A Bizarre World

It was number 3

2008-06-26T02:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, the unlikely one that I didn't quite understand. Number 3

More later, busy ah!

I have been "resigned"

2008-06-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

It seems I have been "resigned" from the university. I received a letter stating that the have accepted my resignation. Thing is, I didn't even write a letter of resignation. It is bizarre.

I have been talking today with several people and each has a different theory of what happened. Here is a list of them so far>

1. My comments at the presentation in Riyadh - see earlier post

2. Some supposed comments I was purported to have made about Bedouins not being intelligent. In fact I was saying the opposite, and told the students the following: (background - various people had told me the bedous are stupid - even non-bedou Saudis). One of the lecturers here told me that I should not expect much from the students because they are bedouin and that bedous are not intelligent. I told him that this is not the case and gave him an example of my top student last year who was from a bedouin background (very intelligent chap). I went to my class a bit angry with this lecturer still and said to the students that someone had just told me that Bedou are not intelligent. I then said that this is very bad and gave the example of the best student, amongst others. I told the students that no-one should ever have this idea, especially because it is not true and that we brothers in Islam, Bedou and non-Bedou. There is no difference between us. '
However, somehow a complaint was made to the president of the university that I had said that Bedous are stupid. Is this politics I wonder?

3. That the dean of the college I am employed by, yet in practice I am working for medicine, was very annoyed that I was neglecting him and his college - eventhough they don't have any students yet. Bizarre I don't understand that one.

4. That someone forged a resignation letter in my name

5. That the whole thing was a clerical error.

It's all bizarre. But strangely enough, I was offered another job on Thursday. I told the dean of this new college that I would make istikharah, (this is special kind of supplication where we would ask Allah to help us make the right decision in the midst of any dilemma).

On the Saturday, I received this letter from my current employer - accepted resignation etc.

I feel that if I was looking for a definitive answer, this letter, however it came to be, is the answer I can't possibly argue with. It is something akin, to asking Allah, should i jump from this cliff?...

and somebody gives an almighty shove from behind, or you slip over and fall down. The answer could not be clearer. Even though they are now considering rescinding the letter and reinstating me. It is one of the most bizarre things to have happened to this blogger in his whole life; but you have to look at the name of the blogger to understand where it all comes from!

Interestingly, as I have mentioned previously, how selfish people are in Madinah. Especially, the people who are not the originals - i.e. foreigners and people whom have come from other parts of Arabia.

I told one, British Muslim "brother" about my "resignation". This news went around the herd of English teachers like wildfire. One of them came to me after prayer time and said the following, "I heard some very bad news", "is it true that you are leaving?", "what happened?", "me and the brothers really need to find out why you were sacked", "we don't want to put ourselves at risk also".

What does all that mean, in case that you didn't follow. He wants to know what mistake I made, because they don't want to make that mistake and get sacked too. The bad news he described was aimed at themselves, of course, not remotely a sincere expression of regret, but saving their backs. Nice people!

I perhaps have one month left in Madinah.

Cheerio

Repaired?

2008-05-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

Conducted another class in this room. They have repaired the leak - however, they just put in another pipe.... in a classroom!
The probability is that this lecture room is converted (or perhaps partially converted) from a laboratory or perhaps even a large toilet :) (that's only a joke because I'm sure they would have left the toilet bowls if that were the case!)

Anyway I conducted another small class today, with only perhaps 20-30% attendance. These are the good students, not necessarily academically the best (I will test this hypothesis after the final exams), but certainly are those with some sincerity. For these 10-15 students (out of a class of 55) I am happy to teach and to put in all the effort.

I am really going to screw these absent students in the final exam. They seem to believe that they can memorise notes and thus achieve good grades, however, I am determined to put nothing but problem based questions in the exam. I'm sure that the great memorisers will fail. I hope at least.

Of course i should have been taking the attendance for the whole semester, however, I was not given a list of students until 3 days ago, with three weeks left until the end. Furthermore this list was all in Arabic; so how do I know who is who?

