All of the footage coming out of Iran over the last few weeks has revealed to the world, in living color, a new generation of web-connected young people foretelling radical change making its way to the Middle East. In the current issue of EnlightenNext magazine, we interview Elza Maalouf, CEO of the Center for Human Emergence-Middle East and a native of Lebanon, about her views on the current trends that could define the future of the Muslim world:
There are a couple of things that are changing all over the Muslim world that I think will continue to accelerate in the near future. One is that oil is dying, and the Obama administration is focusing on the development of new energy technologies. This will no doubt push oil-rich countries to look for other ways to enrich themselves. I’m seeing this trend in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and even Iraq. They are starting to focus on developing people. This is particularly important for Gen Y. In the Arab world, sixty percent of the population is under the age of twenty-five. They are educated, intelligent, innovative, and globally connected. They are the unused resource in Middle Eastern and Muslim countries.
To listen to an excerpt from the interview with Elza Maalouf, click below:
_
Andrew Cohen, Editor in Chief
Carter Phipps, Executive Editor
Elizabeth Debold, Senior Editor
Ross Robertson, Senior Assoc. Editor
Tom Huston, Senior Assoc. Editor
Joel Pitney, Associate Editor
Megan Cater, Assistant Editor
Although this view is uplifting, and thought-provoking, the truth is that we all wish the shift would stick. Those of us with the luxury of being able to sit (in a safe home) and muse on the idea of “oil dying” and how our evolution of consciousness is helping even the most challenged of world citizens, it cannot create a reality for those in the midst of such turmoil there. If oil is dying in the Middle East, someone needs to tell the oil industry because they keep getting it, and getting rich from it. As for the numbers of young, educated people in the Arab world, I can only hope they have the ability and willingness to evolve at a faster rate than even our young people in order to peel back the unjust auto-pilot that kicks in among the ego-driven.
I want new energy resources. I am ready to say goodbye to oil. But our government makes it awful difficult to invite new business and ideas in because the oil-money has such a huge voice in all things.
I just want to see the power-hungry, ego-driven nature to begin to shrink and allow itself to be replaced by more soul-full thought. I want to see a situation and know that it is driven by the truth of the one-ness of us all; that all people involved are in it for the evolution of our species; that when it’s over, the level of awareness has skyrocketed and that even those who observe from a distance are witnessing true soul growth through the process.
Is that too much to ask?
Before you proclaim the death of oil, you might want to explore the cost of the alternatives. Wind and solar cost 20-50 x more than oil. In addition, Obama’s current energy policy going thru congress is going to cost $3,000 per year per family in extra energy costs. Enlightment involves understanding the practical (physical) as well as the spiritual.
Equating money with a lack of spirituality is naive. Money is simply power, and it’s use determines whether it is a force for good or “not good”. There is nothing inherently wrong with getting rich. Oil has been and continues to be a major blessing that has become villified for reasons that are murky at best. The science on global warming and the role that carbon based emissions play is unclear, despite all the hoopla in the press. Sunspot activity is likely a major contributor to fluctuations in global temperature and may well be the culprit. Politicians have capitalized on this murky science and public sentiment to get votes.
Enlightment involves seeing through the hype and understanding that everything is presented to us as an opportunity for spiritual growth. Loving anything physical, even the earth, clouds the reality that we are spiritual creatures. Karma dictates the circumstances of one’s life, and no experience goes uninvited. We are like magnets. Our spiritual level draws events to us, just like a magnet attracts iron. In other words, it’s all good. When you understand that, there is peace in pain.
Iraq just announced that it is opening the development of its multi-billion barrel oil reserve to foreign companies. This can only help to extend our dependence on foreign oil unless the American people have the courage to say “No more” and devote their energies to developing and implementing alternative and renewable technololgies, and public trnasportation.
I agree with Mr. Chogyoji. The USA uses 25% of the world’s oil, but we only have 5% of the world’s population. What’s wrong with that picture? As we have seen by the recent watering down of the Waxman-Markey bill, we can’t depend on our government/corporations to encourage energy independence by supporting alternative energy. It is up to us ordinary citizens to demand it and to also start taking drastic measures to reduce our usage of it. You may find more information about how to do this at http://www.postcarbon.org/ and http://www.energybulletin.net/. I can’t think of any more urgent spiritual quest than to save this planet from ourselves.
A critical mass is approaching within the over-mind that connects us all no matter the cultural differences that separate us on the surface. A paradigm shift is occurring as we awaken to the injustices and control that we’ve allowed others to have over us becomes apparent. This awakening is happening all over the world and its being helped by a planetary shift in consciousness that is filtering down from the over-mind that represents our connected oneness. We are meant and destined to have this occur within our mind and body as the intuitive aspect of ourself, that part in communication with our true self and the connected over-mind re-unit. As this occurs in more and more of us we collectively are moving towards a new paradigm of peace, light, justice,truth and love. The old school paradigm is doing everything it can to preserve the status quo but their days are numbered. It is and will be tumultuous and harrowing as all birthings are, but as we collectively awaken we can choose to actively participate in our own evolution and move together into a new Golden Age that at present we can only imagine. The transition is occurring, nothing can stop it, so jump on the wave and ride with the knowledge that our future is approaching and we play a large part in determining how it is to be.
