Values driven education key to the future of humanity

[Music]

many of us believe

that the world in which we live in is

not what we intended it to be

many of us wish that this world were a

better place

look around you and you will see the

faces of many unhappy people

they are hungry they are poor

and many die young and they have no

orientation in their lives

because someone had disturbed had

disrupted

their destiny

think about the story the ancient

chinese

they were harassed by mongolians so they

said you know what

we need internal peace so they built a

wall

the great wall of china which people

visit from around the world every year

and this was 300 years before christ was

born

it is the highest wall and became a

unesco

heritage center

by having built the wall the chinese

emperor juan

believed that no one would ever again

penetrate

to disturb their internal peace so they

only had guards

at the entrance of the place but when

soldiers

came infantry enemies came

they did not need to climb the walls

they just

bribed the guards who collected money

and opened the gates for the soldiers to

enter

and this chinese beautiful city and wall

had been invaded in 100 years

several times making the point

that they spent money to build walls

very high and did not spend

time and energy to build the character

of those who will watch over the city

it shows the superiority of character

over the great chinese wall

a second example we can think about

genoa

only two years ago just there in italy

a bridge very long in meters and high

just

collapsed people died

many lost their environments and their

assets

their cars and so one of the world’s

first best footballer

was involved in this the bridge is

repaired again

but something had happened an architect

had put out a drawing

engineers had built the bridge but they

had cut

corners and officials who knew

what was involved had kept quiet because

they had taken some money

the bridge collapsed lives were lost

do we need to go far 2008

to 2010 the world’s financial crisis

it happened layman brothers collapsed

arthur anderson as an audit firm

collapsed

many banks collapsed people were

scampering forward and money and so on

except for what we experienced recently

the terms of the coved

harassment which is just a virus the

financial collapse

had been one of the greatest for such a

long time within a century

but the financial collapse was not

caused by money that was changing color

or by the rains that were falling from

heaven or by

winds that were blowing here and there

or by the sunshine that they didn’t come

out

the financial collapse was caused by

human beings

who decided to truncate and undermine a

system

for personal good they took money

they hid information they doubled the

books

they undermined everything under my

navel and the wall collapsed

and only one god knows about the

millions of those who lost jobs

small or big

we need not think too far come around us

here

berlin an airport has been built in

schonefeld

and this airport will be opened many

many years after and postponed

just because the original costs

of the airport had been changed first

time

second time third time and its opening

had continued to wait and the airport

integral

has been overpressed and over pressured

by the demands of needs of transporters

again the ethical question

it is time for humanity to rise up

and to wake up because the question we

often ask is

why is the world so bad as it is

why are things not happening as they

should

and who’s going to change how we’re

going to bring

the new world of our dreams that people

can live in

safety and happiness that children can

wake up and laugh

and smile to the stars that adults and

old people can walk

hand in hand with stick thanking their

creator

and who made them and that our

environments can be so peaceful

why is it that the world’s so bad this

is the point

where education comes in because

education is that element

a duco a ducavi a ducatum

that leadership quality that trains me

to be responsible

to know that i exist but not only i

that there is a we to think the larger

picture the common good

the common good which made sokratis

to sit down and to bring young people

together of course he was murdered he

was killed

reason he is poisoning the minds of the

youth

by teaching them virtue

but virtue is that which lies in the

middle that’s the balance

all of us are seeking for not going to

one extreme

or to another extreme but for looking

for a balance

of mind and body

and soul and connecting to the

environment

all of which has been rounded up in a

special area

in education we call ethics

nelson mandela who doesn’t know his name

he left this world over 90 spending 27

years in prison

fighting appetite a system

that was completely contradictory and

antithetical

to human life and human dignity

nelson mandela said you don’t need atom

bombs

or nuclear bombs you don’t need them to

destroy the world at all

you just need to undermine the quality

of education

and to ensure that you give people

knowledge inform them

without building the character and the

society is gone

what do we see everywhere brings me to a

man

a nigerian man an african man

an asian man a european man

an american man who had a friend

and his friend said hey man you know

what

not very healthy and i need a doctor and

i hear your son is a medical doctor i

want to go to him

and he told him hey ben don’t go to my

son

why can’t i go to your son he’s a

specialist no no no

i know how he got his certificate he

forged

it he thought he cannot heal he will

kill you

but this is the point when education is

transmitted to humanity without quality

without character without virtue

without that which makes education what

it must be

leading cs lewis famous

author and writer to say