Near impossible this lark.

Water Damage

2008-05-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

I was giving the students a test today. Thankfully we had just completed the individual part and had started the group session, (that's when they get a chance to discuss the answers and submit them as a group).

Anyway, all of a sudden we sprung a leak!

The conditions in the university are truly appalling. My class and I have been breaking chairs all week. There is a new batch of chairs provided to the students which seems to have a weight limit of only around 25kg. Several students have indeed bruised their posteriors with these contraptions. I almost fell myself today! Hooray for bottoms made out of rubber ! I bounced right up to my feet again.

Apart from this, the place is so dirty, i swear that the microbiology department are conducting a mass experiment on us all.

As you can see from the video, rubbish is everywhere - it didn't just float in, incidentally. The students dropped it - like they throw all of their rubbish - wherever they want to.

There is no such thing as walking two metres over to the bin and putting your rubbish inside. Here, they have a wonderful culture of throwing it onto the floor next to them, because they know well, that sooner or later - along will come a Bangladeshi in an orange boiler suit who will scoop it up and take it all away. Terrible people really.

Can you actually believe that this is used as a classroom?

The place is honestly falling down!. As I was leaving, I discovered the door to the building like this.

The Cat says, "I weren't me guvnor", while trying to look as innocent as possible by whistling to himself

The photo on the right - it says "PULL". It indeed appears that someone did just that.

I'll just go and disinfect myself - cheerio

Post Conference Blues

2008-05-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended a conference here. The subject was medical education. It was an interesting and suprisingly well organised event with several international speakers and myself. I gave a presentation describing my novel teaching methodology.

My presentation went as follows:
First I described the problem, as in any scientific study, as I am first and foremost a scientist.
The problem is as I have described in this very own blog. Students for the most part don't understand any English, and they don't seem to have any background knowledge in science. They are seemingly unable to apply what little knowledge they have and are only adept at memorisation.
The type of memorisation practiced here is bizarre to say the least.

I can offer an example. A lecturer will give them three pages of notes and instruct the student to "learn" this information. The notes will consist of a series of statements

An example of such statements is as such: "Physostigmine is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme, Acetyl Cholinesterase". Carbachol is an agonist of the Acetyl Choline Receptor.

The examination will then include a multiple choice question as follows:
Which of the following is correct?
a. Physostigmine is an agonist of the Acetyl Choline Receptor
b. Carbachol is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme, Acetyl Cholinesterase
c. Physostigmine is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme, Acetyl Cholinesterase
d. Carbachol is a competitive inhibitor of the the Acetyl Choline receptor.

It is plain that the object of this exercise is not to promote an understanding of the subject at hand, but to test the student on their ability to memorise a sequence of words.

The students are happy enough at this method, they frequently receive excellent marks, on the level of 90% receive an A grade, 5% A- and 5% B+

This becomes a more complex issue, of course when we recall, that these are MEDICAL students, whom armed with this knowledge or should we say, lack of knowledge, will be practising a medical doctors at a hospital near you :)

Actually, in reality many of the students don't even expect to be doing this. Their aim is not the hard work of a medical physicians career.

They already have a plan, that their position will be fast track, as all Saudi citizens seem to be granted, super fast track promotion to the position of Mudir (director).

The way to become a director is as follows, post medical degree, the newly qualified , and world class one must add, doctor will be sent abroad, to the UK for instance, for a special course, such as training in Surgery etc etc. These courses are only open to citizens of foreign countries and
not to natives of the UK. I expect that you might get the picture.

The newly qualified "surgeon" etc will return to Arabia, and behold, they are now the new director of the department of Surgery. There are of course lots of Egyptians doing the actual donkey work under him.

The director has the unenviable task of spending their days, when they decide to actually go to their plush office, most beautifully decorated, signing various authorisation papers for this and that and taking home a bumper salary every month.

