THE COST OF IGNORANCE

"If you think to get knowledge is expensive, try ignorance."

Anita, 11, is the joy of her parents and her sibling. She's loved by many people she had made contact with. She has a kind and loving heart, always eager to be of help to people. Last week Monday, the civic education teacher in her school taught her class the basics of crossing the road instructing them  to adhere to the principle. Today, she missed the school bus and so she had to walk to school, about 15 minutes. She gets on the road, remembers what she was taught on crossing roads:
"Look left, look right, look left again; when you're sure there's no vehicle coming, cross" and "Always use the Zebra Crossing whenever you find it". She sees a Zebra Crossing sign, stands by it, vehicles wait for her to cross. Majestically, she walks; but as she approaches the other end of the road, she's hit by a yeye danfo driver, driving on high speed. The driver knows there is something (Zebra Crossing) there, he travels the route regularly, but had been of the opinion that those white and black lines on the road are Tom-Tom adverts. Anita died on the spot. The sad news spreads leaving many people devastated.

If you think to get knowledge is expensive, try ignorance. In the above scenario, the yeye driver tried ignorance (he didn’t bother to know about the white and black lines), the cost: Anita's life and the life of her loved ones he put in various degrees of emotional breakdown. (let's numerate the people involved: Anita's parents and sibling, 3; neighbours in the house she lived, 12; people on the street she resided, 300; her fellow students in class, 23; other students of her school, 150; teaching and non-teaching staff, 40; total figure is 528 people. Under real life condition, it is not possible that she's loved by all. So say 20% of the people don't love her and 25% are indifferent. Therefore, the number of people the driver successfully put in sorrow is 290.)

Lack of knowledge on issues have devastating effects. For that reason, I put it upon myself from my tender age to know as much as is possible to know. I would watch TV programs, listen to radio, communicate with people, ask questions, read from school books, newspapers, handbills, posters on walls and old newspapers and magazines converted to paper for selling akara, puff-puff, popcorn and the likes. As I grew older, the internet came in handy: the quest to know more intensified. Till date and in every second, every minute, every hour of every day, I am open to the psychological result of perception and reasoning: I continually seek to know what I don't know and re-know what I already know.

The world we live in is filled, to a great extent, with ups and downs, but simple knowledge of how to do stuffs would go a long way in making it a better place. To get knowledge is, indeed, expensive, but the cost of ignorance is more.

photo credit: bigthink.com