Advanced cities form civilisation indexes by which they measure the progress made in this or that aspect, monitor the commitment of inhabitants by these indexes and spread and raise the awareness of the importance of these indexes, according which the officials and persons in-charge in these cities can measure accurately the level of improvement that has been made in various fields.
Beijing, the capital city of China, applies these indexes accurately; it has announced recently that the “civilisation Index” of the city rose from 65.21 per cent in 2005 to 73.38 per cent in 2007. This index includes a number of values that all countries have agreed upon as cultural values; such as dumping garbage on the streets, which decreased at the above mentioned index from 5.3 per cent in 2005 to 2.7 per cent in 2007, overtaking queues at shops, private and government establishments — where customers have to line up to have their transactions cleared — which decreased from 6.0 per cent in 2006 to 1.5 per cent in 2007 and spitting on the roads, which decreased from 4.9 per cent in 2006 to 2.35 per cent in 2007.
The indexes are no longer only monitoring the movement of trading at capital markets or the material values, rather indexes have become cultural also, reflecting the progress and development of people and how they are aware of the importance of adherence to many standards and principles that aim to build correct practices.
These indexes of civilisation are a sign of progress and development. They represent the cultures and civilisation of people. Advanced cities embark through their municipalities on developing and enhancing these cultural indexes annually through many campaigns that promote the adherence to cultural values and regulations that stress the important of not infringing on the right of others and orderly behaviour, starting from dumping garbage at the specified dumps to not smoking in public places and meeting others with a smile.
It would be very appropriate to take lessons from some of these cultural experiments and apply them in the Sultanate to make all residents accustomed to these values and help our people to adhere to certain cultural indexes. Most of these values were rooted here a long time ago before other people and nations introduced them. The true religion of Islam invites all to the adherence to the superior and pure values and principles. But apart from people who have committed themselves to these values and principles there are others who have to be pushed to adhere to these values by the competent authorities, such as municipalities and regulators.
We have to look forward to establish some of these cultural values and activate what we already have by raising our awareness of these principles and values. These methods can go a long way in improving the civilisation we have and safeguard it from decay and destruction.