.DEMOCRACY. You may notice from my previous postings (Click Here) that I am not an unconditional admirer of democracy. Democracy, like any system by which you run your country, and indeed your life, is subject to the quality and integrity of the operators of the system. .
COMMUNISM AND OTHER RELIGION. After all, if you were to read the Constitution of the former Soviet Union, the freedom of religion is protected in the document. But that didn't stop the government oppression of all religious practices in the country, especially the Russian Orthodox Church, and Islam in the Central Asian states (you know, all those '...stans').
.
ISLAM & OTHER RELIGION. It is also my belief that Islam respects and accepts the mix of religions of this world which venerate our One Single God. This 'Unity of Religion' is mentioned by Mawlana Abul Kalam Azad in his brilliant book (Click Here), and here too he finds it strange why such an integral and core belief of the Prophet has been intentionally or unwittingly ignored or even suppressed. This is the unfortunate result of a disconnect between the faith and those who practise it. This human illness is a common disease in all forms of belief systems. .
THE DEMOCRATIC TSUNAMI. Unless you have been sitting under a coconut shell like a frog, you will know of the tidal wave of democractic protests crashing into the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The media calls the demonstrations and rallies as an expresson of pro-democratic movements. And I guess they are right in the sense that people are fighting for some pretty basic demoractic rights from rulers who have perhaps been in power waaay too long. But the question is what plans do they have once they have toppled their autocratic leaders? This crucial issue must be resolved by the people. If they don't do it, two things may happen - the country will descend into further chaos OR someone else will decide for them. They need a plan.
.
This is not a plan.
.
THE PLAN? We have been hearing almost nothing about the specific ideas and objectives of these pro-democracy movements. In fact, there appears to be no clear leadership. And that is worrying..
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION. In whatever system you choose for your country, there must be some process or tradition by which people are educated. Because, lets face it, voting is a highly emotive choice and such decision-making must be made in context of long-term benefits for the country, a healthy knowledge of the origin and history of its people, a respect for the often conflicting interests of different communities, races and religion, and a broad if not specific understanding of technology and sciences, geo-politics and the economy. You are not born with this information already downloaded in your brain. This basic general knowledge must be learnt. And a liberal advance tradition of education is the key to make what I call the Informed Voter...
The devastating wave
.JAPANESE TSUNAMI. I am not a card-carrying Nipponophile (is there such a word?). But we must accept that these Japanese have arisen like the phoenix from the traumatic years and ashes of World War II. There are much in the habits and traditions of the Japanese that deserves to be applauded and emulated. And I believe that the Japanese in their calm and canny ability to sort our problems will be able to save the most lives, compared to many other countries around the world. To put it simply, their high quality education system will bear fruit in these times of national tragedy and emergency, when everyone needs to now to roll up their sleeves and get digging.
.
Saved! Ya Huuuu!
.. HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION is the seed for any human enterprise, whether it is voting for the mayor of your town, planning to topple a dictator, saving people stuck on rooftops or trying to figure out how to repair a broken nuclear reactor.
.
.Thank you for reading my blog today, sunshine. May we all learn something new every day till the day we finally graduate from the University of Life. And may the Chancellor-God Almighty be pleased with our performance. Amen!
.
Pax Taufiqa
.
No comments:
Post a Comment