“The role of government is to create an environment in which people can realize their dreams and ambitions and not an environment, which provides the authorities a control,” – said the Sheikh.
“Get a grasp in the picture. And it says: I WANT my people to live better NOW. So they go to University NOW. Them to be healthy NOW. And not in 20 years” – wrote on his Facebook page Vladimir Spivakovsky, report Boring news, and continues: “He is very clever, Sheikh and Prime Minister of Dubai. Lucky some countries. Here’s what he says and does”:
Al Maktoum: Why we created a Ministry of happiness and appointed 22-year-old Minister?
Over the past two weeks I have heard and read a lot of questions, news and comments about the recent changes in the government of the United Arab Emirates. All I want to know why we created a “Ministry of happiness, tolerance and the future” and why we have appointed 22-year-old Minister for youth Affairs?
The future of the youth, happiness and tolerance These changes were the result of lessons we learned, analyzing the events in our region over the past five years. In particular, we realized that, if the authority cannot effectively respond to the hopes and aspirations of young people (over half the population of the Arab countries), they begin to swim against the tide. Without the energy and optimism of youth, society cannot develop and grow. Moreover, it is doomed.
If the government ignores young people, stands up on her way to a better life, gets a slap in the face the whole society. We never forget that the origins of tension in our region (these events called “Arab spring”) were directly related to the lack of youth opportunities to realize their dreams and ambitions.
We are proud that the UAE is a young country. And we are proud of our young people. We invest in youth and provide more rights because these people are our future. We believe that young people faster than we are able to receive and assimilate the knowledge because they grew up with such devices and technologies, which we in their years was not.
We trust them to be the engine that will lead our country to new levels of growth and development. And that is why we have appointed a Minister of the government of a person of their age and created a special youth Council.
Hundreds of thousands dead and millions of refugees in our region have given us another lesson we learned: sectarian, ideological, cultural and religious bigotry only further fueling the flames of anger. We cannot allow and will not allow this in our country.
That is why we have appointed the state Minister on issues of tolerance. We believe that the tolerance that our society has already demonstrated, it is necessary to formalize in the legal field. In addition, our decisions and initiatives will become a great example for our neighbors.
When the Arab world was tolerant when he was tolerant of other, he was the world leader from Baghdad and Damascus to Andalusia and then we played the role of beacon of science, knowledge and civilization, as the basis of our relations with all civilizations, cultures and religions were the values of humanism. Even when our ancestors left Andalusia, many people of other faiths went along with them.
Tolerance is not a vivid word, is a quality that we must cultivate and demonstrate in practice. Tolerance must be included in the fabric of our society for the safety of our future and preserve our progress going forward.
Bright future Middle East will be impossible without the intellectual restructuring that will restore the ideological ideals of openness, pluralism and tolerance to other points of view – intellectual, cultural or religious.
Each lesson learned helps us to make decisions that will shape our future. But we know that we can also learn by looking to the future, not only to the past or present. Simply put, we need to think about what life will be like in the era of economy after oil.
That is why we have invested heavily – more than 300 billion dirhams ($81,5 billion) in the development of future ways of development of the UAE in order to prepare for diversification of the economy, able to free future generations from dependence on oil is always changeable market.
Achieving this goal will require review of our legislative, administrative and economic system for the complete disposal of oil dependence. We need reliable and adequate regulatory infrastructure to create sustainable and diversified national economy for our children and grandchildren.
In this article I would like to give a clear signal to other countries in our region: change is a matter only of our hands. Our region does not need any external powers to halt its decline. We need inner strength to overcome the hatred and intolerance that blight the lives of many neighbouring countries.
I am writing this to give yet another signal – governments in our region and in other countries should reconsider its own role. The role of government is to create an environment in which people can realize their dreams and ambitions and not an environment, which provides the authorities a control.
You should delegate more power to the people, not to hold power over them. In other words, the government must create the conditions in which people are busy creating their own happiness and enjoy it.
We are not the first to start a conversation about the role of government in creating happiness. Recorded history mankind was engaged in what I was looking for happiness. Aristotle said that the state is a living being, which strives for moral perfection and happiness of individuals. the same was discussed Ibn Khaldun. “Declaration of independence” of the United States similarly argues the pursuit of happiness as an inalienable right of each.
In our time the UN calls to change the criteria used to measure the success of governments is economic indicators go to indicators related to human happiness and welfare. The UN established the international day of happiness to stress the importance of such changes.
Orientation to happiness is both feasible and fully justified. Happiness can be measured. Its measurement has become the subject of many projects and studies. Moreover, it can be developed.
But progress in this work can be linked to material objectives. Studies show that happy people produce more, live longer and serve as an engine of enhancing the quality of economic development in their regions and countries.
Happiness of individuals, families, workers, and their satisfaction with their lives and optimism about the future are critical to our work, which is conducted in all sectors of government.
That’s why you need a special Minister, who would direct the process and cooperated with all departments (and also set an example to the private sector). Our promises are not empty. We will strive to create a society where happiness of people is the main priority. We hope that our formula will benefit other countries in our region. The formula is simple: national development based on the core values of youth-led and focused on a future in which everyone would be happy.
