Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
THE Tunisian Republic is the northernmost country in Africa and is currently aglow with media attention and global speculation.
From the front pages of newspapers, the bold headlines and the vivid pictures splashed out in rich colours, I gather snippets of a long-brewing problem. The problem seems so two-dimensional and far away, as I read the paper, safely tucked away at home with orange juice and nothing to bother me but petty academic worries.
Tunisia - I read the name, slightly frowning in thought. The only connection I have ever had with this lesser-known country is the knowledge that my parents had lived there for a short span of time, a long while back. From their recounts, I had painted the Tunisian region of Sousse in my head as a beautiful, romantically-lit region, overladen with orange and lemon trees, lined with cobblestone walls and petite houses.
However, much has changed since then. The stories that surface on to the inky tops of newspapers are far from the idealistic, almost foolish portrait I had conjured up. It reminds me how unaware I am of just how much I'm yet to discover.
Its things like this that remind me of how woefully ignorant I am of the world around me. Sure, I know the molecular composition of glycerol and the programming behind making a website, and I eagerly solve problems with calculus - but I don't know about the world and what's happening around me.
I know only of the glimmer - the tiny sliver; the shaft of the world that penetrates my dreary textbooks. I know about economic inequality but I don't know the true situation in Darfur and how we can help the people who are suffering in silence.
And it makes me mad - mad at myself for not knowing about what happens beyond the bubble we live in. I get just glimpses of other worlds in newspapers and magazines - just vague representations of foreign happenings - hardly enough to piece together a picture of the world.
What use is my education if I don't understand the world - when, a few years from now, I'm thrust into it? I've gotten so lost in the details that I've forgotten to look at the big picture.
My education is only worth so much; I've realised that there is more to learning than just tests and grades.
