It appears that HCT’s Provost, Mark Drummond, is not only keen on ripping off colleges but also enjoys cheating on his wife by looking for a bit on the side too. This little page appears to indicate Mark is in the market for some extra-marital ‘activities’, as he claims to be ‘a really active guy’ who has ‘nothing in particular against "one nighters"’.
When he’s not on the lookout for easy meat to screw, Mark (or is it 'Marshall'?) likes to try ripping off the hard-working staff of HCT, as these following emails regarding withholding valid leave payments prove.
From: Dr. Marshall Drummond
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2011 8:58 AM
To: HCT-COLLEGE-DIRECTORS
Cc: Salma Elansary; Christine Luscombe-Whyte
Subject: settlements
Directors – I have just received a number of final settlement forms to sign which trouble me greatly. Most of these employees:
- Have accumulated leave of 20 or more days
- Are working through June 16 or June 23
- Most are “general interest terminations”, terminations or non-renewals
Why on earth we would not manage down this leave completely stumps me. I refuse to sign these liberal “going away” leave payouts for these employees.
Please take immediate actions to advise any and all departing parties that meet these specifications that today is their LAST WORKING DAY. In that way we can manage this excessive leave down a bit.
I know that there are occasional exceptions but overall I view this as sloppy management.
You will be notified of specific names by Salma this morning.
Mark Drummond
Provost
---
From: Dr. Marshall Drummond
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 11:01 AM
To: HCT-COLLEGE-DIRECTORS; Christine Luscombe-Whyte
Subject: managing leave
Directors – there are a number of employees complaining to the press about being “forced” to use accumulated leave prior to separation. My note to you was a general critique about management of accumulated leave. Some of the departing ones had 40+ days of accumulated leave – which to me is unacceptable.
In cases where teaching faculty accumulated leave during the Spring Term and have not been able to utilize it – my suggestion to you was to work with them and try to get them to agree to leave early and thus use some of the accumulated leave. If they absolutely refuse then you will have to honor their leave balance but you should have this conversation with each and every one of them. From the reports coming out today I think that some of those conversations have been muddled.
At any rate – you need to always be on top of accumulated leave balances for all employees and be certain that you subordinates are working with faculty and staff to plan to use any and all accumulated leave.
We should not get surprised at the end-of-service by demands to pay out extraordinary amounts of unused leave.
Mark
So, Mark comes on as the hardened cowboy at first, telling college directors to despatch employees homewards immediately in order to save paying out a few extra dirhams in holiday pay. Then, when news of his attempts to ILLEGALLY withhold employees’ payments reach the press, he caves in, turns round and blames the directors for having misunderstood his directions.
And just what were those directions?
“Please take immediate actions to advise any and all departing parties that meet these specifications that today is their LAST WORKING DAY.”
Hmm, looks pretty final to me, I must say. But apparently Mark had no intention of forcing employees home. No, what he REALLY wanted to say was this:
“my suggestion to you was to work with them and try to get them to agree to leave early and thus use some of the accumulated leave”
So the order to take ‘immediate action’ was, in fact, merely a ‘suggestion’, in Drummond-speak. Quelle surprise, Romeo!
Now, although we can all laugh at Drummond’s cowardice and incompetence (which is fairly standard for HCT senior managers), the emails above do highlight an extremely important related issue, namely employees’ end-of-service payments.
Sources close to the gang of incompetents who call themselves the HCT Senior Management Team have reported that discussions have taken place regarding a unilateral "amendment" that will be made to ALL end-of-service payments. Any long term HCT employees who have a significant end of service balance due should start getting extremely concerned. In simple terms, HCT will simply refuse to honour their contractual obligation to pay it. They know very well that they can easily get away with ripping off their own employees, as a court case could conceivably take years to progress through the lazy, sleazy Emirati court system – and no teacher could deal with that and remain in the country, probably living at their own expense.
Don’t believe us? Just hang on and wait – or rather, leave NOW before it becomes policy!
Sunday 30 October 2011
Saturday 1 October 2011
A Doctor Writes...
Please allow me to use your column to share my sad experience in the Business Faculty at the Sharjah Women’s College of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT). I am from South Africa and joined the Sharjah staff in August 2010. I loved being in Sharjah and I loved being at the college. I wish I was still there. I had and still have the greatest respect for the supervisor of the Business Faculty, Ms Lauralee Kilgour. I hated it when her staff said unpleasant things behind her back. Every time I heard Dr Farid Ohan, the director, speak, I was impressed with him. I liked the man and he always spoke a lot of sense. I still recall him with great fondness.
I enjoyed the students, and I generally liked my colleagues. I drew the best response from my students when we read a textbook in lectures and undertook to be competitive in marks. The students liked to hear me speak of their need to be educated to international standards and their need to be globally combative. The students may remember me: I was the academic who refused to be called Sir because it is a term directly from the annals of dubious British colonialism. There is no place for sir and miss or ma’am in academics.
I took no notice of expatriate colleagues who told me that the students were retards. I overlooked the deep fear I found in the hearts of my Sharjah colleagues, lest they share a fate like mine. I did my best to persuade some colleagues not to set tests and assignments that had been used for the previous seven years.
I was saddened by how little was asked of the students. One American colleague boasted that what was covered in 19 weeks in Sharjah would have been covered in two weeks at an American university. I did not listen to colleagues who said the students were not to be trusted.
Almost every student wanted to learn. However, they were not encouraged to learn. Reproducing slides in assignments, tests and examinations is not a form of being educated. Too many of my colleagues spent too much time reinforcing their poor perception of students. I never heard the words inspire, encourage or instil confidence. But I heard the word retards a lot, was told daily how weak the girls and boys were, and was told what the students could not do.
Half way through the second term Mr Ged Ryan, the second in charge, told me I had not passed my probation because my being at Sharjah was not working out for Ms Kilgour or for the college. I was never given a more explicit reason for not passing my probation, and I didn’t ask for one. That decision surprised and saddened me. I thought I was doing rather well in raising academic standards towards international levels and educating the nation. I also wondered how a decision could be taken to fire a person after eight months.
I gather that the HCT is in financial deficit. I am sorry about that. However, that is not surprising. The HCT spent a lot of money to get my family and me to Sharjah. To fire me after eight months demonstrates little ability to recruit the correct staff, a great waste of resources and a lack of managerial ability to manage staff.
I was amazed that the HCT provost, I think his name is Marshall Drummond, signed my firing notice without even talking to me. As the provost, he is the custodian of the HCT’s global reputation. He should have at least spoken to me. I might have been fired for purely personal reasons. By firing me without bothering to speak to me, he put me in the position where I might have mounted an international campaign against the HCT. He should not have risked the reputation of the HCT and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a completely unknown person.
It is not in my nature, however, to mount a campaign against the HCT. Instead, I will say just that if anybody thinks it is moral, scholarly, fair or proper to fire an academic after eight months, then they have been in sheltered employment for too long and their standards are too low. Firing me after eight months was against all commonly accepted scholarly practices and would be illegal in most countries. It pains me to say that in my opinion the Sharjah HCT has tarnished the reputation of the UAE in the scholarly world and as an employer. The UAE and its students deserve better than that.
I wish to stress that I hold no personal grudges against any of the people mentioned here. I accept that you did your best for the Sharjah HCT. I am sorry that Dr Ohan, Mr Ryan and Ms Kilgour did not want me. I liked you and learnt from all of you. I accept that you fired me because I represented the future.
There was little correlation between the wonderful UAE country I found and how the students were being prepared at the Sharjah HCT for their future. If the plan was to produce pleasant, low level government servants functioning without insight, then the plan worked perfectly. However, to be sustainable, the UAE needs incredibly well-educated graduates, who have been pushed at university to read, think, reason and perform, who subscribe to life-long education, are driven to be world leaders, and do not call colonial educators sir or miss. If anyone thinks that the UAE government is preparing the country for its future by setting students the same assignments for seven years, or hiring staff who celebrated the incompetence of students, and then reinforced that incompetence, then they are wrong.
Let me assure the UAE government: the students at the Sharjah HCT wanted a world class university education. They were intellectually capable of responding to world class university education. The students knew they were receiving an education of a lesser kind. I saw the hurt and embarrassment in their eyes when they were dished out sub-standard education. The UAE students may not for ever accept being educated for a second rate role in their country. In my opinion the Sharjah HCT let down its students, given the global challenges that the students will face. The Sharjah HCT was run by lovely people, but their thinking and academic contribution needs updating. I left lamenting the lost magic for myself, the students, the staff, the people of Sharjah and the people of the UAE.
My experience has left me in the position of saying expatriate academics at the Sharjah HCT offered a form of education colonialism. Their work served only to perpetuate the development of the intellectual underdevelopment of the UAE and its students.
The colonial education I saw served mostly to alienate the young people of the UAE from education and a better future. Such alienation is perilous to the future of the UAE. What I saw in the Sharjah HCT was a form of education less helpful to the students than bantu education was in apartheid South Africa of years ago.
I ask the question: does the government of the UAE not care that the Sharjah students are being turned against education and acquiring knowledge? When students said to me they hated the HCT and hated learning, I was saddened. I wanted to make their learning fun, exciting and exceptionally demanding. The students were bored stiff at Sharjah and many of my former colleagues were even more bored. The Sharjah HCT, in my humble opining, needs to be modernised, reformed and stripped of the fear prevailing in the hearts of staff and students. I did not detect much pride in the hearts of the staff and students at being at the Sharjah HCT. I did detect great suspicion. The students were not encouraged to be independent enough nor take enough responsibility for their learning.
To the students I have left behind, I say good luck. You were not being educated to take your rightful place in the world. You were being educated for subjugation. I am sorry I am no longer among you. Of my colleagues I ask one question: would you enrol your children at the Sharjah HCT? If your answer is no, then you are part of the problems that your students have to contend with.
How ironic: I wanted to stay teaching at the Sharjah HCT; countless colleagues told me how lucky I was to be getting out.
