http://newshopper.sulekha.com/topic/iraq/blogs/2008/07/does-education-breed-terrorism-corruption-and-inefficiency.htm 

Is there a link between EDUCATION, TERRORISM, CORRUPTION and INEFFICIENCY????

Perverted Education,misdirected ambitions

lead to greed for power and money

through unfair means of Terrorism and Corruption

Ineffeciency is the child of Low Education and Corruption

Perverted Education, Terrorism, Corruption and Ineffeciency are the members of a single family

Education becomes perverted when it is used for destructive means. An acid is used for doing experiment in lab and impart knowledge in the student about its uses. It is education. The same acid used by some of the students to disfigure their co student for the ulterior means (like failure in Love).it is nothing but perverted education. There had been two cases in Andhra Pradesh like this. There is another case when the pervert educated computer whiz use their education to break into bank account passwords of others and rob the hard earned money of the other innocent citizens. Education in wrong hands as said clearly in my statement is perverted education.

@Shiuli Education has nothing to do with the number of years of formal education received. Many countries in the western world practice 'home schooling'. So, a person could be educated without ever having gone to school.

Moreover, I feel that most of us have not completely comprehended the difference between education and literacy.

Colleges and universities in India just churn out an army of 'literate' unemployable youth.

It is radial link between education in centre and others around it. All of them are RANDOMLY PROPORTIONAL to education. Read the following carefully to understand the random proportionality:

*When Education DECREASES corruption decreases, terrorism decreases, inefficiency decreases

*When Education DECREASES corruption increases, terrorism increases, inefficiency increases

*When Education INCREASES corruption increases, terrorism increases, inefficiency increases

Dear Mr. Stephen,

It is not that I had strayed away from the topic. For me it was

just basic fundamental knowledge that "Education" has many attendant

problems and therefore, your topic is meaningless for me. 

This issue I had already dealt in my posting the "Hidden issues of educating

 the oppressed". It is not to suggest that education is wrong or educated

people are all bad. it was only to mention that Education has its side effects

that need to be take care of.  

As we see with every new generation, contrary to general expectation

that education will bring down most of the problems of the past,

the experience is just opposite, differences are in its forms and magnitudes.

The unrelenting aggressive tendencies of human race, in the greed of the

socially and economically developed countries and communities go on

widening the gap between rich and poor, in the reluctance in equitable

distribution of global wealth, erosion in the cultural values due indiscrete

globalization and the growing shift towards homo-sexuality as normal life style

tolling the death bells  of micro-community, currently known as the "family"

which is sacred to many in this part of the world.

It is not befitting to anyone to loose faith in the human kind.  It is therefore,

that I went a little ahead in my thoughts to reinforce my faith in human abilities,

that would definitely  find out and bring in solutions to take care of these

adverse aspects existing from the origin of human race.  I fully believe that

the next decade will witness explosive developments in the field of

Bio-Science and Bio-medicines to take care of the fundamental problems in

human nature. 

I deliberately did not contribute to this debate earlier although I have been following closely the arguments. My reason was because I was not sure which side to support. Strangely I was sent 4 referrals which meant members here like to read my comments. However, let me add some humour to this debate even though it is a very serious topic. 

I asked a workmate of mine(Foreign Affairs Minister's husband) what were his thoughts on this question,his response was "why are you worrying about a topic like this..our country is so small that if 2 nuclear bombs fall by mistake, the majority of the population will be wiped out.....further in a million years we would never attract anything like terrorism". That is a very true statement.

On a serious note my two cents here will be and mind you this is only my opinion. (1) The masterminds of terrorism are intelligent people. However, the ones who carry out the acts are the ones who have been brainwashed. Poverty and poor education do not produce terrorism but denial of political freedom does. (2) Corruption has a lot to do with education and people with power, have you ever heard of a dunce involved in corrupt practices? and quite rightly this is prevalent in the civil services. However, many of these go undetected because of the smartness of the people involved. (3) There are a lot of people with education who are very inefficient. This is where reference is made to governments. Education in most cases got them in that position but they failed to deliver.  

PS: Politics is not one of my favourite things though I indulge moderately...and to think I got an "A"  in Politics at University. Hope someone don't ask for clarification of this.

