A very interesting part to be a participant in the International Visitors Programme and a privilege indeed is the opportunity that I had to meet people and dear colleagues and friends now from across the globe who are on the programme.
Going to a bar or a restaurant at night is something special that many of the participants are keen on doing.
What a fantastic time we are spending with each other, learning and sharing. I just have a great feeling for making friends now through this programme with many of my colleagues in the programme, either politicians or journalists.
It is an awesome chance to listen to them and learn and share.
I met people from countries that I never met people from such as Mexico, Ecuador, Iceland and others {the list is long}and to see how much in common we have and the things we share...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Irrelevant….
By this I mean one of the meetings that we went to in Florida that was at the headquarters of the Urban League, which is an agency dedicated to empowering the minority community. Frankly, the meeting was out of context and I just felt it was meant to fill the time.
A complicated democratic system…..
It was like narrating a story. The presentation by Dr. Lennal Joseph Henderson, who is a professor of Government and Public Administration at the University of Baltimore, on January 23rd was amazing.
The topic was really interesting and very necessary to help understand how the administrative system works in the United States.
The presentation was about the US System of Federalism.
I have to be frank that at the beginning of the almost two-hour presentation, where I and my colleagues had the chances for several questions, I felt that the meeting was long for the topic. However, I have to say I was mistaken.
Out of this meeting, I learnt a lot about the federal system in the US and as we are moving on in our programme on the 2008 presidential primaries I now more appreciate every single information I learn as it is crucial to know how the federal system works to better understand the laws and regulations governing and affecting the primaries in the 50 states of the US.
I have to say it took me some time to understand how this decentralized system works, and still I do not think am good at knowing all its details.
But I did benefit from this presentation tremendously and I guess if the time was even longer that would have been better.
Mohammad Ghazal
Reporter with The Jordan Times.
The topic was really interesting and very necessary to help understand how the administrative system works in the United States.
The presentation was about the US System of Federalism.
I have to be frank that at the beginning of the almost two-hour presentation, where I and my colleagues had the chances for several questions, I felt that the meeting was long for the topic. However, I have to say I was mistaken.
Out of this meeting, I learnt a lot about the federal system in the US and as we are moving on in our programme on the 2008 presidential primaries I now more appreciate every single information I learn as it is crucial to know how the federal system works to better understand the laws and regulations governing and affecting the primaries in the 50 states of the US.
I have to say it took me some time to understand how this decentralized system works, and still I do not think am good at knowing all its details.
But I did benefit from this presentation tremendously and I guess if the time was even longer that would have been better.
Mohammad Ghazal
Reporter with The Jordan Times.
From sunny Florida....
Now I am writing this piece from Orlando Florida, where we {the participants} are having a great time, not only learning lots of things about the primaries, but also enjoying the sun after having to tolerate freezing weather in the District of Colombia (D.C.).
The programme is getting more interesting, especially that I better understand what's going on in the primaries.
Here in the 4th largest populous states, the programme is so practical.
We here have the chance to see eye to eye how the process of voting starts, how the votes are tallies, how elections are supervised, techniques used in the casting ballot process.
We visited polling centres, met with local Americans.
However, I have to say that one of the best activities was attending the rallies for Rudy Giulani and john McCain.
It was so new to me and interesting to see the would-be president speaking to the people only few feet far from them and presenting their agenda.
Giulani's rally was a little bit smaller in the size of people attending, McCain's however who already one the primaries was attended by more people who received his remarks with applause and music.
At McCain's rally, I had the feeling that it was US President George W. Bush talking. By that I mean, I did not like McCain's statements such as …"We are succeeding in Iraq" and I was wondering by what he means by "succeeding". Plus, statements like ISLAMIC EXTREMISM, where so stereotyping to me to link the radical violence and extremism to Islam.
Anyway, it was a great experience to learn and be in the middle of the scene.
Mohammad Ghazal
Reporter with The Jordan Times.
The programme is getting more interesting, especially that I better understand what's going on in the primaries.
Here in the 4th largest populous states, the programme is so practical.
We here have the chance to see eye to eye how the process of voting starts, how the votes are tallies, how elections are supervised, techniques used in the casting ballot process.
We visited polling centres, met with local Americans.
However, I have to say that one of the best activities was attending the rallies for Rudy Giulani and john McCain.
It was so new to me and interesting to see the would-be president speaking to the people only few feet far from them and presenting their agenda.
Giulani's rally was a little bit smaller in the size of people attending, McCain's however who already one the primaries was attended by more people who received his remarks with applause and music.
At McCain's rally, I had the feeling that it was US President George W. Bush talking. By that I mean, I did not like McCain's statements such as …"We are succeeding in Iraq" and I was wondering by what he means by "succeeding". Plus, statements like ISLAMIC EXTREMISM, where so stereotyping to me to link the radical violence and extremism to Islam.
Anyway, it was a great experience to learn and be in the middle of the scene.
Mohammad Ghazal
Reporter with The Jordan Times.
What does it mean to be on 2008 Presidential Primaries Programnme?
It simply means that you are on a very condensed, entertaining and educational programme that helps you better understand and have a closer look at how the political system works in the United States of America.
Not only that, being on a presidential primaries programme helps you as well to better understand the general mood of the public Americans, not only what one hears from US officials.
As a participant in the International Visitor Leadership Programme "2008 Presidential Primaries", along with 20 other colleagues from across the world, I can simply say that being in the programme, so far, helped me better understand better the American people, their priorities and what is really of concern to them.
I have always thought that the Americans in general, especially the American officials, are mostly concerned with the foreign policies and international affairs, such as the peace process in the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear issue and the war on terror, among others.
Why I had these ideas was simply because I simply though that the situation in the United States is far better than any country in the world, at least economically. The economic recession the US is facing and the economic issues are topping the agendas of the candidates.
I believe that it is true that they have lots of interests in the Middle East, but the public Americans that I have been taking to are simply busy with the netty gritty of their life.
We have been attending a series of meetings since the start of the programme. We are finished with the programme in Washington D.C., where we received a good and condensed introduction about the primaries.
Mohammad Ghazal
Reporter with The Jordan Times...
Not only that, being on a presidential primaries programme helps you as well to better understand the general mood of the public Americans, not only what one hears from US officials.
As a participant in the International Visitor Leadership Programme "2008 Presidential Primaries", along with 20 other colleagues from across the world, I can simply say that being in the programme, so far, helped me better understand better the American people, their priorities and what is really of concern to them.
I have always thought that the Americans in general, especially the American officials, are mostly concerned with the foreign policies and international affairs, such as the peace process in the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear issue and the war on terror, among others.
Why I had these ideas was simply because I simply though that the situation in the United States is far better than any country in the world, at least economically. The economic recession the US is facing and the economic issues are topping the agendas of the candidates.
I believe that it is true that they have lots of interests in the Middle East, but the public Americans that I have been taking to are simply busy with the netty gritty of their life.
We have been attending a series of meetings since the start of the programme. We are finished with the programme in Washington D.C., where we received a good and condensed introduction about the primaries.
Mohammad Ghazal
Reporter with The Jordan Times...
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