If the UAE Ministry of Higher Education would like to learn more about the Sharjah HCT, they can contact me on umbilo4@gmail.com. The most loyal people are those who tell the truth.
From Dr Martin Challenor B Soc Sci (Hons) MBA PhD.
Durban, South Africa.
I enjoyed the students, and I generally liked my colleagues. I drew the best response from my students when we read a textbook in lectures and undertook to be competitive in marks. The students liked to hear me speak of their need to be educated to international standards and their need to be globally combative. The students may remember me: I was the academic who refused to be called Sir because it is a term directly from the annals of dubious British colonialism. There is no place for sir and miss or ma’am in academics.
I took no notice of expatriate colleagues who told me that the students were retards. I overlooked the deep fear I found in the hearts of my Sharjah colleagues, lest they share a fate like mine. I did my best to persuade some colleagues not to set tests and assignments that had been used for the previous seven years.
I was saddened by how little was asked of the students. One American colleague boasted that what was covered in 19 weeks in Sharjah would have been covered in two weeks at an American university. I did not listen to colleagues who said the students were not to be trusted.
Almost every student wanted to learn. However, they were not encouraged to learn. Reproducing slides in assignments, tests and examinations is not a form of being educated. Too many of my colleagues spent too much time reinforcing their poor perception of students. I never heard the words inspire, encourage or instil confidence. But I heard the word retards a lot, was told daily how weak the girls and boys were, and was told what the students could not do.
Half way through the second term Mr Ged Ryan, the second in charge, told me I had not passed my probation because my being at Sharjah was not working out for Ms Kilgour or for the college. I was never given a more explicit reason for not passing my probation, and I didn’t ask for one. That decision surprised and saddened me. I thought I was doing rather well in raising academic standards towards international levels and educating the nation. I also wondered how a decision could be taken to fire a person after eight months.
I gather that the HCT is in financial deficit. I am sorry about that. However, that is not surprising. The HCT spent a lot of money to get my family and me to Sharjah. To fire me after eight months demonstrates little ability to recruit the correct staff, a great waste of resources and a lack of managerial ability to manage staff.
I was amazed that the HCT provost, I think his name is Marshall Drummond, signed my firing notice without even talking to me. As the provost, he is the custodian of the HCT’s global reputation. He should have at least spoken to me. I might have been fired for purely personal reasons. By firing me without bothering to speak to me, he put me in the position where I might have mounted an international campaign against the HCT. He should not have risked the reputation of the HCT and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a completely unknown person.
It is not in my nature, however, to mount a campaign against the HCT. Instead, I will say just that if anybody thinks it is moral, scholarly, fair or proper to fire an academic after eight months, then they have been in sheltered employment for too long and their standards are too low. Firing me after eight months was against all commonly accepted scholarly practices and would be illegal in most countries. It pains me to say that in my opinion the Sharjah HCT has tarnished the reputation of the UAE in the scholarly world and as an employer. The UAE and its students deserve better than that.
I wish to stress that I hold no personal grudges against any of the people mentioned here. I accept that you did your best for the Sharjah HCT. I am sorry that Dr Ohan, Mr Ryan and Ms Kilgour did not want me. I liked you and learnt from all of you. I accept that you fired me because I represented the future.
There was little correlation between the wonderful UAE country I found and how the students were being prepared at the Sharjah HCT for their future. If the plan was to produce pleasant, low level government servants functioning without insight, then the plan worked perfectly. However, to be sustainable, the UAE needs incredibly well-educated graduates, who have been pushed at university to read, think, reason and perform, who subscribe to life-long education, are driven to be world leaders, and do not call colonial educators sir or miss. If anyone thinks that the UAE government is preparing the country for its future by setting students the same assignments for seven years, or hiring staff who celebrated the incompetence of students, and then reinforced that incompetence, then they are wrong.
Let me assure the UAE government: the students at the Sharjah HCT wanted a world class university education. They were intellectually capable of responding to world class university education. The students knew they were receiving an education of a lesser kind. I saw the hurt and embarrassment in their eyes when they were dished out sub-standard education. The UAE students may not for ever accept being educated for a second rate role in their country. In my opinion the Sharjah HCT let down its students, given the global challenges that the students will face. The Sharjah HCT was run by lovely people, but their thinking and academic contribution needs updating. I left lamenting the lost magic for myself, the students, the staff, the people of Sharjah and the people of the UAE.
My experience has left me in the position of saying expatriate academics at the Sharjah HCT offered a form of education colonialism. Their work served only to perpetuate the development of the intellectual underdevelopment of the UAE and its students.
The colonial education I saw served mostly to alienate the young people of the UAE from education and a better future. Such alienation is perilous to the future of the UAE. What I saw in the Sharjah HCT was a form of education less helpful to the students than bantu education was in apartheid South Africa of years ago.
I ask the question: does the government of the UAE not care that the Sharjah students are being turned against education and acquiring knowledge? When students said to me they hated the HCT and hated learning, I was saddened. I wanted to make their learning fun, exciting and exceptionally demanding. The students were bored stiff at Sharjah and many of my former colleagues were even more bored. The Sharjah HCT, in my humble opining, needs to be modernised, reformed and stripped of the fear prevailing in the hearts of staff and students. I did not detect much pride in the hearts of the staff and students at being at the Sharjah HCT. I did detect great suspicion. The students were not encouraged to be independent enough nor take enough responsibility for their learning.
To the students I have left behind, I say good luck. You were not being educated to take your rightful place in the world. You were being educated for subjugation. I am sorry I am no longer among you. Of my colleagues I ask one question: would you enrol your children at the Sharjah HCT? If your answer is no, then you are part of the problems that your students have to contend with.
How ironic: I wanted to stay teaching at the Sharjah HCT; countless colleagues told me how lucky I was to be getting out.
If the UAE Ministry of Higher Education would like to learn more about the Sharjah HCT, they can contact me on umbilo4@gmail.com. The most loyal people are those who tell the truth.
From Dr Martin Challenor B Soc Sci (Hons) MBA PhD.
Durban, South Africa.
Wednesday 7 September 2011
From 'The National', September 7, 2011
HCT puts lecturers' salary rises on hold
Melanie Swan - Sep 7, 2011
The UAE's biggest federal university has scrapped this year's annual staff pay rise after deep cuts to its budget. The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) has been in the red since 2009. The colleges are this year reportedly working with a Dh900 million budget but are likely to spend at least Dh1.1 billion.
Last year the institution, with 17 campuses in the UAE, scrapped its annual merit pay rises of 2 per cent. Now its lecturers have lost the 4 per cent cost of living pay rise due last month. Lecturers at HCT earn an average monthly salary of about Dh20,000.
"We've not even been notified about this and we're just expected to accept it," said one staff member in Abu Dhabi, on condition of anonymity. "They have the attitude that if we don't like it we should leave. We are treated as unskilled, disposable labour and people have had enough. In the time I have been with Higher Colleges of Technology, we have seen a steady decline in the pay, bonuses and working conditions at HCT."
Dr Tayeb Kamali, the vice chancellor of HCT, said the increases had been cancelled but claimed the packages still exceeded those at similar institutions in the UAE and the region.
Dr Kamali said this year's priority was equipment and resources for the colleges. "It's just a priority of expenditure this year," he said. "It's nothing to do with us not having the budget."
When finalising pay increases, HCT studies the cost of living and predicts its available funds. After receiving Dh333m less than its calculated budget needs - a shortfall of more than a quarter - for this academic year, HCT turned away more than 2,500 applicants.
While this was partly due to the colleges raising entry standards, sources claimed the lack of funds made it impossible to accept all applicants, as it has done previously. HCT has places for 5,533 students across its campuses this year, more than 30 per cent fewer than last year's 8,024. The other two federal universities offered more places.
"Things have been getting tougher and tougher over recent years in terms of budget," said one staff member, who has taught at HCT for eight years and asked to remain anonymous. "We've been given more students per class, especially for those teachers in Fujairah who have absorbed large numbers of foundation [remedial learning to bring students up to entry level] students from UAE University, yet with no additional pay to compensate for much longer hours."
Another, who has taught there for 12 years, said: "There is a feeling that the management don't actually care what we think. We are never informed or consulted on major changes and yet they expect us to keep quiet and simply be grateful for having a job. It's not the way to treat people who have been loyal to the institution for many years and contributed something valuable to the society."
Dr Kamali said he hoped staff would understand the priority change this year. "It's only one year," he said. "Only two or three years ago we gave 15 per cent to account for the increased cost in living so we do treat our staff well with very good packages."
HCT, which specialises in vocational courses and training, has struggled for cash since 2005 and began overdraft borrowing in 2009.
mswan@thenational.ae
Melanie Swan - Sep 7, 2011
The UAE's biggest federal university has scrapped this year's annual staff pay rise after deep cuts to its budget. The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) has been in the red since 2009. The colleges are this year reportedly working with a Dh900 million budget but are likely to spend at least Dh1.1 billion.
Last year the institution, with 17 campuses in the UAE, scrapped its annual merit pay rises of 2 per cent. Now its lecturers have lost the 4 per cent cost of living pay rise due last month. Lecturers at HCT earn an average monthly salary of about Dh20,000.
"We've not even been notified about this and we're just expected to accept it," said one staff member in Abu Dhabi, on condition of anonymity. "They have the attitude that if we don't like it we should leave. We are treated as unskilled, disposable labour and people have had enough. In the time I have been with Higher Colleges of Technology, we have seen a steady decline in the pay, bonuses and working conditions at HCT."
Dr Tayeb Kamali, the vice chancellor of HCT, said the increases had been cancelled but claimed the packages still exceeded those at similar institutions in the UAE and the region.
Dr Kamali said this year's priority was equipment and resources for the colleges. "It's just a priority of expenditure this year," he said. "It's nothing to do with us not having the budget."
When finalising pay increases, HCT studies the cost of living and predicts its available funds. After receiving Dh333m less than its calculated budget needs - a shortfall of more than a quarter - for this academic year, HCT turned away more than 2,500 applicants.
