There is a popular phrase that says "money is the root of all evil", but Plato said it was ignorance. What if he was right?
The most pressing global challenge at the moment is the lack of a education around the world. According to UNESCO, the global adult literacy rate was at 86% in 2016, meaning that only 14% of the adults in the world were illiterate. Yet this 14%, which represents 750 million adults, is concentrated in specific areas such as Southern Asia (49%) and sub-Saharan Africa (27%), while less than 2% of the global illiterate population represents regions such as Central Asia, Europe, Northern America, and Oceania. Coincidentally, the specific areas with less literacy have higher concentrations of the world's most pressing challenges. Some of these pressing challenges include, racism and discrimination, machismo, unnatural environmental change, wars and post war problems, terrorism and religious extremism, drugs, poverty, world hunger. Just by reading over them, these problems might seem a little more pressing than ignorance because their impacts on the global community are as visible as the branches on a tree. On the other hand, lack of education is not as visible because its impact can go unnoticed for years, just as the roots of a tree. This problems lies underneath all of the others because it grows slowly over time, and most of the other global issues develop from it. For example, with a proper and impartial education, it is possible to understand that we are all equal human beings who deserve respect, therefore racism and other forms of discrimination could be put aside. Education could pave the way for better behaviors towards the environment, and it has been used before (locally) as a mean of reducing extremist ideals, poverty due to lack of opportunities and the use of illicit drugs. While the answer might not be as simple as it sounds, taking into consideration that the ideal of offering a better education involves way more than a few fundraiser to build a school or two, it is an interesting option to be considered. More questions than answers might arise from this proposal, but finding solutions to the lack of education can become a powerful tool towards solving some of the world's most pressing global challenges. Source: unesco.org/Sep.2017/Literacy Rates.
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AlonsoI'm from Mexico City. I love cooking and eating Mexican food. Archives
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