and policy hierarchies. As a young, fresh graduate, I did see things slightly differently, and when I did pluck up the courage to contribute, it was met with very warm approval. 

The last Hammamet report can be read at the bottom of this document. The main outcome of this conference needs to be tangible, on the ground actions. Only time will tell what myself, or any of the other participants do on a practical level. One great initiative announced by the British Council was a scholarship award for a summer course, and then ultimately a Masters program at Oxford University for young students from the North African countries. What I will focus on, is what I can actually take away from this 4 day rollercoaster

1)   Inspiration – inspiration has never been a problem for me, but the more you expose yourself to active youth, and accomplished individuals, the more it places that hope in your heart, and inspiration to truly contribute and make change

2)   Read – I have always had an interest in why the world is as it is, and I have realized that Economics is really at the heart of it all. So is Politics. So is History. So is…basically, in my quest to, one day, learn everything about everything, the only choice I have is to read, and then read some more

3)   Confidence – I have found myself the youngest, least experienced person in many accomplished groups. This is a great blessing, but I have realized that I am there for a reason. I will bring a perspective that will be different, and if the perspective is not good, then I will learn from making a fool of myself…but I will learn, and that is what is most important

4)   Friends – I met some wonderful people, and I have been promised authentic couscous by atleast 2 Moroccans thus far. May these friendships last, and may they lead to great collaboration in the future. (amen)

5)   Perspective – at many points in this conference, my mind was opened, my perspective changed, my paradigms shifted, and my thinking expanded. This was exciting in itself, because there is no feeling like being intellectually stimulated by challenging your own notions

A great experience, and now back to the hustle and bustle of London life. Hammamet 2014, if God so wills, it would be an absolute privilege to touch base once more. Until then, goodbye and goodluck. Godspeed

HAMMAMET REPORT 2012

Revolution of the Mind

I have deep respect for translators. Our headphones can switch between English, French and Arabic in real time, and I have always wondered how on earth anyone can interpret that quickly.

The conference officially launches! After a rushed breakfast, and a catch up from the conclusions of last year’s conference, we get into a session on Youth Perceptions on the Revolutionary Promise. Chatham House rules dictate that I do not know how far I can go when mentioning the speakers, so I will refrain entirely, but we were presented with interesting data from a number of polls and focus groups on the ground.

Many of the trends were expected, and some were quite surprising. The data is on youth perceptions from April 2012 to December 2012, so whether this is true or not, this is the general feeling of the youth from the tests carried out. There was a sense of confusion on accountability, leadership and electoral vs religious legitimacy. The state seemed to be creating polarization between ideologies and views. There was a downright frustration with politics and government representation, and an increasing need for a third sector or civil sector. The third sector has been relatively successful in Tunisia, where it is the only space the youth and women have felt represented.

Perceptions on the ground seemed to be that state owned and independent media were both biased. There was a surprising criticism of feminist movements, since they seemed to think that these movements were not very useful, and they were being constantly spoken about simply to detract from the biggest issues of inequality in the country. A very interesting finding was that most Egyptian males had the sense of wanting to leave their country until the situation improved, whereas the women generally felt that they needed to stay in the country to help bring their country to stability. Revolution is seen as entrepreneurial, but although there has been great frustration, generally people within the country do not expect change over night, whereas outside the country, perhaps we suffered from this ailment.

A fascinating figure from Gallup World Path provided a number of points he thought was interesting from his analysis of the data

1.     Structural Economic Reform – importance of having long term economic policy

2.     Addressing mind-set dialogues

3.     Jobs are created locally, not nationally – economically, the data does show that the President can not realistically be expected to pass policy that will create millions of jobs. These need to come from localities.

a.     Similar arguments in the UK have greatly interested me

4.     Reliance on West to fix problems – perhaps there are better models, and a recurring example has been South American politics, which have been  among the most successful in economic reform

5.     Deception of entrepreneurship – the idea that if you can’t find a job, make a job yourself. The proposal was that this is not sustainable, and does not provide a solution for unemployment

6.     Jobs aren’t created in the same way as they were in the last 100 years – training, skill set, development needs to be looked at differently. 

a.     I did not really follow this point, but I think the focus was on technology, and skill sets that can be acquired outside a conventional education system

There is also a difference between an Arab National, and an Arab Citizen. More and more people want to become citizens, and share the rights that those bring, outside just owning a passport, and an identity label.

We then attended smaller workshops. This always brings with it a dilemma, but I knew that educational reform was my big passion from amongst the topics. This was a highly interactive session, focusing solely on the challenges. It was so focused on the challenges, that we were encouraged to phrase our solutions as challenges aswell, since the solutions session was to follow the next day.

Speakers talked about the paradigm of Universities as institutions that manufacture employees, and how this was a dangerous perception as opposed to viewing them as knowledge banks of research as well. The lack of promotion of the social sciences was an issue, and particularly how many of these degrees are quite disenfranchised from the labour sector. Moreover, there is not enough input from the labour sector about what skills they actually need from graduates. Lack of humanities and Social Sciences also leads to an underanalysed society, and a lack of justice and discipline.

The second speaker spoke (alliteration win) about vocational training in the UK. Trends in the UK are quite worrying, seeing as retirees are proportionately more literate than youth, and youth unemployment and illiteracy is remarkably high. Once more, perceptions were that the government cannot be solely responsible, and that NGOs and social entrepreneurs have a large role to play aswell. A trend from the 1980s was the salary gaps between public and private sector jobs, and so the decrease in public sector participation also led to a decrease in female participation.

I am quite aware that I cannot simply summarise everything ever discussed on this poor blog, so I will try to summarise from now.