I must state however, that THIS IS A MINORITY OF STUDENTS' ASPIRATIONS, yet unfortunately not a small minority.

There are some good people here, I must state that also. But unfortunately nowadays few who are sincere and almost none whom are brave.

Anyway, back to the conference. After describing the problem to my audience, I then went on to describe the solution. My solution is to use lots and lots of animations of core principles and test their knowledge by giving many tests on the application of this knowledge.

It Works! I described how it does in this presentation.

However, the moderator throughout the presentation seemed unnaturally aggressive and just plain nasty. I received only one question afterward, which was pretty much a throwaway sort of thing. It seemed to not really receive the response that I had expected.

It was revealed to me at the tea break following this, that I had made in my presentation, an enormous faux-pas. I had actually mentioned a problem, or in fact a series of them. Despite that I had worked extremely hard to find and implement the solution, day and night in fact was irrelevant. I had committed such a terrible sin, in revealing that the students here are not quite good enough, to say the least. This is the custom of the people here, to sweep all problems under the carpet and there you have it; BLISS!

Making provision to leave

2008-02-15T11:04:00.000-08:00

Am I buying huge quantities of baked beans and tinned sardines for an intrepid voyage into the unknown? Well no, not exactly.

I have today decided to start applying for other jobs. A friend of mine gave me some advice that I should make a list of reasons to stay and reasons to go. The problem with this is that the staying column would be embarrassingly minute.

The trouble with life here is that there are so many charlatans, liars and cheats, that it destroys faith. In Islam, we have something called, Iman. This is broadly translated as faith in Allah. This can go up and down, sometimes reflecting on God and other times perhaps when life is either too enjoyable or too awful, not remembering God to the same degree. Surprisingly despite living in the city of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) my iman has become very very low.

Why has this happened? Living here is difficult enough as it is. Everything is in Arabic, very few people actually speak English, so already there chance of communication is very limited. People here also are just plain weird. Nobody desires any form of social interaction. You might meet people in the Mosque (masjid), you greet each other, ask how you are, back and forth, and then ... nothing. They have a peculiar custom of inviting you to their house, but not actually meaning it. Fadl Fadl (Please Please) they might say as the try to usher you into their abode. However, if you actually say, "Yes I would love to come", they are completely lost. Because no-one EVER does that. Imagine giving an invitation to someone and horror of all horrors... they accept!!!!

Apart from the aloofness of the people. I have the unpleasant facet of whiteness. I am indeed, a white bloke. Or more accurately pink as are the English generally. With this pinkness comes a widely held opinion that whatever this pink man earns should be shared out amongst all and sundry. I actually fear going out of the house, due entirely to my rather soft heart and the fact that I am a sucker for a sob-story. Take one case as an example of many. One of neighbours, a Pakistani chap in his late 50's. He has lived here for 30 years or so. I see him often in the masjid.

He had invited me to his house for tea. I actually went. A bit later he wrote me a letter pleading for money as he was sick and unable to work. It was true he was sick, he had just had an operation on his leg and used a stick to walk. I gave him some money without hesitation.
A few days ago, he came to me again, and requested some money. The problem is he wanted a lot of money; Rs1500 to be exact. For what reason did he require this amount? He has recovered and is working...

He needed the money to bring his second wife over from Pakistan! Amazing. One of the criteria of taking a wife, let alone a second, is the ability to afford such an endeavor.
He then managed to catch a friend of mine who speaks Arabic, and Urdu for that matter, and said to him the following, "he can either give it me or lend it to me, it is okay". This was bizarre indeed and left both my friend and myself agog.

Bizarre is this life, bizarre!

Thursday is the Weekend?

2007-11-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

I still can't get to grips with the concept that the weekend consists of Thursday and Friday! I still tell people if i plan to meet them at the weekend, "See you on Saturday". Confuses them no end.

Today was Thursday. Spent the morning writing exam questions... oh the excitement.

