Swedish Institute of Alexandria
Thanks, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Special Rapporteur, and distinguished delegates for the great inspiration.
My name is Jack Jendo. I'm from Beirut, Lebanon, and I belong to the Assyrian indigenous people of
Mesopotamia, coming with the Swedish Institute of Alexandria. I rely on the youth influencing for
peace-making and ecumenical activity in the Middle East, in addition to being a digital media and
business intelligence expert. The Middle East, without its minorities, would be much more dangerous
than it is. From my historical experience with sequential genocides and ethnic-religious cleansing of
my people, I can tell that it's just a matter of time, and the minorities will be in diaspora. And of
course, it won't be a diaspora anymore. It is not an easy situation. But for youth, nothing is
impossible. To respect time and go directly to the basic issues and some innovative and attainable
recommendations with hope and love to make the first step of change. The issues: one, the limited
access to education is weakening the power of new generations to develop and improve their
environment. It is pointing the ambitious to diaspora. Two, a curriculum that spreads hate on
religious, social, and cultural levels, instead of delivering positive knowledge, could be almost the
main reason behind wars. My recommendations: in a world of technology and digital media, we have
a big opportunity to move toward digital transformation in education and make it available to anyone
without limitation, and especially minorities with limited resources and space. Knowledge is the key.
Let's use it. It would be a smart and nice approach, the second recommendation, for any of the
governments in the Middle East to replace the minority label by the group name itself. In addition,
start teaching their history, language, and culture in the education curriculums. With all my love and
hope to make a good follow up on this forum, [INAUDIBLE] recommendations from all over the world
and thank you.