Thursday, October 30, 2008

Too modern , too soon

In fear of falling behind developing countries sometimes push forward and move ahead too fast. This jeopardizes the whole development process and could take developing nations to a state of superficial development or unsustained development. This race for rapid progress goes on at the expense of the environment and natural resources. The strong emphasis on environmental programs and policies in the National Fourth Year Development Law has not resonated well with the current administration in Iran and since the economy is mostly government funded this has led to a serious neglect of environment standards and policies. In addition to the social and environmental damage, the serious economic loss cannot be overlooked. Degradation of natural resources leads to major economic challenges and can contribute to poverty and unemployment.

This is a lesson which industrialized nations learned through a process of several decades, however developing countries do not have that opportunity. Their youth are restless and expect to enjoy the benefits of economic development quickly .

I remember in 2002 at the Johannesburg Sustainable Development Summit , the Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Kouzomi spoke in the High Level Working Group that I headed. He mentioned how Japan had achieved a sustainable development policy through education, change in lifestyle and attitudes as well as stringent standards and serious regulation. Developing countries should learn from the experiences of Japan, he said. While acknowledging the significant achievements of Japan in this regard, I told him we in developing countries have a major problem and that is a shortage of time . There is a sense of urgency in these countries that pushes governments to take decisions which are not always sustainable.
This push for advancement and modernity has other consequences as well. I went to a MS immunology class last week with my notes and information on transparencies only to realize that the projection facilities for transparencies had been considered as obsolete and wereno longer available. Instead, only the PowerPoint option was available. I delivered the lecture without any visual technology that day and I later had to explain to our educational managers that even in most international conferences today the transparency option is still available. I had the traditional transparency technolgy back in class this week.
Too modern, too soon!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dr. Ebtekar,
Would you please ask Mr. Khatami's website managers to put the English translations of these important speeches that he just gave a few days ago in Austria and Germany????

http://www.khatami.ir/fa/speech/44.html

http://www.khatami.ir/fa/speech/42.html

I like your readers to know why we love this man so much!!!! but most of them probably can't read Persian! I don't know if the English translation is anywhere on the internet or not, but I don't have time to go find it. Please either post them yourself, or ask khatami.ir to post it and then I'll bring that link here for your readers. Thanks.

Here are some pictures of President Khatami in Austria with that country's president:

http://www.khatami.ir/fa/photo/77/550.html

http://www.khatami.ir/fa/photo/77/549.html

http://www.khatami.ir/fa/photo/77/551.html

but people, you should read what he's saying in those speeches!!!

Khatami, we love you!

Anna said...

Dear Dr. Ebtekar,
Please read my blog here;

http://mrs-immanuel-kant.blogspot.com/2008/11/americas-spring-of-freedom.html

and then post this comment here, so that your readers might click on it and read it as well!
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

the English version of this please!!!

http://www.khatami.ir/fa/news/822.html

Anonymous said...

ey baba!!!! khanoom doctor, hala chi misheh bazi harfaye maro inja bezarin??? hamashoon ke bad nistan!!!!! cheghadr kam lotf shodin!!!!! khoda ro shokr adresse dr. zarif-o peyda kardam, vagarna sedaamoon digeh be hijja nemiressid!!!
dorood bar khatami!

Anna said...

Hallelujah, she's back!!!! :-)
where have you been Dr. Ebtekar? I thought you decided to stop writing on this site!!!!
Welcome back!
;-)

Anonymous said...

Dr. Ebtekar? Why does President Khatami's website NOT have English pages??????!!!!!! If we want the WORLD to know what an Islamic Democratic Iran under the leadership of Seyyed Mohammad Khatami will look like one day, we need to post these amazing words of his online for EVERYONE to read, not just Persian-speaking Iranians!!!!!!!

http://www.khatami.ir/fa/news/823.html

If he needs a fulltime translator for his speeches, tell him to offer me a job and I'll move back to Iran after 22 years!!!!! :-)
As much as I love Canada (b/c it is THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, contrary to what Americans think about theirs!!!!!), but as far as serving my dear fatherland of Iran during these important years when it is trying to finally achieve its INDEPENDENCE and FREEDOM, when it is on its way to finally REFORM its Islamic Republic according to the true values of Islamic Democracy put forward by its Founding Fathers 30 years ago, I would give up my wonderful life in the greatest country in the world, and come back to Iran to SERVE!