The common room: Only great minds can truly cure our ‘cursed’ country

 An image of a student revising in the library Photo: Courtesy

Dr David Maillu’s The Common Room article, Kenya’s social fish rotting from the head (November 6-12) couldn’t have come at a better time.

As Maillu pointed out, we have witnessed several shameful incidents, with minors publicly involving themselves in wild and decadent behaviour such as drunkenness, drug abuse and sex.

As the writer correctly suggested, it is high time responsible minds plunged into research to establish what ails the current generation of youth.

The rot in society today is one of the greatest national problems facing this country. And the social rot is not just about moral decadency in society. The real crisis is at home, in the family.

The family is the most important unit of the society. What goes on in the society is a reflection of what goes on in the family. If the family unit is rotten, the society will be rotten. And if the society is rotten, then the family is rotten. To correct the rot in the society, we must, therefore, search for the cause of the rot in the family, at home.

The real cause of the rot in the society today is not the internet, or bad company. It is dysfunctional parenting. When parents have no time for parenting their children, or when some parents do not know enough to parent their children, the seed to the rot in the society is being planted, watered and weeded.

To sort out the rot that we are now witnessing among our boys and girls, we must sort out the current social crisis. And here is the social crisis: Who is parenting the parents on how to parent their children? If parents themselves do not know enough about parenting, they will not provide responsible parenting that our children need. And if these children do not get enough responsible parenting, when they grow up into adults, they themselves will not provide enough responsible parenting to their children! That is how the rot in the society accumulates, and soon, we will have a broken down society and a failed state.

The rot in families is represented on a grander scale. Socially, politically, economically and even spiritually, we are skidding down a steep slope. Theft has become a national pastime; stolen votes, stolen goods, stolen money, stolen exams, ‘stolen’ wives and husbands... anything goes. Politically, we have the likes of ‘Kuria and his fixing’ games, and the hate speech that is now flying around. Economically, we are sailing on a sinking ship with corruption scandal and after another chipping away at what little growth there is. Spiritually, we are headed south, with men of God having turned into men of gold.

The real solution is to sort out dysfunctional parenting by training parents, teachers, children, teenagers, adolescents, youths and young adults on professional parenting. This way, our children grow up having received enough responsible parenting and when our children become parents, they will provide enough responsible parenting to their children.

The greater argument is that national problems cannot be resolved by treating symptoms. It requires great minds to sieve through the rubble, identify sources and courses of problems so that practical and working solutions can be found. And there are great minds in this country.

Unfortunately, political leaders are not keen on tapping these minds. That or responsible people who are gifted with great minds are just playing blame games when the current crises are a call to arms for them to step up, identify the problems that bedevil our nation and work out solutions.

Thus, if you are one of the great minds, and you have a solution to any one of these national problems, do not wait for anybody to give you permission to do what needs doing. All these are gifts given to each one of us freely by God so that we can use them to serve Him and His people. Find yourself, find your God-given gifts and talents, and apply them to the full to serve this nation.

Are you gifted in solving social problems? Go ahead and identify the greatest social problems facing this nation, work out a solution, and help us sort out that problem, stop playing blame games.

Are you gifted in solving political, economic, or spiritual problems? Go ahead and identify the greatest political, economic or spiritual problems facing this nation; work out a solution, and help us sort out these problems. Do not just sit there and engage in the idlers’ games of shifting blame.

Our tribes cannot save us. Only great minds can revolutionise the thinking of this nation because they do not suffer from ‘blameosis’ (the disease that strikes those who are forever engaging in playing ‘blame games’, instead of working out solutions to sort out our national problems.

As you know, there are four types of people: those who make things happen (the great minds), those who watch as things happen, those who complain, criticise, and shift blame as things happen, and those who have no idea about what is happening.

Incidentally, the group that complains, criticizes and shifts blame as things happen always seem to be the largest group because it is the simplest thing to do. All you need is to wait for the doers to do their thing, then complain, criticize and shift blame! Sadly, this is what the bulk of the political class, academia and the Kenyan population is doing and it is getting us nowhere.