While this was partly due to the colleges raising entry standards, sources claimed the lack of funds made it impossible to accept all applicants, as it has done previously. HCT has places for 5,533 students across its campuses this year, more than 30 per cent fewer than last year's 8,024. The other two federal universities offered more places.
"Things have been getting tougher and tougher over recent years in terms of budget," said one staff member, who has taught at HCT for eight years and asked to remain anonymous. "We've been given more students per class, especially for those teachers in Fujairah who have absorbed large numbers of foundation [remedial learning to bring students up to entry level] students from UAE University, yet with no additional pay to compensate for much longer hours."
Another, who has taught there for 12 years, said: "There is a feeling that the management don't actually care what we think. We are never informed or consulted on major changes and yet they expect us to keep quiet and simply be grateful for having a job. It's not the way to treat people who have been loyal to the institution for many years and contributed something valuable to the society."
Dr Kamali said he hoped staff would understand the priority change this year. "It's only one year," he said. "Only two or three years ago we gave 15 per cent to account for the increased cost in living so we do treat our staff well with very good packages."
HCT, which specialises in vocational courses and training, has struggled for cash since 2005 and began overdraft borrowing in 2009.
mswan@thenational.ae
Thursday 25 August 2011
The HCT 100 Scandal!
The latest HCT scandal concerns the millions of bucks that have been squandered on the pampered HCT management, when it is supposed to be used for the benefit of the students. The money, raised through the HCT100 project, is supposed to be spent responsibly on scholarships, to build programs, hire international experts, and the like.
The official blurb goes like this:
The HCT 100 was established as an exclusive group within the HCT Foundation.
We invite donors to join the HCT 100 by becoming one of the founding 100 members to commit AED one million each to the HCT Foundation over three years.
A contribution at this level will demonstrate a clear and resounding commitment to the human resource development of the UAE.
So what really happens? Kamali and his cronies divvy the booty up amongst themselves! Now you know why there is a freeze on salary increments. I seriously recommend that HCT staffers go to the HCT Foundation website and begin contacting the businesses that support it. Ask them what is going on, and they will report that it is a scam.
In fact, numerous companies have started asking where the money is going. They were promised all sorts of things before the infamous signings between Sheikh Nahayan and company representatives.
However, within a couple of months of signing, most companies began asking questions. The smart companies have stopped their payments, whereas the stupid and corrupt ones believe whatever they are told and keep paying.
In fact, most of the companies who make payments are actually doing business with HCT. So HCT gives millions of dirhams in business to a company, and the company returns a small percentage back to HCT.
It’s mostly banks and larger companies participating in this, but in order for international companies to do business in the UAE, they need someone to sponsor them. The signings are a confirmation of the agreement. So it's like a kickback or paying a tribute of some sort.
The beautiful trick here is that it’s quite difficult to prove a lot of this because the 'books' aren't open to the general public. However, check out the companies supporting this Foundations scam, then see if you can find out who does business with HCT.
I am sure Melanie Swan from The National would be keen to know, as she was interested about a year ago.
The official blurb goes like this:
The HCT 100 was established as an exclusive group within the HCT Foundation.
We invite donors to join the HCT 100 by becoming one of the founding 100 members to commit AED one million each to the HCT Foundation over three years.
A contribution at this level will demonstrate a clear and resounding commitment to the human resource development of the UAE.
So what really happens? Kamali and his cronies divvy the booty up amongst themselves! Now you know why there is a freeze on salary increments. I seriously recommend that HCT staffers go to the HCT Foundation website and begin contacting the businesses that support it. Ask them what is going on, and they will report that it is a scam.
In fact, numerous companies have started asking where the money is going. They were promised all sorts of things before the infamous signings between Sheikh Nahayan and company representatives.
However, within a couple of months of signing, most companies began asking questions. The smart companies have stopped their payments, whereas the stupid and corrupt ones believe whatever they are told and keep paying.
In fact, most of the companies who make payments are actually doing business with HCT. So HCT gives millions of dirhams in business to a company, and the company returns a small percentage back to HCT.
It’s mostly banks and larger companies participating in this, but in order for international companies to do business in the UAE, they need someone to sponsor them. The signings are a confirmation of the agreement. So it's like a kickback or paying a tribute of some sort.
The beautiful trick here is that it’s quite difficult to prove a lot of this because the 'books' aren't open to the general public. However, check out the companies supporting this Foundations scam, then see if you can find out who does business with HCT.
I am sure Melanie Swan from The National would be keen to know, as she was interested about a year ago.
Saturday 13 August 2011
"You're all HCT cannon fodder, and nothing more."
The observations below arrived as a comment to my previous posting, but I feel that they deserve pride of place here. They appear to be from a former Big Cheese insider at HCT, one who was no doubt unceremoniously deposed by King Tubby and his cronies. His remarks offer a revealing insight into just how Kamali's 'inner chamber' works, and how Dr SiJo has been instrumental in such disgusting deceit and corruption.
"make a list of all those institutions and organizations with whom HCT has signed MOUs, and established partnerships, and inform them of the Faculty and support staff view"
The person who wrote this obviously doesn't understand anything about HCT's MOUs and deals with external institutions, or how it all really works.
Firstly, there's literally a box-load of MOUs at ACS gathering dust in a closet. Most of these have simply been self-congratulatory wank-fests and photo-ops for Sheik Nancy and his/her girlfriend TK. I was personally party to at least 2 of these meaningless exercises signed with VIPs with stirling credentials from world-class institutions. There are dozens, if not hundreds of these useless scraps of paper that have been signed and largely forgotten.
The institutions signing with HCT don't care about any of you little people or HCT's integrity. It's all opportunistic and about the money. Now that there's not so much money to grease palms, the MOUs have started to dry up.
The same goes for the institutions who are actually doing something with HCT, such as those involved with CERT.
Money simply flows into pet projects and away from HCT. Festival of Stinkers and Education Without Benefits are just 2 that actually see the full glare of publicity. There are loads of other spurious activities going on, that none of you know about.
For one thing, CERT is a black hole.
The MBA scam at CERT uses links to Harvard and Stanford etc. to sell the program for huge fees (but still loses pots of money), when in fact it is only faculty from these schools who are flown in at great expense and for obscene fees to teach the odd course here and there: (e.g. one Harvard prof was paid $120,000 US for a 30 hour module. A Stanford prof was paid $89,000 for a similar gig). SiJo is at the center of this scam, running the show as head of grad programs, and doing the bidding of the 2 top dogs - Nancy and TK.
The degrees have Harvard and Stanford watermarked in the background; a sinister idea from HCT Academic Deputy Provost Jim Pounder to delude the naive locals that they are actually getting an accredited degree affiliated with top business schools. It's all a shameful con job.
Want to know where a lot of HCT money has gone? You don't need to look any further than HCT Foundation - a topic so hush-hush that even top brass at ACS are scared to discuss it. "It's above my pay grade," was the response from an ashen-faced Jim Pounder in an ACS management meeting, when asked about HCT Foundation by one of the deans.
The general belief, of course is that it is TK's and Sheik Nancy's personal slush fund.
The bottom line for all of you in the trenches is - NOBODY (who could do anything, that is) CARES! There's too much grand larceny going on at the top and too many noses in the trough (both internal and external) to worry about the peasantry.
Suggesting that anyone, including outside institutions or accrediting bodies cares if you're sacked, treated badly and generally abused flies in the face of reality.
You're all HCT cannon fodder, and nothing more.
*******
"make a list of all those institutions and organizations with whom HCT has signed MOUs, and established partnerships, and inform them of the Faculty and support staff view"
The person who wrote this obviously doesn't understand anything about HCT's MOUs and deals with external institutions, or how it all really works.
Firstly, there's literally a box-load of MOUs at ACS gathering dust in a closet. Most of these have simply been self-congratulatory wank-fests and photo-ops for Sheik Nancy and his/her girlfriend TK. I was personally party to at least 2 of these meaningless exercises signed with VIPs with stirling credentials from world-class institutions. There are dozens, if not hundreds of these useless scraps of paper that have been signed and largely forgotten.
The institutions signing with HCT don't care about any of you little people or HCT's integrity. It's all opportunistic and about the money. Now that there's not so much money to grease palms, the MOUs have started to dry up.
The same goes for the institutions who are actually doing something with HCT, such as those involved with CERT.
Money simply flows into pet projects and away from HCT. Festival of Stinkers and Education Without Benefits are just 2 that actually see the full glare of publicity. There are loads of other spurious activities going on, that none of you know about.
For one thing, CERT is a black hole.
The MBA scam at CERT uses links to Harvard and Stanford etc. to sell the program for huge fees (but still loses pots of money), when in fact it is only faculty from these schools who are flown in at great expense and for obscene fees to teach the odd course here and there: (e.g. one Harvard prof was paid $120,000 US for a 30 hour module. A Stanford prof was paid $89,000 for a similar gig). SiJo is at the center of this scam, running the show as head of grad programs, and doing the bidding of the 2 top dogs - Nancy and TK.
The degrees have Harvard and Stanford watermarked in the background; a sinister idea from HCT Academic Deputy Provost Jim Pounder to delude the naive locals that they are actually getting an accredited degree affiliated with top business schools. It's all a shameful con job.
Want to know where a lot of HCT money has gone? You don't need to look any further than HCT Foundation - a topic so hush-hush that even top brass at ACS are scared to discuss it. "It's above my pay grade," was the response from an ashen-faced Jim Pounder in an ACS management meeting, when asked about HCT Foundation by one of the deans.
The general belief, of course is that it is TK's and Sheik Nancy's personal slush fund.
The bottom line for all of you in the trenches is - NOBODY (who could do anything, that is) CARES! There's too much grand larceny going on at the top and too many noses in the trough (both internal and external) to worry about the peasantry.
Suggesting that anyone, including outside institutions or accrediting bodies cares if you're sacked, treated badly and generally abused flies in the face of reality.
You're all HCT cannon fodder, and nothing more.
