Editorial
Youth power raring to be harnessed
Valuable suggestions from Prof Yunus and Garan
What Prof Yunus said on Friday while addressing the opening ceremony of the "Social Business Forum 2012" at the North South University was not only relevant to a growing younger generation but also inspirational for them. There was a message for the educationists as well. In what is a sharp critique of the present education system, he said education today is merely job oriented and motivates students to earn as much money as possible. In a bid to reverse this trend, he urged all universities to have their curricula reshaped and text materials rewritten. They have to set a different goal for the students, which as well as giving a good job will infuse in them a sense of responsibility towards society, a skill for resolving social problems and serving its downtrodden people.
Likewise, he called for a substantial change in the existing business models. Whereas today's corporate business models are obsessed with profit maximization and see money-making as an end in itself, he envisions a model that will see money-making as a means to solving mounting social problems. The Nobel Laureate pins his hope on the educated youth and calls upon them to come forward to set up businesses where serving the social ends selflessly will be the predominant goal rather than personally driven profit maximization.
In another programme, Nasa astronaut Ronald Garan who came to attend the third Social Business Day event at Savar and delivered a lecture on "Planet and Life in Space: An Orbital Perspective" struck a responsive chord in the youth. Elaborating his idea of ''orbital perspective'', he likened the earth with a spaceship in the universe and said that all human beings are interconnected and riding together in the same spaceship like a family. Referring to the youth, he stressed that they have got all the tools they need to change the world.
Taken together, they have lighted the pathway for the youth to be an engine for change in society and in the world, consigning poverty to museum.
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