Rats in the rat race...

Perhaps out of fear of what they're capable of, snitchy-arse corporate bitches and mitches tend to be avoided. Some slaves to the rat race even after making out these rats would rather befriend them; so that they wouldn't tell on them.

Faithless if you ask me, and that's why trust is dead and truth is dying in our corporate circles. My school of thought: stitch their okra mouths or use them as conduits and watch them get your intended messages across faster than radio waves.

Here's what I think...

I think our roads are full of drivers waiting to be offended by another driver's mistake. Like I erred with my signals this morning, and even though I said sorry, dude kept storming like he needed a hug or something.

Granted, the average Gambian has twenty-something years of reasons to be angry, that's a fact. But, hello! We are all aggrieved at the same conditions. So, taking our indignations out on innocent people in traffic is completely insane.

Human aspiration and capacity...

Of all things, human aspiration and capacity are probably the two most elastic. Any person can wish anything, be anything, adapt to anything, and pull through anything. However, how much you make of this matchless gift largely depends on you, your social setting and the company you choose to keep.

For instance, when you live in a community where the richest possession is a 40-inch Wall Mount TV, that gadget becomes your leading craving. To you, you’re dreaming big, but to someone somewhere, you think too small. And it’s not like the person is arrogant or something. The person probably is coming from a place where it wouldn’t be extraordinary to find Samsung’s ‘The Wall’ (146-inch MicroLED TV) in someone’s living room.

It’s like Chairman Mao’s allegory of the frog at the bottom of the well. He said this frog thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If the frog surfaces and sees an entirely different view, like, wow! Everything changes: larger sight, bigger dreams, new motivations and stuff, and here are the likelihoods:

The frog could be one that refuses to let its origin be a limitation. And by going against the odds, it can break out of its sad past, climb up the social ladder and create a new identity for itself. That’s my typa frog right there.

But it can also develop very unrealistic feelings of inadequacy because the new setting seems too superior. In compensation, such a frog gets too aggressive, too thirsty, and too tending to compete to not just belong, but to outshine. So, in time, it becomes narcissistic.

Some frog’s sense of entitlement soon beats the Amazon Rainforest in size, believing that it deserves to be given, unfairness and unreasonableness of its demands and expectation regardless, because it probably spent seven years in medical school (which was a choice). This typa frog is usually ungrateful, because it takes every privilege for an irrevocable entitlement.

Small and short-term thinking...

Small thinking creates small results, just like short-term thinking produces short-term results, and some big-arse sticky situation in the long-term. I know, SO US!

Look at Serrekunda for instance. The town is so 'serre' (congested) - like the name implies. Electricity and water a mess, because evidently, Serrekunda wasn't planned to grow this fast. This is why NAWEC is being caused to bite what it wasn’t built to chew. No wonder Generator Number 6 sounds like it’s choking.

No jokes, man! Look at our streets. We want to expand them so badly, but there's no darn space. When you go to some neighbourhoods, you wonder what weed the land allocator was on, because of the many dead-end roads and triangular homes.

It’s perhaps places like Janjangbureh, Mansakonko, and other former colonial dwellings that you'd see farsighted town plans. I don’t know - I’m thinking two: we are perhaps so selfish; we don’t care about posterity, or just too lazy to think, because thinking is a complex process.

To our dear Gambian doctors...

If the Health Minister's resignation is all what you are striking for, going by your profession's “first, do no harm" promise, and if putting innocent and poor patients at risk qualifies harm, I say there’s no pride for you in winning this strike.

If anything, this strike will only lower you in public esteem, and that's bad, because the government's alleged lack of respect is likely to be overlooked. So, strike all you want, but know that this is a defining moment; a test of ethics and of your compassion above your ego.

I thought I should say that.

Why divide and rule when you can unite and lead...?

In trying to prevent them from uniting in opposition to their excesses, or to maintain control over everyone just for the heck of it, some bosses encourage friction between their subordinates under the guise of giving each of them a heads-up.

By it, they inadvertently create a host of John Jattas (frustrated staff), thereby opening doors to enemies from outside. You know what they say: “flies never visit an egg that has no crack.” I know… it’s some messed up shit like, why would you divide and rule when you can unite and lead?

If you cannot do it, teach it....

You saying or writing a general observation that inadvertently portrays someone else’s character cannot amount to judgment. Judgmental is the one who reads your piece and makes it about himself or someone else.

Another thing I've observed on social media is folks using that cheap-ass 'walk your talk' punchline to discourage others from expressing themselves. To them I say not everyone is gifted with the means to walk their talk. So, while backing one’s talk with action is more powerful, it doesn’t mean that those who do not have the opportunity to act should stop talking their talk.

In fact, here’s my theory: if you cannot represent your words with action, teach it. You may spark some brain or inspire some walker into walking your talk. I want to believe that’s the reason why you see some protégés doing stuff that their mentors could only imagine.

So to those out there who wish they could, but cannot just pen their thoughts because they don't have the time or are mentally constipated, I say take heart and let those who can, employ their gift, except if theirs is but high sounding nonsense. I have seen those too.