I was just looking at this guy's web page and he was conducting a training for BizTalk Server 2006 for $3000/student! Whoa. May be it was worth the price, I don't know how good this guy is. But it made me realize how much the developed world, where ideas and knowledge have worth, respects the knowledge and insight a person has to offer. The time offered by this person is extremely valuable. They don't take this knowledge for granted, or may be they do but in this case they don't. It is entirely possible that I am overestimating the value, probably becaue I don't know much about it.
Although, in my country as well, I see that people of the profession whose knowledge is in demand are paid very well. But what I don't see is, respect for this knowledge. Some people may immediately disagree because, in their experience, they themselves respect knowledgeable people of their own field. So, why this statement? Actually, respecting knowledgeable people of your own field does not mean that you are in general respecting knowledge as a virtue. What our own people, who are at this point of time at a lower rung of the knowledge ladder, respect is perception of knowledge.
The best example to verify this claim would be, to see the state of intellectual property in the developing world. For us, this is only a term that means, nothing. In a world, where ideas have respect, intellectual property means respecting and honouring someone's knowledge which is the result of intellectual effort. My use of the word "Intellectual" property is not in the legal sense, hence, the quotes. When I say "Intellectual" property, I mean the ideas and information one mind has to offer to another. The only way that people can learn to appreciate this value would be that their minds become mature enough to understand this concept, and that takes time and education.
Once, the vice chancellor of Karachi University Mr. Pirzada Qasim came to our college (FAST) for a lecture. After the lecture and public Q&A was over, the faculty and teaching assistants (which includes me) had a chat with him. He said that our nation was the enemy of knowledge! Let me clarify, there could be three kinds of people: One, who respect and further knowledge and its bearers, second, those who are indifferent and give a damn what knowledge means, and third, those who hate it and make effort to undermine people of first category and promote and appreciate those of the second category. According to him, we are in the last category. My estimate is that we are in the second right now.
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