The evening I wrote some pages of my book. I was writing about education, and where and who education fails. It is interesting that despite teachers and schools always getting the blame, most of the time, the false and materialistic expectations of society is the culprit. For example if we are pushed to consume, and to value wealth and status symbols, above everything else, then going through education for many is rather arduous way to make that wealth. Much easier to deal drugs.

Sadly this is the situation many people find themselves in. Where knowledge is indeed liberating, yet many see wealth as being the great liberator.

Wealth is merely a subterfuge, it is just possessions, pieces of papers and numbers in an account. Moreover, it often the case that many will sacrifice their ethics and their families in pursuit of wealth. I have known mothers to leave their children with relatives in their home country, to go for further studies or some "wonderful" job somewhere. When they return home they find that their children don't even know them.

I sometimes talk with some of the Bangladeshi workers here about this. I believe that poverty is a state of mind. Millions of people will come to the middle east, while perceiving themselves in poverty and thus become humiliated by their employers.

Yet in their villages, they have land, a house, and some comforts. The land grows the crops that they need and they can sell the excess. However, even though they have more or less what they need, they crave for more and thus put themselves at the mercy of the wolves.

Generally speaking, for most people coming to this region, upon arrival they will discover that their promised salary and conditions are not exactly as described (even happened to me). Most workers from Bangladesh, (as I speak some Bangla I know this) do not receive a salary at all. If they are fortunate they might get half what was promised or sporadic payments (i.e. one months pay every five months). Their passports are kept by their employers so not chance of returning home.

So there you have it, slavery is, more or less, alive and kicking in the middle East and nobody seems to care. Of course we're not allowed to call it that, but where is the difference?

Student Riot!

2007-11-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

Student Riot! That got your attention. No chance of any of that I'm afraid. Although I'm sure that a sponsored punch up between staff and students would be most enjoyable. However I would claim that after an imaginary knock on the head during such an event, to be suffering from acute disorientation. This would allow me to lay into everyone regardless, student, staff whoever. Oh what a dream. Damn, back to reality.

Today; I discovered that one of my colleagues is the subject of an official disciplinary report submitted by the same group of students whom I have the misfortune to be teaching.

The students are complaining that this man is keeping them much longer than the allocated time and subsequently they are late for the following class. This issue is so important to them that they have submitted an official complaint to the dean of the college. It could be very serious for this person; maybe he might even be fired (people here have lost their jobs for less).

I really don't like this person however; hate springs to mind.

He latched onto me when I first arrived here, offering to drive me to work every day etc etc. However it soon became clear that his favours were not exactly without sacrifice on my part.

I am naive; I admit it freely. I have come from quite an innocent English middle class environment.

Although I have lived in several countries I have never met someone like this man, whom we shall call, Dr Gonads (not his real name unfortunately). For a whole year, he drove me to work, always late of course, and often not turning up at all. He was very very insistent about this matter.

One day, a friend of mine, a fellow european, with a wonderfully French persona (unusual for a Bulgarian! - okay he's French), asked me how I get to work.

When I replied that this person, Dr G was taking me each day; his face literally changed shade. "Be very careful" he advised me, because, "Arab people do not do something for nothing". Instantly I realised something, in all my naivety!

Dr Gonads and I were sharing a course; yet it seemed that I was doing almost everything on the course. All the work was by my effort while he was seemingly only doing the obviously more important work of driving and photocopying!

He would take my work frequently under the guise of just "checking for mistakes",
- painfully crafted assessment rubrics, lecture notes, student guides and numerous ideas and reports, and somehow while under his possession, his name would magically appear on the document (always before mine strangely)

Then, I would see him the very next day, emerging from the office of the dean of the college, clutching familiar looking papers, with the audacity to inform me that he had shown the dean what we had done and what we were doing next. Of course in my naivety, I actually did believe at the time that he was mentioning me in his discussions with the boss. Stupid I know.