Saturday 30 July 2011
HCT in RAK - part two
I am so glad I left RAK in the year 1 BC (Before Claw). The more I hear, the more I shudder in my retirement slippers. Thanks to my many dear friends for their anguished updates of two RAK colleges: once beautiful, now on the brink of a mismanagement catastrophe.... waiting to be pushed over the edge by an elderly American Mussolini with memory loss, and his acolyte Associate Director, a former student in the college (of whom more anon if I can get a full factual bio from my oldest informants).
Last month HCT told ALL (including Ras Al Khaimah) faculty and support staff who were leaving that they had to leave early, and would lose several months of severance pay. Whether teacher or support, they turned up on a certain Tuesday and were told it was their last day of work. Even worse, in some cases staff were phoned late at night by a student who was sorry to learn it was their last day of work, even before the teacher had heard it!. There was no written communication. It was all botched word of mouth, hearsay, rumor: very HCT.
HO! HO! DOWNWARD STEP A. When HCT was a professional institution with ethics and credibility and a mission to recruit and retain quality staff, it would pay to the end of the contract. DOWNWARD STEP B. Then, when it became mismanaged and disreputable, it paid to the end of the last teaching day -- to hell with the details of the contract. DOWNWARD STEP C. Now it's recalculating the last working day in its own mercenary interest.
HCT in RAK apparently then realized it was in deep wobbly brown stuff as it slowly dawned upon the management that many teachers would leave without finishing their marking of exams projects or portfolios and their input of grades. The college went into panic mode. Therefore, teachers were re-invited, or commanded to extend their service to HCT rather than take the extra leave days they had rightfully accrued with immediate effect!
In the RAK Men's College, a splendid support person responsible for maintenance, room setup for exams, clean bathrooms etc was arrogantly informed he'd be gone by the end of the afternoon. He then, meekly and with his limited salary, went out and bought a revised travel ticket bearing the extra cost at his own expense. Then he was told he could stay on until Sunday because no transition had been planned. He could stay on at HCT's convenience, but would still be obligated to leave early in order to save HCT RAK some dirhams it would be proud to report to its Abu Dhabi masters.
A wonderful lady was told she also needed extra time to hand over to her successor. A third services person who had served students in the library for a decade and a half had to wait until beyond her going-home time to learn if it were to be her last day or not as her elusive supervisor (the Notorious and elusive Associate ex-student now-Director) dodged her. A short reprieve was granted to all but the library person.
However, I was shocked to be told that support staff were not granted the reprieve accorded to Faculty. Professional educators would hope that HCT might act, at least publicly, according to universal principles of human rights, rather than petty fiscal savings that violate human rights. HCT would retain Faculty while dumping long serving services people.
Faculty, by pleading work responsibilities and the threat of litigation and internet-based adverse publicity, were granted their extension to 16th June. Support service staff, on the contrary, seen as helpless people, were granted the absolute minimalist extension for purely practical reasons so that there could be a smooth transition to their successors.
ONE SUCCESSOR IS THE BROTHER IN LAW OF THE ASSOCIATE DRECTOR. They were cut for budgetary reasons. The chosen one, the brother in law, was newly hired to take over. NEPOTISM? WASTA? Go tell the accreditation board.
The point of this awful exercise in bad human resources management was that management and brown-nosing people could then report back to Abu Dhabi on how much money they had saved HCT. They would not report on how much good will and corporate reputation they had lost. They would omit that. Focus on the figures, not on the vision. Do not mention the alienation of employees from the organization. No, keep the lid on that one.
When did HCT become so shabby? When did it become a mean-minded dispiriting place to work, and not a place of vision? When did it begin to take pride in screwing, without a kiss, its loyal faculty and support staff and stop rewarding excellence? When did it compromise its vision of excellence and settle not only for second best but second last?
SHAME on you all: Provosts (what a redundancy), vice chancellors, SCINTILLating brown nosers, Rudey people in petty positions of power, silent people afraid to speak out. The arrogant minority (those with no meaningful contact with faculty, students and support staff) go to these secretive macho management meetings dreaming up these grand schemes to save dirhams and cheat the long serving loyal majority.
As a result, the loss to HCT's reputation as a place to learn, educate, work and serve is beyond all our calculations, and certainly theirs. It was good when I worked there. When did HCT start to go wrong? Was there a single defining moment?
As a policy-maker now in my post HCT life, I urge you teachers who remain at HCT to take a bold step now: make a list of all those institutions and organizations with whom HCT has signed MOUs, and established partnerships, and inform them of the Faculty and support staff view. You also need to inform all those accrediting universities and colleges and bodies of the hideous truth. Speak as faculty, presenting facts. You need to speak as a unified voice, not individuals with grievances. That should be easy, given the majority view of management, and the factual and documented evidence.
IT’S YOUR COLLEGE, SO MAKE YOUR FEELINGS AND OPINIONS KNOWN!
Last month HCT told ALL (including Ras Al Khaimah) faculty and support staff who were leaving that they had to leave early, and would lose several months of severance pay. Whether teacher or support, they turned up on a certain Tuesday and were told it was their last day of work. Even worse, in some cases staff were phoned late at night by a student who was sorry to learn it was their last day of work, even before the teacher had heard it!. There was no written communication. It was all botched word of mouth, hearsay, rumor: very HCT.
HO! HO! DOWNWARD STEP A. When HCT was a professional institution with ethics and credibility and a mission to recruit and retain quality staff, it would pay to the end of the contract. DOWNWARD STEP B. Then, when it became mismanaged and disreputable, it paid to the end of the last teaching day -- to hell with the details of the contract. DOWNWARD STEP C. Now it's recalculating the last working day in its own mercenary interest.
HCT in RAK apparently then realized it was in deep wobbly brown stuff as it slowly dawned upon the management that many teachers would leave without finishing their marking of exams projects or portfolios and their input of grades. The college went into panic mode. Therefore, teachers were re-invited, or commanded to extend their service to HCT rather than take the extra leave days they had rightfully accrued with immediate effect!
In the RAK Men's College, a splendid support person responsible for maintenance, room setup for exams, clean bathrooms etc was arrogantly informed he'd be gone by the end of the afternoon. He then, meekly and with his limited salary, went out and bought a revised travel ticket bearing the extra cost at his own expense. Then he was told he could stay on until Sunday because no transition had been planned. He could stay on at HCT's convenience, but would still be obligated to leave early in order to save HCT RAK some dirhams it would be proud to report to its Abu Dhabi masters.
A wonderful lady was told she also needed extra time to hand over to her successor. A third services person who had served students in the library for a decade and a half had to wait until beyond her going-home time to learn if it were to be her last day or not as her elusive supervisor (the Notorious and elusive Associate ex-student now-Director) dodged her. A short reprieve was granted to all but the library person.
However, I was shocked to be told that support staff were not granted the reprieve accorded to Faculty. Professional educators would hope that HCT might act, at least publicly, according to universal principles of human rights, rather than petty fiscal savings that violate human rights. HCT would retain Faculty while dumping long serving services people.
Faculty, by pleading work responsibilities and the threat of litigation and internet-based adverse publicity, were granted their extension to 16th June. Support service staff, on the contrary, seen as helpless people, were granted the absolute minimalist extension for purely practical reasons so that there could be a smooth transition to their successors.
ONE SUCCESSOR IS THE BROTHER IN LAW OF THE ASSOCIATE DRECTOR. They were cut for budgetary reasons. The chosen one, the brother in law, was newly hired to take over. NEPOTISM? WASTA? Go tell the accreditation board.
The point of this awful exercise in bad human resources management was that management and brown-nosing people could then report back to Abu Dhabi on how much money they had saved HCT. They would not report on how much good will and corporate reputation they had lost. They would omit that. Focus on the figures, not on the vision. Do not mention the alienation of employees from the organization. No, keep the lid on that one.
When did HCT become so shabby? When did it become a mean-minded dispiriting place to work, and not a place of vision? When did it begin to take pride in screwing, without a kiss, its loyal faculty and support staff and stop rewarding excellence? When did it compromise its vision of excellence and settle not only for second best but second last?
SHAME on you all: Provosts (what a redundancy), vice chancellors, SCINTILLating brown nosers, Rudey people in petty positions of power, silent people afraid to speak out. The arrogant minority (those with no meaningful contact with faculty, students and support staff) go to these secretive macho management meetings dreaming up these grand schemes to save dirhams and cheat the long serving loyal majority.
As a result, the loss to HCT's reputation as a place to learn, educate, work and serve is beyond all our calculations, and certainly theirs. It was good when I worked there. When did HCT start to go wrong? Was there a single defining moment?
As a policy-maker now in my post HCT life, I urge you teachers who remain at HCT to take a bold step now: make a list of all those institutions and organizations with whom HCT has signed MOUs, and established partnerships, and inform them of the Faculty and support staff view. You also need to inform all those accrediting universities and colleges and bodies of the hideous truth. Speak as faculty, presenting facts. You need to speak as a unified voice, not individuals with grievances. That should be easy, given the majority view of management, and the factual and documented evidence.
IT’S YOUR COLLEGE, SO MAKE YOUR FEELINGS AND OPINIONS KNOWN!
Thursday 7 July 2011
HCT in Ras al Khaimah (part one)
This is to wish good luck to Dr Robert Moulton (also known as Dr Bob Moulton) in Ras Al Khaimah Higher Colleges of Technology on the second anniversary of his securing his prestigious appointment of not just one but two colleges (sometimes jokingly referred to as universities).
The link below is to a discussion of Dr Robert Moulton's characteristics as a leader, as those who worked with him in New Mexico State University fondly recall his greatest achievements and share their heartbreak over his departure. The piece below speaks for itself. Nothing has changed since he came to RAK.
Here´s hoping that HCT do some basic internet checks before hiring the next generation of directors and provosts. After all, there is so much good stuff out there about the present incumbents!
http://www.topix.net/forum/world/TQ4TEDU13DCN75U32#comments
For those of you with too little time on your hands, here is a brief selection of some of the choice comments contained in the link...
