What is the modern world’s most primary priority, the one which you think it needs to be instantly contemplated?

I believe reducing and eliminating poverty in the world is is the most crucial priority that needs to be urgently tackled with. There are many ways to End Poverty, such as:

- The full equality between men and women in public as well as private areas of life, as for the worldwide minimum wage.

- The guarantee of shelter, healthcare, education, food and drinking water as basic human rights that must be provided free to all.

- A total redistribution of idle lands to landless farmers.

- An end to private monopoly ownership over natural resources.

Abedallah M Rababah

Dear @Marwan, I think that all of the above listed items are important; however, the most important are environmental pollution and natural disasters because they destroy what else humankind builds.

Jack M Gallup

Mahfuz for President -- of the Earth.

All roads should lead to infinite survival

- for the sake of love for all that is.

Bahram Kazemian

Dear Dr. Marwan Obeidat, all the things that you and other scholars mentioned are our basic priorities and vital, but I think there are other priorities as well which are of paramount importance to be considered by all and must go hand in hand together such as fraternity between nations, equality, morality, sympathy etc.

Dears,

Thanks for the very subtle responses all! Higher education is, in my view, of utmost importance to be immediately revisited. If education is healthy and sound, everything else will be straightened out adding up to compassion and honor and pride and endurance and love and care and kindness and consideration and kindheartedness and benevolence and sympathy and empathy and concern and consideration and benevolence—to say the least!

András Bozsik

Dear Marwan,

Dear All,

What my distinguished RG friends and participants mentioned are primary priorities which should be not only contemplated but to implemented. However, unfortunately, these objectives are not mainstream priorities.

There is but one mainstream priority which is generally acknowledged and followed: business continuity.

Costas Drossos

Reduce poverty and unemployment, implies that we should change the status of finance capitalism and neo-liberal policies, which are mostly responsible for negative situations of today.

António Manuel Abreu Freire Diogo

@ Dear Jack,

Thank you. I believe there must be much concern for health care, disease prevention, and curative medicine. The modern world’s most primary priority should be given to satisfying all human needs, physiological and psychological.

Education at all levels, Dear Obeidat.

Education is the base of all. Our current crises began with the crises of values.

James Des Lauriers

The literature on the subject seems to point to population size as the overriding problem from which nearly all of the other problems arise. The literature also suggests the most readily available solution is the primary education of girls and the financial empowerment of women. Literate, financially empowered women seem to be able to "take care of the problem".

Carlos Eduardo Maldonado

I'd like to mention a two-faced token, thus: hyper consumerism and the massive and strategic production of programmed wasted products. That is truly perverse on behalf of industries, economics and management, not to mention industrial design and industrial engineering. This way the very environment and the poverty, I believe , can be solved to a large extent.

Sarwan Kumar Dubey

In my opinion food and water resources should be tacked on priority because life comes first and for being alive they are utmost essential. Though all others are also important bit I feel if we ate alive than fight for th. Thanks

Umesh Kumar

Dear sir, we know that life come from water. water and food is more important for life of living thing and we r fight for that in different way but we can't ignore of environmental pollution and population for sustainable development.

Debi S. Saini

I believe, the most important global issue that needs to be tackled most urgently and instantly is the issue of "poverty". It has rightly been said that property anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere. This is so true. On the contrary, the globalized world is prone to ignoring this issue more than others, as its belief is in free market and capitalist development. Poor cannot wait for long for the growth to trickle in as is promised by the globalization philosophy. They need state's help in uplifting their status and better employment opportunities, among others..

Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan

I agree that the most important and pressing global issue is extreme poverty and hunger in some parts of the war.

In the coming decades, water scarcity is among the main problems to be faced by many societies and the World. Water scarcity already affects every continent. Around 1.2 billion people, or almost one-fifth of the world's population, live in areas of physical scarcity, and 500 million people are approaching this situation.

The list of needs to be instantly contemplated and can be considered as the most primary priorty may include also the renewable energy. Renewable energy is known to be important because of the benefits it provides.

Most renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun which is called solar energy. Renewable energy can come also from the winds, bioorganic matter that makes up those plants (biomass).

Hydrogen can be found in many organic compounds can be converted into electricity.

Sadagopan Parthasarathy

United Nations must declare 'RIGHT TO FOOD' as a Fundamental right of every human being in this world. Food includes water. Leaving large swathes of population in hunger in some parts of the world and at the same time wasting food in other parts of the world is a crime. Research must first concentrate not on more production but on proper redistribution.

Next is Stopping violence in this world. There is not a single decade in human history where there was no war or violence. Man being a social animal tries to dominate. It is this ego that needs to be channelized in positive direction through research.

Then comes clothing, roof to stay and so on.

