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DR ABDUL KALAM
Public Address
19/Feb/2010: Maldives
 When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you
Dear citizens of Maldives, distinguished guests and friends,
I am delighted to be with you all in the beautiful environment of Male in Maldives.
Essentially an islander myself, I have spent a very significant part of my life amidst the beauty, pleasures, power and fury of sea water and waves. Hence, naturally I have been excited with a child’s curiosity of this first visit of mine to your country, a lovely creation of God. I have evinced great interest in your geography, history, uniqueness and above all your aspirations. Your accomplishments in literacy, tourism, fishing, and energy sufficiency are commendable. Your accent on health care, intensification on your core competencies, your concerns on land-sea-atmosphere linkages and stress on education with value system, I am sure, will enable you to succeed in transforming Maldives into a prosperous, happy and ecologically blessed nation. I am thankful to The President of Maldives, His Excellency Janab Mohamed Nasheed for inviting me to visit your beautiful country. I am very happy to have met the President of Maldives, His Excellency Mr. Mohammed Nasheed and the other Members of Cabinet, and shared some of the potential areas of cooperation between India and Maldives and how we can overcome the global challenges together. Prosperity and peace of the people of Maldives were the thrust areas of the discussion.
I realize, the importance of the celebration of Maldivian National Day is indeed the day of remembering the heroism of Al Sultan Ghazi Muhammad Bodu Thakurufaanu, one of the highly celebrated Maldivian heroes. My tribute and respects to the great hero of Maldives. I understand that fifty percent your population i.e. 0.2 million is less than 26 years. I believe that the ignited mind of the youth is the most powerful resource on the earth, under the earth and above the earth.
Dear friends, today morning I witnessed the evolution of your new island Hulhu-Male, which is emerging out of reclamation. Already residential complexes, school, hospital have come and commercial complex, industrial complex are emerging with adequate infrastructure to meet the requirements of the growth. The message I got after visiting that island is : “Any dream can be achieved, provided there is a vision and a plan to realize that vision into missions. If you don’t do anything there is no problem, but if you undertake a complex mission or task, there will always a problem will crop up, we shouldn’t allow that problem to be our captain, we should become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed. Subsequently, I met around 1000 people from Indian community; they were representing around 40,000 Indian community at Maldives. When I interacted with them, they took an oath from me, what is that oath. “We will plant at least 25 trees over the next 5 year period to fulfill the vision of HE President of Maldives to make this country a first carbon neutral nation in the world”. I greeted and congratulated them. My special greetings to the youth of Maldives
Traditional friends
Dear friends, India and Maldives share a rich history together, not only in terms of trade but also in their people, culture, religion and origin. The history of the relationship goes right back to about 300 B.C. and has thrived well through all these years and continues even today. In the modern times, one of the fundamental ideas which are common to the two nations is the fact that they are two young democracies of South Asia. The core ideas of democracy; that of freedom of thought, freedom of expression and the right to choose are the cherished aspirations of the people of both the countries. I strongly believe it is such freedom which leads to generation of many ideas, selecting the best option with collective participation and feedback of all stakeholders. Only these well honed ideas have the power to ensure the welfare of the society, to bring the best of governance and the national identities and to contribute to the peace prosperity of the region and world at large.
Importance of National Vision
Friends, during my entire professional career, I have been associated with Mission-Mode projects that cut across functional disciplines. Progressively this experience, led me probably as a natural course, to the area of national vision formulation and implementation through integrated actions on multiple facets of development. I also took interest in studying the pursuits of different countries in their strategic vision approaches. Whatever is the degree of development of the nation, whether they are different economically, politically or geographically, there is one common theme among all nations. That is - the vision of the nation to give better quality of life to all their citizens and to ensure that citizens’ aspirations to live in a prosperous, peaceful environment are fulfilled. There is also a common responsibility of nations, doing their part, to sustain and protect the planet earth for current and future generations. There is also a need to ensure that even with the growing overall global population and dwindling resources, there is an equitable growth and the humanity is protected against shortages in resources like energy, water and material through innovative technologies. It is in this context that visions of individual nations are important. Development of nations is the key to the development of various regions, which is crucial for peace and prosperity of world as a whole. I will be sharing few thoughts on the subject: “Vision elevates the nation”.
