Oh dear. It seems one must take a million years to edit a mail lest one
creates new problems whilst trying to solve the old!!!
On the subject of defining people, I never intended to try to put people
into precise boxes. I'm happy with definitions such as scientist,
hobbyist, professional, amateur, botanist, conservationist, researcher,
etc., as long as people define for themselves which group they fit into.
I would not care to judge a colleague and define where he or she fits.
As in all definitions, an infinite number of categories exist between
each of the definitions. In general, my interpretation is that a
"professional" is someone who dedicates their working life or the
equivalent of their working life to a chosen subject, whether paid or
voluntarily. "Professional" status does not give a measure of the trust
that can be placed in an individual or how much knowledge they have.
Similarly, an amateur would tend to be someone who does not spend all
their time on the subject and they may be more, less or equally
trustworthy or knowledgable when compared to "professionals". (My
definition may differ from the dictionary definition. Foreinstance, an
amateur sportsperson is defined by sports federations as someone who
does not earn money from sports. But a full time charity worker is a
professional charity worker despite the fct that they may not be paid
any money.)
I am categorically an amateur scientist. I am an amateur because I earn
a living in many other things but not with plants (directly) and because
I do not dedicate all my work time to plants. I am a scientist because
I work with the plants using scientific standards and methodologies.
Others can assess how trustworthy or competent I am but, at a guess, I'm
probably better and more trustworthy than the worst professional
botanists and less trustworthy or competent than the best professional
botanists.
As to who does exactly what better, well taxanomists are good at naming
plants (or they'd be out of a job) but may not know how to grow them.
Horticulturalists are good at growing plants but not necessarily at
identifying them. And so on. You can find professional
horticulturalists and amateur taxonomists as well as every other variety
of amateur or professional scientist. And yes, you can even find
semi-professionals!
The titles to the boxes are meant to help other people understand our
roles, the context in which we apply our roles and the standards or
rules that may apply to those roles. Titles are not there to use to
judge our potential or actual performance or our actual worth.
And back to "germans". I already knew (before his e-mail to the group)
than Jan Schlauer would be as disgusted with the thieves that attacked
the Dominican Republic as I was. That is why Jan was one of the people
I contacted to see if he could help me identify the culprit. And I know
many (most) of the other Germans in this conference and they are equally
disgusted too. The problem is not and was not "germans". I used the
nationality label only to try and assist in identifying the culprits
(who happened to be identified as Germans)and, with the benefit of
hindsight, I now regret it as it did not serve that purpose. Plant
thieves are people. They may be European, American, Japanese, English,
or have red hair, brown eyes or be over 2 metres tall. The only thing
they have in common is that they are people. I'm equally upset and
ashamed no matter who they are and I would not like those of German
nationality to feel they have to be more ashamed when a German is
discovered damaging the environment than if it were an Englishman or an
Icelandic or a Hawaian!
As a part russian, part german, third generation englishman who prefers
to think of himself as European until such time as I can add Dominicanan
(of the Dominican Republic)to my nationality, I wish all of you,
irrespective of nationality, profession, employment status, language,
colour, religion or sex a very happy Christmas and a wonderfully
successful new year. May we all be the worst of enemies to those who
destroy our world and the most tolerant of friends to each other.
Ciao
Paul