The soul-searching refugee author who wants an Earth Government to end war

That Camcab driver Ageed Murad could have written one book is in itself astonishing. That there are effectively three books in Me, You and the Next Generations is testament to his vision, intellectual restlessness and unquenchable curiosity.

The one-time refugee from an unnamed war-torn land arrived in the UK in 2013, knowing no English and having no knowledge of the country that was to become his home. He worked hard – and continues to do so.

He took on a driving role at Camcab, then became a personal trainer at the city’s Pure gym and now, with gyms closed, he is back driving for the popular city taxi company. Along the way he’s acquired British citizenship, and studied some more. His goal is to study physics at the University of Cambridge: he’s got the GCSEs and now needs to complete his A-levels.

Part one of Me, You and the Next Generations concerns Ageed’s upbringing. He describes with searing honesty the difficulties of his childhood. His father is violent towards him from a very young age, right through to his late teens. And then, just as he is finding his balance in his early 20s, no longer in effect of the brutality of his father, arrives the brutality of war.

He flees his homeland and vows not just to make a better life for himself, but a better life for the human race. An end to war has become his mission – an end to the ceaseless background of destruction and murderous death which is humanity’s tragedy and, to achieve this, he introduces a new possibility, explored in the second section: a global Earth Government.

The novel and quite extraordinary challenges of setting up a global governmental system foresee a world “where all the 7.8 billion human beings currently living on planet Earth, and all future generations, can not only survive for longer, but can also attain an exceptional quality of life never before experienced”.

Finally, part three offers Ageed’s own theories of physics, which challenge some of the basic precepts of physics and hold the possibility of new scientific discoveries.

The first part was so terribly honest and at times upsetting that I felt compelled to ask Ageed why he had gone into the level of detail he had to describe the abuse and pain he experienced as a child.

“I believed that if such an idea – an Earth Government – were to be accepted and adopted by the world’s nations or governments, it would be only if people trusted me and sensed the genuineness and pureness of the mind, heart and soul beyond it, and in the work that I’m ready to put and devote my life for,” he says. “So I intended to focus on myself only and show my real self; how I grew up, what my experience in life is, what my dreams in life are, how I think, how I see the world or what my vision for the world is, and what my real and true inner self is, or heart and mind and soul.”

He remains in contact with his family, albeit his revelations have caused some consternation.

“Now that we have the internet,” he says, “I remain in contact with my siblings and my mother and my father even. In the wider community – including my relatives – they don’t accept it, they see this [form of self-expression] as something weird, it’s something new to them.

“It’s hard to speak about these things with them because it puts my father in a very sensitive situation. It was very painful actually. Now I understand it but I am a completely different person.

“I came from nothing – there were no opportunities in my life. My life was black, but now I am much stronger, physically and mentally.

“And my father knows what he did was wrong. I’m still in touch with him because I know he didn’t mean to do that – people were like that, they pushed their children.

“Now there is a war there, and there is a reason for that – people don’t have an open mind, they keep fighting each other.

“It is also a global issue, but something was not healthy in the culture. They are very nice people but when it comes to helping each other gently they don’t know how to do it – they kill each other.

“Even my father, he didn’t understand it. Deep inside he’s a good man. But everything is fine. It is life. I grew up and everything is changed.”

In part two of Me, You and the Next Generations, the author presents an initial thesis on how a global government might look.

Ageed makes suggestions about structure and composition, and it’s a brave and thought-provoking treatise. He proposes a list of the top 60 members of this world government, and it’s fascinating to consider who might make a good global ruler – so fascinating I discussed it with family and friends, and ‘Pick the top 10 people you’d have on your Earth Government’ has become a hot topic, with discussions and even a Zoom conference to present your choices and discuss others’ picks.

However, while Amal Clooney is on Ageed’s list, along with Jacinda Ardern, Leonardo di Caprio, Michelle Obama and Sir David Attenborough, there’s no representatives of indigenous populations such as Native Americans or aboriginals, and very little African or Asian representation. Why is this?

“This is because my knowledge of the people or leaders in the world was very limited. Remember just a couple of years ago I was literally like Mowgli, knowing nothing, even no English language or anything about politics or the way the current world works...

“I provided my theories having no previous background in physics.”

So how did he pick his list?

“When I started writing the book I had not a single one of them in my mind. I picked them gradually during the two years of writing the book. I wanted to be very careful, choose the right individuals or representative from all nations as much as possible, and the result was my list of 60 people. I didn’t want to choose representatives that I don’t know of, or without having an idea about their personalities.”

The final section, about physics, is challenging – and fascinating. Ageed suggests that the Big Bang Theory initiates existence, and what we call time exists within existence – time is actually vibrational activities fully contracted to existence. There are some practical tests and accompanying equations to demonstrate the theory, plus a new look at quantum entanglement.

Ageed believes that pretty soon there will be new discoveries “that will provide evidence as to why an electron can behave as both a wave and a particle”, and this will allow communication at speeds faster than the speed of light.

This capability will dramatically accelerate our ability “to find other, habitable planets for the sake of the generations of the future” – useful because “sooner or later the Earth will no longer be a healthy and safe environment in which to live”.

This might all sound a bit out-there – it is – but it’s all wrapped up in Ageed’s instinctive ability as a storyteller. And while he’s biding his time, waiting for the world to get up to speed, he’s kicking on with a second book – “about human beings but it’s a completely different book” – and working towards a place at the world-famous university.

And helping to visualise the world’s first Earth Government.

- Me, You and the Next Generations is produced by Ageed Murad Publishing in conjunction with Writersworld, and is available for sale at 3,500 bookshops, internet book retailers and libraries in more than 100 countries.