• What do you want for
Valentines?
• More in the series ‘Islam in Focus’
• Your experiences this winter break
• An interview with Pittsburgh’s cmBA President
R O M A N C E A T
C M U - Q
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A N I N T E R N S
P E R S P E C T I V E
3
I S L A M I N
F O C U S
4
H O L I D A Y
E X P E R I E N C E S
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E N T E R T A I N -
M E N T W E E K L Y
8 a l l A R O U N D
Quite frankly, everything! Hold on to your hearts, because All Around is back with a bang to bring to you the very mushy, the very sweet and the very sexy Valentines edition! Our excitement is contained in this week’s issue featuring insight into matters of the heart and the low down on the latest CMUQ happenings, all with a special valentines twist! Read on for more, and from all of us in the newsroom, Happy Valentines Day!
This semester CMU-Q has new members joining the positions of faculty and staff. The Carnegie Mellon family in Qatar is delighted to have the additions to the campus, adding to the richness of our community. I believe that like the rest of us in CMU-Q, in no time will the new members feel right at home within the closely knit society that we are. On behalf of
CMU-Q, I would like to welcome the incoming faculty- Ms.Yonina Cooper,
Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science; Mr. Patrick McGinnis,
Assistant Teaching Professor, Tepper School; Mr. Mark Stehlik, Teaching
Professor and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education, Computer
Science and the incoming staff – Menna , Jessica and Hasan as Course Assistants.
With the beginning of the spring semester, we are full of enthusiasm to work harder to deliver the best quality for our readers. We have noticed the growing number of students wanting to contribute to our issues, and we welcome them to do so. Though we are missing our Editor-
In-Chief Noor Al Athirah, we promise that we will work hard to follow her path. We wish you all the best for this semester, and Happy Valentine’s
Day.
Yasmine Abdelrahman
Acting Editor-In-Chief

2
at
Roses? Chocolates? Candle-light dinner? Or maybe something that totally freaks your betterhalf out??!! What’s the best you can offer your
Sahhr Malik: “I don’t exactly like the concept of Valentine’s Day.”
Imran Karim: Tells us that we should have informed loved one on Valentine’s Day?? What’s the most
YOU can do for the person you love? Let’s see how romantic CMU Students and Faculty can get!!
Yasmine Abdul_Rehman: “Since he would be
Egyptian(she’s so sure!), I would take him to a football match…You know, Egyptian guys love football! No no..Or maybe I would take him to a wrestling match, that would be really cool. And then see the blood on his face, you know, red symbolizes Valentine’s Day! So that would be the
BEST Valentine’s Day ever for me and him!”
Maha Mahmoud: “Hmm…A soft, romantic candle-light dinner in Paris.”
Wesam Said: “Kiss him!”
Anas Abu-Qamar: “I’d give my life for her!”
Basit Iqbal: “Hmm….I would send a helicopter to shower roses at her house, like a flower shower…And…hmmm…around 18 dozen roses....”(And then he starts calculating how much that would cost, etc…A typical BA student!!)
Reem Al-Khatib: “ I showed up, that should be enough for him!”
Rana Sekhlawy: “I would get him chocolates!”
Mohammed Abu-Zainab:”Hmmm….I’m not exactly sure what I would do, because in my opinion, if I really love the person, no tangible good would be as valuable as my love for her...The expression should be as much... So I would actually ask her, what she expects from me and give her that. I’d be prepared to give her the world!”
Yasser Khan: “I would just want to see a smile on her face… I like a jumpy and smiley nature...
Basically, see her happy, because sadness is something I wouldn’t be able to bare on the face of my beloved.”
Basheera Banu: “Ignore him!”
Anum Bashir: “Anything!”(She then gives us a toothy smile!)
Karim Watfa: “Hmm… Help her with her Java
Lab!”(hmm…im sure she would be thankful!”) him of our intention of asking this question a year back, because that’s the amount of time he needs to think of something. And then he starts thinking…And the process is still going on..So in order to know his state of mind, read our NEXT year’s Valentine’s Issue!
Omar Alouba: “What do want me to say?? Roses,uhh…
Chocolates… No! I don’t believe in those corny gestures…JUST AVOID HER!”
Dana Hadan: “I would write him a 10 page love letter..”(and she doesn’t explain why 10…why not 9 or 11?!)
