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Personal from.. .
When Knowledge Doubles, So DoTroubles. Why?
1
am writing this "Personal" from t he
very shadow of the Great Pyramid in
Egypt-on t he outskir ts of Cairo.
1 was the principal speaker at a large
banquet held in my honor in Cairo night
befare last. About 300 of the top-echelon
people of Egypt were present, and 1 am
waiting now for another private meeting,
accompanied by Mr. Stanley R . Rader , as
usual, with President Anwar el-Sadat.
At the speaker's table at the banquet, on my left
was Dr. M . Abdel-Kader Hatem, chief assistant
and adviser to President Sadat. Dr. Hatem was the
prime minister when 1 first met him, sorne six
years ago. He ranks higher than that now, and
above cabinet members.
lt
was nice to see him and
bis fami ly again. We became quite well acquainted
on former visits, and M r . Rader and 1 visited Dr.
and Mrs. Hatem in their seaside vacation home on
the outskirts of Alexandria- where top officials
from Cairo usually spend the summers. M rs.
Hatem sat on my r ight at the banquet, Mr. Rader
on Dr. Hatem's left , and Mrs. Rader on Mrs.
Hatem's r ight, with Mrs. Armstrong on Mr.
Rader's left.
What
l
said to these leaders of this nation was
timely, and 1 will try to relay it on to you now. 1
don't have the recorded version to give it verbatim,
but 1 do have my notes befare me, and this is
approximately what 1 said after being introduced
by Dr. Hatem and Mr. Rader:
"Ladies and gentlemen, good evening: Many
events have happened in this fast-moving world
since I last spoke in this same ballroom, sorne five
or more years ago.
"Despite efforts for peace in the Middle East
by your President Sadat, Prime Minister
[Menachem] Begin and President Carter, there
is a war on now between lran and lraq. In the
past five years governments of many nations
January 1981
have been over thrown . The Soviet Union has
made inroads in Africa, and more recently in
Afghanistan. Poverty, illiteracy, crime are
growing- not diminishing. World troubles and
evils have escalated. Weapons of mass
destruction exist by which MAN CAN BLAST
MANKIND FROM OFF THIS EARTH! T he wboJe
world tonight stands on the brink of human
extinction.
"But
WHY?
There has to be a CAUSE for every
effect. While humanity has been supposing we have
been ADVANCING-IMPROVING- we've been
bringing more and more evils upon ourselves–
more and more suffering and agony on PEOPLE!
"T he whole wor ld went along on a fairly even
keel, with little agricultu ra!, mechanical and
industrial progress for almost 6,000 years.
Transportation was by foot, mu te, camel back,
rowboat or sailboat. Communication was by written
Ietter carried the same way.
"Then, just O'(er 500 years ago, the printing
press with movable type was invented. About
300 short years ago carne the first beginnings of
modern science. This advancement of modero
science and technology is so recent that more
than 90 percent of aJI the world's scientists WHO
EVER LIVED are alive today! 1 have lived just a
little Ionger than most of you, but l have seen
most of the world's supposedly wonderful
advancements. In the brief span of my lifetime,
this world has passed with lightning speed past
the age of invention, the machine age, the majar
developments in science and tecbnology, the
nuclear age and the space age!
"The world thinks of it as wonderful
PROGRESS-ADVANCEMENT! The world' s fund of
KNOWLEDGE doubled in the decade of the '60s, and
again in the ' 70s- but in each decade the world's
troubles and evils doubled also!
"WHY?
Even if the increased knowledge did not
CAUSE the increased
(Continued on page 42)