When you spend a lot of time with someone, you notice when they offer inconsistencies in their stories. The fact that one is a liar does not stay hidden for long in such situations. As a liar though this guy was dreadful. For God's sake, at least you should remember what you lied about and not offer a completely different porky every five minutes. It's crazy!

That was not all, many other pretty awful things happened because of this person. Where I was inextricably tied to him, thus all his mistakes stuck to me as well. He kept me close.

So close in fact that we even sat together in lectures, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, students presenting, and me filling in the assessment rubric (he never actually managed to complete his copy though)

Many things happened by his fault,

he would not turn for his lectures, and as I had turned up I had to improvise and deliver the lectures myself,
he started arguments with both staff and students which somehow I was pulled into, and
him trying to get me to lie about the success of the new teaching methodology that he was using (which was obviously failing).

The "teaching methodology", which he claimed was being used in some of the top universities in the world, was in fact of his own design. It consisted of him giving a topic to students which they later presented to the class. This meant that he had to do as little work as possible. Perhaps that was the main idea.

It may seem reasonable, however to make students present on subjects like this. Unfortunately these students, for the most part, had a very poor command of English and thus made numerous glaring mistakes in their presentations. Copying and pasting internet articles and then painfully attempting to read the words back to the class was a commonplace practice.

I had tried to revise and improve the method but it was quite fundamentally flawed.
I had wanted to tell the dean of this, but when I made this suggestion to Dr G, he threatened me, "that this method is mine and his; but if it fails I will be blamed more than him".
I asked how I would be blamed more than him, to which he answered, "because everything was working until you arrived".

In fact it was not working. He had run his method in a very slapdash manner and covered the failings with numerous lies. He had kept the students happy by awarding 90-100% for all! All I had done was to try and address and report those failings, so apparently it my fault because those failing were not there until I had arrived. Blimey. It was a terrible situation.

Anyway, eventually, we had a huge and public argument. He went again to the boss and told him more lies; that I had said and that. Poor innocent little chap he is. I could almost shed a tear for him (ahem perhaps not)

This term we have been working separately in the same course but not involved with one another in any way. As a result of his ineptitude, it seems have got him into trouble at last. Despite this I feel sorry for him to some degree. I don't know why really.

It is pretty shameful that here, the power to hire and fire foreign staff seemingly lies with two. Firstly the president of the university, and secondly with the students!

Student power gone mad!
I agree that students should have a right to address their concerns about certain lecturers. I personally had some appalling lecturers in my university while studying.

However, frequently here, academic staff have been fired for giving students bad marks; or for refusing to add marks for the sons and daughters of local bigwigs, or like I am doing now, pushing the students to work hard. Tough working in the wild east.

Perhaps I'd better look for another job. Any offers?

The Next Day

2007-11-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

I gave my next lecture. Before giving this however, I advised the students of my rights to teach them by whatever method that I feel is most appropriate. Reminding them that I am experienced in this profession and that I should be having some of their respect.

This same rather sneering creepy student again came to me after the lecture. He asked if I was angry with him; my reply was, "perhaps". He said that he hoped I was not angry with him. To this I replied, "it will heal".
He was very much adamant that he didn't want me to be angry with him. For a moment I thought to myself, is this a sort of apology?

His big mouth however did not stop; he went on to say that he feared that I might not forget...

The big mouth ran away from his brain further, and he told me of some of the professors here, how "when they are upset with a student...they... give that student bad marks in the exams". Amazing! Such sincerity!

Perhaps he might have considered that he had offended his "teacher" that his teacher needs an apology; but no, he was merely checking to see if I would exact revenge. We have a word in English for this kind of person... GIT!

However I replied to him that I don't even know his name, I don't want to know his name, and that when I mark exam papers I never give or take way marks on the basis of whether I like a student or not. I can't be bothered to honest. God we are supposed to be highly educated professionals, with Ph.D.s and the like yet... many professor/lecturers actually do this.

