Five Things to Change in the World
If you could choose five things to change in the world, what would they be?
Here is a suggestion of things to change:
- War and violent crime
- Poverty and hunger
- Preventable disease
- Environmental pollution
- Indignity towards others
The truth is that all of us have been affected by one or more of these things at some point in our lives. There is probably no one living on the planet today who has not been affected by them. People have tried to stop war, feed the hungry, cure diseases, but still these problems remain. In fact, they show no sign at all of going away. In many cases, the problems are getting worse.
The 2004-5 International Crime Victims Survey shows that in many countries more than one in five people are victims of crime every year. The daily news recounts stories of war, terror and civic unrest. Scientists remind us of growing threats to the environment.
Even our most advanced technologies and scientific minds have been unable to find even partial solutions to these problems. We can send people to the moon. We can send computers to Mars and to the outer regions of our solar system. We can make aircraft that go faster than the speed of sound. We can create conditions in a collider that replicate those just after the Big Bang. But we still cannot prevent the same problems which are right on our doorsteps. Is it possible that we’ve missed something?
An American commentator once gave a simple answer to all these problems. He noted, “If you can solve the education problem, you don’t have to do anything else. If you don’t solve it, nothing else is going to matter all that much.” This is a big statement. It is saying that we have the solution to the world’s woes. If people’s attitudes, ambitions, concerns change towards improvement, then we have a chance. Education is the key to changing people. It’s difficult to imagine any long-term solution without education that supports it right from the beginning. In fact, the beginning may be the most important.
What five things would you change in the world? How do you see bringing about this change? We are interested in your views.
