International Day of Mathematics is an eyeopener to science in economy

This is something that captivated scientific imagination in the West down the centuries from antiquity to modernity, hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. Later there were other formulas like that of Albert Einstein underlining the modern age.

A chronicler with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) says that greater global awareness of mathematical sciences is vital to addressing challenges in areas such as artificial intelligence, climate change, energy and sustainable development. Improving the quality of life in general, UNESCO in its 40th general conference in November 2019 proclaimed each 14th of March as International Day of Mathematics. It evicts Pi day, an iconic mathematical constant given as 3.14, justly.

UNESCO says the International Day of Mathematics aims to showcase the fundamental role played by the mathematical sciences in the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also links the day with reinforcing African development and gender equality themes, it says, underlining that the day “invites us to celebrate the joy to be found in mathematics as well as the plethora of vocations it offers to girls and boys, through festive and diverse activities taking place around the world.’ It is quite true but it understates the value of the pointed mathematical vectors of 3.14 or e=mc2.

One area where mathematical imagination is helpful is to figure out why Asia as a whole and especially the Far East has developed fast during the past half century, while at independence we were at par, and in some respects Africa had a better economic outlook than South Asia in particular. There are plenty of explanations given by economists since ‘structural adjustment’ started in 1981 but fall short of a formula that captures the matter in its generality and particularity. That is where mathematical formulas matter.

But one doesn’t arrive at a mathematical formula just like that without having identified what is to be measured, and that once this ‘diameter’ is measured, the rest can be understood. So, what is the ‘diameter’ and ‘circumference’ in Africa’s poverty - and can 3.14 help anything? Put differently, can Asia’s rapid growth be expressed in a simple formula like pi, that when this is set right things become more dynamic? We are taking minute measures each passing day that sorts out the ‘diameter’ for development in Africa.

Local researchers inviting experts from South Korea in a 2013 REPOA research conference focused on education and building of skills, and now we hear of digital economy and even ‘blue economy.’ Looking at South Korea and the coastal part of China, we find that peasants entered into long term land lease contracts with global firms led by Chinese nationals abroad, with dual nationality. The rest is history, the ‘multiplier effect’ as they say.