Can Culture Be Bought in the Gulf?

[qatarperegrine]

The talk of the campus today is the New York Sun's recent article Can Culture Be Bought in the Gulf?, which slams Education City as well as other plans to bring Western cultural institutions to the Gulf.

The final paragraph of the article reads:

A good example of what can happen when modernity is faked can be found in Qatar, where a pretentious emir, Hamad bin Khalifa, and one of his even more pretentious spouses, Sheikha Mozza, became enamored with the idea of creating a Harvard-like educational atmosphere in a land that is a desert of thought and culture and a center of Wahhabi Islamic fundamentalism. Their billion-dollar ventures with Weill Cornell Medical College, the Rand Corporation, Texas A&M University, and Carnegie Mellon University stand today as an embarrassment. Nowhere near enough qualified Qatari or Gulf Arab students have been found, nor have foreigners, even when offered full scholarships, joined what in effect are gated communities in a society living in the 18th century.

Needless to say, this article has not been well-received in Education City. One of our associate deans responded here; the dean of Georgetown responded here; and, as I write this, one of our students is sitting in the ARC writing her own response.

I'm somewhat perplexed. That's not even an accurate list of the Education City branch campuses (Rand isn't a university, and why didn't he lambaste VCU or Georgetown?), and what exactly does it mean to say "nowhere near enough qualified Qatari or Gulf Arab students have been found"? Nowhere near enough for what?

Then again, the article also says that Dubai and the UAE are rival cities, which is rather embarrassing. Dubai is in the UAE.

I think it's good to have some frank discussion of what these Western Universities are contributing to Qatar, not to mention some skepticism of the materialism rampant in this society. It seems a shame to have it discussed in such a needlessly condescending way, though.

Comments

Re: Regarding VCU and Geaorgetown

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

I don't mean this comment in any way to detract from your statement, and I have no experience with Qatari education or EC to comment on that. But having been through several universities in the US and one in the UK, I think it's safe to say that underdeveloped analytical skills and little experience at critical thinking is a fairly common trait across the US and UK universities as well.

And while I know nothing of Qatari primary and secondary education, I would also hesitate to hold the US students up as having come from a successful primary or secondary education system.

*Backing out now as I have said what little I know, and the rest is all well beyond my expertise...*

Re: Regarding VCU and Geaorgetown

[qatar.livejournal.com]

"And while I know nothing of Qatari primary and secondary education, I would also hesitate to hold the US students up as having come from a successful primary or secondary education system."

I would have said the same thing, three years ago. Everything's relative. :-)