Sheikha Moza addresses World Conference on Oratory, Debate and Dialogue

HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, has on Friday afternoon patronized the opening of the Fourth World Conference on Oratory, Debate and Dialogue, currently held at Qatar National Convention Center and organized by Qatar Debate. Addressing the audience, HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser said debate and dialogue are methods of expression used by man since ancient times, noting that they are becoming more important than ever before. "After centuries of clashes and resentment, of power struggles and conflicts, we now have unprecedented opportunities for dialogue and mutual understanding. And this dialogue cannot take place only between leaders." HH pointed to the "tremendous impact" of technology, which has given the space for "lively and continuous debate between people all across the world." Highlighting the major technological shift, HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser said that any attempt to restrain freedom of expression is destined to fail. "In the past, our young people were mere recipients of information and boundaries. Their reality was set for them by traditional institutions. But today their role in society has undergone a major shift." "Our young people have levels of awareness and education that enable them to influence and build society from bottom to top, not vice versa," HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser said. Her Highness continued to add that collective and cross-border dialogue through technological tools has enabled young people to enjoy a new and effective role and increased influence. "Their realities stretch far beyond the boundaries of traditional institutions."  HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser referred to the Arab Spring revolutions to highlight the momentum young people can create when they have access to the right tools. "The people's revolutions in our region showed us that when the Arab youth could no longer accept the despotism that set their reality, they took to the alternative reality of social media to conduct their debates and dialogues. Eventually they succeeded in influencing their conditions and led the processes that changed their realities. Later the dialogue went back into its rightful place: in the capitals of these revolutions and was no longer confined to social media and websites." HH noted that the world has been too slow in implementing the aphorism that young people are the leaders of the future. "While young people are the most important element for driving change in our societies, statistical and objective facts show that society also has a duty to prepare them properly for effective decision-making and leadership." "The ability to dialogue, to debate and to use rhetoric are among the most important conditions in these roles that help develop young people to become  representatives of a generation, of an era, of a  vision of the future." Her Highness stressed that the challenges and conditions of the future require confident youth with strong personalities who accept the other, believe in dialogue and its logic, and use critical thinking as a means and the culture of peace and tolerance as a trend. "If we are to build a safe world and generations that have a tendency towards peace, then it is inevitable to raise them and teach them the culture of dialogue instead of the culture of violence... to train students to express their opinion and accept the opinions of others  to support the tendency towards criticism of reality and knowledge  and to believe that dialectics and debate are the keys to driving progress, as proven by the history of thought in the world," HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser said addressing attendees of the conference that is being held for the very first time in an Arab country. Her Highness underscored the importance of education as an essential tool to raise responsible adults and develop leaders, stressing that through education "starts the expression of opinions by using logic and then the critical act grows to become critical thinking innovative and not an idle mind that only copies." "It is specifically there, where students learn, that the logic of argument vs. argument becomes the civilized alternative to the chaos of weapon vs. weapon, that the dictions of debate, dialogue and logic are the principles of peace as opposed to aggression, repression, oppression and exclusion." HH Sheikh Moza bint Nasser concluded that that is why Qatar's vision for education and development includes "educational curricula and teaching methods based on debate, deepening the culture of dialogue, developing the dialogue capacity of students, stimulating the critical thinking they have and promoting the spirit of innovation in the industry of ideas, in order to prepare them for leadership roles in the present and the future." Some 150 academics, educators and concerned personalities participate in the conference, presenting 120 research papers over three days. The conference has Arabic, along with English, as the language of debate for the first time.