Kenya: A Note on Language and Mistrust

So far today, knock on wood, the amplification of animosity in Kenya has fizzled.  Most of Kenya, it would appear, wishes for a modern peace.

Perhaps too the hotheads, drunkards, punks, and teen gangs are sleeping off the week's orgy.

This is a good moment to remember:

1.  Every fish market cryer knows that whether or not true, merely whispering about the competition, "he keeps his fish out longer than anyone" will damage the rival;

2. Politicians often offer voters the world--"Education for all!" they shout--but then act out of self-interest or the interests of their immediate families and business networks, especially when they believe no one's looking or they have the power to abuse their authority;

3. Youth seldom has the experience, perspective, or perspicacity to discern arrangements in states of affairs larger than themselves.

4. In the news business, "The streets were deserted" may be a fact, but the conclusion "transforming the block into a war zone" may turn out merely poetic or prove dangerous, malicious, or prophetic.

5. Where you find evil, look for ignorance too: the foundation for peace in contemporary developed cultures is merit, not family, clan, or tribe, which become for successful personalities the beneficiaries of business and professional efforts.  Such a capitalism turns out imperfect, even cruel and irresponsible, but in tandem with democratic process, it may be tempered to alleviate the distress and suffering of the average, the struggling, the afflicted, and the weak.  A little education and a lot of innuendo turns out a disaster in any effort to build an equitable system that would benefit all according to merits other than origin.

6. In business culture and language, variations of "They are good, but we are better" produces competition, but in the politics of cities and nations, the same produces contempt, division, and mistrust.

7. There's a difference in a sense of justice that seeks to distribute equally the benefits of affluence and liberal thinking and one that leans backward on retribution and the settling of countless scores.

I hope Kenya will return to the polls and the voting will be well secured and peacefully and scrupulously monitored by both interested as well as independent or neutral parties.

For both Kenya and Pakistan, if not elsewhere, one hopes too that keenly generous and liberal personalities will rise and prevail.

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Correspondence: James S. Oppenheim

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