Ban the word BUT from our vocabulary...

We never say anything in Kenya without qualifying it. He is a great farmer but, he is a great teacher but, he is a great husband but, he is a great president but. The word but is used to qualify anything we say and do in this country. No matter the good news, someone is out there to qualify it, to add something negative.

Make a presentation in a meeting, there will be several hands in the air to criticise you. In parliament, in village meetings, in academic presentations, we are out to show how useless one is. The greatest idea is killed even before it is tried. We love criticising, qualifying and not offering solutions. Recall how we laughed at Moi’s Nyayo car? Two presidents later and no Kenyan car.

In Nyandarua, a wind power project was abandoned when farmers demonstrated over compensation. Now the turbines are on sale and the project abandoned. Chances are, these farmers are not connected to the grid! Meanwhile, wind power is big in Turkana and Ngong. With global warming a reality, the future is in renewable energy.

Lots of projects that would change the fortunes of this country and families have been killed by qualifiers. Some are self-styled experts who don’t even understand what they criticise or qualify.I have agonised over the origin of this mind set and the consequences.

Why does it afflict the educated and the uneducated?

I do not think we are naturally pessimistic, qualifiers. We learn. Have you noted how kids are free but as they grow older they start fearing, their sense of curiosity dies.

Qualifying positive ideas often portray our inadequacies. We are afraid that others might do better than us. We prefer to pull them down by disparaging their ideas. From your own experience, who is better in qualifying your ideas, the most successful and confident, or vice versa?

Our homes start making us qualifiers. In conversations at home, do we discuss possibilities or impossibilities? At that early age, kids start learning to be negative, to qualify anything. May be you never think about it, but kids quickly learn from you.

Can we reverse this mindset?

We then go to school, the next phase of qualification starts. In assignments, we always start with advantages and end with disadvantages of anything, whether a project like a dam or money to the elderly. The law of recency shows that we recall more what we learnt last. Ideally, we should start with disadvantages so that we recall advantages more.

Both at home and in school, we are discouraged from starting new things. Surprisingly, our schools closely resemble graves in uniformity of thought. By the time we leave school, our certificates qualify us to be qualifiers.

When we go to work, we find a deeply entrenched culture of qualification. New employees are usually very enthusiastic about trying new ideas, they are met with statements like, “we have been here for years”, “that will not work.” With time you become part of that culture. New ideas are qualified because that would mean change, a shift from comfort zone.

Add the negatives from public officials who instead of preaching optimism preach doom. Our media often highlight the negatives. With time have come to learn that being negative, being good at qualifying is the road to heroism. Even preachers are never left behind, preaching doom and fear instead of giving hope to their congregations.

The tragedy about qualifications is that we discourage new thinking, new ideas. Without new ideas, the economy cannot grow. With so many people deflated, we drift to apathy. Things are never done on time, productivity goes down and the whole economy suffers. The feel good effect can be as good economic stimulus as a tax or interest rate cut. At times, proponents of new ideas, shift to countries more receptive to their ideas resulting in brain drain. Others wallow in frustration. Could the word but be the cause of frustration among our youth?

Banning the use of the word would be the hypothetical solution. The best solution would be reforming our institutions from families to schools and even the government. They should be conveyors of hope and optimism not hopelessness.
Other countries show a lower propensity to qualify, a clear indicator, that it can be reduced. Kenyans who have lived abroad, particularly in developed counties are often taken aback by absence of raw criticism, qualification.

We cannot deny that there will always be negatives on any issue, but it should never outweigh the positives. Great nations, great families have risen on the pedestal of optimism.
Can you be more positive next time you are talking to your child, in your class assignments, in your work place? Can you praise without qualifying?

While economies are turned round by real work, in our farms, in our offices and other places, the words we use can make a big difference. In doubt? Ask Winston Churchill or Martin Luther King, wherever they are...