Rasha Abdulla, associate professor and past Chair of Journalism and Mass Communications at the American University of Cairo highlights the crucial role of youth in building trust
Rasha Abdulla speaks during the June 2016 Board Meeting As a guest speaker at the trust-focused
June 2016 Board Meeting, Abdulla spoke to Salzburg Global about the value of trust in the public sphere and the importance of cultivating it in younger generations, particularly in regions where trust has been diminished due to restrictive governments.“Trust is a very important value and it is interesting to consider the way in which it is perceived by different populations and the manner in which those perceptions affect society, whether in a positive or negative way. It is a multilayered topic and I thought it was very interesting to try delve into some of these complexities during our discussions."As a professor at the American University in Cairo, Abdulla discussed trust in the context of the Middle East, a region that has been witness to many oppressive regions whose restrictions and lack of transparency have largely diminished trust among the populaces. “One of the issues is how do you build trust and who do you trust. We have for the most part had many oppressive regimes all over the Middle East that you cannot really blindly trust. So, you have to be very critical of what they do, and you must think carefully about the information that they are offering and how the media is covering it – asking, what is really going on beyond what you see in television and newspapers.”Critical to the discussion of building trust in any society, particularly those where trust has been diminished due to oppressive regimes, are the perceptions of the country’s youth. “Egypt in particular is a very young country, over fifty percent of the population is under 25 years of age. We must think about who these young people trust and consider how this trust was built. Similarly, how do we contribute to building future trust in order to create more robust societal organizations and systems that can carry the society forward?”“As I discussed in the panel, it is important that organizations trust young people, rather than those in power. Trust where the future is, and it lies with young people. So, teach the youth to build both political and societal institutions and to plan for fifty years from now. These lessons are essential to building a better society, but these are lessons that the older generations may have little experience with.”