ProgressWhy can’t we plan? [Archives:2003/626/Opinion]

Fahmia Al-Fotih
One of the secrets of success and prosperity in developed countries is planning. They really plan for everything so their life is ordered.
They plan not only for themselves and the time being but also for their grand and great-grand children and future. But we Arabs plan for nothing, or if there is planning, it's just for our day and time being and not beyond our nose.
That thought has come to my mind much because of what I meet and see everyday.
Let's for example begin from our personal life. Most of us don't plan for our careers. Instead we let random events govern everything around us.
Another example is when one of us gets married. He sees that he wants to be married and enjoy his short time without considering the big responsibility of this contract, without thinking if he really can provide a good life for his coming children and how he can bring them up well and provide them a better life instead of a day they will curse, wishing to be dead and not ever born. One has dozens of children without paying attention to the life they will have, what kind of education, science and technology they will get and what future they will live in.
We do not plan for ourselves, so how can we plan for our children? We leave everything to the chance as a ship among a sea that a storm plays with. We do not know and cannot expect what life or hell our generations are going to live in.
Take another example. It is common to see day and night main streets dug up either to expand its size or to mend and replace modern sewage systems and put in telephone lines, causing many problems for the traffic movements and people.
Our streets are planned, if they are, to serve only few years without taking into consideration the public services as electricity, water, telephone and the proper sewage system to be arranged together, without consideration the needs of future and the continuous increasing growth of the population that associated with increasing number of cars and vehicles.
Let's talk about something else where planning is also missing.
Regarding to terrorist acts, starting from the USS Cole blast in 2000, to the killing the American aids workers in Jibla, I would like to know what are the benefits we get behind doing such acts?
Obviously there is no planning at all. On contrary we get hurt and have bad reputation dragged in so many problems.
I find it hard to believe even the 11 September attacks were committed by Arabs, because they were well-planned to achieve evil goals later on especially against Arab and Muslims. Planning is not a trait of Arabs and Muslims.
Let's turn to our brothers in the Gulf region.
Gulf countries have not ever thought or planned how to exploit the massive oil fields and have never planned how they can benefit from them to build and guarantee a bright future for their coming generation.
Have they planned for a technological and scientific future? Have they planned to face the day when oil is gone? What are they going to leave for their future generations? The tall beautiful buildings or the foreign imported goods and dependency?
On the contrary, we find them using this gift of oil to fight their brothers to wage war against them. To foil tanks and plans to attack brotherly countries instead of using it to solve their problems and help at least the Palestinian case that has been hanging on for more than 50 years.
Now America has clear plan to control the region and get the richest oil area in the world, submitted on a golden dish. America cannot be blamed as it plans for a better future and it guarantees the future of its generations who are going to live luxurious lives, of course, on Arab wealth!
And we are among whirlwind, knowing nothing, and cannot do anything but witness the blackest era in the Arab history. They cannot really plan how to get rid of all their problems, as they are always good at planning just against their brothers.
Now, can you think for a while and establish your own plans? Start now.
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