Read your path to success
i n general, the underdeveloped world does not read much, and not just arabs and muslims only. however, in general, we are more noisy than others and claim to be more knowledgeable and stronger, deeper in illusion that we are right in everything we say and do and that the entire world is wrong. there is no way to remove these allegations and illusions without intensive and diverse reading. however, reading without understanding is not enough, understanding without application is meaningless. it is not suffi cient, for example, to approve the teaching of a book on ethics, but it is necessary to understand the curriculum in a new way. for example the teaching staff believes in the curriculum and in turn both the teacher and the student apply what has been taught. with the continued absence of reading, understanding and application from our lives, we will continue to be backward, fragmented, and our stupid belief that we are the best will go on. renowned indian journalist rustom karanjia (1912-2008) mentioned in his famous book in 1957 ‘the dagger of israel’ that the then israeli minister of war, moshe dayan told him israel will one day destroy the arab aircraft on the ground in one strike and the sky will be only for israel, and then resolve its war with the arabs. when karanjia asked the defense minister why he discloses that military information, or the future plan, he replied saying ‘the arabs do not read, and if they read, they do not understand, and if they understand they do not apply’. from this perspective and believing in the importance of reading in our lives, the young and the old, and because of what they feel of the society’s distance from reading, in general, they sought and succeeded in establishing a kuwaiti award for the author of the best short arabic story, under the title ‘al-multaqa’ prize for arabic short story, which will be held in kuwait which once had a prominent role in encouraging reading and publishing before this role was eliminated by the ideas of the muslim brotherhood. the event of al-multaqa prize for arabic short story, which may have been announced, with the publication of this article, has a long list for its current and second session, which will be followed by a short list on the fi rst of next month. an award ceremony will be held and the fi rst winner and the rest of the winners will be announced on dec 4. the organizers chose a new board of trustees comprising taleb al-rifaei as chairman, amal al-binali, vice president of the american university, and members: sulaiman al-shatti, ismail fahad ismail, laila al-othman, mohammad al-sharikh, abdulrahman al-farhan, talal al-rumaidhi and ali al enezi. the organizers also chose a new advisory board comprising: ibrahim almoallem (egypt), mohammad khudair (iraq), qasem haddad (bahrain), farouk mardam bey (france), nabil suleiman (syria), rashid yahyaoui, (morocco), jonathan wright (britain) and elias farkouh (jordan). more information about the award idea and terms can be found at its website: almultaqaprize.com such an award, and the efforts of the national council for culture, arts and letters, will restore kuwait’s role to encourage the world in reading which has stopped — efforts that will restore the glamour and liberalism of kuwait that have been long known.
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