Nora Al-Subai: “For me, the hardest thing would be to share a cake with someone…So on Valentine’s Day, I would share a cake with the person I love.” Well, sharing
IS caring!
Bayan Taha: “I would say “I love you” with a sweet voice….”
Adib: “Write a love poem for her.”
Mehrunissa Anis: “Anything that makes him happy.”
HMMMM….
Now let’s see what the faculty has in mind for their big day….
Jumana: “Hmm…Depends on who it is…What you can do for the person you love is entirely unique to that individual and that relationship…I’m not the corny kinda person… But if it comes to the person I love, then I would do something very simple… Probably just spend time with them, like going out for dinner.”
John Robertson:”Well…I suppose… Let her know that she is the person I love”
Funke:”I would actually pray for them, that all their wishes come true. Because I feel that’s the greatest gift you can give someone.” Now THAT’S true love!
Yasmine’s unidentified professor: ”Buy her a card, small gift, special dinner.”
Salam Mir: “I would cook his favourite meal for him!
And have a romantic dinner”
Kristin: “ I would go for a cruise around the world with him.”

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“Love is blind,” a saying many of us use whether we are trying to prove a point to our friends about their love interest, or when we realize flaws we have never seen before in those we love. What we do not realize or particularly know is the origin of the phrase. I mean, have you ever considered the fact that if you say “love is blind” to any person in this world they would understand you and nod their head in agreement. It is one of those clichés that never get old or too sappy.
It started with the Romans and Greeks that had a love god by the name of Eros, translated to Cupid in Latin. When sculpting him they had a blind fold over his eyes to indicate that love is blind, as lovers are blind to the faults and flaws of those they love, and so the saga started. In literature, the phrase was used across cultures,
Shakespeare infuses this idea and phrase into “The
Merchant of Venice,” saying “For I am much ashamed of my exchange: But love is blind and lovers cannot see,” re-emphasizing the fact that when you are indeed in love, it blinds you to the point where the other person’s shameful traits and habits are overlooked. In Arabic Literature the renowned Kais Ibn Al Molawah also known as
Majnoon Laila (Crazy about Laila), described Laila in his poetry he would focus on her perfection to an exaggerated extent. In one of his poetic verses he says, “If the full moon shall not rise today, you can take its place with your glowing beauty, and if the sun did not shine, you will take its place at dawn,” showing how his love for her blinded him to the extent where she seemed perfect to even replace the moon and the sun.
In religions we see that “love is blind” has been incorporated as well with the legendary
Priest Valentinus who was jailed for holding marriage ceremonies in secret, and consequently put in jail. He then fell in love with the jailers blind daughter and prayed for her eyesight to return, miraculously she regains her sight, but as every tragic hero he was destined to be executed. The day of his execution is celebrated today as Valentines Day, the day of love. In Islam, Al-Imam Ali an Islamic scholar said that one cannot have a clear mind with love, as the enemy of the mind is love, and that many minds are prisoners for the prince of love. He concludes that blindness is the faithful partner of love.
Science has also been influenced by this phenomenon and which lead researchers to study the human mind to find a scientific explanation for our behaviour when in love. A recent study by two professors in the University College of London studying the different states of the brain, found that being in love inhibits negative emotions such as anger. They also found that being in love affects the part of the brain that is involved in making judgements about the person you’re in love with. This proves that when a person is in love their hormonal system changes and prevents them from actually seeing the person they are in love with in a complete realistic picture, but rather a narrowed view of their perfection.
Through the many cultures, religions and science, we can confidently conclude that love is indeed blind. Whether we have proof or not, we can observe ourselves and find that the way we perceive those we love is completely perfect and very different from how that person is in reality.
So the question is: love is blind, but is it mute?
During the winter break I decided to do an internship to apply some of the things that we learn in the classroom to a professional work environment. My first experience of working in the Computer Science field was at a well known international oil company, Conocophillips. I worked with the Global Information Services department there. It was a great experience for me. I was assigned many tasks but the main project that I worked on was developing a template on Excel for performing physical inventory of computer and telephone equipments to deal with moving into a new office. I was responsible of populating the inventory database with the current information and obtaining the new office plan and finding out who will sit where in the new office.
