17	Preparing for the Twenty first Century - Address at the GSTT Annual Dinner/Dance and Awards Ceremony, October 26, 1992 By TREVOR BOOPSINGH

It is an honor to have been given this opportunity to deliver the feature address this evening. I have, over the years, regularly delivered papers of a more academic nature to many different audiences, but this is one of those rare times when I am speaking after dinner, an occasion which normally requires a much more accomplished public speaker than I consider myself to be. Nevertheless, since I promised the Society to do so, when I pleaded last year for at least one year, (in the hope then that they might change their minds or forget), I will try to hold your attention for a short period with a few thoughts.

On thinking about the address this evening, two thoughts immediately came to mind. The first was a recollection of a slip of the tongue which occurred on the evening of a recent book launching. Instead of the usual comment, "This much needed book fills a void in the country", an accidental rearrangement of those words led to the remark - "This book fills a much needed void". I have since then idly wondered, whether after dinner addresses came about as a device to fill the much-needed void between the dinner and the dance. The second thought was tied to the often repeated and well-noted optimism of geologists. Good geologists may be likened to the little boy of genial and ever hopeful disposition, who, when several barrows
full of manure were deposited in this room by a spiteful stepbrother, was heard exclaiming while happily burrowing through the pile, "Oh great, I'm sure that there's a pony somewhere in here for me". I suspect that successful petroleum geologists must have some of that optimism, as they search for that elusive oilfield.


The topic on which I was asked to speak is - Preparing for the twenty-first century - a subject as broad as it is topical, and one which will easily cover the ideas, and in particular a key thought, which I hope to convey to you tonight. Images of the twenty first century come readily to mind to most of us. They probably arise out of those obtained from the multitude of information channels which now are available: - Television, magazines, radio, fax or modem. These images are thus created in the context of the dramatic changes which have occurred within the last few years.

The much greater awareness of the conditions of life in all its forms which we now possess should long ago have impressed on us a few important and critical ideas which bear repeating.
The importance of diversity in life, in all its forms; The critical role of the individual human being;
The dynamism and volatility which is a feature of most human activity, and consequently; The need for flexibility, if any living entity or organisation is to survive and succeed under such conditions.

The single most important observation which one can extract from that brief list of realities (and the list can easily be expanded without affecting the essential conclusion), is that we are all, including our leader, faced with considerable uncertainty as to very many aspects of human life in the future. Uncertainty and its ever-present companion, risk, are no strangers to us in the petroleum industry. And yet it seems to me that, as familiar as we are with these concepts in our daily work, the swath and the extent of the global changes now taking place, be they economic, political or technological, appear increasingly to leave us floundering - sometimes as helpless as those whom we supervise, guide or lead.

For those of you who subscribe to the view that the level and the extent of today's uncertainty is unsurpassed in history, I'd suggest that you cast your mind to that of a citizen of France or Italy in 1942-3, or it you wish to go further back but nearer home, turn it to being a captive voyager on the Middle Passage, from either India at the turn of this century, or from Africa earlier on.
In a previous paper on - Managing Petroleum Resources, I contrasted the view of the 16th century cynic who asserted, "that what most people want was not really knowledge, but certainty" with that of a famous contemporary of Shakespeare, Bacon, who, discussing the uncertainties which surround all human existence postulated that -"if a man begins with certainty he shall end in doubt, but were he to begin with doubt, he will end in certainty".

I've often wondered whether Bacon was speaking tongue-in-cheek, and referring as we are all wont to do at a certain stage in life, to that only certainty facing all of us - other than taxes, as they say.

