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HRH
Prince Hassan Bin Talal said we are
today in danger of losing our most
precious heritage: the heritage of a
shared faith with all its glorious
spiritual, intellectual, and cultural
manifestations throughout more than
2,000 years. “I believe in moving from a
culture of existing and surviving to a
culture of participating, if we have any
hope of arriving at a culture of peace.”
Prince
Hassan inaugurated (on Thursday, June
05, 2008) the “Electronic Network for
Arab-West Understanding” (ENAWU) at the
Royal Scientific Society. He stressed
the fact that information and
communication technologies are the
effective tools of transition in
education, social inclusion and use of
resources. They are a “tool for
development”, not a “reward for
development”. They have the potential
to empower billions of people; to enable
sustainable development and enhance
human dignity. They can offer new access
to education, bring improved health
care, and help eradicate poverty.
HRH
congratulated the Center for
Intercultural Dialogue and Translations
on their initial collection of 20,000
articles in the Arab-West Report, and
the inspiration from that to build this
project. “I am pleased that this project
is Arab-West rather than Islam and the
West – please let us not stereotype”, he
said.
He
pointed out that “in a globalized world,
more and more people grow up in a
culture of shared histories, more and
more people have multiple identities,
multiple loyalties, multiple and often
clashing value systems”.
HRH
said that the challenge of informed
humanity is to make certain that
information technology is safeguarded as
a weapon of mass instruction, education
and reconstruction; stating that the
international “politique” of the
revolution in information technology can
be classified under four categories:
Participation, which means that new
platforms have emerged enabling diverse
and previously powerless actors to
short-circuit existing channels and
exert influence; Legitimacy, which is
the effect on democratic accountability
and identity; Security, manifested in
new definitions of state interests and
power bases; and Governance, manifested
in centralized state control of
dissemination of information.
Reaching positive and active governance
must focus on the “Global Commons,”
regionally and internationally. These
Global Commons are a Third Sector,
neither public nor private, yet
underlying both, HRH said. They exist at
the intersection of society and nature;
are grounded in our cooperation and will
to survive; transcend political
boundaries, yet strengthen the duty of
the nation-state to protect its
citizens; reflect the interdependence of
all issues and all groups; belong to no
one, and thus to everyone; are
intergenerational (from our ancestors to
us, to our children and future
generations); are rooted in human and
cultural potentials; express diversity,
hope and trust; invite participation and
dialogue; redefine the balance between
freedom and responsibility; and reflect
shared ownership, management, and
distribution of resources.
The
Prince also emphasized the role of
“collective intelligence”; saying that
“individual intelligence” is no longer
sufficient in economy, politics and
sciences. There is a strong need to
focus on “collective intelligence”,
which requires the shift from the
“intelligent individual” to the
“intelligent many” – a shift
necessitated by global transition from
the natural structure of human beings to
an acquired cultural structure. He
stressed the necessity of developing a
“collective intelligence” center that
would lead to “collective wisdom”.
HRH
said that we need, along with the other
types of dialogue, a dialogue between
Arabs and Muslims themselves in order to
reach a stable platform for
communication and interaction in the
modern age; pointing out that the basic
objective of all these dialogues must be
directed toward enhancing human dignity
and helping the poor and hungry in the
world. This cannot be done without a
comprehensive database of knowledge.
Prince
Hassan also stressed the need for
cooperation and partnership between the
media and academia in core issues that
affect the lives of all people. This
would help create sustainable mechanisms
that serve the public interest,
establish non-biased and
non-denominational media, and celebrate
civil liberties and sacred human life.
He pointed out that if we want to make a
tangible difference through the use of
electronic networks, we must think of
ways to avoid crises, focus on common
values, standards and traditions, and
give a greater role to citizens in
dialogue to include various spectrums of
society.
HRH
also stressed that cultural security, a
critical but often forgotten multiplier
of human security, sets the stage
through which all other forms of
security ought to be defined and
understood. One cannot feel secure
without mutual understanding and
cultural integrity, a reality which has
become increasingly apparent among both
the developing and developed worlds;
adding that lasting security for the
individual and the nation necessitates a
practical approach which understands
culture as a pivotal component of human
experience and political dialogue.
(Amman,
June 6, 2008)
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