Moreover, I learnt about the Conocophillips organizational structure, the concept of local area network and windows domain and server infrastructure. I loved the team of people that I was working with; they were always there to answer my questions and meet my learning needs. I encourage all students to do their internships while they are studying because it’s the best way to learn and know how your major looks like outside of the classrooms and it’s the best way to start shaping your career path.
Noora Al-Moughney
CS

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Most opinions I've read and heard are totally against what happened, yet some people think it's not normal and very backward to react this strongly to these caricatures, and that we should just let it go.
I personally strongly disagree with these people. We have disregarded many things over the years. We have tolerated a lot of disrespect and racism over the years, but when it gets to our Prophet and touches our religion, it is impossible to ignore the insult! It is ridiculously unacceptable! I'm against any violent reactions or death threats, but I'm totally for peaceful protest and political or economic boycotting if necessary.
If the same paper published some caricatures that touched a Jewish figure, the whole world would have stood against it and pointed the anti-Semitic finger at the Dutch, and ripped them apart. But be it that the caricatures make the prophet of Islam their main subject of ridicule, no one cares, and angry and offended
Muslims are made out to be backward thinkers and intolerant people’s right to freedom of speech.
After the release of the caricatures, and the response form the Islamic world that it evoked, I read that the Danish newspaper that published the cartoons apologized for offending Muslims around the world but not for publishing the cartoons.
"We apologize for the fact that the cartoons undeniably have offended many Muslims,"' Carsten Juste, editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, wrote late yesterday (when and where) in a letter on the paper's web site. He said Jyllands-Posten wasn't sorry for running the cartoons though.
As for Vebjoern Selbekk, the editor of Norwegian
Magazinet, the paper that republished the caricatures, said that he "regrets if the drawings were offensive to Muslims” as well.
Those don’t even sound like apologies that contain any evidence of remorse to me! It's like someone raping someone and then saying: "I'm not sorry for raping you, but I'm sorry it hurt!" It's more of an insult than an apology!
I think they should be able to do a lot better than that!
Noor Al-Maadeed
It is 1:45pm on a Saturday afternoon, boxes of pizza lie open on the table, Yasmine scribbles down ideas on the board as they're called out by her colleagues from every corner of the yellow lounge, and Ben sneaks back into his office with his newly acquired slice of thin 'n' crispy and a big ol' grin. Welcome to a typical Student Government meeting. It should have ended at 1pm, but there was a half hour debate over the starting time of Fun Night, another half hour debate over next year's exam schedule, and there's still plenty of pizza left over for the taking, so noone looks like they're ready to move just yet! It was these meetings that brought you last semester's events such as the unforgettable Talent Show and the slightly wacky
Fun Night. It was a good semester for CMUQ - one with many 'first's: We had our first Fashion Show, our first (and second!) varsity soccer matches, our first Pep Rally, our first faculty and staff Door
Decorating Contest, and our first students Bonding
Sessions. With the arrival of forty new students, our little community almost doubled, and the most rewarding part of these events for the Student Government was seeing our entire community coming together to enjoy them. Everyone got involved, everyone jumped aboard, and everyone embraced the dork within and got all caught up in our silliness! We stood around at each event, watched the silliness, and thought 'success!!' Henry Ford once said, " Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, working together is success." Let's hope this semester is just as successful as our last!

5 cmBA
Imagine that on your first day of classes at the Pittsburgh Campus, you go to your dormitory and find a big flag of Saudi Arabia on your door. In the meantime everyone else around you has an American state flag on their doors. That’s how Ramzi James Ramsey, President of cmBA-
Pittsburgh, spent his first day at Carnegie Mellon
University. Born in 1985, Ramsey grew up in different places including California, Jordan and
Saudi Arabia. He is originally from Palestine.
Though he had never visited Pennsylvania, Ramsey chose CMU as it is one of the top ten American universities.
Upon joining the university he started to meet many different people from diversified cultures. However, he found that cultural differences are no sort of barrier against him to be involved in campus life. In addition, Ramsey says that "people are smart, they respect other cultures and as long as you are open about your own culture from the beginning there is no problem".
Ramsey joined cmBA in the fall of his sophomore year when he was asked by Alsion
Lin, the president at that time, to join. He worked his way up until he reached his current position. He is also actively involved in the Finance Club, which he joined in his freshman year.
