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WEDNESDAY 2 JULY 2014 • [email protected] • www.thepeninsulaqatar.com • 4455 7741 inside You can call CAMPUS • BFPIS students excel in it turducken, Federal Board SSC-II veggie style 2014 examinations P | 4 P | 06 MARKETPLACE • Authentic Ramadan atmosphere at The Torch Doha P | 5 HEALTH • Vaccines have low risk of serious side effects: Study As growing numbers of young people in China immerse themselves in the cyber world, P | 7 spending hours playing games online, worried parents are TRAVEL increasingly turning to boot camps to crush addiction. • Pakistan’s peaks Military-style boot camps, bereft of foreign climbers designed to wean young people off their addiction to the Internet, number as many as P | 11 250 in China alone. TECHNOLOGY • If you want a better, happier life, here are 10 apps that could help REAL-LIFE P | 12 LEARN ARABIC • Learn commonly used Arabic words ‘CALL OF DUTY’ and their meanings P | 13 2 PLUS | WEDNESDAY 2 JULY 2014 COVER STORY Chinese teens battle Internet An ex-military instructor (front) and stu- dents do push-ups during a military-style close-order drill class at the Qide Education Centre in Beijing. The Centre is a military- style boot camp which offers treatment for addiction Internet addiction. BY KYUNG-HOON KIM Students receive a group pun- ABY-FACED teenagers in army uni- ishment during a military-style forms practise drills in locked dor- close-order drill class at the Qide mitories in China, closely supervised Education Centre. by former soldiers, in a bid to inject discipline into lives disrupted by the Internet. BWelcome to the world of military-style boot camps designed to wean young people off their addiction to the Internet. There are as many as 250 camps in China alone. Their methods are more aggressive than clinics elsewhere, such as some in the United States that offer website blocking and monitoring software, and enforce bans on Internet use for addicts among the 75 percent of U.S. adults who are online. As growing numbers of young Chinese turn to the cyber world, spending hours playing games online to escape the competitive pressures generated in a soci- ety of 1.3 billion people, worried parents increasingly turn to the boot camps to crush addiction. “My parents wanted me to study at home all day, and I was not allowed to play outside,” said one teen- ager, who gave only his surname, Wang. In response, he retreated to the Internet, devoting long stretches of time to his favourite online shooting game, in one instance even playing for three days straight, a period during which he slept for less than an hour, Wang said. PLUS | WEDNESDAY 2 JULY 2014 3 A student who has com- pleted a six months course A new student (front) bows to the head teacher at practises sits-up while the Qide Education Centre. other students take part in a close-order drill at the Qide Education Centre. “As I became addicted to the game, 110 teenagers being treated at the Beijing a normal life,” said Xing. “The training my school grades tumbled. But I gained centre suffer from problems caused by improves their physical strength and another feeling of achievement by the overuse of the Internet, mostly online helps to develop good living habits.” advancing to the next level in the game,” games. Besides the drill and physical exercises, Wang added. Teachers and military instructors the courses, which run between four and Internet addicts like Wang lose con- who pick up the troubled teenagers, at eight months, cover classes in music and fidence when they fall short of parents’ the request of their parents, aim to use Chinese lion dancing. Wang struggled aspiration that they attain perfection military instruction to inculcate habits Counselling sessions with psychologists through two years in every endeavour, leaving the chil- of discipline. aim to help victims rebuild self-confi- dren vulnerable to depression and anxi- “Internet-addicted children are in dence and their ties to family and friends. of increasingly ety, said Tao Ran, a psychologist who very poor physical condition,” said “My dream job was to be a game founded an “education centre”, as the Xing Liming, an official of the centre. designer, but I realised I could not achieve serious problems boot camps are known. “Their obsession with the Internet has it because I am not good at math and That prompts the teenagers to with- harmed their health and they end up English,” said He, 23, who went through at home and draw from their family and friends and losing their ability to participate in a a six-month course that uncovered his school before he eventually leads to addiction to the normal life.” passion for baking. Internet, said Tao, who has specialised Students who formerly did nothing but “I think learning baking will help me was diagnosed in studying such addicted teens. move their fingers over a computer mouse find a job,” he said. Wang struggled through two years of and keyboard all day must now do clean- Yet the regimen may not succeed with “Internet increasingly serious problems at