Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
At the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” Café
A world renewed in a new year
After I returned from a journey of suffering, the enthusiastic young man asked me about my wishes for the new year:
I said :
My wish is to see a real change in the lifestyle and development in Egypt, to see smiles on faces, to see hope filling hearts, and to see future leaders who are in our homes and schools now seizing the opportunities that are presented to them, and being able to delve into them and use them.
The young man said: What opportunities do you mean? Everyone is suffering, darkness is creeping over souls, and no one knows the true position of the country.
I said: Do not believe everything that is written negatively on social media or everything that is said, and I advise you first to verify the information before re-publishing it and to search for evidence before believing the posts and videos, as most of them are intentionally composed and published with the aim of spreading frustration and warning of the imminent danger that puts citizens in a state of fear and fear. Anger, loss of hope, and preparation for chaos, which takes us back to square one.
Yes, there are failures, yes, there are mistakes, but there are also achievements, even if we do not agree on their priorities and even if we doubt how to spend on them, but they remain ours and we must build on them, not destroy them as some would like.
It is true that the Department of Development and guarantees of basic rights, such as education, health care, and public transportation, have decreased their priorities in spending and quality due to effective action, but the infrastructure for renaissance is available. The nation’s youth, who represent the majority of society, face enormous opportunities, the most important of which is the massive spread of information and communications technology, a force that cannot be stopped. A force that touches every area of modern life. From the first moment that the eyes of hundreds of millions of children in Egypt and the world open, they are immersed in a continuous flow of knowledge, communication, and a life that their parents and teachers did not know about. It is a new world and it is renewed every day. This is the opportunity that our generations did not have.
The present of humanity is changing, and it has proven to everyone that every dream and fantasy has become possible.
The young man said: So you mean that the school and the family are the horse’s stud?
I said: Absolutely yes, but we have to step outside of traditional thought a little and not drown in the footnotes. I remind you that Aristotle and Plato did not enter a school, and that neither Al-Razi nor Al-Farabi nor Leonardo da Vinci and their likes of creators and scholars entered schools. There was no such thing as a school in their time. . The school is a social human invention that began in the nineteenth century to standardize education to serve armies and religions at first, and then to serve employment and industry after that. What is strange is that since that date, everything has progressed except for the school. Its image has not changed (a teacher standing and explaining with students in front of him and a curriculum set by the state to ensure that specific ideas are implanted in the minds of children), even though education and its form are supposed to lead the movement of progress. The truth of the matter is that the progress movement preceded education, so in education we started running after what happened in industry and technology. Industry and technology have preceded education systems everywhere in the world, and this prompts us to ask about what must change!!
Do we defend the traditional form and chase after what others have achieved, and do we not have initiatives outside the scope of traditionalism within which we have not succeeded in developing our society in the way that Egypt deserves? As children grow, the capabilities of digital technology grow with them, offering them endless opportunities to learn and increasing their ability to influence the future of humanity and create new opportunities.
The question is: What prevents our children from seizing these opportunities and raising Egypt and humanity to a better level? They are succeeding and excelling outside of Egypt in a climate that allows them to do so. Doesn’t that give a sign?
. We are the generations that preceded them, the ones who manage their lives, stereotype them according to our ways and customs, and pass on to them our shortcomings, thus increasing their poverty and illiteracy. .
Digital technology has transformed the world we live in and changed the social landscape. One in three Internet users around the world is a child, and young people are now the most knowledgeable of all age groups.
Digital technology can be a game-changer for disadvantaged children, providing them with new opportunities to learn, socialize, and make their voices heard, or it can also be another barrier if they are excluded from the world of communication.
Digital technology is the latest product of the human brain, and we are now moving towards artificial intelligence and its amazing applications
Do we (as ruling generations) follow the path of resisting and denouncing it, or will we be an active party in making it available so that we can participate in shaping the future?
this is the question!!!\.
I would also add that the digital world eliminates the gaps between social classes, changes the features of local and international politics, and increases the power of individuals in an unprecedented way through the availability of information and transparency that we lack.
The trend toward digital is beautiful talk, but we must prepare not by importing devices or even manufacturing them, but by the content and method we adopt in calling for their use.
The challenge of digital is not in learning to use it, because our children are born digital, nor in repeatedly saying that we call for it.
The challenge is that human connection decreases as young people immerse themselves in using devices and the influence of positive values on the content they absorb and shape their emotions decreases. The challenge is how to fill the free time of our children, with or without digital technology.
What are the positive values that we are talking about that must be integrated into the production of digital games and digital drama, and a climate that allows practicing sports, learning music, and practicing the arts, to create healthy youth armed with science in its forms and renewable means and with social and cultural convergence within the framework of school and university?
