Britain’s Prince Charles is known for his keen interest in the Islamic culture but not many knew that the Prince was also off-late learning Arabic.
The Prince, who had previously shown interest in understanding the Quran, revealed that he has been taking privates lessons in Arabic for the last six months. The Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, concluded their three-day visit to Qatar on Friday.
The latest revelation came about at the launch of an Alumni network for the Qataris who had the whole or a part of their education in the UK. The Prince launched the Qatar-UK Alumni network on Thursday and also met with a number of Qataris at a reception held at the Four Seasons.
There are some 15,000 British nationals currently residing in Qatar and over 40,000 people from the UK visit Qatar every year, the Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, said.
Many Qataris have gone to the UK for a part of their education, and the Alumni aims to establish networking and professional development opportunities for its members.
It also plans to issue a quarterly e-newsletter and hold an annual event for graduates for new graduates from the UK, among other initiatives.
Prince and Duchess visited Katara and also toured the Prince Charle’s school of Traditional Arts workshops and the Arts and Disability Festival.
The school is part of one of the core charities of HRH the Prince of Wales. Its post-graduate education programme is rooted in practical arts and crafts-based degrees undertaken both at Masters and Doctoral levels.
At Katara, to celebrate the Qatar-UK Year of Culture 2013, the Artistic Director and prize-winning scholars from the Royal College of Music, London (RCM) performed in presence of their Royal Highnesses.
The musicians played an assortment of pieces from Mendelssohn, Henry Purcell and Dmitri Shostakovich to traditional Arabic composers, conducted by Stephen Johns, Artistic Director of the Royal College of Music.
During a visit to the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), the Prince received blue-and-white overalls for his future grandchild from the Williams Formula 1 CEO Alex Burns. The overalls had the initials HRH embroidered on them.
Burns explained that F1 drivers usually have their names embroidered on the belt, but in this case they had used the letters HRH - His (or Her) Royal Highness.
The Prince was briefed about a number of projects involving British partnerships with QSTP.
This included the Williams F1 Advanced Vehicle Simulators and MLC Flywheel Energy Storage projects, the Qatar Robotic Surgery Centre projects run in collaboration with Imperial College London (ICL), the Qatar Carbonate and Carbon Storage Research Centre, which is also collaborating with and ICL on different projects.
Meetings with representatives of other projects included the Virgin Health Bank Stem Cell Banking, Sustainable Management of Fisheries Resources Project, which is supported by The Prince’s Charities International Sustainability Unit, Rolls Royce Asset Optimization Centre, Vodafone Al Johara Project, Cardiovascular Research Centre, Transport Research Laboratory, RASAD Real Time Remote Monitoring.
Camilla, meanwhile, looked into issues related to education and employment opportunities for women.
In two different sessions, the Duchess met six women who are involved in self-development projects along with Qatari mobile phone saleswomen.
The 21-saleswomen are trained by Vodafone’s Al Johara project to sell mobile phones in their communities.
On Thursday, the Dutchess visited the Amna Mahmoud Al Jeddah Primary School where she also gave away a collection of books to the school. Later on, the Duchess participated in the British Council’s Kid’s Read Campaign.
Inaugurating the Design to Win exhibition in collaboration with the Design Museum in London, UK, the Royal College of Music Alumnus and resident of Qatar, Amira Fouad M. Mus on piano, accompanied the prize-winning scholars from the Royal College of Music, Joseph Devalle on violin and Sarah Joyce on cello.
“We are overwhelmed by the warm welcome we have received in Qatar this week and the generosity of our hosts. At the Royal College of Music we are committed to the pursuit of musical excellence and endeavour by all our students and alumni,” Stephen Johns, Artistic Director, Royal College of Music, said.
The Prince of Wales concluded his visit to Qatar with a tour of AI Safwa Farm, located outside of Doha. Owned and operated by Nassir bin Ali Khamis Al Kuwari and family, the farm provided an ideal backdrop for a discussion of the serious national food and water security challenges facing Qatar.
AI Kuwari was joined by Qatar National Food Security Programme (QNFSP) Executive Chairman Fahad bin Mohammed Al Attiya and a group of experts who provided Prince Charles and the accompanying British delegation with a hands-on tour of innovative and sustainable agricultural techniques being used by the AI Kuwari family on their farm.
Qatar stands particularly vulnerable to the increasing global concern of secure access to a healthy and safe food supply. Qatar is primarily dependent on desalination for its freshwater supplies and currently has just over 67 hours of potable water storage capacity.
The country also imports 93 percent of its food from a relatively limited number of sources internationally and is regularly exposed to supply interruptions, volatile price spikes, market competition and reduced-quality and safety of imported foods.
“If we are to build a responsible foundation for long-term national growth and progress, we must address issues such as food and water security with coordinated and integrated national planning,” Fahad bin Mohammed AI Attiya said.
“An integrated national master plan that includes collaboration globally, domestic agriculture and increased capacity for processing and storage will do more than just boost national resiliency and ensure the opportunity for ongoing growth and progress,” he added.The Peninsula