We cannot call ourselves civilized unless we provide Food, Clothing and Housing for every human being on this earth.

Yes, dear Sadagopan. We cannot be civilized human beings without a shelter, food, water and clothing as you have suggested. And good education and good manners (righteousness) make us real HUMANS!

Jack M Gallup

I do believe too - as others have stated here, that if we improve all facets of life for all women and girls across the globe, that all the other good things mentioned above will follow. This is a very tangible target population; one with absolute universal meaning as we all ultimately arrive here by way of women. It's 2014 ... and it's about time.

András Bozsik

Dear Costas,

Dear Cecilia,

Dear All,

I wholly agree with all of the aims you have drafted. However, these are merely imaginary priorities. Until greed and business objectives predominate in our world, your suggestions are like talking to a brick wall.

András Bozsik

Dear All,

An example of the Hungarian health care system. The hospital director of one of the biggest Hungarian towns – a medical doctor (so much on the Hippocratic Oath) - has got two tobacco shops where tobacco products, cigarettes, cigars, alcohol etc. are sold.

You can see which are the real priorities of this world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

A 12th-century Byzantine manuscript of the Oath

António Manuel Abreu Freire Diogo

Dear András,

wonderful document. If all people can´t read it like I do, no wonder that there are deviations from the oath. ;-)

You are right, dear András and Hanno. So what to do to now after the brick wall has been destroyed, if the solution is not post “Byzantine manuscripts.”

Dear Francesca, Antonio and Andras,

There is no doubt that our priorities vary in form and content depending on individual and plural urgent needs!

Ierardi Enzo

A primary priority is PEACE. Too many wars at the moment. I should like to show you the words from a famous song of Italian singer Francesco Guccini, dedicated to Auschwitz history:

"Still the cannon thundered, yet the human beast is not happy with blood"

Words of more than 30 years ago and still so actual!

Many things are the world priority. The top priority is to be given to peace; inside (the human) peace and outside peace.

Ierardi Enzo

@Mahfuz, you have red many comments by our friend Francesca Cansani. I should like to know from her whether Happiness inside/outside to Every1 agrees with your concept of peace. Aside from my attempt at humor (I hope you appreciate it as such), the concept of inner peace as the basis of outer peace is really interesting and leads us to meditate.

Hossein Abedi

I think the most urgent issue is uprooting poverty , then providing free and easy education as mentioned in many of the answers.

It also good to look at human need priority charts like the very basic triangle of Maslow with setting general priorities for satisfying human needs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Without satisfying our needs I think you cant have a happy world.

Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan

Hunger, peace and education are all very important issues among others. Most of these issues are somehow interrelated.

Military budgets in many countries is on average 2.4% of their GDPs and total spending is 1747.0 billions $! .

What would happen, If a large portion of budget was allocated to solving hunger problem and education for example. Just wishfull thinking on my part.

What is the modern world’s most primary priority, the one which needs to be instantly contemplated?

In the modern world there are who are developed, rich , have reached many success in science , technology, industry, economy, socioeconomic organization,.. .... and luxury...are may be happy or not facing may be other challenges, those should be good example to others and should fight their inner greed and sufficiency

And there are who are under developed or developing and who want attain the developed ones, those should focus on a good education system as a priority for their independence and further development

And there are who are poor, not developing, may be not free or independent or slaves or... those should focus on their needs of freedom or erasing poverty from food, water and lodging, and educate people...

This modern word should be wise, as the planet becomes as a village.

Dear Marwan M. Obeidat,

I hope you wont be upset by my answer, but none of the issues you listed as they would simply naturally happen in another type of social organization. Therefore, I would claim that ultimate priority is to give FREEDOM to people, freedom of speech, freedom to travel and settle wherever they deem appropriate, freedom of trade, of business, freedom to study, to write their opinions, etc. Free societies based on free contracts between responsible human beings have always been the most productive of wealth, be it intellectual, scientific, or else. Cornell university offers the following thread: http://freedomandfreesocieties.cornell.edu/

A short introduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_society

A free society is a society where people shall have the right to exercise unlimited freedom in their own lives, freedom to live in whatever manner they choose, freedom to pursue their own goals, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal rights of others to do the same. Government's only role is to secure each individual's rights, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the US Declaration of Independence.

@Patrick,

imposing your effort for the first place of freedom. Your are right, freedom is highly important, but your post is a little bit too idealistic. Freedom will be the consequence from all the other issues the dear collegues mentioned. You cannot produce freedom if you have hunger, thurst, poverty, illness, political radicalism, murder, war, no education, etc.

My opinion is, first look at all theses issues and improve the actual situation and then, with a big portion of luck, you will produce freedom.

