European Union Policy

In September I in rolled in the minor European Union Policy (EUP) I thought that it would be a great experience. In retrospect in turned out to be alright. It started with an easy schedule with just a couple of hours each week, I really thought it would be a walk in the park. But like most things in life it turned out to be harder than it looked.

The curriculum that was offered to us was just not that hard, but how it was rapped up made it for me very tricky to follow. Let me explain this. Every Monday we would have a tutor group session with half a class. In that session we would read a newspaper article and try to understand it. After understanding it we would formulate learning goals for ourselves. Now the fact that we have 2 half classes the learning goals are thus different. How can there be coordination between 2 classes? Very simple, because the teacher would structure the meeting. Also we would have a rotating chairperson who was in charge. But in reality he or she would just ask us if we understand the text not more not less. In my opinion the chairperson is just a puppet, the real decisions were made by the teacher and also we would look at the teacher for guidance. I’m more in favour of the teacher heading the class en the students flow. Maybe my lack of experience with this type of schooling makes me more negative about but I do know.

The learning goals where in my eyes not very helpful because why buy books if you only formulate learning goals. Ok I have to admit that the law textbook was used during class but the economix textbook was just referred too during sessions to look things up in. I’ m more the classical way kinda guy. Buy a book, sit down read it, have discussions with the teacher about it, ask for clarification when need it, do assignments based on that book, make a test. Thats my viewpoint and it a pretty good one I might add.

What I liked was negotiation, that was nice because the subject it self made you active in wanting to participate. In my case anyway. Also lessons like debating where helpful. English however was low done my to do list because we would have a project almost every 2 weeks. English it self as a subject I could understand why we would have it, but I had rather grammar lessons then writing blogs and proving that you have learned 5 words a week.

My conclusion is that EUP is a very good minor but the tutor group session would be better if structured differently. I think the teacher should be in command of the whole lesson and he can point a different assistant each week. Also the exams need to be more focused on textbooks and lectures should be more about the textbook.

Crisis in Dubai

There is no place in the world, when it comes to investment, like Dubai. Its 7th heaven for architects, investors, and the oil sheiks themselves. But now during this period of financial crisis it seems that the heavens have finally cracked open.

Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula. 1971 Dubai, together with Abu Dhabi and five other emirates, formed the United Arab Emirates after former protector Britain left the Persian Gulf in 1971. In the beginning Dubai acquired its fortune by trading oil, but during mid 90’s it started profiling it self as a more tourist place with a lots of investment opportunists.
But when the credit crunch hit the world it particularly hit hard in Dubai. Dubai hasn’t the massive oil reserves that Abu Dhabi has, so it is more dependent on foreign investments. During the crisis the money seemed to stop coming. That was particularly bad for the city of Dubai because with ongoing projects and a 1.2 million construction peope that need to get paid it seemed that Dubai’s party was coming to an end. Lucky for the Dubai big brother Abu Dhabi invested billions of dollars and leaned it even more. So for it looked like Dubai was saved. Think again.

This week a story broke in the media that Dubai World (one of the biggest national companies) is in financial trouble. Its on top off the already existing problems that Dubai has. (Expats who are feeling the country and leaving there expensive cars at the airport with an I’m sorry note. Small firms who go bankrupt, scandals with false investment opportunities.)

I hope for Dubai’s sake that the government is coming with a good plan because so far they haven’t done anything expect panicking. I think the best thing to do is not stop construction but to complete buildings that are already underway. They can ask Abu Dhabi to help finance because economic activity creates revenue, that revenue can be split big Abu Dhabi. Lucky for Dubai the end is near. I only hope they have learned some lessons for the future, like maybe its not a good idea to build a mile high tower.

British Climatic Research Unit's emails hacked

Awhile back there was a story in The Guardian about a hacker who has gotten access to some confidential emails of a renowned scientist. Not this on itself wouldn’t have been a major issue if the emails were about regular stuff, but the emails where not. In the emails the scientist discussed some pretty shady stuff with fellow scientists. Stuff that you only read about in Tom Clancy novels.

In the content of the stolen emails were some remarks made about how to “hide” data that isn’t consistent with global warming. Also remarks about getting an “editor fired” and some other remarks that could be fuel for sceptics and conspiracy theorists.

But what I had the most problems with was not the fact that the emails where stolen or that climate change data is being falsified. No that I’m used to, politicians lie and always have evidence to back up there lies so some scientists surly must also be liars. My main concern is why the mainstream media is ignoring this issue? Is it ludicrous for me to think that journalist must cover all the news items that are of importance? Really non of the big media agencies did cover this. Not Reuters, not Associated Press even CNMBC was quite. I find it strange not to read about it. In Holland the PVV has asked for a debate and successfully gotten it, but in the media nothing is reported about the date of the debate nor about the outcome of that debate. Even Google is involved with this. There was an article about it on Fok.nl about how Google doesn’t give you suggestions when you type in “Climate-gate”. In the first week when the story broke out it was possible to find it in the suggestions that are automatically give to you by Google. Now there is nothing of the sort, no really go find out for your self. Just type in Climate-gate. Nothing!

An article in the Telegraph (30-11-2009) spoke about whistleblowers not hackers surly this would have been breaking news all over the world? But no mainstream media kept on covering the car crash of Tiger Woods and Michael Jackson’s movie revenues.

Maybe the “powers that be” don’t want you to know that global warming is a big scam. Maybe they want you to fear the end of the world and pay more ridiculous taxes to avert it. Whatever the reasons is it should be covered by my local newspaper! I’m sick and tired of clicking on page 50 of my Google search results to find something about it.