Bob Moulton, who served as interim provost under outgoing Interim President Waded Cruzado, is leaving New Mexico State University, the school announced Tuesday.
No loss. Moulton was all about Moulton. VP Howard's crack university communication sent out a press release today saying Moulton was off to oversee a university in the mideast. Five minutes later, after an angry Moulton read it, Howard's comm department sent out another email explaining CORRECTION Moulton would be overseeing TWO universities in the mideast. So there!
Moulton is a poor excuse for an educator and the College of Education is much better.
The students he allegedly helped should consider themselves fortunate because he wronged so many with his inept policies. He looked down on faculty and staff and did not respect the tenets of a sound academic institution - it is about creating a learning environment and it is not about turf wars and bureaucratic "charges" that Bob was so fond of espousing. Someone earlier wrote good riddance - that was speaking the truth.
Dr. Moulton hasn't been allowed to think for himself in some time thanks to Cruzado and the rest of the so-called admins. Recently he promoted and gave tenure to a less than deserving faculty member. This faculty has received repeatedly bad evaluations from students, an extremely poor research record and is prone to bursts or anger and physical threats. Yet, since said faculty kissed the right admin. asses, they slipped his less than adequate package into the "Bob sign these papers. No. Don't read them, just sign," pile.
Good luck in the UAE!
The link below is to a discussion of Dr Robert Moulton's characteristics as a leader, as those who worked with him in New Mexico State University fondly recall his greatest achievements and share their heartbreak over his departure. The piece below speaks for itself. Nothing has changed since he came to RAK.
Here´s hoping that HCT do some basic internet checks before hiring the next generation of directors and provosts. After all, there is so much good stuff out there about the present incumbents!
http://www.topix.net/forum/world/TQ4TEDU13DCN75U32#comments
For those of you with too little time on your hands, here is a brief selection of some of the choice comments contained in the link...
Bob Moulton, who served as interim provost under outgoing Interim President Waded Cruzado, is leaving New Mexico State University, the school announced Tuesday.
No loss. Moulton was all about Moulton. VP Howard's crack university communication sent out a press release today saying Moulton was off to oversee a university in the mideast. Five minutes later, after an angry Moulton read it, Howard's comm department sent out another email explaining CORRECTION Moulton would be overseeing TWO universities in the mideast. So there!
Moulton is a poor excuse for an educator and the College of Education is much better.
The students he allegedly helped should consider themselves fortunate because he wronged so many with his inept policies. He looked down on faculty and staff and did not respect the tenets of a sound academic institution - it is about creating a learning environment and it is not about turf wars and bureaucratic "charges" that Bob was so fond of espousing. Someone earlier wrote good riddance - that was speaking the truth.
Dr. Moulton hasn't been allowed to think for himself in some time thanks to Cruzado and the rest of the so-called admins. Recently he promoted and gave tenure to a less than deserving faculty member. This faculty has received repeatedly bad evaluations from students, an extremely poor research record and is prone to bursts or anger and physical threats. Yet, since said faculty kissed the right admin. asses, they slipped his less than adequate package into the "Bob sign these papers. No. Don't read them, just sign," pile.
Good luck in the UAE!
Tuesday 28 June 2011
Dr Evil - part two
A second offering here from 'Momo' in Sharjah. Apparently, Dr Evil is admired greatly as a fat greasy sleazeball with a vampire's taste for firing teachers on the most flimsy of pretexts. Or am I reading it wrong here?!
At Sharjah HCT, the maniacal Dr Evil Farid Ohan has spawned a legacy of hate and promises of vengeance from literally hundreds of disgruntled former staffers and supervisors that he worked over, stabbed in the back, humiliated, abused and shoved out the door to feed his insatiable appetite for meanness and skulduggery. So it is only right and fitting that Dr Evil has his own tribute to nastiness competition. Let’s hear your favourite bit of goss about Mad Freddy and the crazy empire that he dominates with fear out in the backwoods of Sharjah! Here’s one of my favourites.
Every day of the week, the slimy old bastard gets two Indian labourers to wash his company executive sedan that is parked a few metres away from his office, as his stumpy legs are unable to cart this pot bellied old faggot to his throne. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having a handwashed car every day, but the pompous Dr Evil must always do it his own way and insists that the hired helps only use bottled Masafi water in five litre containers to wash his car. What a tosser and a waste of resources.
OK, not good enough? Well, here’s another of my favourites. The old sod loves to repeat this famous line at Sharjah HCT. “I am always so impressed by the enormous talents of our girls and the wonderful projects that they produce. I am constantly amazed by their talents.”
No, you silly old faggot - the teachers are so afraid of losing their jobs that they produce this work, and you just suck it in. Even blind Freddy could see that the knuckleheads do not produce the stuff that amazes Dr Evil. Yet the show goes on!
The rumour mill is buzzing that the bean counters at HCT headquarters in Abu Dhabi are targeting the Sharjah colleges, and Dr Evil Farid Ohan is in their sights. Talk is that college funding has been dubiously distributed and some may have made its way to a final resting place where it was never intended. We await developments with glee. This could be the straw that cracks the camel’s back and sends the tyrant into space as empty as his head.
STOP PRESS: The news that Fat Freddy has been made the HCT vice-provost would seem to challenge the paragraph above. However, we must all remember that what IS and what APPEARS TO BE are not always the same at HCT. Sometimes, it's quite the opposite, in fact.
At Sharjah HCT, the maniacal Dr Evil Farid Ohan has spawned a legacy of hate and promises of vengeance from literally hundreds of disgruntled former staffers and supervisors that he worked over, stabbed in the back, humiliated, abused and shoved out the door to feed his insatiable appetite for meanness and skulduggery. So it is only right and fitting that Dr Evil has his own tribute to nastiness competition. Let’s hear your favourite bit of goss about Mad Freddy and the crazy empire that he dominates with fear out in the backwoods of Sharjah! Here’s one of my favourites.
Every day of the week, the slimy old bastard gets two Indian labourers to wash his company executive sedan that is parked a few metres away from his office, as his stumpy legs are unable to cart this pot bellied old faggot to his throne. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having a handwashed car every day, but the pompous Dr Evil must always do it his own way and insists that the hired helps only use bottled Masafi water in five litre containers to wash his car. What a tosser and a waste of resources.
OK, not good enough? Well, here’s another of my favourites. The old sod loves to repeat this famous line at Sharjah HCT. “I am always so impressed by the enormous talents of our girls and the wonderful projects that they produce. I am constantly amazed by their talents.”
No, you silly old faggot - the teachers are so afraid of losing their jobs that they produce this work, and you just suck it in. Even blind Freddy could see that the knuckleheads do not produce the stuff that amazes Dr Evil. Yet the show goes on!
The rumour mill is buzzing that the bean counters at HCT headquarters in Abu Dhabi are targeting the Sharjah colleges, and Dr Evil Farid Ohan is in their sights. Talk is that college funding has been dubiously distributed and some may have made its way to a final resting place where it was never intended. We await developments with glee. This could be the straw that cracks the camel’s back and sends the tyrant into space as empty as his head.
STOP PRESS: The news that Fat Freddy has been made the HCT vice-provost would seem to challenge the paragraph above. However, we must all remember that what IS and what APPEARS TO BE are not always the same at HCT. Sometimes, it's quite the opposite, in fact.
Monday 20 June 2011
Sharjah's Finest - 'Dr Evil', Farid Ohan
I welcome another HCT story from 'Momo' in Sharjah, this time concerning the universally-loathed 'Dr Evil', a.k.a. 'Fat Freddy'. Keep 'em comin' please, Momo!
There is only one good doctor at Sharjah Women’s College - and that is the bitterly twisted and nasty ‘Dr Evil’, Farid Ohan. His name is already carved on a flaming alabaster cradle in a drafty corridor of hell. As director of Sharjah Women’s College, he has carved out for himself an oasis of servitude and a fiefdom of power driven by the man’s utter lack of decency and respect for anyone but himself. Dr Evil is boss and do not forget that - or you are out the door.
Dr Evil is also known less fondly as Mad Freddy and “Ankles” (three feet below women’s genitalia in the negative sense!) by those who loathe the antics of this hypocrite and prized bullshitter. Now BS may seem to you cruel and unnecessary invective but when you consider the achievements of this clown, then it leaves nothing short of amazement.
Take his SWC Wellness Clinic project of a few years ago. Dr Evil came up with this idea to develop a Wellness Clinic at Sharjah Women’s College to help the hundreds of intellectually disabled students, and also to stifle a massive lesbian problem that seemed to be festering in the latrines of the Communications Faculty and spreading rapidly. It was probably a good idea, but the only service other than lip service that Dr Evil paid to this project was a pile of information leaflets, clinic specs and a list of services that included anything from speech therapy to psychiatric illness and anything else in between. No staff, no buildings, no purpose other than to big note himself, Dr Evil went right ahead and had his hardworking staffers arrange a formal launch. Not bad at all when nothing from nothing leaves nothing. The project has since been abandoned.
Then there was the Centre for Excellence in Education, run by Dr Evil’s former chum Tony “The Dasher” Revell. Even by his own admission, Tony Revell preferred pub crawling to book trawling. But as a grand reward, Dr Evil pronounced Revell as the Dean of Education. That was until Revell was forced into a corner and shyly admitted to fudging exam marks of his charges to allow the eggheads to pass. The flaming torch of nasty boy Ged Ryan was firmly targeted on Revel’s posterior, but Dr Evil was forced to do a Hilary and stand by his man. Now why on earth would Dr Evil ever do such a nice thing for anyone? Instead of sacking the Dean of Education in the Center of Excellence in Education, poor Tony Revell was shafted to the Men’s College and forced to deal with the knuckleheads in the English Foundations program.
Poor old Tony put on a career development workshop at Sharjah Women’s College and the invited guest lead speaker was none other than former SWC staffer Gillian Johnstone, now grandly and incorrectly reincarnated as Professor of the Career and Work Counsellor Program at George Brown College. The delightful Professor Johnstone held seminars and workshops that had academics in stitches as she tried to explain the personality differences between red and blue people, and did not bat a painted eyelid when one of the participants inquired about the brown eye.
