{UAH} The African Executive | 21st Century Africa Must Increase its Intellectual Capital or Perish

The following story illustrates the difference between information and wisdom. Twelve hundred years ago, in the city of Baghdad, lived a genius named Al-Khwarizmi, who was one of the fathers of algebra. In fact, the word algebra comes from the title of his book Al-jabr, which for centuries was the standard mathematics textbook. Al-Khwarizmi taught in an institution of learning called the House of Wisdom, which was the center of new ideas during Islam's golden age of science. To this day we computer scientists honor Al-Khwarizmi when we use the word algorithm, which is our attempt to pronounce his name.

One day, Al-Khwarizmi was riding a camel laden down with algebraic manuscripts to the holy city of Mecca. He saw three young men crying at an oasis. 'My children, why are you crying?' he enquired.

'Our father, upon his death, instructed us to divide his 17 camels as follows: 'To my oldest son I leave half of my camels, my second son shall have one-third of my camels, and my youngest son is to have one-ninth of my camels.''

'What, then, is your problem?' Al-Khwarizmi asked.

'We have been to school and learned that 17 is a prime number that is, divisible only by one and itself and cannot be divided by two or three or nine. Since we love our camels, we cannot divide them exactly,' they answered.

Al-Khwarizmi thought for a while and asked, 'Will it help if I offer my camel and make the total 18?'

'No, no, no,' they cried. 'You are on your way to Mecca, and you need your camel.'

'Go ahead, have my camel, and divide the 18 camels amongst yourselves,' he said, smiling.

So the eldest took one-half of 18 or nine camels. The second took one-third of 18 or six camels. The youngest took one-ninth of 18 or two camels. After the division, one camel was left: Al-Khwarizmi's camel, as the total number of camels divided among the sons (nine plus six plus two) equalled 17.

Then Al-Khwarizmi asked, 'Now, can I have my camel back?'

These young men had information about prime numbers, but they lacked the wisdom to use the information effectively. It is the manipulation of information to accomplish seemingly impossible purposes that defines true wisdom.

http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=8337&magazine=544

Brian M. Kwesiga

President and CEO,

Ugandan North American Association - UNAA

972.415.6372 | www.unaa.org | "United We Stand"