8/6/2019 H!SQU June 2011

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8/6/2019 H!SQU June 2011

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Think of flowers and you think of delicacy,beauty and passionate love. How can you andI think otherwise when they alone, with their

heavenly qualities, can colour the landscape withirresistible charming beauty and add a unique flavourof pleasure and relief to our usually demanding

lives?Our souls cannot but dance with innocent pure

delight when bestowed with the scene of a natural,slender, graceful, fragrant, red rose with blossomingpetals, dancing in the breeze. But not until latewhen the wicked thoughts and hands of somepeople have interfered to reform, or more correctlydeform, the natural beauty of flowers, those redroses are stained with black dots of artificiality.

Forgetting that roses are the pulsing heart ofnature has led to the mistaken illusion of themas a mere source of sensual pleasure. And moredangerous is when flowers, rather than dancingto the melody of their nature, dance to the tune ofignorant evils who care not but about satisfying theirinsatiable desires.

In the name of beauty and freedom, manyendeavour to strip roses of their thorns, ignoring the

fact that their sharp prickles are a gift from natureto stop browsing animals. Oblivious that rosesarmed with thorns have the most fragrant aroma,they mistake thorns as ugliness and restriction. Yes, thorns can be a restriction but against thosewho want to pick every flower to die slowly in theirhands.

In the name of love and equality, they givethemselves the right to deprive flowers of theirlives and natural habitats. They claim their love,

yet they cut them and look at them wilt and die inhandsomely but falsely decorated vases. What aridiculous contradiction! Pity is both, the murderersfor their ignorance and the victims for theirsubmission.

Pity is the world when flowers are picked inthe name of love. Pity is the world when artificialflowers replace natural ones. Pity is the world whenwe forget that ‘the rose is a rose, and was alwaysa rose’.

Cu yu dys

d g ws!

Itwill behard tospotonewho never had a

dream, and therecould beamountaino such

dreamssweptawayintothe cornersohour

hearts, butwhat iwe suddenlydiscover that

our daysarenumbered? FatmaMohammed

Baabad oSohar Universitytellsushow we

could getwise withour lie

TO dream is human, and dreams spice upour life. Some live to dream while othersdream to live, but the truth is that we all

had dreams that once we wanted to make truebut, as we grew up, the dreams got pushedback into the deep corners of our hearts. Theylie there: completely forgotten.

It’s just like the dream of a child who, beingobsessed about a character in his favourite TVshow, dreams of growing up to assume thequalities or powers of the hero of his childhood.But as he grows up the dream fades andultimately vanishes as realties of life demandsother things from him.

Well, that’s usually the case with a majorityof people, but there are those who develop adifferent approach and outlook towards life at

some point of their life. These are people whostart thinking of their life and what they couldreally do in the remaining part of their life. Some

want to be better people than they ever hadbeen. Others want to make more fun out of life.And a few others try to discover and bring alivethe dreams safely swept away into the cornersof their hearts for long.

But what if you are among those who aretold that ‘your days are numbered’? I haveasked myself this question many times: what ifsomeone comes up to you and tells: “Your daysare numbered?” I mean, what am I really goingto do during the countdown?

I have had many dreams that seem quitechildish, perhaps crazy, to others. Many timesI imagine myself being told that my days arenumbered. Then I decide to make some changesin my life. After all, I’m the one who lives my lifeand no one else but I could effect a change forthe better.

So friends, that’s the trick to make ameaningful difference to your life. You need torealise that you got only one life, and that youare not going to be around forever, which meansyou need to make the best out of it, doing thingsthat others will not easily forget. Let that beyour new dream!

Dr Rahma Al Mahrooqi

Vol. III, Issue 10

30  Friday |JUNE24,2011 Friday |JUN

Ilooked at the haggard faces of my reading classstudents and knew the problem: they had notbeen sleeping well preparing for their final examsand submission of final reports. I asked “Whospent last night either studying or writing an

assignment or a report?” Almost all of them raisedtheir hands. My expectation was right, so I neededto change my lesson plan to make the class livelierand to stimulate them to think beyond the textbook.I had planned for them to read a new passage onenvironmental problems and global warning. Westarted the lesson brainstorming ideas, discussingwhat they thought was happening to the planet,and reflecting on concepts such as global warming,the green house effect and different types ofenvironmental problems.

Because they had a chance to talk, they becameenthusiastic and hands went up for participation.

After everyone had been given their chance tocontribute and discuss their ideas, I wanted toexplore their feelings about the topic. Exploringfeelings is very important in foreign language classes,especially during reading lessons as it a windowinto students’ attitudes and a way to foster criticalthinking. Anyway, instead of just asking them tosay what they felt, I asked them to do somethingelse. Since reading and writing are twin skills,each feeding into the other, I thought this is a goodopportunity for them to do some writing. Therefore,the task I gave them was to write a letter to “MotherEarth” explaining how they felt about man-madedestruction and alteration of the natural environment.

