Think + Minds Get Enlightened = Qatar
Huh? (Be prepared. This is a mini rant on my own ignorance)
So. The Qatar Foundation has a marketing campaign called Think (“unlocking human potential” is the theme). Immediately I thought I would be re-writing my Nigeria re-branding rant using Qatar as an example. Qatar? Open minded? Schools for fresh ideas? C’mon. It’s a Muslim country.
Uh oh. There’s that damn ignorance popping its head up again.
So I did some searching.
First. Idiot that I am, I needed a map to even be sure where Qatar is. Kind of slightly embarrassing.
Second. Yes. Qatar is an Arab emirate, primarily Muslim, on the northeasterly coast of the Arabian Peninsula bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south; otherwise surrounded by the Persian Gulf.
Here’s the deal. They have an incredible 83% literacy rate. (depending on the numbers you use…USA has an 86% literacy rate). The Qatar Academy, member of Qatar Foundation, recently welcomed leading UK children’s poet and author Nick Toczek to give a presentation of his poetry. Ok. I didn’t expect that either.
Ignorance is a scary thing.
The fact I couldn’t mentally pinpoint Qatar on a map without a physical one is scary. The fact for some odd reason my knee jerk reaction to this advertisement was “wow, how open minded for a Muslim country.”
Scary reminder for me how much I don’t know.
It reminds me that the biggest war being fought is not in Afghanistan, Africa or Israel. It is within the individual. It is the war against ignorance. What I know could probably fit in a thimble.
The sooner all of us recognize that (excluding the people who aren’t that ignorant) the sooner we may have a chance globally.
Ignorance is debilitating.
Conversely, curiosity is surprisingly energizing.
It facilitates debate and dialogue and yes sometimes conflict.
We need to remind ourselves that possibly the two greatest libraries in the history of the world resided in Muslim geography – Alexandria and Cordoba (yup. Muslims controlled the majority of Spain for several hundred years…and they had an open society inclusive of Christians and Jews).
I am not defending the religion of Islam (because I honestly don’t care what an individual’s religion is). What I am fighting is ignorance.
So. Here’s the deal. I am using Qatar as an example of perception versus reality. And the fact my ignorance almost made me look quite silly. Thank God curiosity came to save the day.
In the end I guess, despite the fact I just conducted a rant on my own ignorance, this little learning on Qatar has reminded me of three things:
I need a world atlas
90 percent of Muslims (ok, a big number) are not extremists and have always been students of knowledge
Never trust perception (seek reality). Or maybe better said…Always trust Curiosity.
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Tags: actions today make who i am tomorrow, affecting people’s conflict behavior, aligning generational attitude and technology and consumer trends, broadcast, building character, business, Business Thoughts, change begins in the head, change forces prioritizing, change takes remarkable effort, character, communication, conflict and people, content dissemination trends, conversations, creating the next generation of thinkers, creating the next generation of thinkers using the web, crowd clout, crowds providing unsolicited feedback, curiosity is the enemy of ignorance, decision making, developing cross cultural skills, developing minds of next generation of thinkers, developing social and emotional competencies, discovery, dreaming is not just for kids, education to enlighten, encouraging curiosity, encouraging understanding of choices, enlightened conflict, exploration not ROI, facebook, failure of imagination, finding what is possible from impossible, finding your way is tough, freedom of choice, generation of measurement, generational ideation, generations, global collaboration, global respect, Hubble, ignorance, ignorance is the enemy, imagination, influencers are still influencers, influencing purchases, insights, insights are about truth, insights don't exploit, it has become uncool to do simple things in business, leadership, learning, lessons, life, life is a winding road, life lessons, making the simple complicated, marketing, maslow and marketing, maslow needs, measuring exclusion from primary education, measuring generational attitudes, measuring generational behavior, measuring global education, meeting the challenges of concentration, more honest online, most people cannot recognize simple solutions, most things in life are not black or white, mtv europe awards, NASA, NASA budget shrinking, net enabled education, no one believes in simplicity anymore, online friends, only few find the way, organizations, predictions, project global generation, pursuing the way, quality versus quantity online, quotes, rare to make complicated simple, research, respect, respect for individual choice, responsibility, ROI versus imagination, self actualization, short term concentration capabilities, simplicity has gone the way of the dodo, simplicity takes remarkable effort, six impossible things before breakfast, social media, strategy, strength of character to make change, strip away the undoable and identify the doable, Stuff I Like, success of ROI, telling the truth, that i will be tomorrow, there are a lot of insights, thinking, thinking impossible things, thinking is good, this i am today, to slay a dragon you need to believe in dragons, trendwatching, truth, truth in marketing, truth should be simple, Twitter, twitter triumph of humanity, use your imagination, web based global education
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Tags: a generation of concerned citizens, a global education kids initiative, a net education platform, actions today make who i am tomorrow, affecting people’s conflict behavior, aligning generational attitude and technology and consumer trends, building character, business, Business Thoughts, change begins in the head, change takes remarkable effort, children and critical thinking, children out of school, children’s education, communication, community individualism, conflict and people, content dissemination trends, creating innovation attitude in children, creating the next generation of thinkers, creating the next generation of thinkers using the web, curiosity is the enemy of ignorance, decision making, developing cross cultural skills, developing minds of next generation of thinkers, developing social and emotional competencies, educating using the net, education and collaboration, education to enlighten, effective teaching globally, encouraging curiosity, encouraging understanding of choices, enlightened conflict, free your mind, generation after millennials, global collaboration, global collaboration and learning, Global generation, ignorance, ignorance is the enemy, jared leto, jared leto free your mind, leadership, learning, learning by lurking, lessons, life lessons, mass mingling impact on Global Generation, measuring exclusion from primary education, measuring generational attitudes, measuring generational behavior, measuring global education, mobile technology impacting education, mtv europe awards, next generation of thinkers, peace on facebook, pop up schools, pre school global education, project global generation, redefining children’s education with a global initiative, respect, responsibility, strategy, strength of character to make change, Stuff I Like, teaching kids globally, that i will be tomorrow, the economist e-communication and society, the global generation, this i am today, truth, twitter triumph of humanity, UNESCO children out of school, using cell technology for education, web based collaboration education, web based global education, young children collaborating online
Posted in Rants and Observations, Stuff I Like, project global generation | No comments
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Posted in Business Thoughts, Rants and Observations | No comments
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