For my own self, the tumultuous events in the Middle East at the end of the decade of the seventies, and their impact on Trinidad and Tobago and my work then, and the possible implications for the world, forcibly imposed on me not only a sense of great uncertainty, but equally, an awareness of opportunities to be had and to be grasped and risks to be undertaken. My search then, resolved itself in a clear recognition of the role of the professional in a society such as ours.
In treating with the twenty first century we can easily become bogged down with sci-fi visions of technological utopias, just as the Marxists did with their visions of economic utopia. As technologists, we can drift off into the glories of global networking and telecommunications, or into grand computerised models of the earth's environment, chaos Theory and long range weather forecasting, or as all petroleum people do, reconsider the wondrous possibilities of drilling without bit changes. The reality is that while all these things are happening, we have no way of knowing for sure, which of the endless possibilities which now exist, will become an every day reality, and equally important, when? Quite likely no one else anywhere in the world does, and I include all the think tanks, the futurists and the wise men. The uncertainty which seems to terrorise so much of human existence is real and will not go away.

One of the professional papers which should perhaps be made compulsory reading for all professionals was published in the Journal of Petroleum Technology in August 1977. Reading Edgar Capen 's classic paper on the Difficulty in Assessing Uncertainty, is perhaps ever more needed today, perhaps more so in our society, which often enough gives the impression that all our solutions will come through political action. Capen conducted several relatively simple experiments and tests on professionals in our industry. In essence the results of those tests showed how easy it was for an elite and trained group such as we here are, to conclude in the face of great ranges of possibilities and considerable uncertainty, that the likely answers were much more certain and within a much narrower range of possibilities, than was the reality. And this was so even when the tests explicitly allowed for answers of any range.


In our small and relatively immature society, still to a large extent in the final throes of the post colonial era, the tendency for professionalism to be
subject to the many influences of our close environment, be it social, economic or political, is inevitable.

Nevertheless, it appears very important to me, since we cannot all be Prime Ministers as so many Trinidadians and Tobagonians seem to believe they can and should be, that the rest of us have to be the best professional we can be.

Among my interests, like many others in this room and elsewhere in the Caribbean, is cricket. I know that among many other possible explanations and, as so brilliantly elucidated by C.L.R. James in Beyond the Boundary, cricket, for historical and social reasons, is set deep within the West Indian Psyche. Cricket so touches the innermost condition of the average West Indian, capturing all our past and the best of our possibilities, that the successes we have achieved as a people on the cricketing fields of the world, now more than anything else, makes this game so endearing to us.
I have deliberately introduced cricket so as to make reference to the most successful of all the West Indian professionals. His achievements, in my view, continue to be grossly underrated, and I consider that he may have done more for the upliftment of the peoples of these islands, than his more recognised political predecessors and contemporaries. I refer to Clive Lloyd, who capturing a single idea which suited the West Indian talents, that is - the capability to bowl quickly, applied single-minded professionalism in the form of:

Discipline, in batting in particular, Fitness as demonstrated not only in bowling but more so in catching and fielding, and, Teamwork, to achieve remarkable results.

For almost eleven unbroken years a small group of "Third" world sportsmen selected from this motley collection of tiny is-lands, consistently outplayed the best that the entire cricketing world had to offer. I can think of no other example of such consistent success on a world scale coming from the developing or under developed world. Those results as a group exceed those of any other similar effort in any other sphere of activity - in business, the arts, in government or in academia.

Professionalism thus means to me the ability to achieve results in one's chosen area of work. It clearly means, not overstating one's capability to provide answers, even when the society in which we operate appears to be crying out for an answer. This is especially so if the questions asked are not within our areas of competence. But it also carries several other responsibilities. In our industry we should have grown accustomed to multidisciplinary work and more particularly, teamwork.

I am reminded of the two Protestant priests who regularly went fishing together. On a particular day they decided to invite their fellow Christian minister from the Catholic Church to accompany them. It so happened that on their return trip, the boat's engine failed about 10 metres from shore. The Anglican priest promptly left the boat and walked across the water to shore. His regular companion, the Methodist minister, followed suit and skipping lightly across the water, reached the beach. The Catholic priest then stepped into the water, and sank. Struggling out of the wet, he hauled himself back into the boat, shook himself, and stepped into the water, and sank again. At which point one dry priest was heard telling the other, "Maybe, we should tell him where the rocks are?"

Professionalism requires you to recognise that the other professional is indispensable in your success.

