Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal will be celebrating his 64th birthday this Sunday, 20th March, with his family.
Over the past few months Prince Hassan has tried to look behind and beyond the current upheavals in the region, including here in Jordan, to identify the nature of what he describes as “a new psychological landscape - a region that hangs in the balance as to what it is to be.”
At a speech in Poland two weeks ago, ahead of that country's Presidency of the European Union on July 1st, His Highness pointed out that “no one ever predicted that the recent uprisings would be led not by charismatic leaders, politicians or intellectuals, but by Arab young men and women.” During that speech he observed how perceptions have changed, and of how “an associative network of subliminal messages revolving around violence rage and bigotry has been shattered.”
His Highness has also remarked several times in interview that “Arabs believe in the pursuit of happiness too,” and has suggested that just as the world is beginning to think differently of the Middle East, so too are its people beginning to think differently of themselves.
In an article in the Guardian entitled “Do not fear the Middle East’s New Wave” His Highness argued that the prospect of Arab Self-Determination was to be welcomed, and has since observed that the Jordanian National Charter and Constitution provide for the participation of all political views within the country, from far left to far right, within a social compact “that is far more normalised that radicalised.” He has since added that “civil society cannot exist without a population that has the will and capacity to act in defence of its values and to chase its dreams.”
At the same time, however, His Highness finds it poignant to recall that for much of last year this region seemed swept not by the “winds of change,” but by the currents of destruction. There was the flotilla incident, settlement building and doomed peace talks, tension in Lebanon, controversy over ‘Wikileaks’, and hate – be it a Florida pastor threatening to burn the Holy Qur’an on the anniversary of September 11th, or the outrageous massacre of Coptic Christians at a Church in Alexandria on New Year’s Day.
During that time, Prince Hassan persevered in advancing initiatives that he has fought for during most of his life - ideas that a new pan-Arab context has not only vindicated, but has rendered more important. The work of His Highness, as evident on his website, has always fallen into four related categories: Peace in Palestine, the need for Arab unity, the importance of Human Dignity, and adherence between the faiths.
Last October His Highness sent a message to the Centre for Democracy and Community Development in Ramallah referencing the “moral bankruptcy of continued conflict.” The Prince has since remarked on several occasions that “democracy is no good if it remains hidden behind a wall,” and has argued that Jerusalem should be a place “above politics, for all religions and peoples.” He has described citizenship in the words of U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren as “the right to have rights.”
In Chile, in September, His Highness presented the work of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, and supported their call for a worldwide “Inter-religious Code of Conduct.” The Prince spoke of on the need for a “camino de ideas”, or a “Route of Ideas”, to reawaken in contemporary form the Spice and Silk Routes of the past, and to bypass the oil routes of today.
As Chairman of the Higher Council for Science and Technology, His Highness also called for “Science Diplomacy”; for the Arab world to invest more heavily in research and development, and for meritocracy to replace a system based around “not what people know but who they know.” These comments were repeated to a Youth Conference held on behalf of the Alexandria library, of which His Highness is a Board Member, and the Arab Thought Forum, of which he is chairman and founder, in December of last year.
Since 2009, his Highness has devoted much work to the concept of “WANA”, or “West-Asia-North-Africa,” founding a Forum by that name to address macro economic and political issues within the context of the individual, and on an empirical basis.
His Highness has described the Forum “as more about the human dignity deficit that the budget deficit”, and as an attempt “to get this region talking with itself.” In its work on a Regional Charter and on a Regional Social Cohesion Fund WANA has attempted to spearhead “intra-independency” rather then “inter-independency”: empowerment and a respect for diversity rather than reliance.
His Highness believes that rebirth in the Arab world cannot come without ideas, individuals and institutions. At the launch of the Strategic Foresight Group’s “Blue Peace Report” in January, Prince Hassan repeated calls for the creation of a Supranational Community for Water and Energy for the Human Environment, pointing out that a bilateral approach to shared resources is both unsustainable and destabilising.
His Highness has for several years also called loudly for a Semi-Permanent Conference for Peace based within the region, and modelled upon the three baskets of the Helsinki Process - co-operation in security, economy and humanitarian issues.
In 1987, at the 36th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, His Highness proposed the establishment of a New International Humanitarian order, observing that “our mutual ability to affect each other’s lives, for better or for worse, has never had the scope and immediacy that it has today.” He looks toward the beginnings of a national conversation, and an end to the “vacuum of hope.”
His Royal Highness Prince Hassan sends his best wishes to all the people of Jordan, to his many friends, and in particular to the inspiring people of Japan, who he would like to assure of his thoughts and prayers in very difficult times.
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