Uses of logic

My daughter-in-law, who is now working at one of the banks in Jakarta, studied civil engineering in Bandung, after which she did a two-year stint in banking in the United States.

One day I said to her: "It seems to me that when you finished your senior high school, you did not seem to know or you were not convinced what sort of career to choose. If you had only chosen economics after your senior year you would have been a more accomplished banker. Don't you think it is a waste of time going through five years of study in order to get your degree in civil engineering?"

She replied: "You are not quite right, dad. The five years are not wasted because a person who is strong in mathematics is also strong in logic. So, a person who is strong in logic has no difficulty in learning rote subjects, but it is not the other way round."

There is some truth in what she said. I read in Review magazine, March 5, that the incumbent president and the newly elected prime minister of the People's Republic of China both graduated from a university in Shanghai and both majored in electrical engineering. The prime minister was given the nickname Economic Csar for his five-year stint as minister of finance.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta