Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan spoke at The American University in Cairo on Sunday, about the role of civic engagement in the Arab world and the role it plays in the betterment of the our societies.
She spoke for 15 minutes and then entertained four questions that were asked by the President of AUC's Student Union. The questions were disclosed to her majesty in advance and were selectively chosen out of a pool of questions that were sent out by the AUC community. To be honest, I really expected more out of this short speech especially coming from a Queen. Being a responsible citizen and engaging in the society we live in isn't something that I didn't know and the least that could've been done when addressing such a topic is to articulate it in an interesting and genuine manner, which I felt, was not the case.
There is something that the Queen said about aid to developing countries like ours that struck me as funny. The Queen said something along the lines that she doesn't believe in aid and that aid is not necessarily something to be encouraged as it creates dependency, and that she rather believes in development and empowering people. What's so ironic about that is that Jordan is one the largest recipients of U.S. aid in the region!
yea it's kind of hypocritical of her to say that she doesn't believe in aid when the country she's a queen of accepts so much aid from the us!
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