India Vision 2020
India has a vision for transforming into an economically developed nation by 2020. Transforming India into a developed nation implies that every citizen of the country lives well above the poverty line, their education and health is of a high standard, national security assured and core-competence in certain major areas enabled production of quality goods competitively including for exports, bringing all-round prosperity for the citizens. I would now like to present, how India will get transformed economically and socially by the year 2020.
Distinctive profile of the nation
1. A Nation where the rural and urban divide has reduced to a thin line.
2. A Nation where there is an equitable distribution and adequate access to energy and quality water.
3. A Nation where agriculture, industry and service sector work together in symphony.
4. A Nation where education with value system is not denied to any meritorious candidates because of societal or economic discrimination.
5. A Nation where poverty has been totally eradicated, illiteracy removed and none in the society feels alienated.
6. A Nation where the best of health care is available to all.
7. A Nation where the governance is responsive, transparent.
8. A Nation which is the best destination for the most talented scholars, scientists, and investors
9. A Nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, devoid of terrorism, peaceful and happy; and continues with a sustainable growth path.
10. A Nation that is one of the best places to live in and is proud of its leadership.
Integrated Action for developed India
To achieve the distinctive profile of India, we have the mission of transforming India into a developed nation. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing (2) Education and Healthcare (3) Information and Communication Technology (4) Reliable and Quality Electric power, Surface transport and Infrastructure for all parts of the country and (5) Self reliance in critical technologies. These five areas are closely inter-related and if progressed in a coordinated way, will lead to food, economic and national security. PURA (Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas) is an important system for sustainable development of the nation.
PURA calls for providing to a cluster of villages physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity leading to economic connectivity. India plans to have 7000 PURA complexes spread across the country covering 600, 000 villages having 700 million population. Indian PURAs are five types. Plain terrain PURA, Hill PURA, Coastal PURA, Island PURA, and Desert PURA. Many PURAs have emanated in India, particularly in the States of Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. These PURAs have been evolved by the initiatives of private enterprises, academic institutions, and health-care institutions. In the 11th Plan Period, priority has been given in PURA establishment in the country. I will be discussing Island PURA for Maldives. I am happy that this Vision India 2020 has touched the citizens of the country in all walks of life and they ask, “what we can contribute”. This movement has led to incorporation of the vision in national plans, state plans, departmental plans, education plans, health plans, employment plans and infrastructures plans of the nation. . I have personally communicated with over five million youth on the “Vision for the Nation” throughout the country while participating in various interactions in schools, colleges and professionals institutions. I have been overwhelmed by the way the youth interact with me and contributing powerful ideas to make me think. Realization of national missions needs creative thinking and innovation for action oriented thoughts.
Creativity
Friends, the 20th century was a time when commanding resources was the source of power. This has changed in the 21st century. Today, knowledge defines power and nations have to evolve as knowledge societies through innovations and continuous learning. Innovations come through creativity. Creativity comes from beautiful minds. It can be anywhere and any part of the world. It may start from a fisherman’s hamlet or a farmer’s household or a dairy farm or cattle breeding center or it could emanate from classrooms or labs or industries or R&D centers. Creativity has got multi dimensions like inventions, discoveries and innovations. Creative mind has the ability to imagine or invent something new by combining, changing or reapplying existing ideas. Creative person has an attitude to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it. Creativity is a process through which, we can continuously improve ideas and find unique solutions by making gradual alterations and refinements to our works. The important aspect of creativity is: seeing the same thing as everybody else, but thinking of something different.
Sea Waves
Dear friends, I come from an island Rameswaram, in the southern part of India. I was born in Rameswaram, studied there and lived with full connectivity during the last seventy eight years. I was asking myself what my island has taught me? Great experience of sea travel, great experience of climbing over sandy hills, sailing in my brother’s thoni (fishing boat) and bringing boats full of seasonal tiny fishes. Buyers from many parts of the India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) used to queue up for getting fresh fish on the sea-shore. Also I have seen a real life experience of how my father built a passenger sail boat of forty passenger capacity, part by part, with two expert carpenters (experienced boat builders). When this boat was launched on a full moon day, it brought a great joy to our joint family. This passenger boat was a source of income to our family and was responsible for funding my education up to the college level. I have also seen the happiness transforming into a great loss when the heavy cyclone hit the Rameswaram Island. The same sail boat which gave happiness to our family went into pieces due to the fury of the cyclone. But we all recovered fast. The great boat man of the Rameswaram island Janab Jainulabudeen, my father, lived for 103 years and my mother lived for 93 years. So friends, we are children of the island, lived near the sea, lived on the sea, and my career as a rocket and missile technologist for nearly 40 years was enriched by the eastern (Thumba) and western (Sriharikota and Chandipore) sea coasts of India.
