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Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: veritas on November 10, 2014, 06:06:38 PM
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http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/m/?articleID=2000140886&story_title=illiterate-thinkers-are-my-favourite-intellectuals
Illiterate thinkers are my favourite intellectuals
By Ted Malanda
Updated Sunday, November 9th 2014 at 18:40 GMT +3
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I have always been fascinated by intellectualism and intellectuals. By this I don’t mean the heavy thinkers in university common rooms who write mumbo jumbo in peer reviewed journals.
That kind only speaks to itself about things the rest of us have never heard of. The thinkers who interest me are the earthy men and women the at the grassroots level whose words are of such profound depth that they leave you dazed for days.
The beauty about these village scholars is that they give you solutions, unlike the guys at university who only complain about problems.
They will consume 60 pages reviewing literature, telling you about research methodology, then whine about challenges, problem statement and I don’t know what. Then at the end of it, they reserve half a page for recommendations. Half a page!
But the village thinker is not this kind of paper tiger, but a tiger in every sense of the word. If you ask him where to locate a pit latrine, he will raise up from his chair, take one look around the compound and point at one spot.
See Also: Speeding vehicle kills Laikipia university student
Master’s degree
It is not a random decision. He will factored in so many things you would never even think of. Like how your son’s shy teenage girl friend can sneak from the boy’s hut for a leak without being seen by all and sundry. He will also ensure that the pit doesn’t stand where you are supposed to be buried.
Now, if you give the same assignment to university thinkers, they will spend three months doing research. They will insist on testing soils, gauging the direction of the wind and interviewing a bunch of nosy neighbours. They will want to find out how much food each member of the family consumes and how many visitors they receive annually.
Then they will demand for something called environmental impact assessment, which is common sense, pocket a fat cheque and then point out the exact spot an old man would in two seconds. For heaven’s sake, do you need to pay someone with a masters degree to tell you that road construction emits dust and so the contractor must water the road twice a day?
Village ‘jogoos’
That’s my problem with scholars. They intellectualise about things that are so far removed from us. And then they write a report in tough English and colourful graphs, going round and round in circles. But my grandfather’s generation talked about things they had seen, or done.
They then they would sum it up with one saying that would outlive generations. The only problem with this geezers, however, is that they only tended to intellectualise when they were under the influence of busaa and snuff, which means they were occasionally far of the mark.
A case in point are the coastal sages who, over horns of palm wine, decided that jogoo la shamba haliwiki mjini (the village cockerel does not crow in the city).
If the elders who ‘wrote’ that saying were at hand to watch the crude manner in which ODM Executive Director Magerer Lagat was violently ejected from a CORD parliamentary Group meeting by rowdy youth, they would have discovered that in Kenya, it is village jogoos which crow in cities.
Nairobi, after all, is run by villagers, who sadly lack the wit and intellectualism of the grassroots elder.
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When it comes to reading academic journal articles, I only read the method and results, and skip the intro and discussions. You can just about gauge out all the biases, limitations, their budget, research direction etc. by the methods alone.
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http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/m/?articleID=2000140886&story_title=illiterate-thinkers-are-my-favourite-intellectuals
Illiterate thinkers are my favourite intellectuals
By Ted Malanda
Updated Sunday, November 9th 2014 at 18:40 GMT +3
Share this story:
I have always been fascinated by intellectualism and intellectuals. By this I don’t mean the heavy thinkers in university common rooms who write mumbo jumbo in peer reviewed journals.
That kind only speaks to itself about things the rest of us have never heard of. The thinkers who interest me are the earthy men and women the at the grassroots level whose words are of such profound depth that they leave you dazed for days.
The beauty about these village scholars is that they give you solutions, unlike the guys at university who only complain about problems.
They will consume 60 pages reviewing literature, telling you about research methodology, then whine about challenges, problem statement and I don’t know what. Then at the end of it, they reserve half a page for recommendations. Half a page!
But the village thinker is not this kind of paper tiger, but a tiger in every sense of the word. If you ask him where to locate a pit latrine, he will raise up from his chair, take one look around the compound and point at one spot.
See Also: Speeding vehicle kills Laikipia university student
Master’s degree
It is not a random decision. He will factored in so many things you would never even think of. Like how your son’s shy teenage girl friend can sneak from the boy’s hut for a leak without being seen by all and sundry. He will also ensure that the pit doesn’t stand where you are supposed to be buried.
Now, if you give the same assignment to university thinkers, they will spend three months doing research. They will insist on testing soils, gauging the direction of the wind and interviewing a bunch of nosy neighbours. They will want to find out how much food each member of the family consumes and how many visitors they receive annually.
Then they will demand for something called environmental impact assessment, which is common sense, pocket a fat cheque and then point out the exact spot an old man would in two seconds. For heaven’s sake, do you need to pay someone with a masters degree to tell you that road construction emits dust and so the contractor must water the road twice a day?
Village ‘jogoos’
That’s my problem with scholars. They intellectualise about things that are so far removed from us. And then they write a report in tough English and colourful graphs, going round and round in circles. But my grandfather’s generation talked about things they had seen, or done.
They then they would sum it up with one saying that would outlive generations. The only problem with this geezers, however, is that they only tended to intellectualise when they were under the influence of busaa and snuff, which means they were occasionally far of the mark.
A case in point are the coastal sages who, over horns of palm wine, decided that jogoo la shamba haliwiki mjini (the village cockerel does not crow in the city).
If the elders who ‘wrote’ that saying were at hand to watch the crude manner in which ODM Executive Director Magerer Lagat was violently ejected from a CORD parliamentary Group meeting by rowdy youth, they would have discovered that in Kenya, it is village jogoos which crow in cities.
Nairobi, after all, is run by villagers, who sadly lack the wit and intellectualism of the grassroots elder.
Haaahaah soo true about Nairobians.
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in generally backward, unmodernized societies likes of kanyari, sonko, waititus, wagangas, village DoDs are very practical problem solvers trying out people with blueprints and manifestos like drs kidero is f@#$kery setup
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Well said. We have mostly common sense problems that doesn't require intelligence at all. Just old common sense.
in generally backward, unmodernized societies likes of kanyari, sonko, waititus, wagangas, village DoDs are very practical problem solvers trying out people with blueprints and manifestos like drs kidero is f@#$kery setup