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In my desperation to fathom out and understand better the rise of rightwing populism, Brexit, Trump, and more, I began to search for wisdom to see the light, brightening the darkness that these have brought to our world.
I began to recall the wisdom of those before me, and I discovered a few sages whose thoughts, wise and kind words, affected me, calmed me, removed my fears and gave me hope that, I must not despair, I must walk on.
The first gem I discovered is a most beautiful and timely poem from Hafez, the 14th century Persian philosopher of love, a seeker of wisdom who became a poet of genius, a lover of truth who has transcended the ages. May this poem be a source of hope and inspiration to us, as we must remain positive; we must remain hopeful.
Don't Despair Walk On
Josef to his father in Canaan shall return, don't despair walk on;
and Jacob's hut will brighten with flowers, don't despair walk on.
Aching hearts heal in time, vanished hopes reappear,
the disparate mind will be pacified, don't despair walk on.
As the spring of life grows the newly green meadow,
roses will crown the sweet nightingale's song, don't despair walk on.
If the world does not turn to your whims these few days,
cosmic cycles are preparing to change, don't despair walk on.
If desperation whispers you will never know God,
it's the talk of hidden games in the veil, don't despair walk on.
O heart, when the vast flood slashes life to its roots,
Captain Noah waits to steer you ashore, don't despair walk on.
If you trek as a pilgrim through sands to Kaabeh,
with thorns lodged deep in your soul shouting why, don't despair walk on.
Though oases hide dangers and your destiny's far,
there's no pathway that goes on forever, don't despair walk on.
My trials and enemies face me on their own,
but mystery always backs up my stand, don't despair walk on.
Hafez, weakened by poverty, alone in the dark,
this night is your pathway into the light, don't despair walk on.
(Reprinted from: Hafez: Teachings of the Philosopher of Love )
The second gem I wish to recall is Edmund Burke, a hugely influential Anglo-Irish politician, orator and political thinker, which I had written about in 2013: The philosopher Edmund Burke reminds us of the threat to society from rampant individualism
Today, I want to share with you a few of his wise, timely and highly relevant quotes to inspire us on our struggle to face the evil of populism which so tragically is once again on the rise in different parts of the world:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
“Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”
“No power so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”
“Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.”
“But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Those who know what virtuous liberty is, cannot bear to see it disgraced by incapable heads, on account of their having high-sounding words in their mouths.”
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
“Ambition can creep as well as soar.”
“Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.”
“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
“Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any imminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.”
“There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men.”
“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”
“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.”
“It is our ignorance of things that causes all our admiration and chiefly excites our passions.”
“Our patience will achieve more than our force.” -Edmund Burke Quotes
The pertinent question now is: What is to be done? How might evil forces be defeated?
Given the wisdom of the sages noted above, we cannot defeat evil be becoming one like them. Here, I am reminded of the wise words of another Persian sage, Rumi, who encouraged us to “Let the beauty we love be what we do”.
This why I wish to share the values of the GCGI with you, as an example of the way we have let the beauty of we love be what we do. This, I believe should be the path chosen by all those who wish to fight and defeat populism, arrogance, hatred, injustice and evil thoughts and actions:
We value caring and kindness
We value passion and positive energy
We value service and volunteerism
We value simplicity and humility
We value trust, openness, and transparency
We value values-led education
We value harmony with nature
We value non-violent conflict resolution
We value interfaith, inter-civilisational and inter-generational dialogue
We value teamwork and collaboration
We value challenge and excellence
We value fun and play
We value curiosity and innovation
We value health and wellbeing
We value a sense of adventure
We value people, communities and cultures
We value friendship, cooperation and responsibility.- Our GCGI Values
Good ideas will drive out the bad
Imagine a political system that puts the public first. Imagine the economy and markets serving people rather than the other way round. Imagine us placing values of respect, fairness, interdependence, and mutuality at the heart of our economy. Imagine an economy that gives everyone their fair share, at least an appropriate living wage, and no zero-hour contracts. Imagine where jobs are accessible and fulfilling, producing useful things rather than games of speculation and casino capitalism. Imagine where wages support lives rather than an ever expanding divisions and separations between the top 1% and the rest. Imagine a society capable of supporting everyone’s needs, and which says no to greed. Imagine unrestricted access to an excellent education, healthcare, housing and social services. Imagine hunger being eliminated, no more food banks and soup kitchens. Imagine each person having a place he/she can call home. Imagine all senior citizens living a dignified and secure life. Imagine all the youth leading their lives with ever-present hope for a better world. Imagine a planet protected from the threat of climate change now and for the generations to come. Imagine no more wars, but dialogue, conversation and non-violent resolution of conflicts.
This is the world I wish to see and I believe we have the means to build it, if we take action in the interest of the common good.
We must begin to think seriously, to ponder and reflect together on Life’s Big Questions, questions of meaning, values and purpose:
What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to live a life of meaning and purpose? What does it mean to understand and appreciate the natural world, to forge a more just society for the common good? In what ways are we living our highest values? How are we working to embody change we wish to see in the world? What projects, models or initiatives give us the greatest hope?
