"After the tsunami"

From CWR:

Ponnambalam is now determined to see her three children receive a good education and find careers that take them away from the sea. "This is a profession our community has followed for a long time without making any progress. Most of the women are saying it is time we focused on the education of our children and sent them to other jobs," reasoned the Hindu mother. ...

Father Verghese Mattamana told CWR that the tsunami and subsequent aid agency intervention has created an "awakening" and complelled the beneficiaries "to look critically at their lifestyles," and not just in economic terms. "Helping people imporve their incomes by alternative methods is one of the key programs of our tsunami relief work," said Father Mattamana.

People or readers (if I have any) may misinterpret what I am about to say-but I will say it anyway. Outside the context of tsunami recovery the statements by the monther and the good Father Mattamana hit me the wrong way. Oh yes, I believe in education. But I believe in education to know God and to serve fellow man (Christian caritas)-not for (primarily) economic reasons (although providing for one's family is economic, it is more about Christian caritas). I guess what struck me was the idea that fishing seemed to be portrayed (ignoring the context for a moment) as a less than noble or an inferior profession. I see nothing wrong with the philosopher fisherman. (Of course in the tsunami context, where everything was wiped out and is threatened with every hurricane season, you may find many reasons to change this situation.)

In hindsight, I could have picked a better example of education being illustrated as a primarily economic tool-but this is what I had at the moment...