Being the only freshman in a seniors club, starting as the web-page manager and working his way up again until he has reached the vice president position, eager to be president in February.
Ramsey visited the Qatar campus during the holiday for a short visit, where he met with the cmBA members in Doha, Noora Al Ansari,
Fahad Al Jefairi and Imran Karim. Ramsey is aiming at setting up a system of communication in order for the business organizations between the two campuses in, so that both cmBAs can benefit from each others experiences.
In addition Ramsey and the members of cmBA
Doha came up with many promising future plans for the club in Doha. These include:
An etiquette dinner, where a group of students are taken to a five stars restaurant with a moderator that will guide the group on how to eat properly.
A business career info session where a videoconference will be held from Pittsburgh with students from Doha where they are going to get introduced to different sectors in the business world.
A fashion show to help the students dress appropriately for job interviews; a show which is held annually in the
Pittsburgh campus.
Student-professor dinners, which improve the student-professor relationship.
Board conferences to help strengthen the relationship between the board of cmBA Pittsburgh and Doha.
Before leaving Qatar, Ramsey wanted to give the students in this campus some advice. He advises them to get involved in newly established organizations, take diversified courses of "study you know least about but are interested in", learn from the
Pittsburgh club’s experiences and contact a club that achieves the same goals, and try to study at
Pittsburgh for a semester in order to "experience what life in the States feels like".
Hopefully Ramsey's visit to Qatar had will achieve its forecast purposes, and we wish all the luck to cmBA Pittsburgh and Doha.
Yasmine Abdelrahman
Acting-Editor-In-Chief

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“One day can change your life. We give you three.” This is the slogan of an annual three
After the Summit was over, we spent three more days in Pittsburgh. One of these days day conference called the Summit held at the
Carnegie Mellon campus in Pittsburgh. Mohammed Abu Zainab, Anas Abu Qamar and I, accompanied by our chaperone Jumana Al Abdi, attended the Summit last month as part of the
Pittsburgh Exchange Trip. The purpose of the summit is to provide classes to participants to allow them to explore their non-academic interests. There were several classes offered, ranging from yoga to gun shooting, and figure skating to rock climbing.
The more interesting classes that I took were figure skating and gun shooting. For figure skating, I spent three mornings on ice where they taught us several different techniques of ice skating. In gun shooting each person got to practice their firing with either nine or twenty-two mm hand guns at real live targets! Ha, ha, that was made up; we were actually firing at a paper attached to a cardboard. Nonetheless, it was an exhilarating and adrenaline pumping experience.
The other classes taken by my colleagues were
Reiki, Bust-A-Groove dance class, massage therapy, impromptu comedy, and rock climbing. was spent on an amazing ski trip. This was the first time we were skiing and for the some of us this would be the first time seeing snow. As you can tell, I was very excited. The ski resort, Seven
Springs, was about an hour and a half drive from campus. We got there by approximately ten am.
It actually took us more than one hour just to get prepared with all the right equipment and gear.
After this we received training on how to use the skis for two hours, and then we were let loose on the slopes for the rest of the afternoon. By the end of the training there were basically 4 out of 6 people left; after the first time down the slope, I was the only person remaining on skis!
Apparently, I’m a natural skier.
Overall I had one of the best times of my life, and it was a very good experience. I hope that a similar trip to Pittsburgh is offered next year and more people take up the opportunity.
Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the people with me, Mohammed,
Anas, and Jumana for making this trip so enjoyable and worthwhile.
Ahh, the winter holidays!
What a blessing for a student like me. Anybody would be eager for a long holiday, especially after our grueling final exams which had everyone in suspense over their grades. What better way to start my holiday than surprising my parents on my father’s birthday? Were my parents in for a shock? They were definitely surprised when I turned up unexpectedly at their doorstep! The joy of being in the company of one’s family is a relieving experience, considering that I’ve been living away from them for at least four months. So, how did I spend my holidays? I decided to pay a visit to my high school to meet some friends. Unfortunately, no one from my class came that day. The majority of them came to school and I couldn’t reach them on-time.
Hey, you win some you lose some!
New experiences soon followed:I went skiing the slopes of the first indoor snow park in the Middle East.
