knowing things we cannot do

    IS IT ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT WE CANNOT DO?

    SHOULD WE CELEBRATE WHAT WE KNOW BUT CANNOT DO?

    The just ended National Science and Maths Quiz competition saw a final showdown between Ketasco from the Volta Region, Legon Presec from the Greater Accra Region and Prempeh College from the Ashanti Region. It ended with the latter winning to become 5-time holders of the trophy. Ketasco was happy to have reached this far being the only school from the Volta Region to ever reach the finale as they settled for the 3rd position of the day. 

    This competition has come to stay and many more schools hope to one day emerge winners over their colleagues so they can have the bragging right. Many are those who say the competition gives nothing else apart from the bragging rights and prizes awarded to the contestants. To such people, the competition only demonstrates one of our oldest problems as a people; knowing things we can not do and do not use in real life.

    Why do we continue to do this to ourselves? Is it deliberate, is it a mistake or we are just not there yet? Some believe we are doing our best with the knowledge and that we are creating things with it just not as much as we can and that there is more room for improvement. Others also think we are just fools who don't know what we are doing with ourselves but I beg to differ.

    I think our actions are deliberate. Not deliberate by us but of our ancestors who have put in us an intergenerational tendency to drift towards more good than evil. The ability to choose good over evil slows down our evil thoughts from becoming actions that will harm us in the long run. 

    People by nature will consciously seek until they find that which shall aid their survival and improvement. People as individuals can be silly but only for a while. As a whole, we can only move forward. 

    Studying the causes and effects of global warming support the case of our ancestors and questions the benefits of all the gibberish. Knowing why palm oil is red will not stop us from using it for soup or make us want to use it in developing poisonous chemicals with whatever temporal benefits with a host of negative effects to the environment. A Sub-Saharan African would never have created the atomic bombs. 

    So we will continue learning and studying all the science the west can unearth but we shall also continue to do little or nothing about it since it only leads to more evil. The blood and wisdom of our ancestors run deeper than we think.