200 dollars and 300 brains: promoting science in the Arab world | Mouhannad Malek | TEDxRoma

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

Mouhannad Malek with the association Syrian Researchers is introducing not only scientific facts or news but also a scientific way of thinking in the Arab world. The Syrian Researchers want to show a better face of their countries, their true essence, knowledge and not ignorance.

Hi.

Between 1 and 3%

of the global online content is in Arabic.

It sounds small, right?
But then make it worse.

If you go to Internet and look to the top
10 million websites around the world,

you'll find that just 0.8%
out of them are in Arabic.

Here it starts to get smaller.
But I'm not done yet.

Actually, we Arabs are doing
as good as as Czech Republic here in red.

But you have to know
that in the Czech Republic

there are roughly about 10 million people.

We, Arab native speakers,
are 422 million people

living around the world.

So, why should we care

and what are the consequences
of this fact on our life?

Actually, maybe we need
to care a little bit more.

And I'll tell you why
by telling you a short story.

I left Syria in 2001.

I went to France to study Biology
at University of Lyon,

and there, I spent 10 years
studying and studying,

and I had my PhD degree in 2010.

10 years in France, then I moved from
France and went to Cambridge University

where I worked actually as a researcher
for four years now in Babraham Institute.

And in total, I have worked and studied

in science, for 14 years.

14 years, I haven't seen more
than 10 Arabic native speakers

working or studying in this field.

So this is a problem.

And this was the sparkle
of what I'll tell you about today.

This is totally our problem,
definitely our problem.

We have, as scientists, the duty
to show our people, in the Arab world,

the importance of science,
of research, of scientific research.

And we need to motivate
people, the students

to get involved
in the scientific research.

We need to push them, to motivate them

to build a career based
on scientific research.

What I'm saying here might sound
really an exaggeration, you know,

but believe me,
it's close enough to the reality.

What I'm trying to say

is that the lack of interest
in the scientific research,

which is to a large extent

associated with the lack
of reliable Arabic online content,

both combined together
can explain a lot of our problems.

Nearly all of our problems.

Cultural, economical,
social [problems], whatever you want.

So what's our responsibility here,
as grown up, educated people?

To make out of science
a priority in the Arab world.

How can we create new ways
to show to our people over there

how they should ask questions
and try to answer it every time,

and how can we show how life would be
without the scientific research.

It would be boring, trivial,
and to a large extent, meaningless.

So what do we need?
And how can it be done?

Actually, we need three things.

First of all, we need to explain
the latest scientific articles,

published recently,
last week or yesterday.

And we need to show the importance
of these scientific articles.

and the impact of them on our life.

The second thing that we need is
to show that referring any information

to its source is very crucial here.

We shouldn't go and read whatever we want,

and then we believe it,
then go and discuss about it.

And we suffer of that in the Arab world.

This is a disease, a real disease.

And finally, we need to go
and speak to people.

When we speak about science,

we need to speak in an easy
and simple Arabic language.

Far from that used in media channels.

When they try to speak about science,
they [stiff] and rough Arabic language.

In short, let's get people motivated.

Let's get them enjoy science
when we talk about it.

So three years ago,
I created a simple Facebook page.

Yes, simple Facebook page.

And I called it the Syrian Researchers.

It aimed to do exactly
what I told you just now.

At the beginning, I really struggled
to get people interested in this project.

No one was really interested,
no one was seeing why.

But later on, people started
to join me on this journey.

People like scientists,
medics, architects, artists,

or even university students,

all of them decided to join this movement.

All of them believed in the project,
in its value, in the use of it.

And then, we created a team,

and this team reorganized
the structure of this initiative.

We created specialized teams.

And along with the team managers,
we set down goals, scheme work, policies.

As a consequence, we got more attention,
and more people started to join us.

Today, the Syrian Researchers initiative

has roughly about 300 people
working together.

We are all together.

Many from Syria,
but there are others from Iraq,

Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Algeria.

We are living all around the world,
from Japan to Brazil,

going through Europe
and going through the Middle East.

Despite all of our differences.
This is amazing.

Despite all our differences:

cultural, social, religion, politics,

countries, all of that,

we were all united

to rewrite science in Arabic

like our [500 students].

Later on, we started to become a source

for reliable scientific information.

Everyone started to talk
about us in the Middle East.

If you have any question about anything
go and ask the Syrian Researchers.

