Couriers of misery…

When times are as bleak and someone’s tending to give up hope, overstand that people are differently built. So, even where there's evidently very little promise, try and keep the bad news, especially if revealing it wouldn’t make any difference. Let your words be so soothing that folks will feel at ease around you.

Let your conduct be conducive to instilling hope of a better situation after the hardship, because whether it was malice that you intended or not, forecasting doom out of a bad situation as if it’s already in sight can make the situation even worse.

If you cannot do all that, keep calm and let folks adapt. In fact, life sometimes takes a very unpleasant direction to happy endings – and in case your mind’s already in the gutter, by “happy ending” I don’t mean a handjob.

Let me rephrase: don’t be like those spirit-killing transistor-holding, BBC News-listening, pseudo-conscious, unqualified teachers, nurses, and those self-important almost-educated minor officials in the provinces who after listening to BBC Focus on Africa will be like: “Heey nyun! Allahu’Akbarr!” even when what was being said wasn’t as serious, causing innocent locals to feel so worried and anxious to know.