The United Arab Emirates’ long-ailing ruler, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, died Friday, the government’s state-run news agency announced in a brief statement. He was 73.
The UAE’s Ministry of Presidential Affairs announced a 40-day period of mourning and a three-day suspension of work in all ministries and the private sector beginning Friday, including flags to be flown at half mast, AP reported.
He had long ceased having involvement in day-to-day affairs of ruling the country, with his brother, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, seen as the de-factor ruler. There was no immediate announcement about a successor, although Mohammed bin Zayed is in line to inherit the top post.
Sheikh Khalifa, who has rarely been seen in official photos or at public events for years, succeeded his father and the UAE’s founder Sheikh Zayed in 2004. He suffered a stroke a decade later, keeping him largely out of public sight ever since.
The world’s tallest tower in the UAE’s emirate of Dubai is named the Burj Khalifa after the late ruler, whose oil-rich emirate helped bail Dubai out during a financial crisis.

Let’s talk about children and philosophy

“Philosophy” might sound like a sophisticated thing, a realm of deep thinking and grandiloquent wordings exclusive to senior, aloof, and usually spectacled seniors of the society.
But proponents of the Philosophy for Children Movement, which was founded by Matthew Lipman in early 1970s, argue that children at very young ages are capable of some sorts of critical and philosophical thinking. Moreover, the movement, known as P4C, encourages parents and teachers to nurture seeds of deep thoughts and questions in the young children.
The movement has gained much traction in Iran, as well, and received cautious approval and encouragement from officials, which was not surprising after all, because a precursor of sorts had been established in Iran in 1965, i.e. the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, which, among other things, has tried over the years to procure cognitive and critical development tools for Iranian children. And right now, many ‘special’ schools across the country pay due attention to ‘unorthodox’ educational methods, including P4C.
As everything else about the delicate being of young children, however, the work of P4C should be done properly with utmost care. There are pitfalls to be avoided, misunderstandings to be cleared up, and best practices to be followed. More specifically, there are less or more legitimate concerns about the whole idea of working philosophically with children that parents or educators might have.
In an exchange with Robert Wilson, professor of philosophy at the University of Western Australia who has extensive experience in the field, I raised some of the pressing issues in regards to the P4C. His insights into the matter will be published in four consecutive parts in Iran Daily.

What is Philosophy for Children (P4C) essentially about? What is its significance? I think what's especially important for parents about the Philosophy for Children program and the methodologies that it invokes is that it provides a way for their children to develop their curiosity in a very natural way while becoming members of these communities of inquiry, and seeing themselves as having ideas and capable of developing them, together with others, in ways that matter to them. Once they've got that idea, which in some sense should be happening in classrooms and throughout children's lives very naturally but often doesn't, they can transport that into all sorts of areas: How they read novels, how they approach mathematical problems, and how they look at scientific experiments.
So, it's quite a general set of skills that you develop if you get used to this kind of dialogical mode of inquiry. This makes it always okay to ask why, to expect that others will engage you, and to be interested in their ideas and why they think about things maybe in the same way or maybe in different ways. Why does this sort of evidence count? How does what was going on here connect with something else? Each individual will make their own connections, and having that free space, your kids can do this. It's a matter of creating spaces and inculcating confidence in them.

There is a concern among some parents that having young children do philosophy might be overwhelming or otherwise exhausting for them. What’s your take on that?
Yeah, I don't think so. Because I think this kind of curiosity that you build on is very, very natural. So, it's very student-focused. I think where kids can feel too much pressure is when they're confronted with something that feels very alien and is imposed on them. So, if they had to do some abstract mathematics or they have to read a complicated piece of reading, which might be relevant but they can't see the point of it because it's a bit removed from their experiences, that's where kids can freeze up, I think, and feel a little overwhelmed.
But crucial to the kind of methodology that we have in building these communities of inquiries is to have it very student-centered, but also to make it not egocentric, so that it's not focused just on them. Rather, it's getting them to realize that they're part of a community and they have got to be sensitive to other people's ideas. They have got to be as inquisitive about others as they are about themselves.

What about the concern that such a work might be “too mature” or “too challenging” for the kids? What if the kids lose their interest in such intellectual endeavors altogether?
I don't think I've really seen that. What I see is kids coming out of these classrooms or other informal settings where this methodology is employed, being incredibly enthusiastic, realizing they've got much more potential than they thought. They're excited about the ideas. They can see applications in their real lives. They can become quite challenging, and sometimes parents are surprised, “What did you do to my kid?” Not that they'd say that in a bad way, but more like, “Wow! They've got all sorts of stuff inside of them. I just didn't realize.”
That's why I think it's actually really good for kids who often feel quite excluded from normal educational classroom processes because they are shut out. They have felt overwhelmed or they felt challenged but not in the right way. So, I guess the way to put it is that the thinking is challenging but challenging in a way that's very accessible, and every individual has got the ability to run with this. Particularly, when there's this social value associated with being a member of the community of inquiry in the classroom. So, you're a part of a team. That really helps a lot.

Some critics argue that the whole P4C program is ideologically laden, in the sense that it promotes certain worldviews. What about that?
I think it's a good and perfectly fair question to ask whether it's ideologically laden. One natural response for somebody from within the Philosophy for Children movement would be, “Well, what do you mean by ‘ideology laden’? What’s ideological for you?”
Certainly, there are values that are important to the Philosophy for Children program. For example, respecting the individual opinion, the need to provide reasons and evidence for your views, and certain flexibility and the ability to change your mind.
Now, you might think, “Well, all of these themselves are a part of some kind of false consciousness,” if you want to use Marxist terminology. Or, “It's part of an ideology,” right? Or, “That's this kind of Western capitalist view” or something like that. But I think you could actually challenge that. Why do you think that? Why do you not think that people should have opinions and that they should develop their own views in a way that connects with their abilities? Do you think that they shouldn't respect the opinions of others? So, I think that one sort of response is to open a dialogue about what kinds of values are important in education, what sorts of abilities we want to try and cultivate in people in learning environments, and open a dialogue about that. In fact, you actually invoke the ideals that, in some sense, you're trying to defend by using them in practice.
Now, of course, people can always shut that down. But then, what I would say is, “Well, who's being ideological, in the relevant sense? Why can't there be a free and open discussion about these kinds of things? Is that something that’s off the table?”

TO BE CONTINUED



 

Iran and the European Union on Friday harbored hope that stalled talks in Vienna over the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, would reach an agreement, after a trip to Tehran by the EU coordinator to the negotiations this week.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Twitter that the discussions between Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Baqeri Kani and EU envoy Enrique Mora “were another opportunity to focus on initiatives to resolve the remaining issues.”
“A good and reliable outcome is within reach if US makes its decision & adheres to its commitments,” he tweeted. “Contacts will continue.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief said on Friday that he believed there had been enough progress during consultations between Mora and Iranian officials in Tehran to relaunch the Vienna talks after a two-month hiatus, adding that a final deal was within reach.
Speaking as Mora arrived back in Europe, Josep Borrell said Iran’s response had been “positive enough”, Reuters reported.
“It has gone better than expected – the negotiations were stalled, and now they have been reopened,” Borrell told reporters on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in Germany.
“That means there is the prospective of reaching a final agreement,” he added.
Talks to resurrect the JCPOA have been on hold since March, over the US refusal to meet Iran’s key demands including the removal of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) from its list of designated “terrorist” organizations.
 

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said dialogue among regional countries was the best solution to regional problems, without any interference of “foreign factors”.
“The issues of Yemen and

Syria can be also solved through dialogue. Of course, dialogue should not be undertaken from a weak position at a time that the opposite parties, mostly the United States and others, rely on military and financial power,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a Thursday meeting with the visiting Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, during which the Leader called for increased political and economic cooperation between the two countries, Press TV reported.
Ayatollah Khamenei stressed that management of the region does not need any meddling by foreign parties, adding, “Wherever Zionists go, they foment corruption and can give no power or concession to [regional] countries.”
“Therefore, we, as regional countries, must boost our relations as much as we can through common thinking and cooperation,” he said.
Confirming the Qatari emir’s remarks in which he condemned Israeli crimes, the Leader described decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people by “evil Zionists” as a bitter reality and a blow to the Islamic world and the Arab world.
“In the face of these crimes, the Islamic Republic of Iran expects the Arab world to take explicit political action,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted.
Referring to Israeli attacks on the restive Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the occupied Al-Quds, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “The support offered by some Arab countries to Palestinian people in that case did not even match up to [the support offered by] some European [countries] and they took no [decisive] position. Even now, they are still acting like that.”
 

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visited Tehran and met with senior Iranian officials following a recent trip by President Raeisi to Doha. The Qatari emir usually travels to Tehran when a new government takes office in Iran to explore ways for further cooperation and discuss regional issues in a gesture signaling Doha’s readiness to consolidate relations. However, this time the visit comes amid paused talks in Vienna over the revival of Iran’s nuclear deal and heightened tensions in Palestine.
The Vienna talks on the removal of sanctions and the US return to the JCPOA has hit a deadlock over Washington’s refusal to lift the sanctions imposed by Trump.   
The Qatari emir, as a mediator who has cordial relations with Tehran, can play a role in this regard. In fact, one of the goals of his visit was to express Qatar’s readiness to cooperate with Iran in resolving JCPOA-related issues. Iran’s position on the JCPOA is clear; it is based on cooperation to solve problems but in a practical way, no just on paper, without implementation.  
The impasse in the Vienna talks has not been caused by Iran; therefore, Sheikh Tamim’s visit cannot do any good in this regard. The gridlock should be broken in Washington and the European capitals. The Qatari emir was apparently convinced during this trip that Iran is quite determined to adhere to the Vienna talks, and that the American side must be convinced to stick to the terms agreed to in the course of negotiations. Moreover, there was no sign that Sheikh Tamim was carrying a message from the Americans to the authorities in Tehran. But what can be understood from the remarks of European and American leaders is that they do not want the case to be closed.