The first scientific forum for Arab Children, with the motto "the young scientist", held in the Ministry of Youth, is considered an important step towards disseminating the scientific spirit and developing the scientific course for children and youth in this significant phase. It recalled sweet memories of my days in Leeds University in England, where I was studying. There was a conference for mathematics in 1988, in which Dr. Roth Lawrence, the 17 year- old girl, gave a lecture that amazed all attending professors, as she was genius in analyzing and very clever in discussions. I wanted to draw nearer to her to better understand her mentality, so I asked her about the role of science, and she answered me saying that science is the society's means for achieving progress, however art plays a vital role concerning this wide space of imagination. She also added that science needs to be accompanied by art in order to perform its role sufficiently, as both of them need the other. Roth reminded me of a say for Einstein in which he stated that imagination is more important than knowledge. However, I think that we need both of them, there is nothing that is more beautiful than science embellished with imagination. Without imagination, man could not reach the moon or visit Mars.
I have always hoped that we, the Arab nation, would have such an example like Roth Lawrence, especially that we have the origins of Al Hasan Ben EL Haytham, Ebn Sina, El Faraby, El Khawarezmy and others. Hence, this scientific forum for Arab children is a good step, as we know that raising scientists starts from early childhood with the consideration of science as a long-term investment. Accordingly, this forum was held in Egypt, as a kind of acknowledgement, from our Arab world, of the importance of science, the necessity of activating the role of Arab children in the society for a scientific uprising, providing chances for meeting and interacting with the feelings of solidarity and brotherhood among them. In my own view, this project is a good step on the way of Arab cooperation especially in the scientific field. From here came out the recommendations of the forum in order to change the name of the next one to "the Arab Forum for Future Scientists", provided that it is held every year in a different Arab country. The Arab League participates in supporting this scientific forum. Supervision and coordination are not confined to host countries only, but they extend to the rest of the participating countries. It is a must that the forum contains practical sciences, documents all participating works, adopts the distinctive ones to exploit them, creates competitive spirit among the participants, develops their scientific abilities, grants promoting incentives to the distinguished participants and activates the role of indigenous associations, organizations and establishments in all Arab countries. Such recommendations will be presented, in this forum, to all Arab countries, especially the participating ones, and to the Arab League in order to prepare for the next one. I hope we would repeat this unique experience, and I ask my children, the constructors of our nation's future, to arm themselves with the weapon of the age, and the key of progress; the weapon of science and knowledge.
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