Freedom of speech in action

The United States of America is a free country; the United Kingdom is a free country and so on... I never really understood the meaning of that until I've experienced the lack of freedom first hand.

I always thought that we were a free (enough) country and that we weren’t that far from where the USA or the UK is when it comes to speaking out our minds. I was completely wrong!
Who thought that the completely innocent and friendly act of drawing a caricature could lead to getting suspended from school or in some cases, reported to the police?

That's what happened to me. I drew two caricatures of, somewhat, a story that involved teachers (imaginary teachers) and it wasn't meant to be offensive to anybody. It had a very exaggerated and sarcastic dialogue though. Something that got me suspended.

These are the two pictures:

This picture is about a teacher telling his student: "Don't talk, don't laugh, don't look at me and don't breathe" and a student replies "Why don't we just get out of class?”
This picture is about two teachers. One teacher asks the other "How can we make the students suffer today?" and the other answers "How about we see if they have any tests tomorrow, then we give them even more homework.”

Now please tell me, where is the big crime in what I did? Where am I crossing the line? What did I say that was absolutely offensive that I had to get suspended?
Hell, the drawings were meant to make the teachers laugh more than they were meant for the students.
What I wanted to do is let the teacher see what we think about what they think we are thinking of them (if that makes any sense).

How the problem really became a problem is when this picture was shown to one of the teachers by a fellow student. And this teacher had a beard just like the one in the picture. The teacher looked at the picture and didn't say anything. My friend also showed the picture to a number of other teachers, some who also have beards like the one in the picture. All the other teachers laughed when they saw the picture and one of them actually wanted me to do some work for him.

This picture was published in my class on the 19th of this month and when this teacher came to our class two days later, Tuesday, he found that picture in the back board of the class. A half an hour after the teacher left the class; two of the school's officials came to our class and moved everybody out. They then asked us who drew the pictures and I immediately raised my hands.

They left me standing there from the 3rd period to the last and I also stayed there after school to talk to the principle because he had a meeting.
All that and it still didn't make a difference. They've already set their minds on suspending me and whatever I say after that wouldn't matter but I tried.

And you won’t believe this, my class mates also got punished because they saw the picture and didn’t say anything. The principle made them apologize in front of the school in the assembly to the teacher and made each person pay .500RO for god knows what reason.

The principle told me that the suspention was from the school and not official from the ministry because if it were official, it would be permanently in my file. So, basically, he was doing me a favour. But the truth is, if it were official, I would have been right and they would have proven the school’s administration wrong and if not, I would’ve been able to go to the local press and make this public.

Of course I thought doing all of that but then I thought about all the time that I would spend on it when I should be spending it on my studies.

I hate this and I am so pissed but there is nothing I can do about it now. I will tell you one thing though, they haven’t seen the last of me yet. I will come back to haunt them when the time is right. If we are ever going to make a change in this country, it should be done in little things like this.

High School Experiance

Since I don't post as much these days because of my finale year in high school, I though it would only be convenient if I made a post talking about our high school experiences.

I will start with mine to make it easier for you'll to talk about yours.
I am in high at the moment and I hate it so badly. It takes all of my time and it seems like the whole year is only for my school and nothing else. In school, I am not the most popular guy, not the coolest guy, not the smartest guy but not the outcast. I guess I am doing OK and I really don't have much trouble when it comes to friends and belonging to a group.
The teachers are mostly crap and most of them teach only to say they taught something so they can grab their check in the end of the month. After all, I am in a government school. So now, I am really behind in my studies and I feel like I cant catch up with the teacher. The hope of getting high grades is fading by the second and every thing feels so hopeless.

Now, what about you? I hope your experience is as good as mine.

WARNING!

This is a very important notice and I want everybody to read this carefully and follow it or else they will never be welcomed in this blog ever again.

As most of you know, I am one hundred percent for freedom of speach but everything is within a limit. Insulting His Majisty the Sultan Qaboos in this blog will not be tolerated and the comment will be deleted immediately. This has already been done before and I will continue deleting any unconstructive insults to any of the country's officials.

If you have a problem, or something that you think everybody else should know or evidence of abuse by any of the officials, you are free to talk about it as long as you have proof of your sayings. But insulting them and especially the Sultan won't be alloud one second.

If we find out who made those insults, we won't hesitate to take that name to the officials.

This is a warning to every one who thinks that it's funny to just say whatever in this blog as if it means nothing and to those people who have no respect to others' leaders.

I take this blog very seriously and I advise you to take this post very seriously.