Things we must solve among ourselves first, and not give up or be defeated in the face of required budgets and find innovative solutions to overcome challenges.
The first young woman said: I have a suggestion
I said: Bring what you have
A world renewed in a new year
After I returned from a journey of suffering, the enthusiastic young man asked me about my wishes for the new year:
I said :
My wish is to see a real change in the lifestyle and development in Egypt, to see smiles on faces, to see hope filling hearts, and to see future leaders who are in our homes and schools now seizing the opportunities that are presented to them, and being able to delve into them and use them.
The young man said: What opportunities do you mean? Everyone is suffering, darkness is creeping over souls, and no one knows the true position of the country.
I said: Do not believe everything that is written negatively on social media or everything that is said, and I advise you first to verify the information before re-publishing it and to search for evidence before believing the posts and videos, as most of them are intentionally composed and published with the aim of spreading frustration and warning of the imminent danger that puts citizens in a state of fear and fear. Anger, loss of hope, and preparation for chaos, which takes us back to square one.
Yes, there are failures, yes, there are mistakes, but there are also achievements, even if we do not agree on their priorities and even if we doubt how to spend on them, but they remain ours and we must build on them, not destroy them as some would like.
It is true that the Department of Development and guarantees of basic rights, such as education, health care, and public transportation, have decreased their priorities in spending and quality due to effective action, but the infrastructure for renaissance is available. The nation’s youth, who represent the majority of society, face enormous opportunities, the most important of which is the massive spread of information and communications technology, a force that cannot be stopped. A force that touches every area of modern life. From the first moment that the eyes of hundreds of millions of children in Egypt and the world open, they are immersed in a continuous flow of knowledge, communication, and a life that their parents and teachers did not know about. It is a new world and it is renewed every day. This is the opportunity that our generations did not have.
The present of humanity is changing, and it has proven to everyone that every dream and fantasy has become possible.
The young man said: So you mean that the school and the family are the horse’s stud?
I said: Absolutely yes, but we have to step outside of traditional thought a little and not drown in the footnotes. I remind you that Aristotle and Plato did not enter a school, and that neither Al-Razi nor Al-Farabi nor Leonardo da Vinci and their likes of creators and scholars entered schools. There was no such thing as a school in their time. . The school is a social human invention that began in the nineteenth century to standardize education to serve armies and religions at first, and then to serve employment and industry after that. What is strange is that since that date, everything has progressed except for the school. Its image has not changed (a teacher standing and explaining with students in front of him and a curriculum set by the state to ensure that specific ideas are implanted in the minds of children), even though education and its form are supposed to lead the movement of progress. The truth of the matter is that the progress movement preceded education, so in education we started running after what happened in industry and technology. Industry and technology have preceded education systems everywhere in the world, and this prompts us to ask about what must change!!
Do we defend the traditional form and chase after what others have achieved, and do we not have initiatives outside the scope of traditionalism within which we have not succeeded in developing our society in the way that Egypt deserves? As children grow, the capabilities of digital technology grow with them, offering them endless opportunities to learn and increasing their ability to influence the future of humanity and create new opportunities.
The question is: What prevents our children from seizing these opportunities and raising Egypt and humanity to a better level? They are succeeding and excelling outside of Egypt in a climate that allows them to do so. Doesn’t that give a sign?
. We are the generations that preceded them, the ones who manage their lives, stereotype them according to our ways and customs, and pass on to them our shortcomings, thus increasing their poverty and illiteracy. .
Digital technology has transformed the world we live in and changed the social landscape. One in three Internet users around the world is a child, and young people are now the most knowledgeable of all age groups.
Digital technology can be a game-changer for disadvantaged children, providing them with new opportunities to learn, socialize, and make their voices heard, or it can also be another barrier if they are excluded from the world of communication.
Digital technology is the latest product of the human brain, and we are now moving towards artificial intelligence and its amazing applications
Do we (as ruling generations) follow the path of resisting and denouncing it, or will we be an active party in making it available so that we can participate in shaping the future?
this is the question!!!\.
I would also add that the digital world eliminates the gaps between social classes, changes the features of local and international politics, and increases the power of individuals in an unprecedented way through the availability of information and transparency that we lack.
The trend toward digital is beautiful talk, but we must prepare not by importing devices or even manufacturing them, but by the content and method we adopt in calling for their use.
The challenge of digital is not in learning to use it, because our children are born digital, nor in repeatedly saying that we call for it.
