The article below is quite interesting and shows us how hasty decisions and actions as happened with our kenyan elections are truly foolhardy.


The hurried rush to madness

Published on January 6, 2008, 12:00 am

By Kap Kirwok

At times like these, we are lost for words. The events of the last week — the announcement of a winner of the presidential contest despite credible evidence of rigging, the hurried swearing in ceremony, the brutal suppression of public protest, the continuing unrest — leave me completely speechless.

Searching for suitable words to describe these events, and finding none in my shocked and dazed mind, I turned to the Merriam-Webster English dictionary.

Here is what I found. To thumb one’s nose. This is to express scorn or ridicule by placing the thumb on the nose and wiggling the fingers. That comes very close to describing what the powers that be are doing to Kenyans. At its most basic, it says I am going to lord it over you and there is nothing you can do.

But where does such an attitude come from?

To find an answer I searched under letter H and came across the word Hubris whose meaning is "excessive pride to the point that a mortal challenges the superiority of the gods; hubris is a fatal flaw, which is inevitably punished."

The last part of this sentence is little comfort to those who have lost loved ones.

Hubris comes much closer to the word I was looking for. Where does hubris derive its motive force? What is its taproot?

William Shakespeare in Measure for Measure nails it on the head with devastating poetic force: "But man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he’s most assured; his glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as make the angels weep." There you have your culprit — a little brief authority.

Excessive pride is, therefore, driven by a little brief authority or power. And there is no worse narcotic than power. Power is sweet, power and privilege even sweeter. It plays tricks on our minds. We start thinking we are superior to the gods. We become most assured of what we are most ignorant. We begin to believe we can get away with anything. We begin the grand march to methodical madness.

But hubris does not quite capture what we see displayed by our leaders. Delusion, a persistent false psychotic belief that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary, is the word I was really looking for; a total loss of contact with reality.

Much has been made of the claim that even the United States rigged its presidential elections in 2000; what is wrong with Kenya doing a little bit of rigging of its own? Unbelievable. Should we judge ourselves by the worst in others? If we must do so, let us remember the actual facts about that controversial election.

In the American system of presidential elections, the electoral vote system determines the winner, and Bush won this count, although Gore received more popular votes. Let us also remember that Gore demanded a manual recount of votes and that this was granted. Unfortunately, because of the lack of clarity in recount rules regarding the ballots considered validly cast, the actual recount was time barred. Florida law required all counties to certify their election returns to the Florida Secretary of State within seven days of the election.

As we recall, this time requirement was disputed all the way to the Supreme Court and decided in George Bush’s favour — all within four weeks.

In our own tallying controversy, would it have been too much to allow a re-tallying of presidential votes in all 210 constituencies, even if it took two more days of waiting? Why insist on the court system when we all know it can take more than five years to resolve?

The intoxicating mix of power, hubris and delusion was simply too overpowering to allow for humility and clarity of thought. Now see what we have reaped.

On December 9 in this column, I wrote "The readings on the tribal Hate-O-Meter are off the charts. The dial has been creeping up gradually since about early 2003 and is now inching dangerously towards the red zone."

Well, we are in the red zone. Tribal hatred just got a zillion times worse, and is likely to remain so for a long time to come. What a shame! What a real, crying shame! So now we know. Beneath the veneer of civility displayed by some of our leaders lies a terrible secret: They are hopelessly vain. Now everyone is calling for peace and sacrifice. We have suddenly discovered that Kenya is bigger than all of us.

Where will Kenya get clear-eyed leadership at a time when eyes are rapidly blurring under a torrent of tears? Cry, beloved Kenya, cry.

—The writer is based in the USA Strategybeyondprofit@gmail.com

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