It turns out that Tony had Dr Evil over the pork barrel so to speak. The only reason that the now disgraced Dean of Education in the Center for Excellence in Education held on to his pension entitlements was because Dr Evil harboured yet another nasty secret in his filthy satchel. The geriatric pants man was caught with his pants down. There was no way old Tony was going to keep quiet about his need to bring out the delightful Professor Johnstone for a measly few morsels of untested and goofy theories about Personality Dimensions. It was like a kick in the nuts that had Dr Evil gasping with pain. Hide the salami was no longer a game plan.
This leads to another interesting morsel in the sordid life and times of Dr Evil Farid Ohan. Like the time he sacked a popular student counsellor for no particular reason and had the woman replaced by an Australian who turned out to be a marriage counsellor who sold porn on the internet. But that story is for another day.
'Momo'
Sunday 12 June 2011
HCT defined - "third world autocratic Arab /western facade hybrid wasta system"! [UPDATED]
Here's the latest in a recent flurry of material for posting, this one from 'Revolver'. June will be a busy month indeed on this blog!
And so it goes on. HCT has a deservedly bad reputation, and the Abu Dhabi colleges are the worst. However, I am somewhat surprised that you have left out the other two puppets that make up the three stooges at ADMC. May I ask why they are not on the punch list?
Firstly, there’s the academically inept Ahmed Tabbara, who purchased his qualifications, and would consequently fail his own college graduation requirements, particularly IELES. The idiot is a show bag both in Arabic and English, meaning he is full of shit. Then there’s Dr. Hamad Odhabi, both a puppet and a Muppet, who doesn't have one straight bone in his body. Unsurprisingly, he operates no differently to a typically corrupt Arab politician.
As for the pathetic excuse SiJo, he is clearly a toothless man who underwent a dental transformation after arriving to Abu Dhabi. I mean, I clearly do recall him being toothless, but in later UAE life he became the McClean smile man. Also, a correction to an earlier blog comment - the idiot is certainly not an engineer, he doesn't hold an engineering degree, he simply believes his own shit.
As you can imagine, I did resign because I was asked to pass a group of influential Emirati students that didn’t deserve to be in a class room, let alone pass the course. In fact they weren't even in a class room, as they never showed up for a whole semester, yet they managed with A + for the course. I’m not sure how, but Mr Tabbara does.
In the end they robbed me of my money payout, but in fact I can be satisfied that they are robbing themselves of something more valuable - a reputation and respect in the academic community. That is something they will NEVER achieve under the present corrupt and incompetent management regime.
I just hope that student enrolments in the system are down enough to warrant a wake-up call. I am sure some Emirati students don’t want this third world autocratic Arab /western facade hybrid wasta system, which we all recognize runs the daily system at HCT.
'Revolver'
(Ex-faculty, ADMC)
UPDATE
I guess a little more information is in order, so let’s get the exemplification right here. Sijo, Simon Jones, was initially not short listed for the role as director for ADMC, but was later called back, since the other two decent western gentlemen realised that it was a dodgy organisation. Ahmed Tabbara saw good in Sijo as this would allow him to rule by proxy.
The relationship between the trio began from the first day that SiJo joined HCT. However, the bond grew in strength once Sijo realised the gravity of King Kamali and his watchful eyes on campus (Ahmed Tabbara and Dr Hamad Odhabi). People at the ADMC cafeteria can vouch for this at the daily McDonalds secret lunching, in the far right corner, where they walk past other staff ignoring them all. It was a well known secret that if you wanted to survive in the HCT system, you had to avoid making eye contact with Kamali and his mob.
Typically these lunches discussed the ins and outs of the season much like a coach’s selection committee, picking the best players for the final series. These are merciless men who will terminate someone’s contract for accidentally taking the tomato sauce from their table, I kid you not - it really is like that. Kamali always walked in the middle, and to each flank was a fawning wanker - Tabbara and Odhabi, the trusted hit men. Sijo was jealous, bouncing around in the background like a little poodle - he knew his place: “I want to be part of this pack, please pretty please”!
One day SiJo’s world was to be turned upside down, and he soon realised the vintage Kamali way. Being the arrogant and ignorant fool that he is, SiJo actually thought being a director meant something, or better still - entitled him to make decisions at ADMC! Let’s us begin the public’s education with a course in HCT 101. As autocratic management goes, rule by proxy, and once the dirty work is done, get rid of the westerner and employ another idiot to keep them all in check. By way of example, notice that none of our directors have ever had any real substance, it’s always someone with a underlying issue, a twit, a has-been, a goon, a divorcee who has run away from his wife’s alimony payments (not mentioning any names).
SiJo’s reality check came when he realised that he was simply always going to be the white fool, that they had bought him to be the clean white face of the whole corrupt Emirati operation. So in one way I do almost feel sorry for him. But, oh well, that’s tough - he had his chance, he could have stood his ground, but no; he wanted to be down with the hood, and to retain his black BMW sports edition.
The story goes that our beloved SiJo once decided to take a few of the noble guests from the Festival of Stinkers to Sheikh Nana’s palace unannounced to his boss, the Godfather of crime at HCT, King Kamali. As a result SiJo was publicly humiliated and was asked to leave immediately, as he had overstepped his (non-existent) authority by making decisions such as visiting Sheik Nana without consulting his Boss. It was then explained to him by Ahmed Tabbara that if you could not get hold of Kamali, ask me, Ahmed Tabbara, as traditionally every king has a court clown, and Ahmed Tabbara filled the space marvellously with his side kick Dr Hamad Odhabi. Coincidentally, the two stooges, Ahmed Tabbara and Dr Hamad Odhabi, were later both rewarded with associate director positions at ADMC for their loyal service to the HCT Godfather, ‘Doctor’ Kamali. The question that we beg to ask here is just why would you need to have two associate directors, and a director, deans and supervisors, to run an 1800 Student College?
Bearing in mind that Ahmed Tabbara was a math teacher at the diploma level with no real qualifications, on his Linked In page Ahmed Tabbara's Education is listed as Nova Southeastern University 2002 – 2006, http://ae.linkedin.com/pub/ahmed-tabbara/4/b64/641. Can someone help to disprove this claim, as I am certain for a fact that he never attended that Canadian University, as he has been with HCT since 1993, so how can that be? Explain yourself Ahmed Tabbara!
Oh, let me guess - Ahmed Tabbara’s qualifications are that he lives in the same building as Kamaili on the Corniche Road, entices him with his Middle Eastern foods, does the daily walks with him on the Corniche, and enjoys a good drink with him. Please disprove this claim, if at all possible - tell the world of your claims as to why you, Ahmed Tabbara, were promoted to such a high position as Mr Associate Director with no academic qualifications, please do.
Or maybe your promotion is attributed to all the pretty Lebanese girls that you always employ for entertainment at your functions? Please understand you have the presumption of innocence, as I am not suggesting anything by this. It’s just that your gatherings always resemble a red-light district in your pimp-like presence, wearing your silk suits and ordering – no, screaming! - at the poor Indian/Pakistani staff to bring more food, clean here, there, etc. Not to mention your expertise in fireworks, of course. I will allow others, particularly members of HCT, to comment on the HCT management’s fascination with fireworks. I am sure you would bring shame to Barney the purple dinosaur, can you hear him giggling? As for Dr Hamad Odabi, he qualified for the position due to an unbreakable bond and affiliation with both Kamali and Ahmed Tabbara.
And so it goes on. HCT has a deservedly bad reputation, and the Abu Dhabi colleges are the worst. However, I am somewhat surprised that you have left out the other two puppets that make up the three stooges at ADMC. May I ask why they are not on the punch list?
Firstly, there’s the academically inept Ahmed Tabbara, who purchased his qualifications, and would consequently fail his own college graduation requirements, particularly IELES. The idiot is a show bag both in Arabic and English, meaning he is full of shit. Then there’s Dr. Hamad Odhabi, both a puppet and a Muppet, who doesn't have one straight bone in his body. Unsurprisingly, he operates no differently to a typically corrupt Arab politician.
As for the pathetic excuse SiJo, he is clearly a toothless man who underwent a dental transformation after arriving to Abu Dhabi. I mean, I clearly do recall him being toothless, but in later UAE life he became the McClean smile man. Also, a correction to an earlier blog comment - the idiot is certainly not an engineer, he doesn't hold an engineering degree, he simply believes his own shit.
As you can imagine, I did resign because I was asked to pass a group of influential Emirati students that didn’t deserve to be in a class room, let alone pass the course. In fact they weren't even in a class room, as they never showed up for a whole semester, yet they managed with A + for the course. I’m not sure how, but Mr Tabbara does.
In the end they robbed me of my money payout, but in fact I can be satisfied that they are robbing themselves of something more valuable - a reputation and respect in the academic community. That is something they will NEVER achieve under the present corrupt and incompetent management regime.
I just hope that student enrolments in the system are down enough to warrant a wake-up call. I am sure some Emirati students don’t want this third world autocratic Arab /western facade hybrid wasta system, which we all recognize runs the daily system at HCT.
'Revolver'
(Ex-faculty, ADMC)
UPDATE
I guess a little more information is in order, so let’s get the exemplification right here. Sijo, Simon Jones, was initially not short listed for the role as director for ADMC, but was later called back, since the other two decent western gentlemen realised that it was a dodgy organisation. Ahmed Tabbara saw good in Sijo as this would allow him to rule by proxy.
The relationship between the trio began from the first day that SiJo joined HCT. However, the bond grew in strength once Sijo realised the gravity of King Kamali and his watchful eyes on campus (Ahmed Tabbara and Dr Hamad Odhabi). People at the ADMC cafeteria can vouch for this at the daily McDonalds secret lunching, in the far right corner, where they walk past other staff ignoring them all. It was a well known secret that if you wanted to survive in the HCT system, you had to avoid making eye contact with Kamali and his mob.