It is the hottest spot in Dubai during the weekends. The cool and frosty snow helped to bring about the winter that many countries experience. I traveled down the slopes like an eagle would swoop down on its prey, feeling the air gushing across my face.
But things were not going as planned when I sank into a depression, snow capped up to my feet.
With all my friends leaving returning to their universities, I was left stranded like a marooned survivor. I know how I spent the remaining days with the next semester only weeks away. I was eager to come back to the campus, to the fun atmosphere that I had helped create and livened up with a few people I had come to know. However, I was convinced by my parents to stay longer.
Otherwise life would’ve taken on an even duller hue when I returned to campus as none of the students who live on campus had returned yet. Now that a new semester is upon us, I begin to think that my winter holiday turned out to be an unexpected detour of my college life. However, I did use the time to catch up on things like cooking.
It’s a talent that I picked up before I came here CMU-Q, and sleeping, which I sorely needed in spite of getting nine hours of it during the semester. This holiday may have been
BORING, but it proved to be a learning experience because I have learned more about myself than I could ever imagine. I’m hoping to understand other people better and to keep and expand the friendships that I have earned. The holidays can do wonders to a person.
Yasser Khan

A special thanks to Professor Caulkins for intricating such fantastic poetry into his Decision Making and Processes class. http://frost.freehosting.net/poems_road.htm
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Somewhere on this planet, a million
Brad crazy girls are screaming
“Angelina, you fool!” Jolie recently announced to the press she has no intention of marrying Pitt, daddy-to-be and boyfriend of the dazzling brunette. If that isn’t a bite to Pitt’s ego, she added that his recent divorce from Jennifer
Aniston was a burden as it is, not to mention her own two failed marriages. Rumour has it though that “Brangelina” were to be wed in Europe, and that Pitt’s family members are already hearing the ceremonious clanging of church bells. Jolie, who is currently around five months pregnant, is certainly doing this the
Hollywood style!
Picture: http://static.flickr.com/19/23323539_a98ceb8cc1_m.jpg
Just because we love you Omar, here’s yet another Britney update.
Spears shocked the living daylights out of shoppers when she unceremoniously grabbed her stomach in the middle of a furniture store and pronounced “That’s right, number two!” Spears was supposedly annoyed at the attention staring fans were giving her, mixed in with a little hormonal action we can presume, which caused the incident. Various others in Spears’ neighbourhood claim she certainly looks pregnant and friends have commented on her utmost desire to provide a sister for little Sean Preston. No news on Kevin Federline’s reaction or expression of wanting another child. Perhaps behind closed doors he’s thinking, “Oops, I did it again.”
Picture: http://static.flickr.com/19/23323539_a98ceb8cc1_m.jpg
Whilst we recover from recalling the zillion names of rap superstar Sean Combs (aka Diddy as of now), we have discovered with the launch of his new fragrance
‘Unforgivable’, an interesting controversy. So vulgar was the photo shoot advertising his scent that Macy’s, Nordstrom’s and Saks turned down offers to put up adverts for fear a child might run for his or her life. The ad featured Diddy dressed in a towel with two tousled, sleazy female apprentices in bed with him.
The outlets were happy with a reshootwith featuring two sleazy, skimpily “bath-robed” females this time to make things all peachy. If the irony is still lost on you let’s just say Diddy likes his women in twos and preferably as erotically charged as possible!

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The artist has chosen to remain anonymous. For the sake of her own safety, it seems like a smart choice.
Honour Cupid for a moment and test your Valentines Day trivia!
1. The lovers' holiday, known as Valentine's
Day, has its origins in the Pagan rite of...
(a) Romance
(b) Joviality
(c) Fertility
(d) Wine making
2. Which civilization introduced Valentine's
Day cards?
(a) Greece
(b) Rome
(c) India
(d) Babylonia
3. The letter X represents a kiss in Valentine's
Day cards. The letter X was once used to convey what message?
(a) Sworn oath
(b) Secret balloting
(c) Gambling
(d) Musical note
4. Sending anonymous Valentine's Day cards in
England became fashionable after...
(a) A paper mill strike ended
(b) A reduction in postal rates
(c) An increase of card shops
(d) A reduction of printing costs
Answers: 1. c 2. b 3. a 4. b