Education as a topic is of immense interest to me. I have seen what it has done for India i.e., created an educated populace that was primed for the opening of the capitalist pump in 1991, and positioned to harness economic opportunity to create immense economic growth and social value for India and Indians (e.g., great accumulation of wealth in American Indians, increased living standards, more jobs, hopefully an eventual reduction in poverty).

But as I go about my day to day life and interact with people both at work and socially, I can't help but protest at the missing link in education worldwide: the lack of education on personal financial management and communication skills.

I feel the average individual I meet is relatively unequipped in both these skill sets which I believe have a disproportionate correlation with personal financial and professional success. Shouldn't we be lobbying hard to get these courses included in both at the high school and college level?

We just saw an episode of 30 days in which a white american practising christian goes and lives for 30 days in Dearborn MI with a muslim family on the condition that he must live like them and answer the call to prayer 5 times a day.

The program was really eye-opening. First, I learned that Islam, Judaism and Christianity come from the same religious lineage. I think I knew this somewhere deep in my brain, but it was nowhere near top of mind so wasn't a part of my daily ruminations. But the real debate this program raised in my mind is this: What should the 1.4 billion muslims in the world be doing about the actions of terrorist's who are taking innocent people's lives in the name of their god?

Should they feel somehow responsible? Do they have a special duty to severaly condemn the terrorist's actions? Or are they the victims themselves? How must they feel now that their very core beliefs and their beloved religion of Islam is now being thought of as a breeding ground for fundamentalism and terror? Even open minded, liberal folks today are drawing the conclusion that Islam must be part of the problem here. After all, it can't be mere coincidence that a huge proportion of the ever-increasing number of terrorist incidents are planned and executed by muslims.

What do you think?

November 9, 2008 Addendum

I really think this issue and question applies to all religions. I have seen a huge rise in religious fundamentalism (really across many/all religions) in my life, and in many religions violence is "justified" in the name of god. What should other more peaceful followers of the same religions do? How do they separate themselves from the fundamentalist minority (yes, it is typically a minority) who taint the image of others in their religion through their actions?

As I look at the world around me, I see a common theme in many of the major battles, controversies and issues both the world at large and many of us personally are experiencing. This is the battle between the ancient and the modern, and specifically between religious beliefs (as expounded by the religious establishment and religious/cultural communities worldwide) and modern principles (as intuitively adopted by the educated and liberal around the world).

Here are a few examples of the battles and controversies I am talking about, not in order of importance:

1. The rise of Hindu fundamentalism in Indian politics…and the battle of this fundamentalism with secularism (witness the umpteen incidents of hindu-muslim violence in recent years)
2. The religious right in the US trying to keep Terri Schiavo alive…a woman who had been brain dead for years and kept alive in a vegetative state she would have most likely been horrified to choose via a conscious decision
3. The internal struggle my Princeton educated Pakistani friends felt as they experienced a ‘liberal arts education’ and felt guilty about all the sins (a drink?) they felt like experiencing but knew they would regret after dying as they walked on a thin thread over fire
4. Certainly the real war on terrorism…the one in which liberty, freedom and equality are fighting against religious persecution, subjugation of women, and the exploitation of the common muslim by rich Islamic theocrats, oil billionaires and mullahs
5. The battle for gay equality (similar to the already ‘won’ battles for female and black equality) being forcefully fought against by the religious right in the US

Aren’t the fundamental forces behind these battles the same? It certainly feels that way to me. And if they are….doesn’t one have to ‘win’, at least in the legal arena (i.e., international law, national law) for peace to reign?