We Need Scholars Not Dollars

WE NEED SCHOLARS NOT DOLLARS

Money, wealth, dollars are dependent on smart knowledge, a cult status of a scholar. It’s not the other way round.
A Chinese proverb says, “Do not tear down the east to repair the west.” Today, I stand in a college known for its perseverance, in a province known for its bravery, in a country known for its talent, its determination. But yet what I see is a race amongst the youth of this wonderful nation to move out, to leave the country, to go abroad, to the U.S. perhaps which is so known as ‘the land of opportunities’. Why so?

Why has a phenomenon such as ‘brain drain’ come into existence? Why do we strive to get into programmes such as the Fulbright scholarships? Why do we want to leave and why is the west readily accepting us?

From raiding the libraries of Alexandria in the 7th century to setting up universities in the 15th and 16th, the west has prospered leaving us in a wake of their trail. They capitalised on our strength — education.

My question is as to where does the present disparity come from? If natural resources were the only factor deciding the significance of a region, then probably the Middle East would have been the ‘land of opportunities.’ But this is not the case, is it? Why, because even with those vast resources we see the Middle East bowing down before the west. They can’t even exploit their own resources without depending on the west and this is because the west holds a much stronger power over them — the power of enlightenment.

In the status quo, the west stands on that pedestal, a position it has gotten through decades and centuries of striving and investment of oneself, whereas we were too busy finding ways to make cheap money.

If you are enlightened, knowledgeable, a scholar, you can harness it into obtaining worldly wealth. Money, wealth, dollars are dependent on smart knowledge, a cult status of a scholar. It’s not the other way round.

It’s true that we do need scholars but not in...