To support my argument, I quote from some newspaper and internet articles :

1.Indians pay a whopping Rs 26,728 cr as bribes: Study’ (Hindustan Times) 
       HYPERLINK "http://www.hindustantimes.com"

India: A survey undertaken by Transparency International reveals that the education sector is heavily affected by corruption, being at least the third most corrupt public service. It is proposed that citizens’ charters be prepared for improving public servants’ accountability.

2.Corruption plagues academe around the world’ (Chronicle of Higher Education)
           HYPERLINK "http://chronicle.com/"

China. Japan. Kenya. Mexico. United Kingdom. USA: People from the Kenyan Ministry of Education participate in selling fake diplomas. In the USA and Mexico, students buy term papers and admissions essays online. People offer to take tests for others in China.

3.In Georgia, Professors hand out price lists’ (Chronicle of Higher Education) 
               HYPERLINK "http://chronicle.com/"

Georgia: Admissions, courses, grades and diplomas are for sale in high profile higher institutions. Admissions officers offer expensive private lessons. Reforms should include an accreditation system, an entrance exam and an increase in financing.

Source: Articles on ethics and corruption in education - An on-line web and press review by IIEP

Terrorism comes from thinking process. When person finds what he wishes to do is easy to do when he terrify others. And once one is successful will continue using same technique and then irreversible process starts. He cannot comeback even if he wants. This is because society does not show any mercy when he becomes in effective.

Starting point for terrorism is different. It may be for varied reason.

1. Instigation by community leaders, politicians. This happens generally in tin age. You can find lot of youngsters in this category. They get into this just for lust or by pears pressure. Sometimes money plays good role.
2. People who do not get justice in time through set system of society. This may be due to politics/corruption or inefficient people in system. They become terrorist to punish people/organisation/community/government/nations. You will find lot of well educated people in this category. They show their intelligence to take revenge. Thos who are not educated show muscles power. Many times such terrorism is supported openly or secretly by people/organisation/community/government/nations.

In short education and terrorism has no relation but corruption/ inefficiency/ political motivation  is quite often at roots of terrorism.

Today's Education has become so materialistic, object / left brain & rote - oriented learning, self-centered that it has lost its meaning ... Therefore whatever you say, seems to be true !

Knowledge or information about the world is required to handle and deal with the external world, but that is not real education ... There is a component of inner growth (subjective aspects) and brain-power development (Left-Right brain balance, development and creativity) to EDUCATION, which is often missed out ...

We have to live in harmony, peace, and effectiveness. This means producing results, bringing harmony in disharmony by relating better with both inner and outer possibilities and integrate them wherever required. This is the crux of whole education … as it leads to unfoldment, expansion, upliftment and reaching a cent-percent self-actualization, wholesomeness growth development in harmony as well as progress, prosperity in material / worldly terms by enriching our and others lives by removing and being free of lack, poverty, fear and dependence of any and every type.

We have to be open to our feelings-intuitions; inner dreams-desire…drives and wishes, interests- aptitudes…visions etc. Instead of, learning by rote (text book-learning) utilization of potentials and inner- latent talent, possibilities should take place leading to rightful living, concentration and developing wisdom & creativity.

Uniqueness is the building criteria of life forms in Nature and natural phenomenon / manifestation … be it animal, mineral or vegetable kingdom … Every individual is full of possibilities, potentials, unique to itself. We have to start with this premises (or assumption) / base. He has to find out his own unique qualities, specialties (strength and weaknesses) and relate to his immediate surroundings.

Whole exercise boils down to the integration, relation / interaction of the self - sharply, profiled specialty profile (developed to generate social specialization & attractiveness) to the surroundings or environment and neighborhood. This is education in nutshell.

There is a rhythm and natural growth and natural growth in Nature. Each species grows as per its unique nature, quality and characteristics. If we closely & keenly observe nature, there is cooperation in growth of life forms and also mutual support  ~ and unfolding of its unique qualities as per individual seeds, if adequate nourishment and nurturing in terms of inputs of food, water, sunlight, fertilizers and catalysts are provided at the right time and place. This is the the philosophy or theory of growth, evolution and/or unfoldment – or in short Education …  true education in tune with NATURE and NATURAL LAW & PRINCIPLES.

