Kuwait Times

Published Date: August 06, 2009
By Fouad Al-Obaid, Staff columnist

I would like to begin this with a vision of a great US President JFK, who embarked on a mission to the moon. The national endeavor to accomplish the unaccomplished, and to reap the fruit of the technological development that ensues is a great source of motivation for any nation. "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies
and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one in which we intend to win, and the others, too.

I believe that we can find inspiration in such a vision, one that could be ours if we so decide. We can achieve greatness and force society to develop and adapt to a new paradigm if such a vision is shared by the leadership of the country. We, as humans, are the most ingenious of creatures when we don't waste resources on futile fights, and decide to combine forces to achieve the unachievable, working on projects of grand scale.

Flush with oil wealth, the time is ripe, I believe, to begin a new national effort to transform society from its current state into one that can achieve greatness. With time pressing us with regard to the use of oil which is finite, it is time to divert our attention to the energies of the future that are renewable and infinite; solar, wind, and wave technologies to name a few.

We should also, perhaps, endeavor to transform our barren desert into an oasis not for any other reason than to prove that it can be done. We should work towards ensuring the development of new national industries in fields as diverse as medical technology, nanotechnology, underwater exploration, flight, agriculture, as well as into the chemical industry to name a few possible tracks.

In order to achieve such a vision a quasi- military organization needs to be achieved that can work towards fulfilling several national objectives. By creating the basis for a national military order that would ensure that the ideals of the nation supersede the clan and the family, helping refine the notion of national equality based on merit rather than a system that aims to encourage the squandering of funds on needless civil servants based on the simple prerogative that our Constitution forces the gover
nment to ensure a job for every Kuwaiti.

We need to create meaningful jobs that are both rewarding at the personal just as much at the national level. By creating meaningful jobs, we shall create meaningful and content employees that work with dedication, each working towards achieving the stated national goal that is yet to be decided and endorsed.
If we want to achieve the great thing I believe this century, we will, if we give ourselves the tool to succeed.

May God bless our nation and its leadership and may we remain forever prosperous.

fouad@kuwaittimes.net