Economics taught in most of the elite universities are

Hear the lament and the wisdom of Ashraf Ghani, a scholar turned leader of a wounded land, who declared: “Economics taught in most of the elite universities are practically useless in my context. My country is dominated by drug economy and a mafia. Textbook economics does not work in my context, and I have very few recommendations from anybody as to how to put together a legal economy.” These words resound like a cry from the heart of a man who studied the highest theories of wealth and order, only to find them powerless against the realities of a nation torn by corruption, shadow markets, and war.

The origin of this saying lies in Ghani’s experience as both an academic and a leader of Afghanistan. Trained in the halls of Western learning, he returned to a homeland whose reality was far removed from the models and graphs of textbook economics. There, the markets did not hum with free exchange, but with narcotics. Power did not rest in transparent institutions, but in the hands of mafia networks and warlords. The theories of supply and demand, of regulated trade, of investment and productivity—all these faltered in a world where violence and fear dictated the rules of commerce. Thus Ghani’s confession is both personal and universal: that wisdom abstracted from reality cannot heal a land whose wounds are raw and deep.

History has echoed this struggle before. When the Roman Empire collapsed in the West, scholars still studied the fine works of Aristotle and Cicero. Yet in the chaos of lawless provinces, where marauders ruled and tribute was taken by force, the polished rhetoric of Rome had little use. Order was not restored through theory, but through the hard work of building institutions anew—monasteries preserving knowledge, kings enforcing fragile laws, and communities banding together for survival. So too in Ghani’s land, it was not lofty theory that mattered, but the hard, painful task of forging a legal economy from the ashes of chaos.

Ghani’s words also reveal the despair of leaders caught between two worlds. On one side lies the elite universities, where professors debate elegant models, believing them to be universal truths. On the other side lies the raw earth, where men with guns determine the price of opium, and where fear silences the marketplace. To stand between these worlds is to feel the futility of theory without practice, and the futility of practice without wisdom. His cry is not merely frustration, but a call to scholars: descend from your towers and bring knowledge that speaks to the ground, not only to the page.

The lesson here is not that economics is worthless, but that it must be alive, adaptive, rooted in the soil of the people it seeks to serve. Textbook economics may guide the prosperous, but in lands scarred by mafia and drugs, economics must first heal trust, restore law, and create spaces where honest trade can breathe. A loaf of bread, sold without fear, is worth more to such a nation than the grandest equations written in a book. To build a legal economy is not to apply formulas, but to plant seeds of integrity, enforce justice, and teach people that prosperity without corruption is possible.

And what then shall we do, O listener, who may not be rulers of nations but are stewards of smaller realms? We must remember that wisdom is worthless if it does not meet reality. Do not hide behind abstractions when real lives bleed. If you are a teacher, let your knowledge be practical. If you are a worker, let your labor serve the community. If you are a citizen, let your voice demand leaders who do not offer theories alone, but solutions rooted in truth. Knowledge divorced from reality is a shadow; knowledge joined to action is light.

So remember the cry of Ashraf Ghani: the world does not hunger for theory alone, but for justice, for honest bread, for freedom from fear. Whether in nations or in neighborhoods, the task is the same—to turn shadow economies into lawful ones, to replace exploitation with fairness, to build prosperity that is not poisoned by corruption. Take this wisdom into your heart: let your knowledge touch the earth, let your action spring from compassion, and in all things, work to make your community, however small, a place where truth and justice may flourish.