Philosophically, it has been said that proving one’s wisdom and maturity lies in being able to digest contradictions and understand the controversy between making and not making effort in accomplishing something new. People usually hope that anything new is better.
Therefore, contradictions and misunderstandings are healthy signs that help in reaching accurate final decisions for perfect jobs. This mechanism paves the way to the right path of construction. Whereas accepting unproductive arguments and weak opinions brings about nothing but more problems.
People nowadays are occupied with insufficient and attractive arguments that result from public debates. I have chosen four important aspects to address today, with the thought in mind that perhaps we may figure how to solve them.
The first problem is the issue of Saudization. Every businessman, father, mother, young man or woman, educated and uneducated person, government employee, and anyone affected or not by the issue has commented on the subject. Everyone wants Saudization. But no one wants to pay its price. Businessmen want to open the door widely. However, they forget that the job market is like any other business — the more you offer the more it affects demand. Job-seekers call for eliminating job offers and ignore the fact that the economy needs to grow. Government employees do not have the strength to tell the truth and neither do businessmen or job-seekers. Everyone wants a maid and a driver, and then everyone complains about fees and problems of recruitment.
The second problem surfaces at the end of every educational year. Everyone wants good education and they kill to get good grades. Many private schools and some public ones manipulate grades to grant the majority of students good GPAs to attract high-school students. They want free university education that meets international standards. People call for graduate training and self-development courses in the country. Some go on scholarships to obtain higher degrees from abroad to come back and teach in universities and colleges. Has anyone actually questioned whether those who come back are able to teach our children? We ought to focus on the quality of what university and college teachers offer and question the seriousness of their research.
The third problem is related to tourism. Every summer, people want to attract tourism and theoretically encourage it in the Kingdom and then go abroad on holiday. That includes the employees of the Supreme Commission for Tourism. We continue to debate and argue about the importance of domestic tourism, yet we complicate the process of foreigners visiting the Kingdom.
The last issue is related to a drive to preserve our oil resources. However, we refuse to accept economic prices that eliminate consumption and protect the environment. The Kingdom consumes about two million barrels of oil, which is more than one-fifth of production. Consumption is rapidly increasing faster than what is being produced. Iran’s oil control plan is a great example to be followed — consumption there has reached half of the quantity of production. But the government wants to pamper everyone. We ask for a bright luxurious future but we do not want to think about the cost.
The pace and degree of grasping information differs from one individual to the other. That is why there will always be people who anticipate the future and others who are still tied up to their past. There are some who are infatuated by the future and others who cry their past. This individualistic vision makes things difficult for officials to take decisive judgments. We have to control things and direct them positively before everything turns into negative energy. There are contradictions and conflicts everywhere and on every level, but ignoring them under any circumstance is really costly.
