For years, we have been repeating the question of where to start, hearing it in schools, universities, and seminars, and then leaving the hall, leaving the question hanging. It is time to move from searching for the beginning to determining it. Why not agree on a national day to announce the launch of a renaissance project in which citizens, institutions, and the private sector participate?
We do not need a new occasion where speeches are delivered and end with the end of the day. We need a date for action and accountability where each entity declares a clear goal that it can achieve within a year, determines its responsibility, and measures its results. Then we return at the same time the following year to tell people clearly what we have achieved, what has faltered, and why.
The goal of the Ministry of Development may be to improve a public service, the goal of a university to train young people with skills needed by the labor market, the goal of a company to provide job opportunities, and the goal of a school to launch a voluntary initiative that serves its surroundings. With these steps, the renaissance becomes actions that people can touch, follow, and build upon.
His Majesty King Abdullah II has made the Jordanian human the center of the modernization journey, and His Highness Crown Prince Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II continues to focus on empowering young people and opening the door to their energies and ideas. Translating this vision requires young people to be partners in designing and implementing the renaissance project and for those with competence to find a fair opportunity to prove their abilities away from favoritism and marginalization.
The homeland will not be revived in one day, but we can have a day when we end the wait for the beginning, a day when we set announced goals and take responsibility for them and return every year to hold ourselves accountable for what has been achieved. Only then will the renaissance become a culture of the people, a national responsibility, and the answer to the question of where to start will be clear. We start from the human being, we start together, and we start today.
