Tag Archives: education
Young and old slug it out at Scrabble Championship
Young and old slug it out at Scrabble Championship Muaz Shabandri / 1 June 2013 Word lovers in Dubai are putting their lingo to the test with Scrabble champions from six countries fighting for glory at the 23rd Gulf Scrabble Championships happening this weekend. Each of the 30 participants will play 20 games over three days to finish with maximum points at the end of the contest. A test of lateral thinking and quick problem solving, scrabbling has a bounty of hot competition with the top two competitors from the UAE earning a spot to represent the country at the Scrabble Champions Tournament in Prague later this year. Players of all ages are competing at this year’s challenge and a quick look around the sports and recreation centre at Etisalat Academy makes it clear. Twelve-year-old Armaan Arafat is the youngest player at this year’s showing. She believes the opportunity is a good way to learn from the pros and become better at the game. “I first came across the game after attending a scrabble workshop two years back. Since then I played a few games with family members and I quickly got hooked on to it,” says Armaan, a student of Our Own English High School in Sharjah. Now she plays the game regularly in online game rooms and tests her skills with people in other parts of the world. Mohammed Aasim is among the other younger players. At 13, he qualified for the event after one of the players dropped out. “I hope to make it to the World Championship in a few years from now. These competitions (are a) good practice ground for new players like me.” He spends two hours everyday playing the game and it has helped him improve his vocabulary. Last year’s UAE champion, Ronald Credo is hoping to repeat his performance and land a spot at the championship in Prague. He faces tough competition from up to five other top players. “There are some very good Scrabble players in the UAE and it is not very easy to qualify for the world championship,” Credo acknowledged. His toughest competition comes from two-time UAE champion Mohammed Sulaiman who has also won a Scrabble championship in Malta. At 71, he is the oldest player in the tournament and said the “stress” of playing 20 games could be challenging. “It is very tiring for me and definitely my reflexes have become slow with age. Sometimes I feel I am not up to the mark but I still love playing the game,” Sulaiman said with a smile. His best finish in a World Scrabble Championship came in 2007, when he wound up in 20 th position. He qualified a second time in 2011 where he finished 23 rd . Chairman of UAE Scrabble Championship Nikhil Soneja said the competition was a good way to keep the ‘Scrabble culture’ alive. He said the game was becoming increasingly popular with more players from the UAE and other Gulf countries making it to the top 500 in the world rankings. “Over the last few years, UAE players have made a mark at the world level. This year, the UAE has been allowed to send two players and it’s because of the consistent good performance by the scrabble champions,” he said. Last year in December, 14-year-old Navya Zaveri created history by becoming the first player from the UAE to win a world-level scrabble championship. He finished top in the Under-16 category and this year he is playing his first tournament with adults. muaz@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Learn always and take Dubai with you, students told
Learn always and take Dubai with you, students told Sarah Young / 1 June 2013 The need for lifelong learning and to connect with others in order to secure a better future was the message to students graduating from the Dubai International Academy. The academy’s fifth cohort of 105 students from 29 different countries graduated on Thursday evening at the American University of Dubai auditorium. Mohamed Ali Alabbar presenting the certificate to a student, as Abdul Rahman Nasser, executive Director for customer relations at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, and other graduates look on during the ceremony at Dubai International Academy. — KT photo by Mukesh Kamal Chief guest Mohamed Ali Alabbar, chairman of Emaar and the Dubai Events Council, told students they were entering the world at a “very interesting moment of time on earth — a moment filled with optimism and positivity”. The fact students had received more than 300 admissions across 16 countries, and 11 scholarships, showed the quality of their education and their potential — but he encouraged them not to forget their “base” and that they had come from Dubai. “Take the way of life, the way of being in this incredible city everywhere you go. It’s very rare anywhere on earth any student or individual will be able to live, play, learn and create friendships in an environment with over 200 nationalities interacting so positively.” He encouraged them to be “proof” to the rest of the world that they came from such a place where different religions, languages, and cultures could coexist in harmony. The future of the world depended on what they did, and they should never stop challenging things, or learning, he said. “The environment changes every second of the day so your knowledge (becomes) null and void… (but) if you challenge and learn all the time you will be unstoppable.” American University of Dubai president Dr Lance de Masi also told students continuous learning was more important than ever now. The 21 st century had gone “topsy-turvy”, but one thing was certain: “human destiny depends on education”. Half of what students learnt today would no longer be true in 20 years, and at least half of what they would know in 20 years had not yet been discovered. However, just as a car was nothing without petrol, knowledge was nothing without character — and without a conciousness of something bigger than each individual, he reminded them. “Each time you share with your fellow man a specific strength you possess, you build a sense of community necessary to keep the planet turning…without connectedness, globalisation is a sham.” He encouraged the students not to be afraid of their potential, but to “live from the inside out, keep learning, look every fellow man in the face, and use your education to serve this world well”. This was the first year students had been admitted to Princeton in the US, and Cambridge in the UK, and also the first year in which two females — Xanita Saayman, 17, and Sana Rizvi, 18 — had been made valedictorian. Both passionate about the sciences, Saayman will be studying biochemistry in Canada next year, with the aim of moving into pharmaceutical or genetic research, while Rizvi will be studying medicine in the United Kingdom. Saayman said most of their cohort would study overseas, mainly in the US and Canada. The academy had prepared them well for independent study, and while they would miss the city they had lived in for four years, they were looking forward to what changes the future held, she said. sarah@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Kenya: Immediate former major of Garissa
Leila Nyaanga in Garissa, Kenya (5 December 2007) Immediate former major of Garissa talks about tribalism in the local areas. Continue reading
