This was the first time we were able to meet for a while. Khedir was studying for the GMAT test and needed lots of time to work on that. I did run into him at the library a couple times working hard. I think he took it last Friday. I talked to him about it and he said he thought he did well and that he would get the results very soon. He also said that the hardest part for him was the English portion.
I got the impression from Khedir that he was worried about his test and how well he did on the English portion. I asked if there were people here at TCU that could help him to do better on the written section and he seemed to think there wasn’t and that it was just going to be a matter of him practicing speaking and writing. I asked if there was anything I could do and he told me it was alright.
After that I changed the subject to Halloween. It was the Monday following our conversation and I asked him if he had any plans. He said he didn’t really do anything for Halloween, which I guess makes since because he lives off campus and is 35 years old. He asked if I had any plans and I said that I didn’t on the actual day of Halloween because I had a test but that Saturday night I was dressing up as Dr. Neffario from Despicable Me and going with a bunch of friends who were going to be minions and one guy who was going to be Gru. He had no idea what I was talking about so I asked if he celebrated Halloween back at home in Saudi Arabia. Turns out, they don’t. It seems to be a fairly American holiday.
Anyway, from there the conversation changed to politics as it usually does. What I’m learning about Khedir is that he does not like the media at all. Despite our different opinions about politics, this is one thing we have in common. We talked about it for a while and we both agree the media has its own agenda and doesn’t paint an accurate picture. Bottom line they are trying to sell a story and all too often it gets tied to one political agenda. As a result, people are mislead because they buy into what they see on TV or read on the headlines of newspapers without giving it any thought and they just accept it as true. This leads to uninformed citizens and the results show when we elect corrupt officials to office.
I asked Khedir what he thought the solution was and he said education. With this, I whole heartedly agree. He said if we educate people on how the world works and the governments of the world interact, people would have a better understanding of what is needed in from our leaders. He said people should also be taught to be more skeptical about what they watch on TV.
Our conversation wound down, mostly I think because I haven’t been keeping up with current events as well as I would like and so I didn’t have much to say about things going on in the world. Besides, Khedir said he had a lot of studying to do. I really enjoyed talking to Khedir about politics and I think it is great that we can talk without any animosity. It amazed me how well informed he was, too. All in all, it was a good meeting.
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