The challenge is that human connection decreases as young people immerse themselves in using devices and the influence of positive values on the content they absorb and shape their emotions decreases. The challenge is how to fill the free time of our children, with or without digital technology.
What are the positive values that we are talking about that must be integrated into the production of digital games and digital drama, and a climate that allows practicing sports, learning music, and practicing the arts, to create healthy youth armed with science in its forms and renewable means and with social and cultural convergence within the framework of school and university?
Things we must solve among ourselves first, and not give up or be defeated in the face of required budgets and find innovative solutions to overcome challenges.
The first young woman said: I have a suggestion
I said: Bring what you have
She said: Since in the secondary stage the schools are almost empty and most of the students are in private lessons, why do we not divide the week in secondary education into three days of distance education with all its technologies that have become available and two days in school to practice activity, sports and arts, and the division will allow better education than private lessons and in the same way. Teachers of these lessons, with a simple calculation, the teacher will earn more income and families will pay very less amounts. The experiment can be conducted in a governorate and see the results. Everyone here is a winner in education and activity, and participation in the activity can have degrees equivalent to educational attendance. Didn’t you teach us not to be afraid of the new and to try to prevent it, foolishly?
Seizing opportunities requires initiatives, legalizing a mistake is defeat, and standing without action is an escape from facing the future.
Her colleague said: Or we prevent the use of technologies that call for extremism and increase the tendency toward violence, sex, and deviance, and we allow the rest.
I said: The solutions are not in prevention, but in initiatives, and
We have to understand that we must not leave a void in the lives of our children and youth, otherwise it will be filled by something we want or do not want. . It will be filled by extremism or perversion, and using the same techniques.
Can we prevent the influence of digital, or can we fill a void with art and sports as a communicative human act, in addition to the overwhelming attraction towards devices and even its digital leadership to fill the conscience with positive values, which essentially requires defining and defining them? Therefore, I welcome your colleague’s idea and will study it.
.
We have not succeeded in calling for culture, reading, and increasing knowledge for decades, and now we have an opportunity with a cognitive leap and means that put us on an equal footing with those who preceded us in urbanization and knowledge production. If we decide to do the same thing again in the same way, we will only reach the same result.
The main challenge is how to do two things at the same time: to unleash our children’s imagination, creativity, innovation, communication, and freedom, and at the same time to put within them the methodology of thinking and resorting to references and evidence before believing anything, without imposing our ideas and linking them to our customs and traditions and what we believe. I believe in the capabilities of our youth, and I see them as nothing but a blessing that we, the older generations, are wasting by trying to stereotype them with similarities to the past and without formulating the future, thus wasting their energy and potential. The responsibility falls on the administration of the country and on society.
The first young man said: What do you advise?
I said: I am a man of optimistic genes, and I see the best in people, and I see opportunity, so let us think together about unconventional initiatives and ideas, as your colleague did, to change a present that we do not like, and to involve our children, for they have become more capable than we imagine.
Seizing opportunities requires initiatives, legalizing a mistake is defeat, and standing without action is an escape from facing the future.
Her colleague said: Or we prevent the use of technologies that call for extremism and increase the tendency toward violence, sex, and deviance, and we allow the rest.
I said: The solutions are not in prevention, but in initiatives, and
We have to understand that we must not leave a void in the lives of our children and youth, otherwise it will be filled by something we want or do not want. . It will be filled by extremism or perversion, and using the same techniques.
Can we prevent the influence of digital, or can we fill a void with art and sports as a communicative human act, in addition to the overwhelming attraction towards devices and even its digital leadership to fill the conscience with positive values, which essentially requires defining and defining them? Therefore, I welcome your colleague’s idea and will study it.
.
We have not succeeded in calling for culture, reading, and increasing knowledge for decades, and now we have an opportunity with a cognitive leap and means that put us on an equal footing with those who preceded us in urbanization and knowledge production. If we decide to do the same thing again in the same way, we will only reach the same result.
The main challenge is how to do two things at the same time: to unleash our children’s imagination, creativity, innovation, communication, and freedom, and at the same time to put within them the methodology of thinking and resorting to references and evidence before believing anything, without imposing our ideas and linking them to our customs and traditions and what we believe. I believe in the capabilities of our youth, and I see them as nothing but a blessing that we, the older generations, are wasting by trying to stereotype them with similarities to the past and without formulating the future, thus wasting their energy and potential. The responsibility falls on the administration of the country and on society.
The first young man said: What do you advise?
I said: I am a man of optimistic genes, and I see the best in people, and I see opportunity, so let us think together about unconventional initiatives and ideas, as your colleague did, to change a present that we do not like, and to involve our children, for they have become more capable than we imagine.