Some students showed enthusiasm for the task,while others did not, an indication that individualwork might not be fruitful for all. Therefore, I dividedthem into groups and each group was supposed tobrainstorm, plan and then draft a letter.

We picked a group leader who would lead thediscussion, a note-taker, and a person who wouldrepresent the group in reading the letter once thetask was completed.

After the students had settled into their groups,the discussion started, and all became enthusiastic.They wrote notes on their ideas and then started

drafting their letters.I gave them time to recheck what they wrote;

then, each group representative read her/his group’sletter. Feedback on each letter was given by bothstudents and teachers. The following letters werethe result.

Dear Mother Earth, 

As you know, a hand’s fingers are not all alike. Yes,there are some people who are destroying you

because of selfish reasons, though your love for themhas been bountiful and your generosity unlimited.

However, there are people who deeply careabout you and would want to protect you. Eventhose who harm you, we believe, include many whofeel sorry about what’s happening to you and manynow are trying to prevent these catastrophes, or atleast, reduce them.

My darling Mother Earth, we are harbor decentfeelings for you: Our love for you is so great that ifyou want to measure it, you will have to find a newHeaven and a new Earth to do so.

God bless YOU

Dear Mother Earth,

Forgive us for being so selfish and cruel. We wereawful to the extent that we have spoiled all the

good things you blessed us with. We were justselfish and greedy to think about our benefits withoutconsidering yours. We are the root cause of yoursuffering: pollution, global warming and many otherdisasters.

And now, we feel guilty for all the terrible thingswe have done. We feel guilty for harming you. Infact, we don’t even have suitable words to expresshow sorry we are; we are that useless and bad.

Please forgive our cruelty, and pray for us to beblessed with wisdom and to feel satisfaction andcontentment wherever we are, because you are ourMother Earth and a mother’s prayers are valued andanswered by God.

Dear Mother Earth,

Our tears fall down profusely. Our heats grieve sobadly, when we take a glance at you and your

spoiled beauty. You have blessed us with your generosity. We get

everything we crave for, but we abuse all your gifts

due to our selfishness and greed. We have rewardedyour blessings by destroying you with our never-ending projects.

We cut down forests, which are the habitat ofmany creatures, in order to make paper, furniture andother materials. We also build many factories whichhas led to, among other things, global warming fromwhich you are suffering nowadays.

We have exploited and damaged almost all ofyour resources merely to satisfy our unlimited needsand wants.

Sorry, we have hurt you and hurt ourselves too.We can’t enjoy your beauty any more.

Our dear mother, please accept our apology.Forgive us. We promise to reform our ways of livingand developing on your loving surface.

The letters were all very powerful and thestudents had to think through what they wanted to

say. They had to come to terms with their feelingsand attitudes towards the issue of environmentalproblems. Given this chance to think and reflect, theydid an excellent job.

Since all the letters expressed how sorry thestudents were about the destruction of the planet, I

felt it important that they should also see the brightside of beneficial development which happenswithout causing much harm to the environment.Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea if theycould debate the bright side and the dark side ofhuman activities. As preparation for the next class,the students were divided into three groups: thosewho would argue for the bright side, those whowould argue the dark side, and those who would judge the argument and fund the developmentprojects of the winning group. The groups wereassigned to do an Internet search, take notes onwhat they learnt and come prepared for the debate.The debate took place during the following lesson.But discussing it needs another article! Therefore, Imust stop writing now, hoping that you have enjoyedreading this piece.

Stay blessed.

D M e…egs d u

Englishis thelinguarancao tand gaining profciencyin this

othe businessworld isimpor

student. Said AlHamdani tries

hurdlesinthe waytolearning E

ONE may be successful in English, or one may not bfact is that in a communit

the business of learning a languaEnglish is not easy. In state schis the most-hated subject: hatedstudents find it difficult to learn. main obstacles to learning this lis that outside the classroom, tharound with whom one can pracEnglish. If my own experience ito go by, there is no better way, effective way, to learn English thamong a circle of native speakerAnother obstacle is the negativeof friends. If they hear you tryingEnglish, they think that you are sShowing off is not an acceptable

behaviour, and so you are obligetrying. Many students are affectenegative influence of friends. Yetobstacle can be poor teaching stThere are many teachers who prin a very academic way, and whoconcern is to get you to learn byof rules. In my view, it is essentiaEnglish we learn in the classroo

related to real-life situations.

W ws

s

f yug

m?

Who wipes the tears of a yowho is in a downward spir

The memories wheel by in himas he thinks about his rival.An old wound is to be opened,A forgotten feud is the endto resurrect the sin againand fill the heart with hate and pThe young man will rain tears anWho wipes the tears of a youngFidelity: no such a word,honesty dies: no such a sword.The gale will strike and all the bwill be shed once more like flasAnd the young man will shed his

a s s sTheroseis perhapsthemost popular, ragrant,

natural, beautiulsymbolo love. A roseisa

roseisaroseisa rose, buttherearesomewho

maywonder whythere arethornsall around it.

AbdullahAlRawahi risesup indeenceothe

thornyissuessurrounding therose

By Matasim

College of E