DAVOS, SWITZERLAND — Articulation of thoughts is the forte of good writers, but poets and songwriters take brevity to the next level. American rapper and songwriter Will.i.am uses one word – greed – to describe the menace in the world we live in.
Speaking to TRENDS in Davos earlier this year on the sidelines of the Annual Summit of the World Economic Forum, the musician and the winner of seven Grammy awards see greed as biggest problem in the world. “People are greedy for money and power and greed of some fuels suffering for many around the world where we see several folks left behind. We have a situation where very few people who have everything and we have many who have very little.”
Giving a metaphor of water, the founder and president of i.am Angel Foundation says there is the one who owns the water and use it to swim in it while many others around him go thirsty and this is simple inhumane and there is no conversation around that because the one who owns the water applies whatever means possible to protect his water, and that’s the big issue, he says. “There are several areas of drought, and I am using water as a metaphor for wealth.”
But the renowned musician is not depressed with the situation. “I am too focused to be depressed because my goal is to prepare kids coming from this metaphorical drought where there is lack of opportunities to progress. Our world is changing very fast and if we don’t act now the digital divide will be catastrophic.”
He worries about the youngsters in the developing markets, people living in the underserved communities. “Someone has to be held responsible for under-developed and underserved communities.”
In his message to the young generation in the Arab world, Will.i.am says he would like to see the Arab youth compete, upskill, prepare for the new world and discipline themselves.
Answering a question about his passion, he says that he is focused on the inner cities [a US euphemism for poor neighborhoods] for the past 12 years and is working toward developing skills of youngsters to bridge the growing digital divide. “The skill sets of youngsters in the inner cities in several countries around the world do not match with the hyper-technical future world and no one is working to prepare them for the future where jobs will require skills based on computer science. Most schools have playground but very few have computer science labs and robotics.”
Speaking about his philanthropic initiative on science education, the rapper said: “We started with 65 students in 2008, now we have grown that impact to 12,000 student in LA with robotics and computer science with kids as young as 9 years of age. We see these kids go through colleges such as Dartmouth and Brown University very well equipped with STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Technology] subjects. Once ready, we expect this young kids to become job creators, establish future-ready businesses because in the in the years to come both conventional work such as taxi driving and white collar jobs are at risk from generative artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
The charismatic singer ends with a quote from his life experience saying: “You can pay attention to your nightmare and ignore your dreams or you pay attention to you dreams to wash away your nightmares.”