Dr Job was principled, brave man

THE EDITOR: Dr Morgan Job was a brave and principled man. He was unusual in his dedication to research and academically informing his opinion, while at the same time expressing these ideas in purposefully confrontational ways.

Job’s opinions on economics and race were controversial, and expressed provocatively. But he raised very important and very well backed-up points that needed to be dealt with intellectually, not just emotionally.

He genuinely believed that free markets and entrepreneurship would lead the masses of people to prosperity, that racist demagoguery was evil and should not be tolerated in any way, shape or form, and was very dismayed about the state of African people, whom I believe he wanted to see rise up to greater heights, but without resentment and rancour against others. His was a “tough love” that was often misunderstood – sometimes, unfortunately, entirely through his own fault.

He believed in earning your own way in the world, so much so that he personally sold his own books on the street, in the airport, at malls. He desperately wanted people to read and engage with ideas, and he was not afraid to stand by what he believed, and earn his living by it. He was ridiculed for this, of course, by our often cruel society which all too frequently seeks to shame and silence the extraordinarily many visionaries we produce.

His passing is sad, for we have lost a truly unique individual in our landscape who profoundly shaped our national discourse and offered something genuinely new and peculiarly his own.

Job will be missed. But let us appreciate him, and – agree or disagree with him – please let us continue to read and engage with the work he so wanted to contribute to our national development.

KIRK MEIGHOO
, Cunupia

Comments

"Dr Job was principled, brave man"

More in this section