Dear Hanno Krieger,

I respect your opinion, but the essence of my post is that you have hunger, thirst, poverty, illness, political radicalism, murder, war, no education, and more because of the absence of freedom !

As long as people accept to be deprived of freedom because they expect or rely on some form of power to act to solve their problems, it happens that they're enslaved and that their problems grow instead of being solved....

Best,

Dear Patrice,

our difference is just the chronological order and the causality. I´m afraid that even if you have freedom there will be greed and egoism with all the mentioned consequences.

António Manuel Abreu Freire Diogo

Well-said dear Hanno! What is freedom without bread, without water, without education, without health care, without housing, dear Patrice? I'm afraid that freedom will be a luxury in that case!

Wars, weapons and the imposition of the absence of freedom are the supreme level of human ignorance (I remember “Hair movie”, for example). I subscribe entirely some of Hanno answers. I predicted some years ago the current disillusion with the great hope in the capitalism. It is necessary to make the synthesis (Hegel dialectic).

Hunger, thurst, poverty, illness, political radicalism, murder, war, no education.. are consequences of absence of freedom, as well as greed and egoism are consequences of absence of responsibility and morality. Respect of Human values and rights is the dorsal spin of liberty and freedom. When a society accepts and respects the fundamental laws of human rignts , hunger, thurst, poverty, illness,etc...could be resolved, solutions could be found or arranged. When a society(even a primitive one) accepts and respects the fundamental laws of human rignts, people do understand that they should need knowledge i.e education to solve their problems; consequently they should put an efficient educative system, educate people and respect the more educated ones, into a free social organization where nobody could impose his view but all decisions should be discussed and accepted for the communauty interests and benefit.

Ljubomir Jacić

Dear @Patrice and friends, "While poverty persists, there is no freedom!Millions remain enslaved and in chains at a time of breathtaking advances in technology and wealth."

Fine blog on Poverty and freedom of expression! "Poverty can restrict your access to basic human rights. This is neither a controversial nor revolutionary statement — it is clear that access to food and shelter is diminished by poverty. But poverty also blocks the less tangible rights many of us nonetheless take for granted, among them, the right to freedom of expression."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/nov/04/development.internationalaidanddevelopment

http://blog.indexoncensorship.org/2013/04/16/poverty-and-freedom-of-expression-how-the-poor-are-being-silenced/

Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan

Today it is widely held that one cannot consider only the economic part of poverty. Poverty is also social, political and cultural. Moreover, it is considered to undermine human rights :

Economic (the right to work and have an adequate income),
Social (access to health care and education),
Political (freedom of thought, expression and association) and
Cultural (the right to maintain one's cultural identity and be involved in a community's cultural life).

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/poverty/

I think that if some people think that they could eradicate poverty by letting to themselves the function of the spoon nourishing others, those do not help people to be responsible and that they should work for eradicating their poverty, but they put people into an assist scheme and enslave them. Freedom let people be responsible and be conscious of their misery conditions trying to get solutions to it. And solutions couldn't be smart and wise without knowledge i.e without education and skills. The key question and solution should be from the ones who have power on their society making it free and educated , or making it assisted and poor. May be poverty is a purpose of perpetuating some power which is a volatile one into a global competition scheme; so assist scheme is not a solution for the more powerful and not a solution for the poor. Cooperation, partnership.. is the more suitable scheme for every.

I support 100% Fairouz Bettayeb statements. Not that I disagree completely with others...

I'd like to stress the wrong emphasis on money, as an evil means responsible of our doom. Money is simply a convenient way to exchange work done for goods or other works. It is easier to trade with than without, e.g. exchanging physical goods for other physical goods for instance. Therefore, money is a smart invention as it enables better exchanges between humans. Money is also a store of value for someone who can save some of the excess value he produces at a given time (selling the excess to someone who needs it immediately) against a future claim on something in the future (when he might not be able to produce it). Futures are smart also, even on food, as they (in theory and somehow in practice) enable someone to plan his/her production at a given future price, risk taken on the price by a financier (I wont elaborate).

Just a reminder, back to the basics, they are piles of books on currencies, futures, etc.

Money can be "invested" - smart concept again - as you can take the risk to support an idea (with the excess value you have produced - i.e. capital) and trust an entrepreneur develop his/her product which will help his/her fellow humans solve a problem. This risk and usage of capital (not printed money by central banks, real savings !) legitimates dividends, capital gains... or total loss of money ! They is nothing wrong with money, with capital and with capitalism.

Where things start to go astray is when usage of money or capital is a means of taking control of someone else, or dominating, imposing agendas, etc. Like Francesca Cansani stressed many means have been used for that, including dogmas. But as money, capital and capitalism are not to be blamed for inappropriate usage, spirituality should not be blamed for enslaving dogmas.