With my island home background, my career including my presidential visits to islands of my nation, visits to Iceland and Philippines among many others, and with my presence here today in Maldives; I was asking myself what unique experience islands have taught me, which I can share with this great audience assembled here. I would like to recite a poem, composed during my visit to tsunami affected Andaman-Nicobar islands.
Sea Waves
We are the children of sea waves,
Sea waves are our friends.
When they become angry,
Sea waves give us challenges;
God has given us courage
To challenge the sea waves
And we succeed and succeed.
When God for us, who can be against.
When I visited Iceland, which was well known for volcanoes and earthquakes, I could see the islanders have learnt and evolved a lifestyle to live happily and meet the challenges whenever it occurs. This volcanic island is blessed with hot springs. The steam from hot springs is converted into electricity and the hot water is supplied for heating houses and buildings, through integrated pipe-line network. The technology has been developed to make their lives adequately safe through the research efforts, for forecasting of occurrence of volcanoes and earthquakes well before they occur. This island nation Iceland is known for the highest per capita income in Europe. This income comes from high sea fishing using large fishing trawlers which has provision for storing fresh fish, processing the fish, packaging and marketing in the high seas itself. Apart from the fishing contribution for per capita income comes from IT and Pharma Industry. Also with the frequent occurrence of natural disasters like volcano eruption, and Earthquake, at any time and place, the capital city Reykjavík has a disaster management control center which functions round the clock and provides disaster management support and prepares the nation through its nation-wide network.
While Philippines is often affected by nature’s fury like any other island nation, it has its own potential of fast recovery. Of course major islands are connected by air services and large steamer boats. In Philippines, I saw the people were always smiling. It is indeed a smiling nation. Philippines has a flourishing garment industry. Philippines is famous for nursing profession. The Philippines University apart from conducting many important courses in engineering and medicine, has accorded a special academic status for nursing which has facilities for students to pursue education up to PhD in nursing. Every island nation has to build its economy for its prosperity through their core competence.
It is well known that all islanders throughout the world have lived a very organized life and have mastered the art of self contained life styles in order to overcome the possible isolation created by inaccessibility. An islander’s life is completely entwined with the nature. They have learnt well to manage as they could in terms of food, energy and water. They are very well aware of the fragility of their environment and have been the architects in many ways and the forerunners of the idea of ecological preservation. Besides protecting their island, they have also been quite aware of the need to protect and preserve the sea that surrounds them. The islanders very often live by the abundant resources that the sea provides them and also use the natural beauty of their island as a destination for many tourists to throng to these places longing to enjoy the beauty and the serendipity of the island.
The island nation Maldives
I have studied the general geography of Maldives and also studied the vision of the President of Maldives of transforming Maldives as a first carbon neutral nation of the world.
With this background, I see the beautiful land Maldives, the land of crystal clear water, where we can see many varieties of the fishes happily swimming in the background of the coral reefs. That’s how Maldives attracts tourist and tourism brings more then 25 per cent of the GDP of the nation. In this connection let me recall Prof Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Laureate for the concept she developed ‘planting a tree is planting an idea’. She planted 31 million trees in several parts of Africa. In 2004 she got the Nobel Prize for Peace. Wangari Mathaai concludes her Nobel Lecture on December 10, 2004 like this: quote, “As I conclude I reflect on my childhood experience when I would visit a stream next to our home to fetch water for my mother. I would drink water straight from the stream… I saw thousands of tadpoles: black, energetic and wriggling through the clear water against the background of the brown earth. This is the world I inherited from my parents”. Prof. Mathaai would like all of us to preserve this inheritance. Maldives indeed attracts a large number of tourists only for the reason for some of its island have got crystal clear water with nature smiling. It is a great responsibility, citizens of Maldives to preserve the God given nature.
