Address
delivered at the Honours’ Convocation of the University
of the Southern Caribbean, Maracas, St Joseph, on April
2.
Steven Covey in his book First Things First presents
the multi-dimensional focus on excellence. He says it
requires three competencies—technical, conceptual
and interdependent.
* Technical: the expertise and knowledge and skills
required for the task.
* Conceptual: looking at the big picture; some people
see the leaf but not the tree, some see the tree but
never see the forest. Some see the wave, but they never
see the ocean, some see the ocean, but never see the
horizon, and very few see beyond the horizon.
n Interdependent: the fact that there was a divine design
to make us so that we would appreciate that community
would be based on reciprocity.
Javed Miandad, Pakistani’s cricket celebrity, in
his response to Pakistan’s belated victory, after
they were already booted out of the World Cup, stated
that the consolation victory against Zimbabwe did not
impress him. It showed up enormous luck of resilience.
He said excellence was tested by the ability to perform
under pressure.
Let us examine shooting star Le Bron James of Cleveland
Cavaliers, flying past his agile basketball opponents,
embarrassing them on the road to the ring. Then last
week, Michael Phelps got seven gold medals, breaking
five world records in the process at the World Swimming
Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
International icons are praised, even worshipped, for
achieving out of the “golden spoon” concept.
Helen Keller provides a window into the universe of
excellence. She stated that the greatest blindness is
experienced by people who have perfect eyes but no vision.
Joseph displayed excellence and received promotion in
the palatial residence of Potiphar—Minister of
National Security. Excellence for him required effort—sacrificial
effort and the diligent pursuit of his dream. But this
story demonstrates the fact that the road to excellence
is not paved with milk and honey but paved with obstacles—paranoid
brothers, an aristocratic prostitute, a butler with
a memory injected with expediency, and the list goes
on.
But think about two young, excellent scientists. The
first is Mary Masterman, 17 years old. Two week ago,
she revolutionised spectrographic fingerprinting, tracking
the operations of molecules. She has reduced the cost
from $100,000 to approximately $1,000 and won a scholarship
for $100,000.
Here it is important to introduce the concept of beyond
horizon thinking—planning to break records, to
set new standards, to defeat the disease called “neveritis.”
Who would have thought that you could make paper from
the filth of elephants? Well, Thusita Ranaisinghe believed
it could happen and has succeed in developing a paper
base from the dung of elephants, so he could support
an elephant orphanage.
Please beware of shortcuts to excellence. Justin Gatlin
is a classic example. This Afro-American, haunted and
hounded by Jamaican athletic luminary Asafa Powell,
faked excellence and went on a narcotic safari—he
has since been disgraced and suspended from the sport.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg of dishonesty
that is freezing international sport—baseball,
weightlifting, and football.
Excellence must include the ability to assess, appreciate
and accelerate the transformation required to move an
individual, group, organisation to the next level. Excellence
must include a passion for justice.
The G8 assortment of developed countries you must know
about, but you should also examine G3—South Africa,
India, and Brazil. This follows close on the heels of
what former economic adviser to the UN, Jeffrey Sachs,
states about exploring weapons of mass salvation rather
than hallucinating on weapons of mass destruction.
Look at the issue of energy consumption and water consumption.
In the USA, a person uses 50 times as much water as
one in Central Africa but the highest consumption of
oil, wood, coal, gas per person in Luxembourg is 100
times of the lowest—Bangladesh.
But I want to touch on a vital point: increase in higher
education must also mean an increased involvement in
community building and transformation. This should be
accompanied by a proclivity for research and development,
particularly in areas begging and bawling for attention—Aids
and STDs, obesity, teenage pregnancy, pollution, the
search for alternatives in the energy sector, teenage
crime and violence.
The value of research: ethanol from corn production
is now making a significant intervention in international
racing events. In the US, projected production this
year is 12.5 billion bushels. Then there is the UK biodiesel
plant using rapeseed oil, soybean oil and palm, all
part of the battle against emission of greenhouse gases
and the phenomenon called global warming and the implications
for climate change.
“In
June the FDA approved a vaccine to protect against cervical
cancer, the second most common cancer in women. The
vaccine, called Gardasil, immunises against four of
the most prevalent strains of the human papillomavirus
(HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection
and the cause of 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases.
“Because
the vaccine is most effective when administered before
girls become sexually active, a government committee
recommended that it be given routinely to girls ages
11 and 12—which immediately triggered cries of
alarm from pro-abstinence groups that feared doing so
would encourage promiscuity.”
There is a new field called astrotourism—glimpsing
eclipses, meteoric showers and comets. One of the pilot
projects organised by a company, Travel Quest, went
to Libya to see last year’s solar eclipse, soon
after the country opened to western tourists—another
sign of Gadaffi’s meltdown.
All who wish to keep on the road to excellence understand
an important principle called the continuum. While we
are nearing the achievement of one goal, we must be
steadfastly planning to achieve the next goal. This
energises the chain reaction. Nick Vujicic is a classic
example of this principle. Born without legs and hands,
Nick is writing his second book, has his first degree,
and is a national motivational speaker.
Consequently, do not forget this proverb: “It is
not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of
the fight in the dog.” You are more than the colour
of your eyes, the texture of your hair, your nose and
the branding of your clothes.
Never forget what one of the richest woman, Christiana
Onassis, has said: “Money can’t buy happiness,
and the greatest proof of that is my family.” In
all your achieving, seek wisdom, the wisdom that comes
from God! And remember what Solomon said in Proverbs
1:5-7:
5. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning;
and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
6. To understand a proverb, and the interpretation;
the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