Even though the book is getting old, Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman demonstrates the importance of economic freedom to eradicate poverty and to take some steps "en route" for political freedom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism_and_Freedom

Francesca, my friend, and my other friends,

Thanks so much for enriching this dialog and making it complex-in-demands!

Francesca, it was good reading you and I acknowledge that the comparison might have been uneasy or even not well chosen. Though I had made a bunch, including "money, capital and capitalism" and you acknowledge that "One might rather compare Capitalism [as a Philosophy or Way to think] to Spirituality, ..." - you kept only money in your reference as I guess reading me made you react on a major mode :-)

I will be rather back on one point you asserted, i.e. "While Capitalism is partial, is based on Morality, that of the few privileged ones versus the many disadvantaged ones.". I would tend to think that the Capitalism you point out is the unfortunate form of deviant implementation that we've seen more and more where large companies have vested interest with political leaders, governments and central bankers.

This has nothing to do with the idea I have of capitalism and freedom, it is miles away from a "free and open society". It would even rather be at the opposite. Capitalism, as a philosophy or way of thinking (back to your words) is a means of letting anybody having something to propose to his/her fellow humans (i.e. services, product, etc.) do it by means of an open market where anyone can wish or nor to participate (back to freedom). I cannot see anything evil or morally inappropriate.

I also wish "Happiness inside/outside to Every1, Anywhere, Anytime" to everyone here and beyond and especially to you Francesca.

Thank you @Patrice for your thoughts. Indeed money is a good invention for trade and exchanges. It is a mean to make business, to evolve and invest into ideas or projects, to share some goods or to store some of them as assurance for future needs. But money shouldn't be a dogma as said by @Francesca. Money shouldn't imprison ones happiness, ones needs of morality, good life and wisdom, shouldn't stops knowledge evolution and maturity, and shouldn't be obstacle to human history evolution to better . It should be only a mean not the engine

Francesca and friends, this is a fascinating intellectual subject and I thank you all for your contributions.

I'll be back more specifically to Francesca's last message, though briefly.

People starve, not because they lack money but because they lack goods. Printing money in local currencies will not deliver food, but will create inflation and devalue the currency as the physical amount of goods will remain constant against an increasing amount of claims. Sending these people dollars / euros will not create local goods but entitle them to own a claim on another economic system which is not practical, not necessary legitimate and wont last more than the dollars spent, if possible.

How do you feel like investing when people starve ? Better is the answer. As long as you invest wisely and rightfully you will help people move their economic system forward and get more food and goods. Just an example. Two Americans had noticed that in many African countries people waste a lot of time because they have to walk, kids to school, women to fetch water, men to go farming or working. They decided to deliver bicycles, how ? As there was no local manufacturing capacity, they had parts built in China where labor cost were not too far from local cost (otherwise you cannot equilibrate the equation) and bikes assembled locally, giving work and knowledge to local people (not yet to build parts, but still assembling and maintaining), and making them more efficient in their everyday life, therefore learning more (spending less time to go to school), educating better the children (spending less time carrying water), producing more (by spending more time farming / working). This new wealth enable them to pay for the manufacturing part of the equation (China value). The economic system and the life of these people has been changed by these fantastic investors who risked their savings.

Printing money does not change an economic system. Freedom to act, trade, manufacture, invent, build, farm etc. does.

Did you notice that in all countries where government fight unemployment through legislation, rules, constraints, jobless have never been so numerous (e.g. France), where they claim to take care of housing things have never been so bad (totally disturbing the free market), where they take care of instruction people have been to school until 17 years old and do not write their native language (e.g. French) properly, etc.

When people tell you that they know best how to do (politicians) instead of helping people make bicycles, when they tell you that people starve in some places but they condemn farmers in other places for producing too much (ecologists) then you know that you deal with groups of people not trying to make this planet better, but trying either to push their own agendas to make their own situation better or following their ideologies.

Well, a short look at the other side of the coin. Freedom and free societies, with free cooperation between humans will bring more wealth, prevent people from starving and will help them fight poverty.

Mt two cents...

What's your priority in that case, dear Patrice, bread or freedom?! In my view, people starve because they lack money, not because they lack goods!

I can´t follow the contradiction of lacking money and lacking of goods. Money is money, if it has a "trading" value, not if it is just a printied colored paper or coin. If it has a value you can buy goods and food. So the most important impact factor for hunger is poverty.

Shankhadeep Chakraborty

Dear Marwan, all the issues you have cited are very important though the most important isues are that of health issues and environmental pollution because these two are growing as a serious issues now-a-days in this era of urbanization and industrialization.

Hope you have found your answer.

Thanks for sharing the question.

Shankhadeep.

What I meant, Marwan, is that having money, i.e. paper, is useless if there is no goods or food to purchase, i.e. physical products.