Dr. Fawziya Al-Bakr
Al-Jazirah
ON May 25, Harvard University conferred a honorary doctorate degree on Mark Zuckerberg, a former student (who did not complete his studies like Bill Gates) and founder of Facebook, which has more than two billion users. People use Facebook for various purposes. They post their political views and opinions on Facebook and upload their family photos.
Zuckerberg’s speech at the ceremony was amazing as he explained many factors that would drive people to engage in constructive activities instead of destructive and negative ones. The most important among these factors is: “To find a place under the sun and have a purpose to seek.” According to him our main purpose should be to promote peace all over the world.
We should seek peace for all people without exception, irrespective of their cast and creed or nationality or income, Zuckerberg said. Everyone on this earth should have a feeling that his role is to change the world, and that he should contribute in one way or another to achieve a humanitarian objective that would benefit the community around him.
The billionaire chief of Facebook said in clear words: If you want to make change, begin with the local community; help people to have equal opportunities for success and in realizing their objectives, either by donating money or time, or both.
He added: “Change starts local. Even global changes start small — with people like us. In our generation, the struggle of whether we connect more, whether we achieve our biggest opportunities, comes down to this — your ability to build communities and create a world where every single person has a sense of purpose.”
While hearing his speech, I recalled the pictures of hundreds of thousands of young people and teenagers in our country scattered on the outskirts of cities. They suffer from scorching sun of summer and enjoy the longest summer vacation in the history of schools without any sense and purpose. They sleep long hours in the day and spend the night on computer games, entertainment, adventure or dangerous things such as drugs.
This situation will make our young men and women easy prey to fall into the trap of drug barons and traffickers as well as terrorist and extremist groups.
I know that our country is going ahead with huge development plans to enhance welfare of its people, catch all the missed opportunities and facilitate life of every creative people. But I see shortcomings in our bid to help more people enjoy these facilities and services.
Think about those forgotten young men and women whose parents do not work in big cities and their families do not have kinship with influential tribal leaders and decision-makers to enjoy various services and benefits offered by the government and reach important positions.
These are our young men and women who should be at the center of events. Most of them are poor who do not know English language and have not attended studies at private schools. They go to government hospitals for treatment and do not conduct any foreign trips, even to an Arab city.
These young men and women, who number hundreds of thousands, represent a huge human resource who can contribute to the Kingdom’s growth if they are given proper educational, sporting, artistic, social and mentoring opportunities they deserve.
Each one of them must feel that he/she is important and that the state treats them like any other citizen of the country and they should feel that treatment in reality not in television talk or newspaper reports. No one deserves to feel neglected or forgotten in the suburbs because we cannot be equal until we feel that we are part of the whole and we influence decisions, even though we are not close to the decision-makers.
Terrorism, extremism, narrow interpretation of the religious text, social vision, enormous class distinctions, and family and regional conflicts are all festering around our necks. They put pressure on us whenever we face a terrorist or economic problem.
We should not allow ignorance and tribal, racial and sectarian discrimination to weaken our unity. Therefore, we should value every person in our country, regardless of who he is, and help them attain their goals by providing them with educational, sport and training opportunities. These young men and women in remote villages deserve state support and encouragement like their counterparts who live in big cities.
