Nation Building With Literature
Ξ July 2nd, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Philanthropy, links |
A couple of days ago I wrote a bit about NextEinstein, which is an initiative to fund the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. It made me optimistic because it focuses on allowing Africans to help themselves by providing scholarships and materials to allow the country to develop a much needed corps of native engineers, physicists and scientists. All too often, philanthropy is all heart and no head, but NextEinstein is a step in the direction of putting the two together.
Serendipitously, Christopher Hitchens just wrote a piece in Slate magazine about donating towards the same end in Iraq. The loud debate over whether or not we should have gone to Iraq and whether or not we should stay often ends up leaving the Iraqis themselves voiceless to the rest of the world. Hitchens notes how depressing it is to know that what was once,
“one of the world centers of humanistic learning and philosophy—is in a profound crisis of intellectual unfreedom. It boasts of no great centers of study; it translates pathetically few books from other languages and cultures; it is prone to waves of intolerance and fanaticism under which books are actually burned. Thus the attempt to reverse this trend and to lay the foundation of a liberal and cosmopolitan education for the next generation of educated Iraqis is of the highest importance from every conceivable point of view.”
Practically all of the country’s intellectuals and professionals fled the country during the war, leaving behind a country absent of intellectual manpower. Just as Africa can only lift itself up by developing a foundation of professionals from its own population, Iraqis, who did not ask for war, are trying to put their shattered educational and intellectual assets back together.
It may take decades for American forces to “rebuild” Iraq or perhaps we’ll pull out before that happens, but the real rebuilding can only be done by the Iraqis themselves. You cannot import the scientists, writers, lawyers, engineers and statesmen that make a country great, they make themselves. The American University of Iraq is requesting books so they can begin rebuilding the most important assets of the country: the minds that will lead the country towards a hopefully peaceful and prosperous future. It is an unbelievably worthy cause in my mind. I plan on finding whatever books I can to send over.
To read more of Hitchens’ article click here.
To find out more about sending books over check out the mailing address and instructions at the bottom of the Slate article.
