And since i have other posts across my blog about Romania in the archives, lets go and Czech out baby :)
My non-business related business in prague was actually related to Project BiSCA, me and my other 2 colleagues, ehab and fayez participated in a conference entitled “Transtec”, this is an international conference that cares about the evolution of transportation technologies in general, including green cars, human machine interaction, intelligent traffic system, or intelligent transportation systems. And Transtec 2007 was in prague, and BiSCA was a participant in there with a paper entitled by the name of the project “Bus Information, Scheduling, and Control for Amman”. Representing by that Jordan and the entire MENA region
So after a lot of calls, emails, faxes, and whatever you want, in order to get a sponsor for our participation in Prague's Transtec 2007, no body here in Jordan dared to help us, actually, all of our attempts to get sponsorship were completely ignored, and we are talking about big organizations that you read day by day publicity about them and their activities in the media ... yes, they didn't even dare to say “NO”, or “SORRY” .... well except for 1 organization that said they cannot help us since we are not an NGO, and 2 that supposedly tried, and then apologized. So there it was, I got my vacation hooked up with the conference, and did both with my own money.
1st of all, talking about the conference, it was amazing to see how research and development is that well established in some part of the world that is not that far from here! Nor from Romania.
A lot of czech companies, just like AZD Praha, Skoda motors, and others, as well as international companies working in the czech republic, like Sun Microsystems, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Novell, Siemens, and other. Are so cooperative with the technical and technological universities and their students. Not only as supporters and sponsors for the students, but even appreciators for their ideas in the industry, and even trying to involve their research and development departments to cooperate with the students after graduation and with the universities from which they graduated to implement it in the industry.
And By the way, this care of research and development I saw in the Czech republic is claimed to be “POOR”! Come and see Jordan baby...!
one very simple example was that the Traffic light management systems on the streets of Prague is nothing but an implemented university project. One that was well supported by companies in the industry, the local authorities, and even the European Union and Galileo.
The number of people in the conference weren't that much, but the quality of the participants was very high, actually, I was the youngest in there, and we were the only participants with a BS degree! And beside being from the middle east, all of there 3 were positive impressions for the people getting to know about us.
One thing that, I didn't expect, was that each and every person who heard about our project or attend the session was “Impressed”, one Japanese professor was even wondering how come this idea is not appreciated that much in Jordan, when a public transportation operator in his home-town in Japan is willing to apply such a system with all the ideas and services we provide in BiSCA, and is having trouble having someone developing it! Some people from Mott MacDonald were even interested in being consultants for the project's implementation in Amman, and even in being consultants in further related project as traffic management systems and their integration with BiSCA. Do read this GAM, do read this PTRC, do read this CMTC .... Mott MacDonald, the 2nd largest consultants house in the world!
Our paper can be found in the conference's proceeding HERE
Talking about Prague, well, I liked the czech republic in general, though all my pass from the Slovakian borders until prague was a night drive through were i saw nothing :P
Prague, 7:30 AM local time, on the autobahn between Brno and Prague, I look to the left, Oh, its a business companies compound, who is there, Sun Microsystems, Samsung, IBM, Microsoft ... and others...
Yes, you heard me right dear Java Developer, Sun Microsystems :)
well, they also have Oracle, but thats somewhere downtown nearby the Bus and train terminals, I passed by it too ...
and by the way, Oracle has ads on the streets in Prague, seems people out there know whats Oracle, and know what's a CRM :)
in Prague, Public transportation is everywhere ... tram, urban buses, metro....
in Prague, there are cool radio station's :) especially Radio Beat (which is a classic rock radio), and Radio Expres (Prague's Nr 1 Hit music station with a popular American dude doing the morning show in weekdays).
in Prague, love is everywhere, in everything ... people love life, love what they do, love the traffic jams, love listening to that American dude on the radio during the traffic jam, love work ... Yes, I didnt see a single person asking for money! Everyone works, even disabled people, even blind old women ... they sing opera songs on the street ... but they dont beg you for money!
in Prague, women are gorgeous, men are hard-workers, Czech women are not demanding though like our shitty women in here! 2 examples were the following:
a guy, a colleague student, was working a part time job as a “Street sweeper” ... I saw 2 girls trying to hookup with him.
A Man standing in the street as a silent actor, wasn't moving and doing anything, unless you pay him something in that hat. Well, a bunch of czech chicks passed, so he moved “for free” for them trying to get their attention, the girls stopped and started looking and what he is doing... he was kind of “silently acting flirts” ... they became all red flushed, and he air-kissed one girl ... she turned into 250 shades of red :)
i'm just wondering what would have happened to any of those guys above if they were in Jordan .... I'm imagining :(
in Prague, the industry is very well developed, be it technological industry, technical industry, or tourism industry! Jordanian people in tourism, GO AND LEARN! A bus ticket from the deadsea to Amman cannot cost 10 JDs if you want a proper tourism industry!
In Prague, the valtava is awesome ... it carries out the city's love and spreads it out across the town.
In prague, you can see all sort of people getting into public transportation, from business managers, to professors, to students ,, and even couple who keep kissing for over 20 minutes without anyone annoying them or even looking at them (in comparison to the next day where in Amman I saw 4 guys staring at 2 normally dressed girls and saying “Allahomma inni sa2em .. astaghfar allah!) .... and all of those above get into public transportation without having to wait that much, nor fight for a seat (because you will get a fine if you get your butt unto a seat while a child or an old man or woman is standing), nor have their clothes dirty from the seats (in case seated) , nor get confused because the bus or tram is running on a route other than the one displayed on the digital (or even manual) board in front of the public transportation mean ... simply because its not that of an invention to change the board displaying the route for the people outside!
in Prague, they have worst traffic jams than in Amman, amazingly, no body there uses the horn! I guess they figured out it wont get to progress anything in the jam.
In Prague, all the governmental departments are branded.
In prague, garnet can be found more than bread.
In prague, all sorts of bread are delicious :)
in prague, food is delicious :)
in Prague ... I fell in love with a city.
In Prague, i'll be spending my honeymoon one day :) [no more Maldives :P ]
in Prague, I left a piece of me ...... and i will get back to put another piece!
The Valtava river
The Old Chapel
The Astronomical Clock (It works!)
Karlov Most (King Charles Bridge)
Karlov Most from the opposite view, including the king's castle up the hill to the right ... by the way, I used to pass this bridge around 4 times a day :) It is one of the 1st things I fell in love with in Prague :)
2 comments:
hi,
wallahi u made me happy, although u reminded me of amman, and jordan, but i want to look at the bright side, and try to change how we live, i can't live without hope, many thanks for ur post.
Hehe,, u mean this comparison reminded u of amman ... Good :)
The thing is, that there are too many glitches out there .... they're all small ,,, but being too many makes things worse!
I mean, how hard is it for a bus driver to press a button to change the bus route on that digital board!!!!
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