What makes a nation great? Is it economic wealth? Or military super power across sea, land and air? Or is it the number of Nobel Peace Prizes or Olympic medals?

A nation is nothing more than a collection of people living within a set of physical borders. We can measure the greatness of a nation by seeing the people live there.

What makes people great then? Well, I think it’s not how much money they can make, nor the number of cars or houses they own. But what contributions they have made to their community, to their society. It’s about their generosity. It’s about their ideas, how they changed the world with them, how they made a difference, how they have made profits for the human race, for the next generation.

Have we even tried to make any differences? How hard did we try?

Our ancestors have made many great architecture monuments which we are — as their descendants– able to make many benefits from them. Tourism and its domino effect such as transportation, food industries, lodging, you name it.

Now, what our generation has made that we can offer to our children? Depletion of many natural resources? air and water pollution? Foreign debts?

Ya Rabb, lead us to keep our integrity intact so we can make a difference, make a meaningful contribution and elevate human society to a higher level of coexistence and civilization.