Day 12: Education City and UNESCO

!سلام

It's our last night here in Doha before we return to Kuwait tomorrow. Strangely enough, I've found myself missing Kuwait fairly often since we've arrived. I'll be glad to get back to our cozy and comfy Holiday Inn tomorrow night. 

Today was a full day. We woke up early and went to Science and Technology Park, an area a little outside Doha home to technology-based companies from all over the world. We met with staff members from GreenGulf, a clean technology and renewable energy advisory business focused on the development and management of renewable energy in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. GreenGulf focuses most of work on solar energy, as they have a huge solar test field right near their office. It was particularly interesting to discuss some of the obstacles they face, especially in the Gulf states like Qatar and Kuwait, where electricity is free to its citizens. The citizens have no incentive to look towards renewable energy sources because they are so reliant on the state, not only for cheap oil and natural gas resources, but also for their free electricity.  

Next, we moved on to Education City, an initiative of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development. It is an area outside Doha dedicated to becoming one of the centers of educational excellence in the region. It is home to six U.S. universities: Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Virginia Commonwealth University, Cornell, Texas A&M, and Northwestern (!). One university from Paris and one from London are present in Education City as well. Many of the students are Qatari, but many also come from around the world. Although each school only has a student population in about the hundreds, as more people learn about these schools, enrollment rises each year. Students live in dorms and even have an incredible student union complete with a bowling alley, game room, basketball and volleyball courts, and movie theater.

We first stopped at Carnegie Mellon and received a tour of their facility, which they share with Northwestern! We moved then to Georgetown, which had some of the most incredible classrooms I had ever seen. As is to be expected, all of the schools maintain close relationships with their main campuses. For Georgetown, this translates into an unbelievable classroom complete with huge screens, cameras, and microphones, where you can actually have students in both campuses taking the same course. There is one professor, either in D.C. or Qatar, and a T.A. in the classroom that does not have the in-person professor. The students can talk to one another and discuss topics from the lecture, even though they are an entire ocean (and more) apart. I wish BC had something like that - it would be so cool!

Before leaving, we received a tour of the Student Union, which was really pretty cool. Just think, BC doesn't even have a student union! All of the campuses are beautiful, but it's strange because they are also surrounded by endless desert and construction. Once Education City is fully complete, I would love to come back and see it, because I think it is going to be a real asset for Qatar. It is nice to see Qatar spending its massive wealth on something that will really improve the nation; namely, unparalleled institutions of higher education for not only the citizens of Qatar, but of the world. 

Feels like Evanston! But not really. 

Carnegie Mellon

Apparently the largest sculpture in the world, in the
student union of Education City

I wonder if this stuff is cheaper here than in Evanston?

Education City Student Union

Our next stop was the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Doha office. We met with the staff and they each explained their responsibilities and programs. Everyone is working on something different, but many of the projects overlap. I especially enjoyed hearing about culture preservation programs, because I've noticed that in Qatar, there seems to be less authentic culture than there exists in Kuwait. Everything is much more touristy and constructed into what an outsider might expect to find in the Middle East. A perfect example of this is the "Old" Souk - which was only built a few years ago but is meant to look entirely authentic. 

This evening the group of students went to visit Jessie (Professor Bailey's student who we met yesterday) and meet some of her friends who work at Al-Jazeera. One was from Arizona, and one was from the UK. It was interesting to hear inside perspectives of Al-Jazeera, especially considering all of the criticism it receives. Because it is state-run by Qatar, many people believe it only reflects the foreign policy attitudes of Qatar. I'm excited to visit tomorrow and learn more for myself!

I want to share one last thing: Professor Bailey sent this 60 Minutes segment on Qatar to each student a few months ago. It is very informative and will hopefully give you a better idea of this country I've gotten to know a little over the past 2 days!

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