Interdependence Day 2009: Jad’s thoughts

Tuesday, 29 September 2009 | posted by Matt_BC
General

By Jad Kheir

When i was first asked to take part in the upcomming Interdependence Day in Istanbul, my first response was “The inter what?”. I wasn’t aware of the event or even the term and couldn’t get a grasp on what is really going to happen in Istanbul. But i mean, it’s Istanbul so why not go?!

Only after few days i started to understand what it’s all about…well not completely.

The whole idea of being interdependent seemed a bit weird, and was accompanied by a bunch of questions such as “Does it mean that one can’t exist without the other? Is it the opposite of independence? Are we actually offering an alternative for independence while many nations are still struggling to become independent up to this monent?”

All these and many other questions were crossing my mind as I was looking down at the beautiful Mediterranean sea from the airplane.

During the week in Istanbul I had the opportunity of meeting extraordinary people, many intellectuals from all around the globe gathering together and discussing crucial issues which concern every citizen on planet earth. Starting with gender-oriented topics, touching political issues and of course not skipping climate change, which has been gaining proper (?) attention lately.

While dealing with all those complex matters in such a short time and listening to  incredibly various points of view, i began to understand the essence of the word Interdependence.

Without a need to go into details, but just by taking a step back and looking at this whole event from above, seeing that we are all here from so many different places setting together in one place and talking about things that matter to us all,  the old and young, rich and less rich, men and women…(and the list continues) made me think that we are interdependent, it’s a fact, we can’t help it, whether it’s for better or worse, so the only option we  face today is try to internalize what this means to us as individuals and nations, and work together as global citizens towards acheiving common goals in a way which is effective to us as human beings living on this planet.