Being a pro, by definition, means that you have dedicated your living to the provision of certain acquired knowledge, skills and judgment in return for an acceptable standard of living.

That means that you are a self-starter. It also means that your level of knowledge and skills must be at least on par with what is available. Remaining complacent and stagnant will obviously put you in trouble in the evidently fast changing world around us. As some wise guy once said, "The only good thing about apathy is that you don't have to exert yourself to show that you're sincere about it". What is obviously required is continually updating your bag of tricks, through effort. Perhaps a target of one professional paper per year in front of your peers is a useful goal. A true professional does not require a company incentive in order to seriously consider such an effort. Still on the work front, my view is that a professional is motivated first by results, completion of the designated tasks, many of which are initiated by the professional himself, within mutually agreed deadlines, with the best possible quality you can deliver. This is mandatory.

To meet quality requirement, the professional must be knowledgeable within the norms and standards of his profession. He must attempt to deliver on every occasion, nothing less than that which he knows will be acceptable to an independent, international observer. For we operate in an international industry and excuses about local conditions cannot normally be acceptable, if our industry and our country is to survive and succeed in the twentieth century. Whether it be building a bridge or drilling a well, managing a group of junior professionals or a political grouping, or even in the case of the world's oldest profession, sub-standard performance is unprofessional and must be recognized as such and rewarded accordingly. I hope that I am believed when I say that the close juxtaposition of these last two activities is purely accidental and, may I do as writers do, and say that any resemblance to characters living or dead is coincidental and not intended to give offence.
Of course, salary matters. That's why I used the words "acceptable standard of living" earlier on. Being professional in my view requires some pretty hard-nosed views of the world. A professional in Industrial Relations will not only perceive the case for this employer. He must, if he is to consider himself professional, consider the case against, and advise not only on strategies to deal with the cons, but on compromises which accept those realities which cannot be overlooked.

Over the years I have heard many grouses about salary differentials between professionals of different nationalities, or between those of different disciplines, apparently doing the same work in the same company. As difficult as it is to accept, a professional has a duty to understand the reasons for some of the differentials (and that is not too difficult if you simply reverse the circumstances), accept some of the reality which may be outside your control, and approach those you find unacceptable, in a professional manner. An immediate subset of accepting employment as a pro is that of loyalty to the person paying for your skills. We are always entitled to renegotiate the contract if we as professionals, find it onerous. But in my view; a true professional approaches the resolution of his disagreements within the framework of the contract, written or implied; and leaves if he must, in the same spirit.

The struggle to deal with change is universal. Even the Japanese, renowned as they now are for so many things, struggle with change, most of all those changes which are affecting their cultural habits built up over centuries.
Japan Inc., as they are referred to in some places, had relied heavily in their early growth years after WW11, on a company loyalty system based on "cradle to grave" care of their employees. As they too enter the new century, their best new graduates are now already demonstrating with their feet that new incentives will be required, in order to stabilise increasing personnel turnover rates within Japan.

Even within the framework of the provision of advice and results to your employer, the professional needs to exercise restraint in his communications with both those above and below him. Having presented a case for or against, having argued as best as we know how, the professional is under obligation to accept the decisions and the consequences which flow from those decisions. Increasingly, as was demonstrated in the case of the Challenger disaster a few years ago, the professional and particularly the technical professional, is expected to speak up and speak up clearly and in the right places within the organisation, when technical rules or judgments are, or may be, violated. To do otherwise, in spite of the apparent ease it offers, may not only be at cost to your reputation, but to your pocket as well.

And yet I would not advise that as professionals we ignore the real world which surrounds us each and every day. After all we do not usually take up marriage because we are professionals. And the aged and infirm most of all require love and attention. And our young would be almost guaranteed candidates for the mental asylums or drug rehab centres, if professionalism is all that they were greeted with in their formative years. And politics would be absolutely boring and almost certainly a most unsuccessful way to resolve society's need for governance, if it were simply a profession. Of course, a professional politician is as professional as the rest of us here are. It is however, probably indisputable that true leadership and the best management come from qualities which have so far not been easily transferable, either in the classroom or the work place, and they often have little in common with professionalism, but rather with inner drives, ambition and the desire to serve.