I did have to leave early from the session due to the Friday prayers. My Arabic is superbly patchy, but after a 90 min long, highly political sermon, we went back for lunch. I tried rabbit for the first time, and I tried something called kalb. I was quite horrified initially, but apparently kalb is the Greek word for lamb (I hope!).

The next session analysed two case studies on diversity, one regarding a conservative politician’s dialogue with the IRA in Ireland, and the other was on Libyan participation after the revolution. I realized that I had some personal work to do during the Active Citizenship session, so I scurried to my room. I realized I was missing a session called ‘New Models of Leadership’ which sounded phenomenal, but I was resolute at finishing my work.

….I woke up an hour later

So apparently, staying up late at night writing blogs is a pretty interesting way of exhausting yourself beyond hope. Well, no harm no foul. I just missed an incredibly fancy dinner at a nice hotel. But the 10 hour sleep I got afterwards left me to bang this baby out

Day 2 boasts a great array of variety. I want to say my Arabic and French are improving, but I am becoming increasingly proficient at merging the two languages like any man’s business! I also make a resolution not to sleep through any more dinners. Amen

Beauty, Revolution and Sufi Soul

The 0^th day of the Hammamet Conference begins. Like all British Council events, this is very much about Cultural exchange, and according to my understanding, this trip is about engaging with North Africans on issues of politics, youth activism and change. Themes of revolution place Tunisia as the perfect backdrop to the conference, yet ironically, 5-star treatment lends a curious lens to such discourse; am I acting like the same politicians I criticise for speaking about minimum wage and income tax over lobster dinners?

A 4:00 am insomnious start, and a 7:00 am flight later, I was quite blown away by the luscious skies of Enfidha.  I think about beauty all the time - objective beauty is a concept I attribute to divinity, and the divine majesty of the heavens makes me tremble. The wonderful blue skies patched with cool cotton clouds took me by surprise, as my experience of the Middle East has generally been scenic in a very different way. Much of the 0^th day was admittedly spent in a somnolent trance, but upon returning from my slumber, we had our first real opportunity to interact with the 45 (out of about 100) participants who had already arrived.

Dinner talk excited me. I was inspired. I have had many Arabesque political discussions over Moroccan tea and sheesha before (thankfully not mine), and one thing they are not, is inspiring. I was already humbled by the participant list which I had scanned beforehand, marking Oxbridge graduates, PhD candidates, CEOs and entrepreneurs –

If you are wondering what on earth I was doing in this company, join the club!

- but the discussions we were having were not arrogant ‘learn from the West and adopt our model’ discussions, nor were they ‘revolution has failed….revolution is the key’ discussions. They were very much discussions about the fabric of society, and where we have stopped questioning the systems and structures that govern our society. Discussions on educational reform, social equality, welfare, political engagement, activism, all seemed to point towards one direction; values. Our society was built on heart, and now the heart of society needs to be placed back in the system. One moment that almost led to me jumping off the table in excitement was when one lovely lady posed the question ‘who decided that elections are the best way to pick a leader in the first place?’

   

                                                       Crazy leftist revolutionist innit!

My recent interest in all issues of the world has led to a few stellar moments where I can genuinely say ‘Bloody hell, that opened my mind’. Day 0 provided me with quite a few of those.

The 1^th day of the conference is the still-not-started-but-semi-official-introduction day. A day trip to Tunis brought us to the British Council office, where we chose out of 4 focus groups to attend. Women’s role in Leadership seemed very tempting for me (and I hear it was quite the extravaganza), but I attended the ‘Youth Reflections’ workshop. A large number of speakers meant that we heard everything from a 19 year old prodigy seeking to revolutionise the education system, to twenty-something journalists, social entrepreneurs and youth activists trying to use their ‘new found freedom’ to contribute to society. 

The conference has not yet started, but perceptions seem to be that government bodies are too slow, not representative, and unreactive to the needs of the people. Albeit being tremendously interesting, the selection in the room made a very conscious decision to stay away from political parties and governments, and this was slightly alarming coming from a country fresh off ‘revolution’. I do hope the official start of conference will lead to a representative group who might present the ‘other side’ of the discourse as well, whatever that may look like.

A lovely lunch at Dar Zarrouk was very much overshadowed by the spectatular sea-side view seeping in through the large glass windows. We were then taken on a mini tour through the Roman Baths, Carthaginian ruins, and a lovely mosque facing a lovely cathedral, both names which elude me now. Hearing stories of the old mythology brought me memories of studying Hannibal in school. I also saw much of what seemed like Greek architecture, and undoubtedly, my lamentable awareness of history and geography did beg me to comment to myself,  'Dang, Billy Bob, I sure as hell din’t know Carth-auge was in Too-nisia.'

The return to Hammamet was met with the unclear-whether-it-is-formal-or-not official welcome dinner of the Conference, leading to a room full of suits, dresses, jeans and some t-shirts. A lovely dinner, followed by nice conversation once more lead to the optimistic conclusion about the thinkers of tomorrow. I have been frustrated by a lack of innovation in political and economic theory, and practical social structures, but it does feel like there are people out there passionate about the same things, and many of them are doing something about it, unlike myself.

The night ended with a live musical performance, starting with Arabic pop music, shifting to a much more cultural performance, and ending with a highly upbeat, highly Sufi extravaganza with drums, guitars, and crazy stringed-wooden-mallet type things that simulate the noise of falling rain. It was very reminiscent of my visit to Cyprus, visiting a Sufi master, and being quite taken aback by the intense back and forth swaying of everyone in the mosque, in a trance like spiritual state. The only difference between this and Cyprus, was that this had us at a formal gathering where top representatives in suits were sitting awkwardly on their tables, wondering whether to sway towards repetitive chants or not.

Somewhat inspired, certainly had some great discussion, opened up my thinking; not bad for the prelude to the Hammamet 2013 Conference. I feel infinitesimally blessed. Bring it on!