Typically these lunches discussed the ins and outs of the season much like a coach’s selection committee, picking the best players for the final series. These are merciless men who will terminate someone’s contract for accidentally taking the tomato sauce from their table, I kid you not - it really is like that. Kamali always walked in the middle, and to each flank was a fawning wanker - Tabbara and Odhabi, the trusted hit men. Sijo was jealous, bouncing around in the background like a little poodle - he knew his place: “I want to be part of this pack, please pretty please”!
One day SiJo’s world was to be turned upside down, and he soon realised the vintage Kamali way. Being the arrogant and ignorant fool that he is, SiJo actually thought being a director meant something, or better still - entitled him to make decisions at ADMC! Let’s us begin the public’s education with a course in HCT 101. As autocratic management goes, rule by proxy, and once the dirty work is done, get rid of the westerner and employ another idiot to keep them all in check. By way of example, notice that none of our directors have ever had any real substance, it’s always someone with a underlying issue, a twit, a has-been, a goon, a divorcee who has run away from his wife’s alimony payments (not mentioning any names).
SiJo’s reality check came when he realised that he was simply always going to be the white fool, that they had bought him to be the clean white face of the whole corrupt Emirati operation. So in one way I do almost feel sorry for him. But, oh well, that’s tough - he had his chance, he could have stood his ground, but no; he wanted to be down with the hood, and to retain his black BMW sports edition.
The story goes that our beloved SiJo once decided to take a few of the noble guests from the Festival of Stinkers to Sheikh Nana’s palace unannounced to his boss, the Godfather of crime at HCT, King Kamali. As a result SiJo was publicly humiliated and was asked to leave immediately, as he had overstepped his (non-existent) authority by making decisions such as visiting Sheik Nana without consulting his Boss. It was then explained to him by Ahmed Tabbara that if you could not get hold of Kamali, ask me, Ahmed Tabbara, as traditionally every king has a court clown, and Ahmed Tabbara filled the space marvellously with his side kick Dr Hamad Odhabi. Coincidentally, the two stooges, Ahmed Tabbara and Dr Hamad Odhabi, were later both rewarded with associate director positions at ADMC for their loyal service to the HCT Godfather, ‘Doctor’ Kamali. The question that we beg to ask here is just why would you need to have two associate directors, and a director, deans and supervisors, to run an 1800 Student College?
Bearing in mind that Ahmed Tabbara was a math teacher at the diploma level with no real qualifications, on his Linked In page Ahmed Tabbara's Education is listed as Nova Southeastern University 2002 – 2006, http://ae.linkedin.com/pub/ahmed-tabbara/4/b64/641. Can someone help to disprove this claim, as I am certain for a fact that he never attended that Canadian University, as he has been with HCT since 1993, so how can that be? Explain yourself Ahmed Tabbara!
Oh, let me guess - Ahmed Tabbara’s qualifications are that he lives in the same building as Kamaili on the Corniche Road, entices him with his Middle Eastern foods, does the daily walks with him on the Corniche, and enjoys a good drink with him. Please disprove this claim, if at all possible - tell the world of your claims as to why you, Ahmed Tabbara, were promoted to such a high position as Mr Associate Director with no academic qualifications, please do.
Or maybe your promotion is attributed to all the pretty Lebanese girls that you always employ for entertainment at your functions? Please understand you have the presumption of innocence, as I am not suggesting anything by this. It’s just that your gatherings always resemble a red-light district in your pimp-like presence, wearing your silk suits and ordering – no, screaming! - at the poor Indian/Pakistani staff to bring more food, clean here, there, etc. Not to mention your expertise in fireworks, of course. I will allow others, particularly members of HCT, to comment on the HCT management’s fascination with fireworks. I am sure you would bring shame to Barney the purple dinosaur, can you hear him giggling? As for Dr Hamad Odabi, he qualified for the position due to an unbreakable bond and affiliation with both Kamali and Ahmed Tabbara.
So that’s how the trio came about. I hope you have enjoyed this update – there’s more to follow soon!
Wednesday 1 June 2011
Ged 'Misery Guts' Ryan - A Tribute from a Colleague
My thanks go to 'MoMo', an insider at the Sharjah Colleges of Technology, for this revealing piece concerning Ged Ryan. The cheque's in the post, MoMo!
Ged Ryan is one of the grey men of Sharjah Women’s College. He arrived at HCT Sharjah about a decade ago after a stint at a venerable institution of higher learning in Papua New Guinea, no less. He spends his days peering over a giant pile of manila files stacked high on his desk, in the style of a dedicated and conscientous employee.
However, do not misunderestimate the cunning ruthlessness of this slime ball. He does the bidding at the call of his master, boss, and mentor - Dr Evil “Mad Freddy” Farid Ohan.
Ryan openly covets his master’s job as boss cocky at SHCT, and he has been working at his doctorate for some years now. The man is no intellectual giant and some would say, not unkindly, that the day of reckoning has long passed him by. In fact, Ged Ryan has almost definitely missed his doctorate and also missed his chance at ever getting Dr Evil’s job, because new rules in place reserve the title of college director.
Yet this has not stopped the smouldering giant. He makes life miserable for the teaching staff by arriving unannounced at class times to observe teaching practices; at other times he simply summonses some hapless teacher to his office for a grilling. If Dr Evil carries the dagger, then he does his dirty little deeds upon Ged Ryan’s twisted and bitter recommendation.
So, if you are a new teacher at Sharjah, give this misery guts a wide berth if you can. If you have been unlucky enough to get entangled in his wicked web of deceit, been threatened by his devious agenda, or had an unexpected visit to your class, it would be well worth your while to keep a packed bag ready for any emergencies.
MoMo
Sunday 22 May 2011
Friday 8 April 2011
A Profile of 'The Timinator' of Al Ain
This story concerning 'Tiny' Tim Smith, also known as 'The Napoleon of Al Ain', or quite simply 'The Timinator', popped into my inbox just yesterday. I offer my profound thanks to the author for this stark tale of one of HCT's legendary leeches.
Many years ago Timmy was at Academic Services pretending to be productive. He interviewed prospective employees along with two other mid level managers. If you were North American, he automatically blackballed you.
This dislike for western hemisphere teachers became blatantly obvious when he conducted a Delta course. At the first session he said ”I see some Americans here. Well, you may as well leave now, because everyone knows that Americans can’t write." The non-Americans were a little put off with this comment. At this point most North Americans left on the spot, and within weeks the rest were gone. He failed them on their initial writing assignments, so they saw the “writing” on the wall and the rest is history.
In fact, Timmy was so lazy he didn’t want to prepare any lessons, so he assigned a student each week to prepare and present a topic. After a few weeks, Timmy didn’t bother to attend, even though he was being paid to do so. The final nail in the coffin was when they had the final exam. He was the invigilator, and he fell asleep during the exam. Needless to say, there was a bit of “helping” going on among the candidates. (Shades of “Teacher, he my friend, I must to help him” here).
When the Sharjah campus opened, the college was desperate to attract teachers from around the system. Few volunteered. However, one much-loved North American gentleman did, and that was his downfall. Timmy trumped up some charges and sacked him. This gentleman had been with the HCT for several years and had an exemplary record of outstanding performance, and all his colleagues knew it was a hatchet job.
To everyone’s surprise, a replacement teacher showed up the next day. The replacement was an old friend of Timmy’s from his days in Kuwait. What a coincidence!
Now Timmy is acting director in Al Ain. How nice! When you go to dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel in Al Ain, and you order a rack of pork short ribs, don’t be surprised if pig-faced Timmy Smith shows up.
Timmy is an example of what many long-term Hong Kong residents call “FILTH” - “Failed In London, Try Hong-kong”. Except, of course, it’s easier to fool them in the UAE than in Hong Kong. But Timmy is not fooling anyone. Except himself.
Note to Timmy: “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.”
Many years ago Timmy was at Academic Services pretending to be productive. He interviewed prospective employees along with two other mid level managers. If you were North American, he automatically blackballed you.
This dislike for western hemisphere teachers became blatantly obvious when he conducted a Delta course. At the first session he said ”I see some Americans here. Well, you may as well leave now, because everyone knows that Americans can’t write." The non-Americans were a little put off with this comment. At this point most North Americans left on the spot, and within weeks the rest were gone. He failed them on their initial writing assignments, so they saw the “writing” on the wall and the rest is history.
In fact, Timmy was so lazy he didn’t want to prepare any lessons, so he assigned a student each week to prepare and present a topic. After a few weeks, Timmy didn’t bother to attend, even though he was being paid to do so. The final nail in the coffin was when they had the final exam. He was the invigilator, and he fell asleep during the exam. Needless to say, there was a bit of “helping” going on among the candidates. (Shades of “Teacher, he my friend, I must to help him” here).
When the Sharjah campus opened, the college was desperate to attract teachers from around the system. Few volunteered. However, one much-loved North American gentleman did, and that was his downfall. Timmy trumped up some charges and sacked him. This gentleman had been with the HCT for several years and had an exemplary record of outstanding performance, and all his colleagues knew it was a hatchet job.
To everyone’s surprise, a replacement teacher showed up the next day. The replacement was an old friend of Timmy’s from his days in Kuwait. What a coincidence!
Now Timmy is acting director in Al Ain. How nice! When you go to dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel in Al Ain, and you order a rack of pork short ribs, don’t be surprised if pig-faced Timmy Smith shows up.
Timmy is an example of what many long-term Hong Kong residents call “FILTH” - “Failed In London, Try Hong-kong”. Except, of course, it’s easier to fool them in the UAE than in Hong Kong. But Timmy is not fooling anyone. Except himself.
Note to Timmy: “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.”
Thursday 31 March 2011
Osimon of Taffghanistan
Watch this space for forthcoming news regarding the much-loathed sociopath Dr Simon Jones, aka 'SiJo' and 'Osimon Bin Jones'. You won't be disappointed!
CERT Boss in College Porn Scandal!
Reports have come in today concerning a management reprimand (but no dismissal) issued to Tricia McGurk, a CERT supervisor who has been caught performing in sex tapes sold on the internet.
