Gambling with the truth

Today I start a new column series; having written the last one for almost two years without favour or fear. Or, at least I tried. I am not sure how long I will continue to write such columns but for now, it is business as usual. The new series I choose to call ‘Truth Matters\’.

Frankly truth matters in all affairs of life; even if what matters is not considered the truth. Allow me therefore to reflect on the complex subject of the now popular subject of sports betting: What is the truth about any kind of betting and all such probability/chance matters in the affairs of life?

For the religious types, all gambling in any form is considered a sin or taboo. Therefore my question to all concerned is, could not taking a second or third wife also be such a gamble?

For that matter, is not marrying also a probable gamble, or is it only always ordained by God Almighty? Or, it is simply reduced to a phenomenon of chance?

If marriages are made in heaven; as Christians believe, then how does one explain any divorce, however justified? Is then marriage not really a gamble in which both partners simply lost; which explains divorces?

Allow me to become even more pointed. Is not sex within a marriage and without the use of contraceptives also such a gamble? How can it therefore also be God-ordained? Is all of life than simply chance?

Why then do we call some \”bets\” a gamble, and others a \”God-ordained appointment, or a spiritual phenomenon?\”

All politicians often blame God for the things they cannot explain rationally, or when they lose in a gamble with the natural order of things. They, like most of my professors, do not always profess the truth.

The media too is not too different. Often it assumes the so-called role of an objective professional but often without sufficient accountability or true credibility about truth.

Most professionals today may profess sidelining much truth considerations. How else did we get the global economic crisis or oil spills?

Academe historically started as ‘the college of like-minded peers and colleagues\’ who resolved matters with the help of modern evidence-based science.

Today, such truths are often very diverse and pluralistic with no room for absolute truths; for most professors and much of academe.

Monkey see, monkey do; as also with the media, and politicians. Then we wonder why we live in a jungle.

Fourth estate

I am personally interested in truth matters for the fourth estate. Some have called this effort the fourth arm of governance or an approach to good governance. I too am interested in how to run a good government with a written and well documented constitution, even if an imperfect one.

We must try and seek truth without the skewed eyes of professors with blurred vision, or blind media-types, or half-witted teachers.

Therefore as my colleagues and I at UCSI University begin our Faculty of Economics and Policy Science (FEPS) with the promise of three specialisations in the field of knowledge of economics and the economics of knowledge; the sports betting issue can be very real and rather complex policy challenge, and a good place to start.

Way back in 1988, I wrote a paper which was tabled at plenary session of the PA Theory Network meeting of the American Society for Public Administration or ASPA which I entitled, rather naively then: ‘Stories Teachers Profess; why they may be better than science!\’ I still believe in the thesis though.

Teachers vs professors

Why do I think teachers have a better life-story than many professors? There is one simple and practical reason. Teachers live by what they teach and preach; professors often may not or do not or cannot.

Professors are called to profess the truth they know. They often claim a field of knowledge and quite often identify themselves through their content.

One of my most outstanding teachers, Professor SH Nasr, can name and claim three fields of knowledge; whether philosophy, science, or the religion of Islam. He is recognised for this knowledge of multiple fields and was the first oriental to be invited to give the Gifford Lecture at the University of Edinburgh in 1981.

His classic thesis on the three subjects is called ‘Knowledge and the Sacred\’.

There are many others, not of such fame but who also qualify as teachers, teaching us the little truths they do know, and often live by. I count among them two who helped and shaped me through my doctoral course and journey.

They are Peter B Vaill and Jerry B Harvey. From Peter I learned all about leadership under whitewater conditions and how to \”manage and give maximum space for true and sincere learners and seekers.\”

With Jerry I learnt about absolute standards about right and wrong and how not to collude with anyone taking ‘trips to Abilene.\’ He had God-like standards for writing. I never could meet his standards; although I promised him I would try to by age 65.

At FEPS in UCSI we hope to encourage learning and will teach students who come for our Masters course, simple definitions of problem-solving for policy resolution.

Head and heart

Allow me then to apply my head and heart to the problem of sports betting. I have never betted in sports or any other place as a practice; except for the two or three times I went to Genting Highlands; the last of which was when I took my wife there and told her go in and spend some money for the experience.

My son even now plays poker while on campus in the US and he tells me he plays it to train his mind to be strategic and analytical. I trust him.

When then does poker or sports gambling become really wrong? Like with any addiction, it becomes wrong when it has an addictive control over the behaviour of individuals.

Is such addiction limited to only betting? Is not smoking also an addiction? Can sex become an addiction? Can drinks, even of the teh tarik kind become an addiction? Can not politics become an addiction?

I think so; an addiction is when a human being loses control over his desires or wants and use others to satisfy his passion.

Therefore, what is the best way to control or modify such an addiction? By denial of access of their craving needs? I am not convinced that this is always the best way.

I hear the drinking problem is as bad in Saudi Arabia as anywhere else. I hear rich tycoons have built-in bars which are camouflaged with beautiful walled cabinets adorning beautiful original paintings.

But, apparently they are also the first to \”disrobe\” and become drinkers of their liquor in their first class cabins in-flight. It is their God-given freedom, I presume.

Therefore, I am always a democrat at heart, at least most of the time. I believe in the dignity of man ascribed by God Almighty. That dignity includes the freedom of the will and the freedom of conscience. Such do not need external policing but real spiritual values training and value building from young.

Such value learning cultures depend upon teachers of all kinds-whether at the home, or in schools, or in religious classes, or in the community, or finally in university.

When all these systems fail then we run straight into trouble. Seeking to curtail addictions when they are full blown may be too late. May God help all of us to be responsible and accountable for our own lives.