THE DAMAGING CULTURE OF FREE THINGS 1

Long time ago, I was called to speak to a group of people on a topic called Molecular Carcinogenesis. It was to describe to my lay audience how the complex world of cancer works.

I spent days simplifying my facts, pruning them into little bullet easy-to-remember points they'd find most useful. Many times in the middle of the day, my eyes will fall on my slides to yank off one more word,add one more sentence or upload one more picture. I was busy with the idea of giving my best.

I walked into the venue on a sunny harmattan afternoon and I began with a British accent that I'm naturally baptised with in formal places. I was dehydrated after a few minutes and I couldn't escape the embarrassment British Prime Minister, Theresa May recently suffered on stage.

I was coughing--a dry,shallow but persistent variety.

Everyone saw me in distress and no protocol officer said a word or moved a bone! They were just aghast maybe but motionless;even defiant.

Struggling to breathe now, I sunk my hand out of my pocket with money lodged between my fingers and flagged it for help.

"Please, get me a bottled water!" I hollered between an episode.

I managed to conclude and after a rapturous applause for a sound delivery, I walked off the premises unaccompanied, unpaid, embarrassed and UNDERVALUED.

No familiar thank you or warm compliment. I left an emptier version of myself having poured out my knowledge in spite of the health hazard I independently confronted and became a withered leaf bleached of its green. The audience began to have informed discussions about having screening exercises done all because of my talk.

They didn't get me cheap. They got me FREE. I charged no kobo,no cent,no naira and as it turned out, I even didn't charge for my water.

This is the classic instance where philanthropy meets its waterloo. One problem with getting things free is that you become complacent, even neglectful of the giver but have the highest regard for his gift and what he has given.

Free drugs, free education, free comedy, free anything are not indices of an improving society. They are often a picture of a prevailing partial blindness to how valuable things really are.

I am always more valuable than my talks but on this day,as other perilous ones that I'll share in coming posts, my free lecture revealed man's fundamental inability to recognize or prioritize value when it's gotten on a platter of gold.