Karzai hopeful of Taliban joining mainstream - Qatar Tribune

18 Sunday, March 31, 2013
Nation
ROTA event focuses youth attention on water
TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK
DOHA
CURTAIN came down on the
Empower Youth Conference
at the Qatar National
Convention Center where
future leaders converged for
the three-day event sponsored
by Msheireb
Properties.
Demonstrating ROTA’s
commitment to supporting
the United Nations
International Year of Water
Cooperation, 400 delegates
from Qatar, Gulf countries,
Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and
the UK participated in a
series of half-day service
learning activities with a mix
of sports and environmental
activities on the third and
final day of Qatar’s largest
annual youth gathering.
The youths took part in
various activity-packed programmes
of community project
visits and interactive
reflection sessions.
“For the fifth year in succession,
Empower has given
hundreds of young people
the skills, knowledge and
confidence to take leadership
roles in addressing local and
international issues of concern
to them, especially in the
areas of Sustainable
Development and Sports,”
said ROTA Executive
Director Essa al Mannai.
Kicking off the final day of
Empower 2013; delegates
grabbed the opportunity to
participate in one of nine
Participants at the Empower Youth Conference take part in a water awarness campaign at Landmark mall (left) and paint graffiti at ROTA’s headquarters, in Doha, recently.
half-day servicing learning
activities.
Emphasising the key
themes of Empower 2013,
the activities were connected
to sports development and in
support of the United
Nations International Year of
Water Cooperation.
After completing the activity
sessions, the delegates
expressed their thoughts and
experiences in a reflective
learning session followed by
a series of cultural performances
and an amazing youthled
closing ceremony.
Reflecting the passion the
youth delegates possess for
tackling global environmental
issues, they took part in a
seminar on ‘Action
Campaigns – Water
The delegates engage in an environmental activity.
Cooperation.’
The seminar gave an introduction
of what the UN
International Year of Water
Cooperation means and how
it relates to Empower 2013
conference. During the seminar,
delegates were briefed
about some current and relevant
examples (both from a
regional as well as global perspective.)
The seminar had the
involvement of the Earth
Charter and how it was related
to the conference and
water conservation/cooperation,
but most importantly, to
develop and taking action on
the youth’s campaign projects/activities.
On day one of the conference,
both the ROTA Youth
Planning Committee and
ROTA Youth Advisory Board
announced the start of three
days of exciting activities.
Similarly, delegates had
the opportunity to attend a
presentation by Msheireb
Properties on Water
Sensitive Urban Design.
The presentation by
Bassam Eisa al Mannai discussed
the essential steps
taken by Msheireb Properties
to develop a sustainable project
with a focus on water.
Participants were able to
understand the driving vision
behind Msheireb Down Town
Doha and had a detailed
understanding of what can be
done from a master planning
point of view as well as a technical
one.
“This is our event; this is
our time!” said Mohamed al
Hashemi, ROTA Youth
Advisory Board member,
who advocated a shift to
more service learning in
mainstream education.
“Empower was a fantastic
chance for me to employee
my capabilities to bring
together other young people
who are making great
contributions to meet the
challenges facing our communities.”
QCRI to define future of
humanitarian technology
TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK
DOHA
DR Patrick Meier, director of Social
Innovation at Qatar Computing Research
Institute (QCRI) and the world’s foremost
expert on humanitarian technology, will
explore the rise of digital humanitarian
response and how new technologies are
reshaping the humanitarian space in an
upcoming talk on April 3.
Meier’s presentation, which takes place
at Tornado Tower from 4pm, will explain
why human computing and artificial
intelligence are key to developing the next
generation of humanitarian technologies.
He will introduce concepts such as
crowdsourcing, microtasking and
machine learning using intuitive realworld
examples.
The talk is geared towards highlighting
QCRI’s important leadership in defining
the future of humanitarian technology.
“The current divide between the
Dr Patrick Meier
humanitarian and data science space
needs to be bridged. Serious expertise in
data science and advanced computing is
required to tackle the major challenges
appearing on the horizon of humanitarian
technology. My focus at QCRI is to develop
prototype of the next generation of
humanitarian technologies by working
directly with experts in areas such as big
data analytics, machine learning and
machine translation,” Dr Meier said.
The talk is free and open to the public.
Interested residents can register for the
programme
at
www.patrickmeier.eventbrite.com.
Dr Meier is an internationally recognised
thought leader on the application of
new technologies for humanitarian
response. He previously co-directed the
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s
Program on Crisis Mapping and served as
director of Crisis Mapping at Ushahidi, an
organisation ranked by the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology as one of the 50
most innovative companies in the world
alongside Google, Facebook and Twitter.
He has given talks at the White House,
United Nations, Google, Stanford, Mobile
World Congress, PopTech, TTI/Vanguard
and several TEDx’s. Dr Meier blogs at
iRevolution and tweets at @patrickmeier.
