This isn't about my dream for 2050 Egypt but more about why we should and what we should do it. We have a presidential election coming up and it would seem logical to talk about that. But I don't want to. The scene of politics is pretty ugly right now and in many ways not worth talking about. But what I do want to do is transcend the short term commotion and look at what I want to happen for our future.
The way I see it is we need people in their twenties to be an integral part of planning for Egypt's future. As much we may or may not have a good government and parliament, they do tend to look at solving immediate problems. So to get people to think about their future you really need people who expect to have a pretty long one. That's why we need the youth doing the planning. Not just the dreaming but the planning.
I'm not saying youth will do everything unsupervised or unguided. Absolutely not. But what we need is the energy and creativity of the younger minds. Older experts should to my mind be involved for guidance but not for control. The way I see it is an expert on a matter has spent years gaining that knowledge and fine tuning his skills in a certain field. He has good knowledge of his field's current state and maybe several years in the future. But for looking at a future picture, big or small, what you really need is a vague understanding of where we stand and an imagination to think big. When you've spent years defining the box ots hard to think outside it but if you don't know of the box then you really can do some crazy things.
My fear is our parents generation are not really used to planning ahead. If we don't get the hang of it soon we'll hit middle age and we'll have to wait for our kids to do. And that just won't do.
We need three levels. The first is just shooting crazy ideas. Then when their simmered down we need to take them and start studying them and looking at their feasibility. That's where experts come in. Not to shoot the ideas down but provide the guidance to help the ideas mature and run their due course. And finally ideas still standing can go on to carried out.
Last year Wael Ghonim asked people on "We are all Khaled Said" facebook page what they wanted to change in Egypt and what did Egypt need to do. Lots of people responded. Nile University did some data analysis on the thousands of posts but that was about it. There was no sustained drive to create an entity that was solely about discussing our future dreams. It was like everyone got something off their chest and then they went back to their lives.
So I don't know about you, but I'd like to have a say in what the Egypt that i retire in looks like because the I definitely am not too happy with the Egypt I live in.
Update: It turns out there are a few initiatives that are trying to do similar things. egypt2020vision.com/ and bankelafkar.com are two examples out there. The Egypt 2020 vision seems the most proactive although its first round will be this week. Although I wonder about their idea of submitting the ideas to ruling bodies and then following up on them. If they intend on lobbying for their ideas it may be a good idea, I for one am supportive of anyone that wants to proactive with their ideas.
The way I see it is we need people in their twenties to be an integral part of planning for Egypt's future. As much we may or may not have a good government and parliament, they do tend to look at solving immediate problems. So to get people to think about their future you really need people who expect to have a pretty long one. That's why we need the youth doing the planning. Not just the dreaming but the planning.
I'm not saying youth will do everything unsupervised or unguided. Absolutely not. But what we need is the energy and creativity of the younger minds. Older experts should to my mind be involved for guidance but not for control. The way I see it is an expert on a matter has spent years gaining that knowledge and fine tuning his skills in a certain field. He has good knowledge of his field's current state and maybe several years in the future. But for looking at a future picture, big or small, what you really need is a vague understanding of where we stand and an imagination to think big. When you've spent years defining the box ots hard to think outside it but if you don't know of the box then you really can do some crazy things.
My fear is our parents generation are not really used to planning ahead. If we don't get the hang of it soon we'll hit middle age and we'll have to wait for our kids to do. And that just won't do.
We need three levels. The first is just shooting crazy ideas. Then when their simmered down we need to take them and start studying them and looking at their feasibility. That's where experts come in. Not to shoot the ideas down but provide the guidance to help the ideas mature and run their due course. And finally ideas still standing can go on to carried out.
Last year Wael Ghonim asked people on "We are all Khaled Said" facebook page what they wanted to change in Egypt and what did Egypt need to do. Lots of people responded. Nile University did some data analysis on the thousands of posts but that was about it. There was no sustained drive to create an entity that was solely about discussing our future dreams. It was like everyone got something off their chest and then they went back to their lives.
So I don't know about you, but I'd like to have a say in what the Egypt that i retire in looks like because the I definitely am not too happy with the Egypt I live in.
Update: It turns out there are a few initiatives that are trying to do similar things. egypt2020vision.com/ and bankelafkar.com are two examples out there. The Egypt 2020 vision seems the most proactive although its first round will be this week. Although I wonder about their idea of submitting the ideas to ruling bodies and then following up on them. If they intend on lobbying for their ideas it may be a good idea, I for one am supportive of anyone that wants to proactive with their ideas.
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