It's not what you think...
I lived and worked and ran an exploration business in Laos for 15 years. In the later part of that time, I presented a seminar once a year at a local English training college run by Australians with Australian teachers. The seminar was to encourage critical thinking skills. The students were a group of about 20 who had made it through the rigorous selection process for MSc scholarships and were preparing to study in Australia. They were bright kids!
I started the seminar with an introduction of myself as a mineral exploration geologist and that I accepted most people in the general public considered me the left hand of the devil. There seemed to be general agreement on that point... I then proposed to demonstrate that many of the things they understood to be horrible truths about the mining industry would not stand up to even the most basic critical analysis. They simply accepted them because the messages had come from authority figures and the messages had been consistent and told often.
I then used some examples from publicly available data in Laos to show that some of the statements often quoted about the mining industry in the media are patently wrong.
Students were then sent away to search the internet and gather some of their own evidence and examples of statements that might need further critical examination. In the afternoon session we discussed the evidence and questions that they had gathered.
That afternoon session was always quite challenging. No-one likes to be told that something they have believed all their life is a lie, and some of the students became quite uncomfortable when they came close to the point of accepting that reality. I was also quite uncomfortable for me on one occasion when I was verbally attacked by one of the (Australian) teachers who clearly did not accept what I was saying and took a dim view of my attempts to "convert" her students.
Fortunately, the headmaster at the school appreciated the experience gained by the students and for me it was entirely compensated by the look in the eyes of the 10% of students who made the jump to realize that there were two sides to every story and that, thus far they had only been allowed to see one. For them it was clearly an epiphany moment.
Senior Geologist - Sky Metals Ltd
3 年This us so true of everything, especially the media and our education system.
Minerals Exploration
3 年Students liked you, you won. Same happens with community hearings when Geos present, they are more successful to convince people I think. When it comes to the general public however, convincing them of the utility of minerals and mining goes against bad news disasters and the rest and is always bad news that win. Only when their utopian demands hits their pockets and lifestyle will be convinced that mining is at the service of our well being. Then all of a sudden will notice that Greta went to Spain using jets and high Teck carbon fiber sailing boats, “destroying her future” for a comfortable trip.
What a great story Nick. It's inspiring for me because I am at that point in the course too! I have already learned a lot and looking forward to learning more.
Geological mapping specialist
3 年If the world really wants to transition to a low carbon future they will need mineral exploration geologists more than ever because there is nowhere near enough critical metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and REE currently being mined to enable such a transition.
CEO & Founder Geologize Ltd | Helping geoscience sectors communicate powerfully, build trust, and achieve impact using neurologically proven methods. Equity champion.
3 年Hi Nick. Well done. I think you’re going to get a lot out of the social media module, which specifically covers maximising audience engagement retention. Hope you’re enjoying the course!