While watching this video, I had a bitter giggling passing my throat like a cutting knife. We see how brits (and many western countries) encourage learning by providing high-quality seminars for free. While in the other side (Algeria’s side), things are completely different. When you take profit out of your idle time, you’re looked upon as a jerk or nerd showing off. I have always my backpack on me, and I’ve at least 2 or three booklets to read while being on the bus or in the taxi. At first-5 years ago-, I was kinda shy to bring out my book in a public transportation mean (‘cause nobody does and afraid to be pointed at), then got used to it. And I can say that I could read a book and 2 scientific or Aircrafts’ magazines every week, and only while being on the trolley (I always spend more 30 minutes per day only to get to the college, not counting other short trips). You can find people playing the damned Dominos until the dawn unveils the thick layer of darkness off the sky’s face, but no books’ club ever exists to not say “stays open ‘till late hour”! You can find people staring at each other or looking through the bus’ windows for hours and no one holding a book (one can finish reading the whole Quran in 2 weeks at maximum only in the bus). What bewildered me always is, when one gets on Students’ bus –Also known by: C.O.U.S. – one can hardly spot 1 or 2 students holding something to read, and if so, it’s rare to see someone reading something useful-boys usually read football newspapers and girls read, mostly, harlequins (they are usually a super fictional romantic stories and Allah knows what would she imagine while reading such dead-end literature in a bus full of guys)- . If this is the case of what should be the “Elite”, laymen are not to blame. As the Arabic common saying goes:
إذا كان ربّ البيت للدفّ ضاربا فلا تلومنّ الأطفال إذا رقصوا
