If bribery can encourage a person to be a first class student, then bribery should be employed.
Such 'bribery' is standard in academic and other institutions in the name of inspiring excellence.Scholarship and the making of money are often mutually exclusive.
Scholarship, whether in the humanities or the sciences, often requires long hours, at times years or even a lifetime of work, and even at its completion, there might be no direct material reward to anybody from that work.
Isaac Newton's example is instructive, a lifelong bachelor who interacted as little as possible with others for many years as he gestated his most productive creations, a level of concentration that might not have possible if not for the comfort provided by his professorship at Cambridge, having started school there as a poor student who worked as a servant to other students, if I remember well, creations which had no financial value at the time of development, but which today, in terms of the laws of motion and his work on gravity, are central to space exploration and all work in mechanics, to the best of my knowledge.
It took Immanuel Kant ten years to build his mature philosophical system, publishing practically nothing during that period, and the resulting texts demanding the most diligent attention to comprehend, but that work is a cornerstone of modern Western thought, its disciplinary expressions and the institutions that cultivate those disciplines, a level of focus made possible by the terms of Kant's professorship at Konigsberg.
Harvard has a scholarship meant to free selected students do anything they want within a one year period. The list of names of these students over the years, such as T.S.Eliot, is a listing of some of the most illustrious names in Western cultural history.
The huge global cultural and economic impact generated by Western scholarship and research within and beyond academia more than justifies the monies poured into these establishments, although more needs to be done, with so much of the US's budget, for example, going into arms.
For stellar academic and research performance, you need serious money.
A solid academic library alone is not cheap anywhere in the world, and even the best endowed libraries might not have all the strategic literature you need.
Continents like Europe and North America will always attract top intellectual and other creative figures because of their academic and other research resources, their liberal cultures and efficient services, and this attraction will feed into funding for universities and research centres, into money spent by students, scholars, scientists and tourists on the local economy- housing, food, transport etc, these being the least of possibilities, along with the direct effect of scientific, technological and artistic initiatives. .
Its important to beware of distractions but I have never seen such a pedestrian advice as that given by lawmakers of a nation to a stellar student while telling him 'we have no money to give you'.
thanks
toyin
On 25 March 2016 at 16:55, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:
If that's the full story then the ogas should be indicted and arraigned before the Aziz and charged with cruelty, for advising such an excellent student about money and not giving him any. But for a surety they must have assured him of funding/ a scholarship/ stipendium/ grant for anything that he would like to do in the future , as that is surely the point of having such prize giving and honours ceremonies , to encourage and reward excellence, not mediocrity. To give tangible rewards not just stiff moral sermons about wine and women and how money corrupts and can corrupt absolutely. In my opinion a hefty cash prize would be a very good incentive for a poor boy ( or even a rich one) to study harder. Perhaps, the members of the house of reps were afraid or were being cautious about rewarding excellence by awarding cash prizes lest such prizes be interpreted or equated with the giving of bribes to encourage students – you can bet that there are those who if they only could buy a degree or two with some extra money at their disposal
N.B. Even Nobel Prizes are sizeable rewards of cash…
On Thursday, 24 March 2016 20:52:27 UTC+1, Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:i hope its not trueso, with all that pomp, all he got was verbal encouragement?is money not vital for most creative developments?why cant they use that as their own guidance instead of the massive moneys they are described as being paid?The reps should have funded him to do anything he wants with his life.im not pleased with the statement 'We don't have money to give you, but what we are going to do is not only intended to inspire you, but to encourage other students.'On 24 March 2016 at 19:05, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <oluwas...@gmail.com> wrote:---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alukoro Agbaye kaka...@gmail.com [Edo_Global] <Edo_G...@yahoogroups.com>
Date: 24 March 2016 at 17:40
Subject: Edo_Global. Beware of money, women and alcohol, Dogara advises UNILAG record-breaking graduate, as Reps honour him (Photos)
To: Edo_G...@yahoogroups.com
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