Dear Editor,
There seems to be disproportionately greater favour being shown to the commercial and financial sectors as it relates to career opportunities, sponsorships, training, and secondary school performances in business-related fields, compared to those of the sciences. This is not just only an unfortunate trend, but it is a dangerous one. This is not much about the danger from short-changing our advancement as a nation, as it is for our moral development. Allow me to elucidate this point.
I once told a young lady trained in accounts a joke about how one of the earliest men to have smoked tobacco in Europe, centuries ago, was doused with water by his butler, who believed him to be on fire. She quickly commented on the earning potential of tobacco in such an untapped market. If she missed the joke, then only the Lord knows what else she would overlook in making her "economic calculations"; perhaps limitations such as moral boundaries, the disregard of which, led to the worldwide economic crisis which started in 2008.
Conversely, one who is more exposed to at least one science subject, through training or personal interest, is more likely to be in tune with natural, physical, or biological limitations, and therefore more accepting of the true potential of such realms and their Creator. So, although we appreciate Rev Ronald Thwaites and the education ministry's noble attempts to rescue us from falling performances in the sciences with incentives of scholarships for educators pursuing these fields, I fear that our waning "moral appetite" will continue to be subject to the places "where the money is", leaving us with more of the "quality" of people who we are increasingly seeing in our society -- hustlers bereft of respect for the simplest of laws. Perhaps the church needs to look into this and help its once 'nemesis' and brother: the sciences.
Andre O Sheppy
Norwood, St James
astrangely@outlook.com
Our waning appetite for science
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There seems to be disproportionately greater favour being shown to the commercial and financial sectors as it relates to career opportunities, sponsorships, training, and secondary school performances in business-related fields, compared to those of the sciences. This is not just only an unfortunate trend, but it is a dangerous one. This is not much about the danger from short-changing our advancement as a nation, as it is for our moral development. Allow me to elucidate this point.
I once told a young lady trained in accounts a joke about how one of the earliest men to have smoked tobacco in Europe, centuries ago, was doused with water by his butler, who believed him to be on fire. She quickly commented on the earning potential of tobacco in such an untapped market. If she missed the joke, then only the Lord knows what else she would overlook in making her "economic calculations"; perhaps limitations such as moral boundaries, the disregard of which, led to the worldwide economic crisis which started in 2008.
Conversely, one who is more exposed to at least one science subject, through training or personal interest, is more likely to be in tune with natural, physical, or biological limitations, and therefore more accepting of the true potential of such realms and their Creator. So, although we appreciate Rev Ronald Thwaites and the education ministry's noble attempts to rescue us from falling performances in the sciences with incentives of scholarships for educators pursuing these fields, I fear that our waning "moral appetite" will continue to be subject to the places "where the money is", leaving us with more of the "quality" of people who we are increasingly seeing in our society -- hustlers bereft of respect for the simplest of laws. Perhaps the church needs to look into this and help its once 'nemesis' and brother: the sciences.
Andre O Sheppy
Norwood, St James
astrangely@outlook.com
Our waning appetite for science
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