Perfection is the ultimate in this unfoldment or growth and the quality & characteristic of perfection is inherent in any seed. This has to the guiding principle, philosophy of education or Vidya …… to provide nurturing and supportive environment to students who are budding scientists, engineers, doctors & bright careerists and responsible citizens of future.

As a great Indian & vedic philosopher of Modern India remarked ‘ Education is the unfolding of perfection already in man’ … individual nurturing is part & parcel of this process of education. Each student as seed form has to be given or provided individual / unique attention and input to allow his perfection to unfold.

Hi all,

Interesting topic for debate, discussion and dialogue. Plenty of food for thought. Looking at all the answers, every one has some thing valuable to offer.

My thoughts are, that we can discuss in generalization or analyze them in a deeper level, fact is that indivdual's circumstances, views, experiences, frustrations, perceptions will make them what they have become.

Can an educated person become a  terrorist? Yes.

Do all educated people have extremist views. No.

Can educated people resolve the human sufferings or problem? Yes, they are capable of doing so.

Can educated people become the cause to create more controversies and aggravate the problems? Yes they can and they do. It supports their ego. To find solutions is not in their best interest.

Will this debate or dialogue solve the problems of humanity? No.

But it does bring out the need to keep such topics in the forefront. May be some thing will spark or ignite CHANGE so the educated and powerful will help the humanity.

Best regards,

Yes, live examples are around us.

You are right Mr Dayanand.  There is a link.  I congratulate victor for bringing up the topic. 

Somehow, I feel we can not avoid terrorism and corruption for quite some time, even if we want to.  We will be able to create an awareness against inefficiency.

Technological tools will gradually bring down scope for corruption.  Increase in quality of people in public life and bureaucracy will be effective to contain this.

First of all, we seem to have misunderstood the concept of education.  Our BE/ME degree holders do not actually mean and represent educated class.  They are only educated in a particular area of knowledge.  How they use such knowledge is influenced by their education or lack of it in other spheres. 

In effect, our educated class in one area may be uneducated in ten other areas.  And their uneducated actions may overwhelm their educated actions. 

We should have an open mind in life.  We should also be tolerant.  We will find it difficult to teach others. 

But we should remain educated in its real sense!!

Mr. Viktor,

You are right when you say that why not an educated or well educated person will not become a terrorist or corrupt person or inefficient govt. employee. Yes it is in the mindset. Which are governed by a person's upbringing, his surroundings, his family background, his communitie's background his own faith in them, his peer group's way of thinking and his own ambitions. There might be several other things also. There is a limit to the resons that we can think of. We can not be inside a person's mind. We can only percieve things. And only on the face of it we draw our conclusions. Having said that we cannot demean the utility of education to the human society. And its usefulness in the motivation of a person in the right direction.

The bureaucracy is the main reason for such non-sense which creates troubles in all walks of life.  Eg. If one youth wants to create employment for himself, he has to obtain permission from the house owner, secondly from the Municipality/corporation for conducting his business. He has to get NOC from these people, then only he will get license to run the business, then if he needs power, he has to submit application to EB to get his required power needs for which he has to pay the AE/JE or any EEs else he wont get his application processed and finally he has to get loan for running his business which needs so many formalities which makes him tired finally to throw away his dream of becoming entrepreneur. After his failures, if he tried for any job and not getting any response, he became vexed. Hence result of these things.  Finally these people are encouraged by our wonderful politicians who in turn fine tune them for their political gains.  This is my opinion.

Chandramouli

There is a link certainly,between all these mentioned above.Inspite of being educated, still countries are prone to terrorism to become a monarch.Because of poverty or by motivating the people also would lead to terrorism.

As Mr.Deshpande confessed constant effort of all of us should lead to good deeds.

Ms. Adler, we agree to disagree :)

Viktor, You are very right. I read it on toostep only. It was a video. Education is one power which our society seems to have undermined. Education seems to have become a business. After machinization, the main focus of our education shifted to industry. We prepare engineers, doctors, scientists like some machine. Otherwise a guru will never teach his skills to a man with wrong intentions. How can a doctor work on unhealthy mission like taking out kidney? How can an engineer thing of creating machine of mass distruction? How can our civil service teach civil inefficiency or corruption? Its only when the power of education has gone on wrong hands. My point is, now that we cannot rely on a Guru for education, please be a mentor to your kid. His/Her education is not complete unless we also provide him a mentor to use his skills. So either be his/her mentor, or provide him one.