that education without character creates

the best

devils because i know

i have it in my hands but then the

quality

of that which makes us rehumanize

and stand for life and stand for that

which makes

authentic living an authentic existence

that which it must be

is lacking education

ethics education we pass through schools

we go through families we go through

societies

and we come out with value orientations

that

distort the entire orientation

and changing the word w e

just on the w it means m

e me me

me nothing about we

nothing about the collective good

nothing about the common good

and so the crisis now starts look right

look left just because it is all about

me

talk politics talk ego

talk power talk greed

talk acquisition go to any of the

professionals

and all these paths often

through institutions of education

whether it’s on the elementary

or in the secondary or in the university

or in the post

but education is that which makes

character and one can think about a

great writer

called shakespeare the fault

is not in your stars the fault

is in you and there was

this great man who ran porsche

a car people like to drive and the other

one

who ran bmw a car people call

be my wife

bmw what do you will say ex-ceo

you know what i hire people with

character

not people with skills because the

skills you can have

and many of us have the skills but

character

is that which makes you to endure and

now the challenge

the challenge for each of us the

challenge for the institutions that

train people

for the governments that legislate for

the young people who pass through the

universities and places of centers of

learning

and for those who are professionals who

emerge from them

the challenge to ask myself

now that i know what is that upon which

my knowledge stands

if only we could ask that question do i

live for something am i willing to die

for something

what do i stand for is my life just

there

you know come see come sir

say lavvie sure you know

as it comes it goes i wonder end

because i have time to talk to my

audience and i have a message to sell

and this message is about the evidence

and the fact

that only those with character survive

and lead our world to the next level

and what we call character is

value-oriented

ethical thinking and living

because here was a man a story

big empire successful businessman

seven sons he was getting old

over 70 he was getting weak

i had to hand my property my big

business

to someone who can take it to the next

level so he told his sons i know all of

you

please just relax i won’t hand my

factory over to you

he called members of his staff can you

please come for a meeting all gathered

i’m looking for the next ceo

who will take over this company from me

and one of you will be that person who

who would have a thing one of you will

be that person

because one of you has the talent and

the ability but please

if you think so of course ambition

ceo big money they put out their names

and he gave each and every one of them a

seed

to plant what was in the seed

please plant the seed nurture the seed

grow this seed water it and sunshine it

come back in a year with the plant and i

would from one of you

make an appointment who will be my next

ceo

and my successor in the business so they

went home

one of them was jim jim came home told

his wife what had happened

every day he pours water looks after the

plant

his wife supports him but his plant was

not growing

and he kept on wondering what is it i’m

a failure

oh my god the water has come to an end

the plant was not growing

first month second month third month

sixth month a year was coming nearer the

plant was not growing

it was just in the planned port where he

had put it

and when he met his friends once in a

while they said oh he can’t believe

my plant is growing very well it’s

really you know get dying

anyway d-day they brought

each the plants to the stage

and the ceo came and said oh fantastic

god just wonderful color

big plants palm trees all colors they

had developed out of the seed they

received

all sorts of plants and there was gym

with

a pot no plant nothing in it

and the ceo goes to the audience

and picks jim and say this is my next

successor and ceo each and every one of

you received a seed

but what i gave you was a seed that i

boiled that that could never grow as a

plant

but what did you do you went and changed

it and put another seed to grow

and then you’ve come out now with fake

seeds

only him was courageous had character

to stand for a plant for a seed that was

not going to grow

he gave me back what i gave to him

that’s the next ceo

do we understand why character makes the

difference

why today in our world when we look at

all the various professions

engineering i.t think about the dark net

why we are doing all sorts of things in

positive

activity towards technology and its

improvement

some people are in the dark world

undermining all that

fraudsters of any means think about the

banking industry

where people have to deal with people’s

trust and money

and how some are undermining it or we

think about medicine

and you can go to any of the professions

including education

in universities where sexual harassment

becomes a way of life

where someone has to clone the thinking

and thought

of another’s writer another author and

just

change the name and put your own name

what we call research on ethical

behaviors

and one can count them on and on

it is a world that we ask about

how can this world be better and who is

going to make it better

the answer is clear there is no

sustainable future

without ethical and value-oriented

ingredients

here is the point this is our future and

that is the challenge

and each and every one of us can

take a step back and add value

value that can last this is the message

thank you

[Music]