The Best Weapon

About 35 years ago, as us trainee managers got our postings to various SQ stations, we would visit each other. I recall one such visit to Egypt and we would then see places suggested by the new 'local'. On one of our drives out of Cairo towards the south, we stopped by a village and I saw a class in session just like this. Back in those days, we were using film cameras, and to my disappointment, I lost this particular roll of film (it must have dropped out of the bag while I was reloading the camera). With the help of AI (Gemini in this case), I got it to recreate the image still vivid in my mind's eye.

It was a serene, uplifting scene. 

Today, it is anything but. "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world", said Mandela. Back then, for this class of students, they were getting armed right. Right now, students in war torn lands around the world and especially the middle east are abandoning classes in order to avoid bombs and bullets. These weapons are not ensuring peace but sowing hatred in a new generation. 

Despite (maybe because of) all our technological advancements, we are facing a simultaneity of crises from climate change and social inequalities, and of course military conflicts. While it is amazing AI can create a serene image from the past, what good would that be if humans today are wreaking havoc on the relative peace and prosperity the world has known in the past 7 decades. Where are the better angels of our nature?