Dear Victor,

First of all I would like to appreciate you for posting such a topic for debate. 

Indeed I too feel that no proper scientific research has ever been done to find out whether education plays a role in making a terrorist a terrorist. 

I dont think education has any role to play in making a person turn into a terrorist or not.  However, like you said less education does have a role in it.

Many of the terrorists who have been apprehended until now are illiterates or less educated. 

Next comes the role of the parents and the teachers who bring them up.  They have a tremendous role to play.  I will never think of becoming a terrorist for any reason ever in my life.  My parents preached non-violence and love.

Friends also have a role play in this.  You are known by the friends you keep.  Most of the crimes committed today by groups, be it murder, dacoity, rape or burglary, are committed by group of friends who have grown up together.

Next come the Babus and the police.  I pity them.  They have all of my sympathies.  Rooting out corruption from our country is a distant pipe dream (however, I have not lost hope yet).  Your next topic could be "Can we root out corruption from our country?"

I believe very strongly that we should stop blaming the babus and police for being corrupt.  It is the people who have made them corrupt.

Anyways, You have my appreciation for posting the best of debates in toostep.com

Congratulations

World leaders have called for increased aid and educational assistance to end terrorism.It is sometimes thought that Islamic terrorism is characterised by  poverty, lack of education, and irrational behaviour by so called Islamic fundamentalists. Wealthier Muslim nations don't have the same problems, but the fact is that most terrorists are well-educated men.In recent times, there are  American calls everywhere to stop Islamic education, under the pretext that such religious learning breeds terrorism.Good education is no doubt neded but we need to have a more strict regime, have a more efficient law and order mechanism  and most important we need to have a good and efficient political system, and a ground for more particpatory governance.

World scenario as explained by many members here, has reasoned out the links between education, terrorism, corruption & inefficeincy. just to add on, a few more-

Terrorism has always used corrupt systems for their growth- including procuring arms & funds, drugs trading etc.

I believe terrorism is created by the selfish motives/inefficiency of the Political heads of mafias. These can be in the name of countries, communities, race etc oppressing each other. But this can't be overcome by ordinary education- its something regarding virtues.

An educated & employed youth is less prone to terrorism than unemployed & uneducated youth. Let me quote an eg- even this eg is debatable, still- UAE is a country with ample wealth distributed among its small population- To my knowledge, even a single case of terror activity was not reported in this country, till now. (atleast if not reported, its very less)-compared to Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait etc. Keep in mind- all are Islamic nations.

One more correction to the debate topic- Osama if from a leading Saudi family. not from UAE.

hi, Viktor is right is saying that there is a link between education, corruption, terrorism and inefficiency.normally human tendency will be dominated towards wish of their mind/interests. natural habitat will also influence humans a lot.getting education without proper aim will result in destructive deeds and lead to inefficient state in all manners.corruption is just like a virus which spreads in all directions without any prejudice making money/power for indivisual sake on top of all priorities.terrorism dosen't have any pre-requisites as such.it is the skill of mansterminds to destroy others in the name of destiny.anybody can become a terrorist if he /she is not well banlanced mentally and do have the intention of destroying only.for eg. child/female soldiers of LTTE.Every thing has got a link but we should know the only correct way / direction to understand.

I would say yes but explain my reasons shortly

I honestly think that there is an obvious link between education and the other issues that you put forward. Lower education does seem to correspond with higher levels of terrorism, corruption and lack of efficiency.

But I also think that the question is fundamentally flawed because you are bringing far too many arguments into the subject for it to be addressed logically.

Even your own take on the issue is not very clear, as you seem to be supporting both sides of the argument.  

For the sake of clarity I will be leaving out of the question the issues of corruption and inefficiency altogether.

Even with regards to education and terrorism alone I believe that the link is not as clear cut as saying that when the levels of education are low the likelihood of terrorist groups springing up is higher.

