Since the early ages of its existence the human race has been waging a constant struggle for survival, confronting creatures that used to prey on humans share of food, chances of safety and right to live. These humans learnt that joining together in small groups increased their chances of survival from attacks by fierce predators.
Nobody who observes or deals with the education sector in our Arab world can doubt that there is a crisis, a suffocating crisis, like going down a long dark tunnel. Is there a light which tells us that we can get out of this tunnel?
In a rapidly-changing world in which great old dreams are disappearing, we are failing to devote the present to establishing new dreams which can be achieved in future. Arabic children s books are one of the possibilities which seem feeble and marginal to some people, but unquestionably they will have great returns in future.
We are not alone, in our Arab world, in sensing the flood of international changes to the extent that they sometimes take us by surprise and overwhelm us. All of humanity on our planet are suffering from this feeling. This gives an impression that we are living in an unstable world, but there are proposals to make the world less unstable. Our duty is to discuss these proposals; however different they may seem to the ideas to which we are accustomed.
In the Arab world there is a deceptive vision which believes that we possess technology as long as we use its appliances. But the fact of the matter is that all we know is how to obey the orders which they give us. We are not aware of their other aspect which they impose on us through the challenges, dangers and wagers that we must face if we really want to enter the world of technology.
There is no doubt that we are suffering from an Arab cultural crisis with many facets, in education, social and political declarations, and the definitions of creativity and human production. Instead of working to emerge from this crisis, we are dissipating our efforts on side issues which are of no use.
With the start of the academic year in Arab universities and schools, discussions are raging about questions of education, but the subject of scientific and technological education remains the one given least attention in these discussions, in spite of its supreme importance, of which others are aware.
Schools of thought which lead to evil consequences, like squandering human lives and energies, have become rampant in our societies. Since extremism and violence are the characteristics of these schools, which dress themselves in religious costume, to re-examine them has become a duty of mercy and mutual understanding, particularly during this holy month.
In my last Talk of the Month, for December 2003, I made a quick tour of the Arab Human Development Report for 2003, and jumped directly to Part Two of it entitled To Build the Society of Knowledge, three chapters of it (from Chapter Six to Chapter Eight).
The echoes of the expanded seminar which Al-Arabi conducted under the title of "The West in Arab Eyes are still resounding, not only in terms of the media and the cultural press, but also in the essence of the subjects which have emerged as priorities worthy of discussion in today s world with regard to the West, whose influential position on our planet cannot be ignored.
Reform is an urgent requirement in the Arab world, desired by the elite and called for by the public. The question is: how will reform ultimately happen?
There is no doubt that our Arabs' and Muslims' image in the West poses many questions about the scale of this distortion, how it happened and our responsibility for its aggravation, by escalating or eliminating it, as the matter goes beyond the limits of the image to touch many characteristics of our very existence in this world, at least in this era.
'Al-Arabi' magazine has held its annual symposium on the theme 'Inter-Arab East West Dialogue Diversity in Unity'. The symposium provoked such constructive dialogues and revealing discussions that require devoting a book exclusively to them. But the symposium's theme itself aroused a number of Arab concerns and issues which should not be disapproved of as subjects of conversation and discussion.
A lot has been written about reform in our Arab world, which confused us rather than showing us the correct path. This is a state which requires that we do not act on the spur of the moment in the hope that that would help us come closer to the target reform, which we Arabs have undoubtedly become in pressing need of, though we differ on its priorities.
The World
Decade of Cultural Development has passed without achieving any cultural impact,
as seen in today's widespread cultural confusion.
For broader and more effective participation, culture should not be the exclusive property of a limited elite.