This made me think of how much professionalism is a dying virtue in universities nowadays. If a student offends me, thankfully I am brave enough to address it; either there and then; or shortly afterwards following some reflection. It really does seem quite childish to exact revenge through exams.

Strangely enough a few days ago; another student whom I had taught previously, told me something most curious. I mentioned to him that perhaps I was looking for a job elsewhere. He replied that this would be a great loss to the university; as I am honourable in a place which lacks honour. See they're not all bad!

Creepology 2

2007-11-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

I thought I should define the word "creep"; just for dramatic effect. I am using the word here in the classical sense. I have written a little rhyme for this purpose.

A shiver down spines with revulsion complete,
With the creeping, sycophant, I stare at my feet
Stomach churning, but, raise just one of my eyes,
to see the creep, whom I despise.
The insects crawling under skin,
Repulsed and revulsed, I draw myself in,
I swallow a gulp of sickening flavour.
The creep has arrived to acquire a favour
His nice words are dark and the taste is sour
The creep has come, for his hour.

Creepology

2007-11-12T06:53:00.000-08:00

I was under the impression that here in KSA, the powers that be in "education" were very keen on reform in education. Over the summer last, I spent the time, when I should have been on vacation, devising a new method of education. One which relied on providing background knowledge to students and then requiring them to use this information in solving associated problems. A kind of problem based learning with notable adaptations.

However, noble as it appeared, this is an approach which is almost unanimously despised. Students are here in universities not to think, but to memorize chapters from textbooks and regurgitate this same information in the examinations. The questions in the exams are required, it seems, to be so direct with regard to a word-for-word regurgitation of material, that undoubtedly an answer script coated in a thick layer of vomit must be deemed a correct answer. Full marks attached to a whole bucket of vomit no doubt.

Students seem to also believe that have a right to complain if the course is "difficult" for them.
It seems also that for many if they don't achieve the marks they want, like spoiled children, Daddy will intervene, in writing or calling, to whichever "big shot" is in his circle of acquaintances. The next step, often the lecturer is fired or at least it seems that the professor in question is at fault and his replacement is lined up. We shall see my fate.

In fact last semester, one student in particular, did threaten me with Daddy and his cohorts. I told them to sling their hook in no uncertain terms. Who cares, after all, they need me, and not the other way around.

Yesterday, something else, a particularly creepy student, of which their are many here, told me that I do not explain the lecture well. The fact is that I use so much animation, graphics, and so many analogies that this, is in no way factual.

In reality I speak in English, the course is designated to be taught in English, yet many of the students have diabolical English proficiency (despite having 90-100% in their pre-University English Exams). So ultimately they don't understand. That apparently is my fault.

They seem to understand the other lecturers, but just not me. I wonder if the fact that I am the only, non-Arab teaching here has any bearing on the matter. Perhaps my English is not, ahem, Arabic enough for them.

I have another lecture tomorrow. Facing the creepy students with my skin again crawling. There is no doubt that some of my students are decent and try their best. They are respectful and generous. I cannot tarnish them all with the same brush. . However, sadly the creeps seems to put a dampener on proceedings. Actually it is interesting that there are two types of creep here, those who are downright abusive like the last and unfortunately another kind; I have never come across students like this before, smarmy sycophants who suck up in the vain belief that I might give them extra marks for their effort. Urgh, it that a scorpion climbing up my back?

Teaching in Saudi Arabia

2007-11-12T06:43:00.000-08:00

I never thought that teaching in Saudi Arabia could be so rewarding.
To garner the love and respect of the students and be held in such esteem that one feels a true oneness with the people of the nation. A love and respect so deep; with a mutual vision hoping for the betterment of all individuals in society. An inspiring hope and ambition which emanates from the hearts of all, and a love of education for the sake of gaining knowledge alone. Such wonderful times in KSA.

Just a moment, sorry I was just having a wonderful dream. Seems I've woken up. Oh God! not another day.