It is striking how low society's capacity for change is in the face of daily crises, and one wonders where the flaw lies. Does resistance to change point to stubbornness, or to a lack of conviction and responsiveness?
اضافة اعلان
There are many examples of social refusal that leave their mark on people. Unemployment among doctors, for instance, is rising by the thousands. New graduates cannot find a place for residency and specialization in hospitals, and even specialists face joblessness. Yet students still insist on studying medicine, thousands in Jordan, thousands in Egypt, thousands everywhere, which means this crisis is worsening sharply.
Our social definition of excellence is still tied to two things. The first is the score on the general secondary school exam, which must be in the nineties, perhaps above ninety-five. The inevitable result is studying medicine, inside Jordan or abroad, even though the reality and all the figures point to a very difficult future, or to remaining a general practitioner who never develops a specialty, with all that implies morally, financially, and professionally.
None of these indicators has led to any change. We remain within the same social definitions, the need for the title: this one is a doctor, that one an engineer, this one a journalist, that one a lawyer, despite all the professional and economic changes. Some will say this is the student's personal freedom, and that is true, but the student must understand the cost in advance. Every indicator in front of them should push them to change course and break with tradition. The Jordanian case is also an Arab one, found in many countries, some of which suffer even worse and harder conditions.
Another issue is the rising rate of non-marriage, a frightening rate among both men and women, amid unemployment, scarce opportunities in life, and low wages. Despite this, young women grow more rigid in their marriage conditions. They make no concessions on the dowry, on the engagement and wedding ceremonies, on furnishing the home, and so on. Sadly, each of them remains captive to her rosy dreams on one hand, and subject on the other to what the neighbors, cousins, friends, family, and relatives will say about a simple wedding instead of a lavish one.
This too is a personal freedom, but why don't families change here, and why don't young women change? Why don't we rethink our understanding of marriage? Are Western peoples, who marry in a very simple way and without great expense, backward while we are the more advanced? Anyone who reads the non-marriage rates in Jordan and other Arab countries is stunned by the picture. The problem is that neither educators, nor our esteemed religious figures, nor the media, nor parents have responded to these dangerous shifts, and everything has stayed as it was. It is as though every young woman believes she is special, one of a kind, and must not rush while waiting for an unmatched man, a man who is simply not available in an Arab world where men crawl on their faces under the weight of their difficult circumstances.
Regrettably, responsiveness to change occurs only with negative changes that threaten the structure of societies, by copying lifestyles, economic patterns, and social habits full of weaknesses, flaws, and impropriety. As for positive changes that would protect each society from within and safeguard the future of its members, no one is willing to respond to them. Every individual has a point of view, does not want to start with themselves, and believes they are the exception, and that change must begin with others first, with them following afterward.
This is not a weekend sermon over your heads, but a genuine attempt to invite people to break rules that are no longer valid for our time, and to protect the structure of our societies from within, if we can.
We refuse change and apply recipes that no longer suit our lives and our era.
