It is frightening sometimes when one think where this world is heading and how our children and grand children will live, fifty or hundred years to come. The five biggest worries are environmental damage, unemployment, corrupt governments, cross-cultural hate and political instability.

Damage to the environment is continuing non-stop for the entire second half of the last century and the first seven years of this century is no exception. There are more cars every day and more factories filling the blue skies with all kind of harmful waste. Households garbage is on the rise and many countries burn such waste and if one see the figure of how many millions of tons of garbage are produced and burned daily, he may have difficulty in sleeping.

Every year universities graduate millions of bright boys and girls who could not find a job to make decent living to survive. How can these young men and women live, eat, sleep and live normal if they do not have any income? what will they do? The answer is obvious, but to those who have never been in a situation where at midnight you are homeless with no money even to by a piece of bread, it may not be obvious. People will resort to any (any) mean to survive. Can we stop young people from reaching this stage ?

Government and corporate corruption is a major cause of poverty. Current and old history tell us that there is more poverty in resource-rich countries run by corrupt governments more than resource-poor countries run by the rule of law and justice. Under a corrupt oppressive government, people dignity is lost and they become slaves begging for things which are their rights. In such governments ( and unfortunately there are many of them ) the price for survival is dignity, and for some they can not survive even if the give up dignity.

Cross-Cultural hate is on the rise and extremists from all cultures are fueling it. It dominates newspapers editorials, TV shows and politicians and decision makers can influenced by such preaching. The world community under the umbrella of the UN should establish rules against any person or organization who encourage or fuel cross-cultural hate, similar to those international agreements on religious freedom and human rights.

The worst of all is political instability. How can a young man or women plan his career if he is in a country that witness political fighting and power struggle. There will be no development and no growth and no future. Many African countries are good examples. Africa is rich in natural resources and yet it has the highest poverty rates. Why ? corruption and power struggle. On the other extreme Singapore, Honk Kong and Dubai, for example, have no natural resources, but people have decent living and better future. Why? Good governance and political stability.

Hamad S Alomar

Riyadh