home ing and washing and take turns helping for all. One Beijing education centre is Addiction and school before he was diagnosed with to cook meals. being sued by a distraught mother who “Internet Addiction Disorder” and sent to “Education and living in a military says her daughter’s addiction worsened Disorder” and the Qide Education Centre in the Chinese environment makes them more disci- after a course last year. capital, Beijing. Up to 70 percent of the plined and restores their ability to live REUTERS sent to the Qide Education Drugs used to treat teenagers who have Centre in the been diagnosed with Internet addiction and depression are placed on a table Chinese capital, at Daxing Internet Addiction Treatment Centre in Beijing. Beijing. Up to 70 percent of the 110 teenagers being treated at the Beijing centre suffer from problems caused by the overuse of the Internet, mostly online games. 4 PLUS | WEDNESDAY 2 JULY 2014 CAMPUS BFPIS students excel in Federal Board SSC-II 2014 Examinations Students of Bright Future Pakistani International School (BFPIS) achieved outstanding results in Federal Board SSC-II 2014 examinations held in March 2014. BFPIS had 100 percent pass percentage as all the 36 students passed with flying colours. A total of 19 students grabbed A* grade while 9 students secured A grade in the examination. Maham Shahzad of Girls Wing bagged first position by scoring 969 marks, followed by Sahar Majid at 953 and Abdul Rehman at 952. Abdul Rahman Mohammad Al Meer, Chairman, BFPIS, and Imran Waheed, Principal of BFPIS, congratulated the students and staff on this marvellous performance, and urged them to use all possible means to bring more improvement in academic standards at BFPIS. Maham Shahzad Sehar Majid Abdul Rehman Abu Bakkar Sohaib Farooq Haleema Sadia M. Talha iqbal Muntaha Khan M. Mubeen Saeed M. Ahsan Syed Urooj Fatima Uzair Ahmed Sara Malik Duaa Afzal Faryal Waseem Fatima Zafar Shaista Anwar Noman Mazhar Rida Zahid Tawjeeh prepares Georgetown students for the working world EORGETOWN University that will in turn have a major impact are encouraged to identify potential and “What skills and abilities are most in Qatar (GU-Q) announced on each individual’s career success. We interview candidates from a variety important to succeed in this job?” the launch of “information take career mentorship and life-long of sources — family, friends, profes- “Tawjeeh training is a programme that Ginterview” training sessions personal development very seriously sors, or through Georgetown’s Career inspires you how to arrange your future — where senior university students hence our commitment to the train- Centre and Tawjeeh programme for career by listening to alumni’s valuable preparing to enter the job market learn ing programme. Georgetown graduates alumni contacts, avenues that are the experiences. It provided extremely valu- how to contact and interview organi- continue to demonstrate rapid career same they will pursue when searching able information about the application sations and industry leaders to learn progression across a broad range of for job opportunities following gradua- of data-analysis in different fields, for first-hand about a chosen profession by employment disciplines and this train- tion. Georgetown staff put the students example, in sports industry and human asking questions about the tasks, the ing will further their goals.” through the paces of the do’s and dont’s resources. All in all, it’s a programme that business environment, and the educa- Before the students can conduct of professional interactions, guiding the everyone should join. It’s always beneficial tional background required for that job. the interview to understand more participants in asking such questions as to learn from others,” said Georgetown The training is offered through about their career interest, they “How did you get started in this field?” student Xiaofei Wang. “Tawjeeh”, a career development initia- While students are encouraged to tive launched last year by the school’s be prepared with their own resumes, Office of Outreach and Business the training stresses the importance Development. of using the opportunity to learn more The Tawjeeh mentorship programme about a career, rather than in seek- goes beyond standard university career ing a job. The training sessions were services offerings by providing students launched this spring, and will continue with lifelong career training and sup- throughout the academic year. port through one-on-one mentoring Through the Tawjeeh programme, with alumni who have also received Georgetown also continuously recruits tailored mentorship training. university alumni from both the Qatar “This newly offered training repre- and main campus in Washington DC sents a significant milestone for the who live in the region and have an Tawjeeh programme, and follows a suc- interest in taking part in mentoring cessful programme launch last year soon-to-be-graduating students here and successful training for Georgetown in Doha.

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