Isam Bayazidi’s Blog

A couple of weeks ago I was in the Free and Open Source Software Workshop in Syria as an attendant and speaker. Now this is the second year that I speak in this event, and it had been a great experience for me, as well a good change to meet some of the best people in the field.

Now what really frustrated me in last year’s event, and happened again in this year’s event is deliberately insisting in calling me Dr. Isam… that might sound crazy, but believe me it is not.. Last year I got called Dr. Isam a couple of times, and got invitation cards for lunch and dinner events with Dr. by my name. At that time I found it a “funny mistake” .. but it turned out not to be a mistake.. To set things clear, I never claimed that I am a Dr. or preparing a PhD. or even thinking about doing a Masters degree: I am a simple computer science student, who got 78% in Tawjihi, and had been into computers for most of his short life (since 1990).

As it seems, I am somehow required to be Dr. Isam for some people to be trusted to give a speech, or be listened to, and respected. That fact is enough to infuriate me.. Imagine at the Q&A session after my presentation, an attended directed a question to me starting by “Dr. Isam, as you are the manager of open source in Jordan, …” I couldn’t not interrupt, and state that I am not a Dr. nor I am “manager of open source in Jordan” if there is such thing.. but my note was ignored, and the question continued… damn !

I could take for hours and hours about how this get to my nerve.. basically, I hate the fact that I need to be Dr. Isam for some people to have them happy about listening to me, or me telling them about things.. why can’t they just listen from an average Arab guy who knows about what he is talking about, and doesn’t hold a PhD ! Add to that the “West complex” where everything that comes out from any of the “Western” speakers who was in the event is either : “an attempt to bash our culture, as part of the conspiracy” or “wisdom from sky” :)

If at some point there were a chance for me to consider having a PhD, this had ruined it.. I have to prove that I am to be listened to, and respected WITHOUT BEING DR. ISAM, or holding a “Western” passport.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 16th, 2005 at 1:54 am and is filed under , . You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.