The HCT employee has been reprimanded after homemade pornography - some of which was sold on the internet - was found on her college laptop. Her office computer was found to contain nine videos and 12 images of her engaging in sex acts with her husband, Phil, who previously worked at ADWC.
According to reliable sources, the hardcore content was just 'two clicks away' from being visible to all HCT students, the disciplinary panel was told. It was also revealed that some of the videos were for sale on a website under the title My Sexy Secretary’s Blow Jobs.
The computer had also been used to visit a website selling pornographic clips, where a further 80 graphic videos featuring Mrs McGurk were found. One colleague at CERT claimed: "It's absolutely disgusting - she's much too old for that sort of thing."
The HCT employee has been reprimanded after homemade pornography - some of which was sold on the internet - was found on her college laptop. Her office computer was found to contain nine videos and 12 images of her engaging in sex acts with her husband, Phil, who previously worked at ADWC.
According to reliable sources, the hardcore content was just 'two clicks away' from being visible to all HCT students, the disciplinary panel was told. It was also revealed that some of the videos were for sale on a website under the title My Sexy Secretary’s Blow Jobs.
The computer had also been used to visit a website selling pornographic clips, where a further 80 graphic videos featuring Mrs McGurk were found. One colleague at CERT claimed: "It's absolutely disgusting - she's much too old for that sort of thing."
Wednesday 9 February 2011
The HCT Hall of Shame - A Growing Concern?!
My eternal thanks go to the anonymous mole in HCT's Central Services, who was kind enough to provide the following update as a comment to my previous posting. Mr Mole stated that there were "so many others deserving of attention in the Hall of Infamy", and then went on to provide a breakdown of HCT's current brood of academic retards and the like.
I do hope you enjoy the reading material below. My recent blog stats inform me that these pages have been getting a great deal of attention in the Academic Services compound, so I presume there will be more of the same to come - a thrilling prospect!
Anyway, here they are - HCT's Top Ten Shameless Sonsabitches!!
1/ The senile, out-of-touch Provost, Mark Drummond, who like Hitler in the bunker moving phantom armies around, moves phantom academic improvements, not to mention new hires around, neither of which have much basis in reality.
2/ Phil Hartley, deputy-provost and 2-dimensional California side-kick of Drummond: big salary, waste of space, doesn't really know where he is.
3/ Jim Pounder - deputy-provost academic, the bloke from Sheffield who's everyone's "best friend", until it doesn't serve his purpose, any longer. Then you're fucked. He's also a terrible leader, when it's most needed. But, hey, his real reason for being here, anyway is as a holy-roller, intent on educating the unwashed heathen of the power of his main geezer in heaven.
4/ Dr. Evil's Mini-me, Jed Ryan, an obsequious moron, who is so far up Farid's ass, he's all but disappeared as a real person
5/ Bejat what's-her-face, the deputy director of DWC: another stupid Emirati woman in a position far beyond her abilities, yet who has enough power to cause real havoc.
6/ Senthil Nathan - Martin Bormann to Tayeb's Hitler. Arguably more powerful than Tayeb as he has Tayeb's ear and often directly influences many a draconian policy. Has the personality of a turnip, thoroughly reprehensible.
7/ Paul Mace - corrupt, on-the-take Tayeb henchman and probably one of his main bagmen. Formerly known as "cement head", emasculated by his harridan wife. Had to have special "pedagogical" lessons before they let him enter the classroom.
8/ Rudi Young, Capo di tutti capi at HR. Rules his little pile of concrete with a heavy hand: much feared and hated by his employees....
9/ Tiny Tim Smith, (Al Ain) all round LITTLE sh*t and backstabbing SOB.
Actually, I'm surprised that there are only nine names above - there must be SO many more! Does anybody out there care to add a monicker or three to the list? There's plenty of space below to nominate your personal enemy...
I do hope you enjoy the reading material below. My recent blog stats inform me that these pages have been getting a great deal of attention in the Academic Services compound, so I presume there will be more of the same to come - a thrilling prospect!
Anyway, here they are - HCT's Top Ten Shameless Sonsabitches!!
1/ The senile, out-of-touch Provost, Mark Drummond, who like Hitler in the bunker moving phantom armies around, moves phantom academic improvements, not to mention new hires around, neither of which have much basis in reality.
2/ Phil Hartley, deputy-provost and 2-dimensional California side-kick of Drummond: big salary, waste of space, doesn't really know where he is.
3/ Jim Pounder - deputy-provost academic, the bloke from Sheffield who's everyone's "best friend", until it doesn't serve his purpose, any longer. Then you're fucked. He's also a terrible leader, when it's most needed. But, hey, his real reason for being here, anyway is as a holy-roller, intent on educating the unwashed heathen of the power of his main geezer in heaven.
4/ Dr. Evil's Mini-me, Jed Ryan, an obsequious moron, who is so far up Farid's ass, he's all but disappeared as a real person
5/ Bejat what's-her-face, the deputy director of DWC: another stupid Emirati woman in a position far beyond her abilities, yet who has enough power to cause real havoc.
6/ Senthil Nathan - Martin Bormann to Tayeb's Hitler. Arguably more powerful than Tayeb as he has Tayeb's ear and often directly influences many a draconian policy. Has the personality of a turnip, thoroughly reprehensible.
7/ Paul Mace - corrupt, on-the-take Tayeb henchman and probably one of his main bagmen. Formerly known as "cement head", emasculated by his harridan wife. Had to have special "pedagogical" lessons before they let him enter the classroom.
8/ Rudi Young, Capo di tutti capi at HR. Rules his little pile of concrete with a heavy hand: much feared and hated by his employees....
9/ Tiny Tim Smith, (Al Ain) all round LITTLE sh*t and backstabbing SOB.
Actually, I'm surprised that there are only nine names above - there must be SO many more! Does anybody out there care to add a monicker or three to the list? There's plenty of space below to nominate your personal enemy...
Saturday 22 January 2011
Unapproved use of technology at HCT
The Higher Colleges of Technology, the self-proclaimed 'models of tolerance and progress' in the Gulf, appear to be getting a little uptight about their employees' internet habits. A recent update of HCT's internet policy makes clear threats against anybody who posts anything in cyberspace that HCT doesn't like, or even looks at an 'unapproved' website.
Take a look at these new sanctions, which appeared earlier in the semester...
Conditions of Use
· Users are not permitted to post proprietary or confidential information pertaining to the HCT on the internet, including forums, groups, anonymous FTP servers, or any other such open facility.
· Users are not authorised to make personal statements that could be misconstrued as the official position of the HCT.
· The HCT has the right to enforce URL filtering to restrict access to certain sites that are considered offensive and / or not relevant to the HCT business.
· IT Services Team reserves the right to monitor internet traffic to ensure compliance with HCT policy and procedures. Internet traffic will be logged and any misuse detected can result in disciplinary action.
So, you'll find that several sites have been declared 'off-limits' by Goon Squad Central, as they are apparently irelevant or not deferential enough in their eyes, and you won't be able to access them anymore. I wonder which sites they could be thinking of?! And I wonder if this limitation applies equally to the head honchos at Central Services, or is it just for the classroom plebs?
But perhaps the scariest provision of these new restrictions is the admission that HCT regularly monitor their staff's use of the web. This has always been well known, but not openly stated until now, and the fact that it can result in 'disciplinary action' means that almost everybody stands at risk of dismissal.
And how could anybody defend themselves against such an accusation? If The Goons place a bit of paper in front of you that states you were reading this blog at a certain time on a certain day, how could any faculty member possibly say it's not true?
Once again, Kamali and his sycophantic cronies are bent on making life tougher for HCT's teachers and staff, and plan to make it even easier than it is at present to stitch somebody up and get them sacked.
Well done, King Kamali - another triumph in the plan for 'The Way Forward'!!
Take a look at these new sanctions, which appeared earlier in the semester...
Conditions of Use
· Users are not permitted to post proprietary or confidential information pertaining to the HCT on the internet, including forums, groups, anonymous FTP servers, or any other such open facility.
· Users are not authorised to make personal statements that could be misconstrued as the official position of the HCT.
In other words, HCT's employees are no longer allowed to discuss their work and employment on open and democratic forums, just in case HCT disapproves. Even merely mentioning a simple fact, such as how many students you have in class, or stating your salary, could be seen as subversive by the HCT Goons in management.
Giving your personal opinion is also a no-go area now, given that some people are apparently so dumb they might think it's an official Goon Squad policy statement. So be careful you don't tell a journalist that you think Kamali is an asshole, as it might get 'misconstrued', and nobody would like that, would they now?!
A couple more restricting points have been made about accessing websites from your work station. These make interesting reading too, especially if you thought you had some sort of right to personal integrity at the workplace.
HCT Rights· The HCT has the right to enforce URL filtering to restrict access to certain sites that are considered offensive and / or not relevant to the HCT business.
· IT Services Team reserves the right to monitor internet traffic to ensure compliance with HCT policy and procedures. Internet traffic will be logged and any misuse detected can result in disciplinary action.
So, you'll find that several sites have been declared 'off-limits' by Goon Squad Central, as they are apparently irelevant or not deferential enough in their eyes, and you won't be able to access them anymore. I wonder which sites they could be thinking of?! And I wonder if this limitation applies equally to the head honchos at Central Services, or is it just for the classroom plebs?
But perhaps the scariest provision of these new restrictions is the admission that HCT regularly monitor their staff's use of the web. This has always been well known, but not openly stated until now, and the fact that it can result in 'disciplinary action' means that almost everybody stands at risk of dismissal.
And how could anybody defend themselves against such an accusation? If The Goons place a bit of paper in front of you that states you were reading this blog at a certain time on a certain day, how could any faculty member possibly say it's not true?
Once again, Kamali and his sycophantic cronies are bent on making life tougher for HCT's teachers and staff, and plan to make it even easier than it is at present to stitch somebody up and get them sacked.
Well done, King Kamali - another triumph in the plan for 'The Way Forward'!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)