There is a link between the two but lower education levels is not the reason behind higher terrorist activity. One does not follow the other as you have clearly proved with the examples you provide in your article. 

Rather lack of education and terrorism are brought into existence by the same root causes.

Besides one should clearly define what is a terrorist, my definition of terrorism, for instance, would never apply to resistance fighters in Iraq or Afghanistan.

A terrorist is someone who uses fear as means of control

Tv, for instance, is terrorism: the news frighten you and you consume.

One has to look at the bigger picture here, let us take an example of a nation torn by the very issues that you raise: Congo.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has the potential to be one of the richest nations in the world and it suffers from all the evils that your question touches upon. Low education levels, high terrorist activity, high corruption levels and inefficiency to boot.

But none of them are the reason behind the current state of affairs, historically this colonially fabricated country has suffered from a systematic drainage of human and material resources by the educated people that are theoretically all for efficiency, transparency and the rule of law.

By the way thanks to slavery in Congo we can enjoy this conversation today through state of the art computers at cheap prices. Do look up coltan in St.Google please.

That is all I have to say about the subject, thanks for your kind attention.

Mr. Paul, Your idea is too far feched. That kind of technology would take decades to develop and test. Besides, you are digressing from the topic of the debate. The topic of discusssion/debate here is 'whether there is a link between education, terrorism, corruption and inefficiency'?

I support you here Mr. Stepehn.

First and foremost lets understand that the logic behind this debate is whether or not people from strong backgrounds of Good education, financially sound can go astray in their lives or not?

I have a strong belief that it entirely depends on the human in question and the influences of his surroundings on him since his days of being educated. What is it that has influenced him and what is it that has affected him the most in his thought process while growing up??? In cases f Osama and the likes I feel that despite their great cultured backdrops these people were influenced by the atrocitioes that were inflicted on their people by other nations for "wasted interests". That wasted interest is the one which must have led the thoughts astray.

Its not always the want of good education to earn a good name and reputation than the need to give our own people the required freedom that takes precedence over the other issues. This is where the mind starts believing in the fact that the person is question becomes almost suicidal and eccentric with the palpable excitement of doing things that are forbidden to him!! This excitement of beingable to forward a cause and to die for it is a euphoric situation and here the education, finances and even the position in the society takes a complete back seat!

I feel that at such times its the man in control of his foremost thought that gives him a high adrenaline rush will naturally take up that thought and then influence his fellow friends to follow him and when the following begins to gather momentum thats when the wrong turns into an absolute right and the momentum gives shape in his mind that what he is construing to do is correct and thats the path I need to take!!

Its very mental and a very delirious state of mind that allows a man who is educated and financially free to leap to such decisions. Its not about the money honey, its about the sucees of trodding the untrodden path that gives these men a kick to live! Thanks for the referral Mr> Stephen.

Srikar, First of all my name is Viktor, not victor.

2. your formating and grammer is so bad, nobody will waste their time to read it.

3. What's your point? Are you supporting failed states like Iran, N.Korea, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Because their government doesn't do enough to create employment for the citizens, they turn terrorists?

4. Why are Punjab, North East and J&K an exception? Does unemployment not exist in Haryana, Gujrat, Maharastra, Madya Pradesh, Goa, and other parts of India?

5. Terrorism is a global pandenimic. It has affected the most powerful countryies, USA, Russia, China, etc. It is not, as you say, a regional problem that Pakistan and Banglades are creating for 'Big Brother' India. If you haven't been living under a rock, you would know that Pakistan itself has been compelled to fight the hydra-headed monster that it created - the Taliban.

6. In a populus country like India, the state cannot possibly provide employment to all. So, does that mean that wherever there is unemployment there will be terrorism? I don't think so. The problem of terrorism is much deep rooted than that.

7. Restating my point, education has not only to provide knowledge, it has also to inspire. Without emphasis on application or aptitude, it is a tinsel.  All the high profile terrorists that I have named are highly educated and disciplined people. The only thing lacking in them is conscience and compassion for their fellow human beings. These great scientists and technocrats were not inspired to do good for humanity but were consumed by rage against other religions that they perceived had done them or their religion wrong. Otherwise, they would have had no problem finding gainful employment.