Of course apart from tourism, the fishing and fishing industry and the high sea fishing and fish processing will enhance the economic growth of the island nation further. I had discussions with the President and the Members of the Cabinet yesterday. In all the discussions, prosperity and peace of the citizens of Maldives was the prime focus. I also shared Indian experience. Now let me present Maldives 2020 – my visualization:
Maldives in 2020 – my visualization
This visualization is based on the assumption of (i) the per capita income has to increase five times (ii) clean energy nation (iii) nation with enhanced connectivity – physical, electronic and knowledge leading to economic connectivity (PURA).
1.Deep-sea fishing, processing, packaging, and marketing in the high seas. Fortunately, Maldives is blessed with a large Exclusive Economic Zone.
2.The potential solution for Maldives to transform into a carbon neutral country could be through energy independence, which means freedom from fossil fuel.
a. Maximum use of renewable energy such as solar, wind and Tidal energy.
b. Using Bio-fuel (algae based) for transportation.
3.Reclamation of land in suitable islands for increasing the land area of highly populated islands. And also the height and circumference of the islands can be increased by reclaimed soil from the uninhabited islands.
4.Establishment of Five Maldives PURA complexes - a combination of Fishing PURA and Tourism PURA and Garment and Handicrafts Industry PURA.
Maldives Island PURA
Maldives has 1900 islands out of which only 198 are inhabited. I visualize a unique profile of an Island PURA which can be a way to generate economic activity in many islands and also deliver welfare in the form of better employment and life to the local people. The Islands of Maldives present three prominent competencies which the region needs to focus on. They are fishing and maritime industry, handicrafts industry and tourism. In all these sectors there is a need to find avenues of application of technology to improve the yields coming out.
To achieve this mission, the Island PURAs should develop better physical connectivity in the form of small and medium boat landing centers and community sheds for maintenance of fishing equipment. Simultaneously, there is a need for development of roads and road transportation system internally within the island. Improving markets and providing them connectivity to the production centre by the means of roads is needed to facilitate better economic gains. Each Island PURA should have electronic connectivity in the form of wireless connectivity using HAMSAT and Satellite radio and be a part of Maldivian e-network. Knowledge of the best fishing practices and technologies for processing of the product, and technologically value added handicrafts enterprises should become a part of PURA Complexes.
Indo Maldivian Partnership
Dear friends, Maldives needs a Maldives Knowledge GRID to provide tale-medicine, tale-education and e-governance services. I had discussed this proposal with HE Mohammad Nasheed, President of Maldives and his group of ministers in detail. India and Maldives will work together in realizing this proposal at the earliest. There is also a need for establishing an early warning system for Tsunami. By 2020 I visualize a special university being established in Maldives which will address unique problems of island nations. Students from many countries will be interested in such programs. India has certain experience in establishing and operating PURA complexes. India can be a partner for Maldives in all these development areas.
Suggestion of Island development world knowledge platform
Conclusion
Dear friends, economic prosperity alone cannot lead to happy and peaceful society. The society has got to be built around a noble value system based on its civilizational heritage with unity of mind in diversity as focus in a democratic environment.
The combination of economic prosperity and righteous citizens will evolve a noble nation. How do we achieve this? In India, I have heard a hymn which is unique and presents how great families and great nation and peace in the world can be met. Let me recite the hymn.
Righteousness
Where there is righteousness in the heart
There is beauty in the character.
When there is beauty in the character,
There is harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home.
There is an order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There is peace in the world.
It is a beautiful connectivity among heart, character, nation and world. In a society we have to build righteousness among all its constituents. For the society as a whole to be righteous we need creation of righteousness in family, righteousness in education and service, righteousness in career, righteousness in business & industry, righteousness in civil administration, government and politics, righteousness in law and order, and justice.
I believe it is possible to evolve a noble nation with the basic foundation of righteousness in the heart. Our people can live in a green clean environment without pollution, having prosperity without poverty, peace without fear of war and a happy place to the live for all citizens of the world.
My best wishes to all of you for success in your missions.
May God Bless You.
Source
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