Translation conference
from April 14 to 16
QNA
DOHA
THE Translation and
Interpreting Institute (TII) of
Hamad Bin Khalifa
University (HBKU) and
Bloomsbury Qatar
Foundation Publishing
(BQFP) have announced this
year’s translation conference
programme to take place
between April 14 and 16.
It will feature three panels,
focusing on the theme, “Texts
in Contexts: New Cultural
Constellations in Translation
Studies,” while keynote
addresses will be open to the
public as they explore theoretical
and literary translation
discussions.
Dr Ovidi Carbonell Cortes
from the University of
Salamanca, a keynote speaker,
will analyse the perspectives
on Arabic-Spanish
translation whreas Samuel
Shimon will describe the past
and present state of literary
translation based on his experience
as founder and editor
of Banipal Magazine.
The call for papers attracted
contributions from regional
and international scholars
specialising in translation
study. The presentations will
address theoretical and cultural
questions related to
translation, starting from the
Tower of Babel, Abbasid Era,
and Chinese tradition to contemporary
discussions of
English and French translation
of classical Sufi poetry,
“The Thousand and One
Night”, and Egyptian author
Alaa al Aswany’s “The
Yacoubian Building”.
In addition, there will be a
presentation on translating
the Quran into English. ‘
Texts in Contexts’ is an
annual event that aims to
enrich academic and cultural
life by demonstrating the
importance of translation as
a dialogue between cultures
and nations and fostering
discussions and debates
among local, regional and
international academics
and professionals,” Dr Amal
al Malki, TII executive
director said.
Participating in these panels
will be scholars from the
University of Salamanca,
Spain, University of Texas at
Austin in the United States,
Concordia University in
Canada, Chinese University
of Hong Kong, University of
Amsterdam, American
University of Sharjah, and
United Arab Emirates
University.
Second Arabic debating championships on April 21
CATHERINE W GICHUKI
DOHA
THE second International
Universities Arabic Debating
Championship (IUADC)
organised by QatarDebate
Center will be held in Doha
from April 21 to 24, according
to officials.
Forty-three teams representing
universities from 21
Arab countries will take part
in the championship. There
will also be delegations from
universities in Australia,
Turkey, the United Kingdom,
the United States, Canada
and Malaysia.
The contest is sponsored by
ConocoPhillips.
The event aims at promoting
partnership and strengthening
links in the educational
and cultural areas between
universities of the participating
countries. In addition, the
championship tends to deepen
and consolidate the culture
of dialogue, which helps to
boost tolerance between different
and diverse cultures.
The event is an opportunity to
Officials of QatarDebate Center address a press conference, in Doha, recently.
promote the Arab debate,
encouraging freedom of opinion
in the Arab world and
allowing creative minds to
express their views and interact
with the opposite view and
accept it.
Speaking at a press conference
on Wednesday,
Executive Director of
QatarDebate Center Dr Hayat
Maarafi said that this year’s
contest will be much bigger
than the previous one in 2011,
as it will also bring together
participants from non-Arabic
speaking countries.
‘This is a big lift for us and it
will encourage the use of
standard Arabic language. It
will also promote Arab-Islam
identity,” she said.
According to her, debating
in Arabic language is the
main objective of the championship
for the revival of the
language and the spread of
debating art all over the
world.
She added that Qatar
Debate seeks to establish this
art to make youth aware of its
importance in preparing
future generations and leaders
based on Arab authentic
culture, preserving language,
identity and culture.
She expressed thanks to the
major sponsors of the championship,
including
ConocoPhillips and Ooredoo.
The championship logo is a
picture of a tree branching
twigs and leaves to symbolise
the countries participating in
the tournament.
Key Communications
Director of Qatar Debate Ali
Sultan noted that young
debaters are like seeds that
need care, attention and
development. He added that
the tree shows flags of participating
countries in the event
in a scattered way on the
branches to illustrate the idea
of exchanging views and
opinions; but, in the end all
branches are gathered into
one trunk which represents
love of knowledge, mutual
respect, acceptance of the
other and hope for a better
future based on dialogue,
equity and peace.
ConocoPhillips Government
Affairs Director Salem al
Halbadi said that this was the
second time the company was
sponsoring the event.
“Knowledge sharing is at
the heart of our values as a
company and debating is an
excellent way to express and
share knowledge. This is an
opportunity for us to demonstrate
our support to Qatar’s
vision in building a knowledge-based
society,” he said.
Halbadi further said, “This
is one of the many initiatives
through which we contribute
to building the next generations
of qualified leaders in
Qatar, and we intend to work
closely with all community
stakeholders to play an
increasingly active role.”
Also present at the press
conference were Qatar
Debate
Center’s
Communications Manager
Ali al Muftah, Manager of
Educational Programmes Dr
Abdellatif Sellami, Events
Manager Jamal al Baker and
Arabic Programmes Director
Dr Abel al Samie.