A beautiful mind visits UAE

Kareem Shaheen

• Last Updated: November 05. 2009 5:27PM UAE / November 5. 2009 1:27PM GMT

John Forbes Nash Jr, the renowned mathematician and economist, has won a Nobel Prize, written ground-breaking algorithms and beaten paranoid schizophrenia. But before this week, he had little knowledge of the UAE.

“It’s very remarkable. I had not been really aware of the developments, the cultural and economic developments in this part of the world,” Dr Nash told The National.

That changed when he attended the Festival of Thinkers, a three-day gathering of Nobel laureates and intellectuals from around the world. The conference, held in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, ended yesterday.

Prof Nash won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1994 for his work on game theory. His battle with paranoid schizophrenia was the subject of the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, which won four Academy Awards.

He said that while the UAE’s economic development was impressive, he hoped cultural and educational development would keep pace.

On the first day, Prof Nash, took part in a panel on the world after the recession.

Yesterday, he discussed the economy, and referenced the Old Testament to make his point that governments such as the UAE’s should prepare for downturns through wise spending in the boom years.

“In terms of government planning, I’m reminded of something with a cultural connection,” he said.

“The story of the Israelites going into Egypt: Joseph is there and he becomes an adviser to Pharoah. And then comes a time when Pharoah has a dream. He sees seven fat cows and seven thin cows and doesn’t know how to interpret the dream.”

Joseph’s interpretation held the key to good economic sense, Dr Nash said.

“There will come seven years of prosperity, but then there will come seven lean years,” he said. “And you can prepare for this by storing some of the grain harvested during the lean years.

“So governments can prepare for the times of recession and depression during the time of prosperity.”

Dr Nash, 81, speaks openly about the mental illness he was diagnosed with in the 1950s, and said he hoped his battle had given other people hope they could cope with mental illnesses.

“I did lose the pattern of logical or rational thinking for a period of time,” he said. “[Sometimes] I would return for a while to rational thinking, and I’d even do some mathematics for publication. But then I renounced the irrational thinking and I came back. I became a sane, logical thinker.”

Dr Nash no longer needs medication. But his son Johnny, who is in his 50s, is battling mental illness as well. He is in the “middle phase of mental illness, and he’s taking some medicine”, Dr Nash said.

“The time might come when he shifts out of it ... but there is no assurance.”

Johnny’s illness was one of the reasons Dr Nash and his wife, who attended the event with him, were still together, he said.

“Our history has had its complications. We were divorced for a long period of time, but we came back together partly because of Johnny,” he said.

His relationship with his wife and his battle with illness were the subject of a controversial portrayal in A Beautiful Mind, which starred Russell Crowe as Dr Nash.

Critics argued the film was not an accurate reflection of Dr Nash’s life, but he said that did not bother him terribly.

“It’s not an accurate thing, but it’s not required to be,” he said. “It’s a type of art in which they can base something on something else. So they create their own art the director, the screen writer, the producers. And it was appreciated in terms of Hollywood awards.

“It’s just not a true history.”

kshaheen@thenational.ae