This is a great idea.
Sell it to the Muslim world!!
Nothing would improve the rate of learning, wisdom and synergy in the world as greatly advancing education, especially education of women, in the Muslim world. (See the research on the impact of education of women in poor countries. It is the most cost effective way of advancing the economy, culture and nation in multiple ways.
With our approaching global social, cultural and Spiritual “Singularity,” from continuing exponential acceleration of technology development, the wiser that humans in the world are, the greater the chance that we all can make this great evolutionary leap together without a destructive war.
It would be nice if we were ready to transition to a much greener world but its not happening anytime soon. The U.S. gets the majority of its energy (approx 90+ %) from oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy. The oil producers in the middle east as well as other parts of the world are in no way threatened by wind, solar or hydro power yet (not for many years). It is unfortunate that many green power, enviornmentalist activists are just paying lip service to a dream. Most are unaware of the realistic cost and group sacrifice neccessary to change the structures of a society to create the manufacturing, production, transportation, marketing and social ideology base for this to occur. We may be planting the seed of energy change by our hopes and wishs but until we and other major manufacturing nations such as China and India meet their populations most basic needs with their current paid for technologies…. its not going to happen. Rome wasn’t built in a day but it was built.
All the technology exists, and has existed for clean energy, but has been squashed consistently by big oil sponsored legislators, ever since our alliance with the Saudi’s in the 1920’s and 30’s. Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel used HEMP OIL for their original engines, not only manufacturing cars, but also growing the fuel to run them. Genius – sustainable, profitable, and no wars necessary. Sadly, Esso/ Exxon, Proctor and Gamble, and Hearst Industries lobbied and won the prohibition of hemp, and we have been out to steal oil ever since. We are witnessing the blowback of profit driven policy making. And what a killing the oil industry and military industry has made.
We are One Human Family. We All deserve to live in peace, with positive opportunity and freedom.
I would love for the integral community to address the very real issues and architecture of our world foreign policy, namely the world banks, military industrial complex, wall street, cia, factoring in information that brings some realism to our aspirations of world One-ness.
Like our imperialistic tendencies and financial support of military occupations like Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan,etc. This is why the world economy is not doing well. There is a big huge elephant in the living room that needs to be discussed honestly and compassionately.
The development of people depends on educational policies and philosophies which are based on the understanding of the human personality or ‘human nature’ and the natural principles of human development. So what is needed is education for the development of each person’s human potential or so-called ‘holistic education’.
Dear Joel,
Thank you for initiating this timely debate. What is happening in Iran is a clear manifestation of the sea change taking place in the Muslim world which is triggered by countless Memetic factors that have converged to add complexity to the ‘habitat’ of the culture. This phenomenon is in turn activating more complexity in the “biospychosocial systems” of that culture. In an era where technological complexity is surpassing brain complexity, emergence of cultures is exponentially accelerated. In the case of Iran as you mentioned, Gen Y is maximizing its use of the internet and IT, and no longer accepts the Mullah’s narrow definition of worldview. Iranian women are maximizing the use of what I call IMT – Innovations in Memetic Technology-. These are the skills that read the cultural DNA and provide the appropriate support through culturally-fit solutions.
My work for the last 20 years in the Muslim world has been to interpret and document these memetic changes, while working in the field as a business consultant and socio-political advisor. This is what allows me to uncover the deeper patterns of emergence rather than just trends and surface changes.
When I mentioned a “Requiem for the Age of Oil,” it was a reference to oil being the currency that rarely contributed to the development of human resources in those countries, and only concentrated the wealth in the hands of the few. The data is clear about peak oil, as most OPEC countries are facing higher costs for extracting every additional barrel, and after 9/11 the West woke up to the reality of the environmental and national security consequences of its dependency on oil . I am talking here about ‘tipping points’ or phenomena that are accelerating change dramatically while keeping in mind that change in the developmental stages of cultures might take decades.
The largest producers of oil like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE are now focused on building their infrastructure; from traditional manufacturing in Saudi Arabia to Ivy League type higher education in UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. Currently the Persian Gulf is the home of the most ambitious government spending programs to fully develop a full range of industrial capacity with a focus on solar farms and green cities.
These measures towards self-reliance will drastically reduce the unemployment rates and offer job opportunities to Gen Y and women in specific. These home grown 1st world type conditions will bring equality and educational standards that fit the unique contours of each culture, rather than a Western projection of what equality ‘should’ mean to emerging cultures.
Since the brief interview in EnlightenNext was subject specific, we couldn’t cover intricate details. You can read my iPolitics blog and a more detailed essay on the patterns of emergence in the Middle East with a comparative study of these patterns in Iran and Lebanon http://elzamaalouf-ipolitics.blogspot.com/2009/06/emerging-patterns-in-middle-east.html.