Civil community and encouraging creativity [Archives:2007/1060/Opinion]

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June 18 2007

Mohamed Al-Harbi
Since the world started to pay farewell to the 20th century and welcome the new one, which is the century of sustainable development and growth, there has been a lot of talk that we have become part of this world and should prepare ourselves for integration into the global economy. We usually hear talk that the world has become a small village thanks to sophisticated telecommunication and information technology and that Yemen is a smaller village within the larger village 'the globe' due to the modern technology of the 20th century.

As we started to talk about the fact that the world experiences today the community of information, and that we won't be isolated from this community, which is rich with information technology, we have to bear in mind even the simplest part of information technology in order for us to be accessed into the new economies.

Decades and centuries passed while the world has been experiencing surprising developments as a result of information technology, sophisticate telecommunications, media and financial services, all of which have culminate with cell phones and other similar devices. Our information community appears to lose its significance and dominance of our imagination. Nobody should fear such facts because members of our community of today have turned to spend their time and make a lot of money via providing information technology. They have an access to various and different technological means that helped them dispense with imitation, mimicry, or any requisite efforts required by creativeness.

The world around us moves and never stays motionless. The world's motion involves a negative relationship, and some people, who pursue motion of the information community, said “We move with rapid frequency in an unorganized manner toward a world that gives priority to personal ideas and expressions.” In the information world, we are shocked at the new technology introduced by the developed nations while we are still adherent to our own imagination. Despite this, some of us are still engaged in talks but not about the striking technology enjoyed by other countries. We waste our time in talking about changing perspectives, ideas, and simple information. But when we say that we have an idea, we are really expressing a vision that may be personal more than anything else. Any amount of information is enough for carrying out a series of logical steps, however, these steps don't enable us to do the best of the best to be utilized in our creativeness, which is rarely logical except in the late comprehension. This is the difference between creativeness and invention.

When we decided to adopt the policy of markets, economic freedom, and readiness to get integrated into the global economies, we were in need for the information that paves the way for admission into the world economy. We may have some information confirming that admission into the global economy requires the government to stop its being the only effective party or the leader of the development processes. In addition, the government is required to admit there are partners in development, who take part of the responsibility.

In fact, the available information indicates that acknowledging the private sector and the civil community as partners in development represents one of the options from among the logical steps. However, we haven't begun to pay any attention to the civil community nor did we give it a top priority though information technology proves that civil community is a key partner in the national development.

We need to be very active, stable, and vigilant while handling the available information, as well as to be original, negotiative, and creative. This means that we have possessed a good idea about civil community organizations. Regretfully, we have ignored the four criteria for making a good: personality, originality, meaningfulness, and utility.

These criteria are aimed at fighting poverty and empowering the marginalized groups of dark-skinned people and quacks to participate in developing the national economy. In the meantime, creativity helps resolve traffic jams, misuse and waste of water resources, environmental pollution, as well as makes the educational outputs more effective.

As we exerted hard efforts for highlighting the role of civil community organizations and considering this sector one of the key partners in the national development, the government worked on enhancing the role of this sector by establishing the Social Fund for Development and the small enterprise units and paid closer attention to the ministries of culture and information. We cast doubt on authenticity of the results as the private sector isn't qualified enough to be an effective partner in the national development because civil community organizations don't play any role in adopting and encouraging the creative activities.

We acknowledge that the local communities are full of the creative figures, and the creative and talented people in drawing, writing, singing, shooting, handcrafting, and other crafts exist in every house and village through the country. All these things imply that there is a cultural heritage that can be developed in order to be utilized in recovering the national economy.

Additionally, the roles and duties of civil community organizations should be transferred from extending foods and wears to the deprived groups into building the capacities of those living in rural and remote areas to develop their creativity. As a matter of fact, the national economy cannot be developed via the macro industries as these kinds are governed by numerous conditions and restrictions. On the contrary, the creative, individual and group crafts can be a key pillar for the economic recovery.

Source: Al-Thawra State-run Daily
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