What I have tried to say to you this evening is that, in as small a country as we are, in as transparently uncertain a world as now exists, we professionals have, firstly, a critical role to play in providing as accurate an answer as we may be able to. We, have however, a corresponding duty to resist all attempts to provide the certainty which the 16th century cynic says is what people want. We have as well, a leading role to play in helping our society to understand and cope with the dynamic changes which are being effected globally and transmitted to us almost instantaneously. And we further have, an equally exacting responsibility to not attempt to use our status as professionals in one sphere of activity, so as to put on the disguises of the omniscient or the demigods. For disguises they are, and when Ash Wednesday arrives? we may be not merely required to go back to work, but to don sackcloth and ashes, if we are lucky.

The twenty-first century beckons. For the numerologists and the superstitious, it is only the second time that the end of a millennium is occurring in most of mankind's recorded history.
As technologists, most of us can-not help but be amazed at the range and breadth of possibilities which now stand at man's door-step. The challenges are exciting, maybe even exhilarating, and as with all such times, quite likely, dangerous. As such, the more timid among us perhaps need to be reminded of the old Confucian adage,

"That man cannot stop eating, for fear of choking".


A s human beings however, we ignore the rest of the society we live in at our own peril. Community, family, integrity and ethics, and all our fundamental values, are needed if a sense of harmony in life is to be present. I recently read with great interest, a lengthy article from the Wall Street Journal. The article details how junk bond king, Michael Milliken, personally earned more than 300 million US dollars annually, for several years. It lays out as well, the patent dishonesty and flagrant violation of the most basic ethics, which finally got him a twelve-year jail term.

I recall that some five-six years ago, either the same gentleman or one of his illustrious colleagues, made a speech which was hailed by then cognoscenti, as representing the new era. The punch line in that speech, which apparently received a standing ovation, was - "Greed is Good". In all the dynamism, volatility and economic and technological change descending upon us, let us not buy the noise, clutter, wrapping paper or claptrap, which will inevitably come with it.
I am convinced that the key to meeting the many challenges which lie between those two poles, dynamism and change on the one hand, and fundamental values and a sense of harmony on the other, is in being the best professionals we can be. The path will never always be smooth. No path is. Nevertheless, I believe that for many of you here tonight, in preparing yourselves for the twenty-first century, professionalism offers the best long-term hope - for yourselves and your families, your employers, your Society and our country.

I thank you for your patience and I leave you with a quotation which I have always found useful, even
in these days where sovereignty and permanent national boundaries seem to have become passé.


"the true wealth of a nation lies not in its silver or gold, (or for that matter its oil and gas) But in the Wisdom, learning and Uprightness of its sons and daughters".

Learning, you know is not either data acquisition, fact finding or even information gathering. Uprightness is a constant struggle which we all sometimes lose, but Wisdom, ah Wisdom, that may very well be a reward from the Gods, given but to a chosen few, and even so, probably only at the end of the day.


I congratulate the Society, its past executives and all its members on the vibrant contribution that the Geological Society has made since its formation, and wish the new members of the Executive a successful and professionally rewarding year.
I thank you.

Trevor Boopsingh, a Petroleum Engineer by profession, and distinguished member of the Trinidad and Tobago Section of the SPE, currently lectures in the Faculty of Engineering, at the University of the West Indies St. Augustine. He Is the author of a book titled "Oil, Gas and Development: A View from the South", published in 1990 by Longman Trinidad Ltd He is a member of the National Energy Commission, and Is Chairman of the Boards of Fertrin and Trintopec

Home | About Us | Links To The World  |  Publications | Upcoming Events |

Feedback | Executive Members | Geology |Teaching Resources| Virtual Field Trip

THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
P.O. Box 3524, La Romain, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Comments or Questions?