How can we do well in life by doing good? How can we become agents of change for the common good? How to spark a new public conversation framed around human dignity and the common good? Human beings have explored these many questions of value through religion, philosophy, the creation of art and literature, and more. Indeed, questions of value have inaugurated many disciplines within the humanities and continue to drive them today. Questions about values and valuing are fundamental to being human, but are rarely the subject of explicit public reflection.
The future is indeed fraught with environmental, socio-economic, political, and security risks that could derail the progress towards the building of “The Future We Want”. However, although these serious challenges are confronting us, we can, if we are serious and sincere enough, overcome them by taking risks in the interest of the common good.
One thing is clear: the main problem we face today is not the absence of technical or economic solutions, but rather the presence of moral and spiritual crises. This requires us to build broad global consensus on a vision that places values such as love, generosity and caring for the common good into socio-political and economic practice, suggesting possibilities for healing and transforming our world.
In short, this is the way I fight for a better world. I hope it is the same for you too.
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CATS THAT GOT THE CREAM
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Top company bosses will have earned more than the average Brit makes all year by midday today on day dubbed ‘Fat Cat Wednesday’
By lunchtime today wealthy execs would have raked in more than £28,000 despite it being the fourth day of the year!
“The UK’s top bosses will have made more money by lunchtime on Wednesday than the typical UK worker will earn all year, according to an analysis that exposes the gulf between executives and the rest of the workforce.”
Socialism for the 1% and Capitalism for the 99%!!
Photo: bing.com
But, please do not worry yourself for now:
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Planting the Seeds of Values-led Education everywhere in 2017
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One figure can tell a whole story: One million people tell global leaders a good education is the key to better life and a better world
This figure surely is a compelling illustration of education’s direct impact on human well-being, from better health to increased wealth.
What do you think would make the world a better place? This is the question that almost 1.5million people across the globe have answered - and top of their list is a good education.
A good education has racked up the magic one million votes in the MyWorld2015 survey, putting it ahead of better health care and job opportunities.
For girls under the age of 16, it is even more important - 77% of them voted for it as a key factor in a better world.
MyWorld2015 is a global survey led by the United Nations and partners, in which global citizens can share their views with the world's leaders and help to set the development agenda.
The questionnaire asks people to choose their six most important issues from a list of 16, which cover the Millennium Development Goals plus questions of sustainability, security, governance and transparency.
The result of this global survey should not be surprising. The desire for education and the need to have access to a good education is simple to understand:
Photo: bing.com
Education is the foundation for a good and fulfilling life, setting the individual on a path of personal fulfilment, economic security and societal contribution. Today the world of knowledge and competence is in a constant state of flux. The same can be said for the universe of visions, aspirations, and dreams. For many centuries it had been considered that education in general and universities in particular were responsible for the moral and social development of students and for bringing together diverse groups for the common good. Is this still the case?
What is the main role and function of a "good" education? To equip students with marketable skills to help countries compete in a global, information-based workplace? Has this overwhelmed other historically important purposes of education, and thus, short- changing us all and in particular the students?
If there is a shared national purpose for education, should it be oriented only toward enhancing the narrow vision of a country's economic success? Should education be answerable only to a narrowly defined economic bottom line, or do we need to discover a more comprehensive, inclusive bottom line, given the catastrophic crises that we are witnessing all around us? Are the interests of the individuals and selective groups overwhelming the common good that the education system is meant to support? Should our cherished educational values be all up for sale to the highest bidder? Should private sector management become the model for our mainly publicly-funded education system? Should the language and terminology of for profit- only business model, such as “downsizing”, “outsourcing”, “restructuring”, ”marketisation”, “privatisation” and “deregulating”, amongst others, be allowed to become the values of education, when teaching and learning is nothing short of a vocation and sacrament?
The current global crises has given us a golden opportunity to ask ourselves some fundamental questions on the role of education in building better lives and a better world. Soul- searching and self-criticism should not be seen as a source of weakness, but as a source of strength, humility and the search for wisdom.
So, we now know, if indeed we did not know it before: A GOOD EDUCATION is the KEY to a BETTER LIFE and a BETTER WORLD.
WOW! If it is so simple to change our lives and the world for better, then, why is it that so many crises- personal, societal, regional and global-persist and indeed deepens, whilst with all available resources at our disposal we are unable to build a world of peace, justice, fairness and prosperity for all?
This, to my mind, is the mother of all questions!!
The answer is simple: When it comes to education, we have forgotten the big picture, the bigger questions of life, and have built castles on shifting sands, with no valuable and meaningful values, with too much concentration on competition and the so-called “success”.
“Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value.”- Albert Einstein
“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more "successful" people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our culture has defined it.”-David Orr
Aristotle was clear on these matters, when he eloquently reminded us: ‘Education of the mind without education of the heart is no education at all.’ And educators ever since have been battling to ensure that education moves humanity forwards not backwards. If knowledge is power, those in the business of facilitating the acquisition of that knowledge need to be making sure that they put that power in the right hands and help those acquiring the knowledge understand their enormous responsibility to use that knowledge well. The imperative for values-led education with the pursuit of wisdom and not just knowledge on its own as its goal has never been more urgently required than it is now: To provide our students with a dynamic moral and spiritual compass, strengthening their resilience and well-being, and to nurture the development of good character, deep thinking and altruistic behaviour. The outcome of values-led education is the positive transformation of individuals and institutions - exactly what our world needs.
Now I want to share with you a little story about a simple speech I gave at a Forum at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva on the afternoon of 25th of June 2015.
This session was a public forum, open to all, including the general public, students, the youth and all other interested individuals. Present also were high level dignitaries from Geneva and senior city and university officials.
Interesting speeches on values-led education, business, trade, finance, etc were made.
Now, my little story:
After the speeches and during the Q&A session, when invited by the moderator (Prof. Christoph Stuckelberger) to make comments or ask questions, whilst I had no prior plan to ask any questions or make any comments, somehow, Christoph saw my raised hand.
I got up and allowed my heart, feelings and emotions to guide me in saying the following (as best I can remember now):
I said:
“When I look all around me, it breaks my heart to see despite so many gifts that we have been given in this life, to be happy, to lead a good and worthwhile lives, we have abused these gifts and have created such a miserable world, the world of multiple, continuing and deepening crises. Why?”
I then said:
“When I was a young lad, our elders used to tell us that education is a path to wisdom. Education will empower you to take action in the interest of the common good. It will enable you to build a better world, a world of peace, harmony and prosperity for all.”
I then continued that our elders also used to say that:
“Educators, too, are here to make a difference: To do something meaningful and to leave a legacy that guides future generations to take action in the interest of the common good, building a better world. Educational leaders should seek to create cultures where people learn together and lead together to create real and deep sustainable change.”
I then concluded my remarks by asking:
“Then why is it that with millions and millions more “educated” people in the last few decades, the world is in such a mess, misery and continuing into deepening crises, etc, etc?
What we see is not a sign of wisdom, but stupidity, ignorance and arrogance, I said. Don’t you think, it is time, we all come together and think very carefully, what education is, what has gone wrong and what ought to be done?”
Wow! The reaction to my comments in the hall, the continuing conversation during the reception afterwards and the stream of emails I have received since, has been very humbling to me. I firmly believe that this is a challenge to every one of us, a challenge that we must rise to if we are serious about values-driven education.”-Geneva Conference-2015
And now a few quots on values-led education from some of my wise teachers I have been blessed to discover in my life, to inspire us all:
Some say that my teaching is nonsense
“Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.” My wise and inspiring teacher: Lao Tzu
'Let them (your pupils) study to be good rather than learned, for learning begets envy which goodness destroys. Goodness is both more useful to men and more pleasing to God than learning. It is also more enduring. We forget more quickly some fact which was quickly learned than we lose principles of conduct which we have attained by arduous daily practice. Learning in itself brings little of value, and that for only a short time, while goodness is eternal and leads to the realisation of God. Therefore, following the example of Socrates, advise your pupils to use human learning to dispel the clouds of the senses, and to bring serenity to the soul. Then will the ray of truth from the divine sun illumine the mind, and never in any other way. That is the only useful study. A man who acts otherwise labours vainly and miserably.'-My wise and inspiring teacher, Marsilio Ficino
‘It is not enough to teach a man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine but not a harmoniously developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he – with his specialized knowledge – more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person. He must learn to understand the motives of human beings, their illusions and their sufferings, in order to acquire a proper relationship to individual fellow men and to the community. These precious things are conveyed to the younger generation through personal contact with those who teach, not – or at least not in the main – through textbooks. It is this that primarily constitutes and preserves culture. This is what I have in mind when I recommend the ‘humanities’ as important, not just dry specialized knowledge in the fields of history and philosophy. Overemphasis on the competitive system and premature specialization on the ground of immediate usefulness kill the spirit on which all cultural life depends, specialized knowledge included. It is also vital to a valuable education that independent critical thinking be developed in the young human being, a development that is greatly jeopardized by overburdening him with too much and with too varied subjects (point system). Overburdening necessarily leads to superficiality. Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.’- Education for Independent Thought by Albert Einstein – New York Times, October 5, 1952
“All through school and university I had been given maps of life and knowledge on which there was hardly a trace of many of the things that I most cared about and that seemed to me to be of the greatest possible importance to the conduct of my life.”My wise and inspiring teacher: E. F. Schumacher
An Example of Values-led Teaching
"I firmly believe that education should be a path to wisdom and educators are here to make a difference: To do something meaningful and to leave a legacy that guides future generations to take action in the interest of the common good, building a better world. Educational leaders should seek to create cultures where people learn together and people lead together to create real and deep sustainable change." My Economics and Business Educators’ Oath
…And the Tragic Consequences of Values-free Education- Teachers and Students suffering alike
Photo: thejournal.ie
Teacher Mental Health: When work-stress leads to illness
Teachers report rise in mental health fears
Photo: theguardian.com
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