I am Manal Rayes, Syrian from a coastal city called Lattakia, born in Spring 1980. I currently live in the United Arab Emirates. I am married and have a baby girl.
By declaring that I am ‘free to blossom’, I am simply declaring that I am free to think and to express my thoughts. In contrast, NOT to be ’free to blossom’ is to belong to one of the following categories nicely put by Plato when he said: “We are crazy if we can not think, fanatics if we do not want to, and slaves if we do not dare to”. Thus, by being ‘free2blossom’, I am saying I can think, I do want to think, and I dare to think. On the contrary I am a rebel on any repressive setting that drive a man to be crazy, fanatic, or slave. And here is where I plot down my thoughts.
To give you a glimpse about what I do in life, I am an IT professional and technology specialist in data analysis and business intelligence (My professional profile can be found@ http://ae.linkedin.com/in/manalrayes) . Research-wise I am interested in the Computation for Organization, Society, and Economics (COSE). My professional passion is leading me into establishing myself in the specialty of policy advisor or policymaking analyst using computational modelling and simulations (more specifically using agent-based modelling).
