Al-Jazirah The other day I read that a senior Swiss official uses the train to travel. You might think that he has a special compartment on the train next to the driver and that this compartment is spacious and full of fancy equipment and furniture. You might also think that he has other spacious compartments for his entourage and personal assistants, and others for his bodyguards, cooks, etc, and that other passengers are only left with a few compartments on the train. You might wonder why this senior official does not have his own personal train to exclusively carry him and his entourage. After all, he is a big shot and lives in a rich country where people are not poor. As a result, he should be entitled to have all the comfort and welfare that he deserves. We all think this way because we are Arabs. We have failed to keep up with people from developed countries. Although we have all the financial resources that we need, we do not use our minds well. Minds and thought are two important elements that develop any society and make it civilized. The truth is that the senior Swiss official travels in a train just like an other ordinary Swiss citizen. He travels in the second class section of the train, not the first class section. When asked why he travels second class, he answered that this is because there is no third class. I suggest that all of our new ministers be sent abroad for a one-year internship to work with the government ministers of advanced countries, such as Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, etc. Selecting young Saudi men as ministers of education, health, housing, etc. will enable us to send them abroad for field training. In this way, they can learn how the ministers of advanced countries run their offices. The first thing we should do is admit that we lag behind. We should acknowledge this fact, and then we should start building a strong and prosperous country.