We have over 100 messages a day.

You don't need to have a university degree
to understand what we're saying.

Our readers and followers are coming

from all social levels,
all ages, all countries.

No matter what.

And you all know what our countries
are going through today.

Despite the political situation
that we are living in today,

despite the fact that everything
has to belong to something,

I'm proud to say it, we managed
to be one of the rare places,

where everyone can talk to everyone
about anything forgetting our differences.

And this is because
we created one simple rule.

In the Syrian Researchers, we talked
about everything related to knowledge,

as far as it doesn't involve
religion or politics.

And guess what? It worked.

So after the Facebook page,
we created the website.

We started with 200 dollars

and we created today,
the Syrian Researchers website,

which is considered as number one
scientific Arabic website in the world.

This is in terms of visitors,
and in terms of content.

We have over 1 million visitors per month.

And we have published so far over
5,600 articles, covering too many fields,

20 fields, from medicine, to biology,
to whatever you want,

including even music and art.

Our team is working hard day and night,

in order to find, prepare, and translate
the best scientific articles

in order to increase this knowledge
that we need in the Arab world.

And our impact is growing.

And honestly, today we have more than
700,000 people following us on Facebook

and over 40,000 following us on Twitter.

And we have new projects as well.

We are about creating the first
Arabic platform for scientific research.

It's called "Menares".

And it's a platform for the scientists
in the Middle East, the north of Africa,

in order to be able to exchange
knowledge and skills

in an easy, fast, and effective way.

So it sounds like it's wonderful,
it's beautiful; it's a pink world.

Everything was easy.

We went through it
like a fish in the sea.

It wasn't the case. I hoped
that it was, but it wasn't.

Actually, you have to know we are
not here to just talk about science,

we are not here to introduce new
scientific news, or new scientific facts.

No. What we are trying to do here

is to introduce a new way
of thinking to the Arab world.

And new scientific way of thinking
that might lead us to free us

from the nonobjective thinking,

and the pseudosciences
affecting and infecting our society.

And you can understand
how down we feel sometimes,

when those people who refuse
these changes start to fire back nicely.

But fortunately, we are managing
what we are doing today,

and the enemies of yesterday
are our friends today.

Some of those people
who used to be our enemies,

some of them aligned themselves with us.

Some of them today send us messages,
"Please, can I join your movement?"

Some of them are doing what we are doing.

They are following our example to spread
knowledge and science in the Arab world.

So it worked. Finally it worked.

So what's left?

As you know, we need
to increase the reliability

of our Arabic scientific online content,

and we need to continue
introducing our population

to the scientific methodology.

That would lead the societies to be
more objective in their thinking,

hence, [they will be] more willing
to accept their differences.

And in the long term, we are trying
to reach out to a broader audience,

through launching
an Arabic speaking scientific channel

to motivate people
to get interested more in science,

and to prepare the financial conditions

in order to help them, guide them
in order to do science.

And this is by creating
grants and scholarships.

In the Syrian Researchers,
we are at the beginning of a long road.

We have [to fight] a battle
against the ignorance.

And we don't pretend
to say that we know everything.

A scientist, by definition,
doesn't understand

what he or she is trying to understand.

We share with our people

what we have learnt
from you, from your universities,

here in Italy, in Europe,
in the whole world;

we are trying to show our students
over there an example to follow.

Charles de Gaulle, the founder
of the French Republic,

had said once, during a crisis,

"In France, we don't have oil,
but we have ideas."

Here I want to say something.
We are people that are really smart.

Believe me we are smart.

And we have something
much bigger than just oil.

We have as well the ambition
to achieve our ideas.

Now think what we can do with all of that.

Behind me, you can see
the pictures of all my colleagues.

Not all of them, unfortunately.

Here, I want you think
five seconds. Just five seconds.

From everyone of you here,

from everyone who's going to watch
this video to think five seconds

about what they are doing.

Some of them are living
in the focus of the world.

Some of them don't have electricity,

don't have an Internet connection
for long [hours in a] day.

But because they believe that the world

that we are living today is the fruit

of the lack of knowledge, of ignorance,

they have all decided to fight

within a new kind of fight.

It's a fight where we can show

a new face, a better face of our countries

not the face that you are used to see,

[but] a face we can be proud of.

A face which is knowledge
and not ignorance.

Thank you very much, thank you.

(Applause)