MEDIA
Mumbai, India - The outbreak of hatred following the cartoon controversy shows how fragile our world is. It also poses a significant question. Do we want a divided world where graffiti and cartoons can produce an inferno? Or do we want an inclusive world where you, I and everyone have a stake in its future?
About six decades ago, world leaders got together at San Francisco and Bretton Woods to construct a new world order in the aftermath of the annihilation of the second world war. We need to come together again to prevent another tragedy rather than to construct the world after it. With unaccountable trade in the weapons of mass destruction, we are not sure if we will have a world to rebuild if a global catastrophe seizes us. Therefore, the focus of our effort must be on prevention.
We need to build a common universal house. The foundation of this house must be sustainable childhood that not only empowers students with employability but also encourages them to appreciate other faiths. About a thousand years ago, scholars in Baghdad studied mathematics from India and philosophies from Greece. Half a millennium later, the Europeans developed technology based on the foundation of the Arab scientific inventions. Our world would be very backward if we did not learn from each other.
If education can provide the foundation, productive employment will build the walls of our house of hope. There are currently 100 million unemployed young people in the age group of 15-25. About 100 million young people will join the labour force every year in the next decade. At the current rate, at least 10 million of them will be drawn into the pool of the unemployed, making another 100 million or a total of 200 million by 2015.
We have the imagination to create new industries. We have millions of acres of land in rural areas that we can make productive. We can transform agriculture into food processing. We can convert molasses into energy. We need a master plan for productive employment in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The young men in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rwanda and Sudan, Peru and Colombia are young men after all. If they can wield a ploughshare with dignity, they won't need swords at all.
While we build the walls of this house, we must also think of the ceiling. The Islamic world can boast of ancestors who were the founders of modern thought. At the beginning of 9th century, they had among them Al Khwarizmi, the founder of modern algebra. Al Kindi wrote 250 books on philosophy, physics, medicine and metallurgy. Ibn Haiyan founded chemistry. Ibn Haytham discovered the science of optics and also explored momentum and gravity of the earth 600 years before Galileo. Al Biruni determined the earth's circumference. And Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna). There will never be a man like Ibn Sina, who wrote 450 books on medicine and philosophy, mathematics and astronomy. The Islamic world has also produced some of the greatest literature from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Rubaiyat.
Can we have a House of Wisdom in every city and every town, which was a regular feature of the Middle East one thousand years ago? Can we carry out research in science, technology, philosophy and literature to reach new frontiers in every field of human endeavour? Can we have a modern Ibn Sina and Al Kindi?
We need a deliberate strategy to build and spread thousands of state of the art research facilities all over the Middle East. If the region reclaims its scientific and literary heritage and recreates the golden era that it experienced exactly a millennium ago, it can once again emerge as a new leader of thought for the entire world. It will boost the esteem of young people in the region. It will provide them with aspiration. It will replace the context of despair with the context of hope.
Our new global house must have doors and windows. The windows tell us the difference between darkness and light. We need the fresh air of reforms at all levels. At the national level, we need governance that is transparent, accountable and participatory. At the global level, we need governance that makes occupation and manipulation impossible. We need political systems that make inclusion a reality. We need a context where an individual can freely think and act. We need an atmosphere where every child can dream.
Finally, we need a house where all the adults share their responsibilities in the interest of the common good. Currently, we tend to depend on the industrial G-8 for many things. We need a new way of thought that makes global transformation a common responsibility of all. If the price of oil hovers around $60, all oil exporting countries, including those in the Middle East, Norway and Russia, will collect surplus reserves in the excess of $2500 billion by the end of this decade. Even if the price comes down to $50, they will hold $1500-2000 billion in their treasuries. We need a new, ‘energy G-8’ that deliberates on the problems of the world and allocates real funds for transformation. The two G-8 collectives can then join hands from time to time, along with another group of 8 countries that are important emerging economies. These could be India, China, Malaysia, Australia, Brazil, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa. Together the three groups of 8 can create a new G-24.
We need an inclusive world not merely because the alternative is the threat to our survival. We need it because hope is feasible. We need it because dreaming is good and aspirations are essential. We need it because every citizen of the earth can become a participant. We need it because tomorrow is ours. We need it because the impossible is often possible.
