Published on 25/04/2010
According to a psychologist whose name I can’t remember, food, shelter and a mate rank high up the ladder among man’s hierarchy of needs.Now backtrack to January when the country was paying homage to gallant sons and daughters who had just clobbered the daylights out of KCSE. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" journalists asked.
They all wanted to be neurosurgeons, pilots and other lofty professionals, of course. None of them aspired to be a farmer or a builder or a good husband or wife.
Their choices make lots of sense when you think about it. Being a farmer or a mason is sweaty and backbreaking work. No glamour at all. In the movies, a farmer is romanticised: Fat cows, healthy crops, a nice old house and car, plenty of food and a dotting wife. But it’s a different ball game altogether in real life.
Farming means calloused hands that aren’t ideal for romance. It is spending your entire life whistling at sheep and chasing chickens in some neck of the woods without cologne and perfume. And it is pure hell when the rains fail.
Sweaty armpits
Masonry is an equally drab existence where you sweat your guts out building mansions for your clients and thereafter retreat to your little hovel somewhere in Kibera. Is it any surprise, therefore, that no kid wants to be an agriculturalist or a construction engineer?
Being a good spouse is no different from farming and masonry, either.
If you asked anyone after their fourth beer, they would confess that a husband or wife is just about the most boring task in this world.
But what these bright sparks don’t realise is that you might be the finest brain surgeon in East and Central Africa alright but you can’t open up skulls without ugali and sukuma wiki in your stomach. And no, this stuff doesn’t grow in the supermarket — someone with sweaty armpits has to raise it on a farm.
Drink and smoke
Besides, you might make so much money but quickly discover that you are too busy to spend it. In any case, wives and husbands don’t get very amused when your phone rings at crazy hours of the night and you quickly dress up and leave. Five times a week? Hell no!
You could also be the finest pilot in the neighbourhood but the thrill of it wears off in a short while when you discover that you are an overeducated and overpaid matatu driver who spends all your life away from your family. Meanwhile, the plodding farmer and the mason will still be sweating through a boring existence, feeding the nation, creating shelter, and raising solid families. With their rough hands, they feed themselves and build their own homes, something you can’t do. Let’s face it, you wouldn’t last a week if they shut down the supermarket.
But here is a parting shot: Pilots and doctors drink and smoke more than farmers and masons. Now you know whose life really sucks!
According to a psychologist whose name I can’t remember, food, shelter and a mate rank high up the ladder among man’s hierarchy of needs.
Now backtrack to January when the country was paying homage to gallant sons and daughters who had just clobbered the daylights out of KCSE. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" journalists asked.
They all wanted to be neurosurgeons, pilots and other lofty professionals, of course. None of them aspired to be a farmer or a builder or a good husband or wife.
Their choices make lots of sense when you think about it. Being a farmer or a mason is sweaty and backbreaking work. No glamour at all. In the movies, a farmer is romanticised: Fat cows, healthy crops, a nice old house and car, plenty of food and a dotting wife. But it’s a different ball game altogether in real life.
Farming means calloused hands that aren’t ideal for romance. It is spending your entire life whistling at sheep and chasing chickens in some neck of the woods without cologne and perfume. And it is pure hell when the rains fail.
Sweaty armpits
Masonry is an equally drab existence where you sweat your guts out building mansions for your clients and thereafter retreat to your little hovel somewhere in Kibera. Is it any surprise, therefore, that no kid wants to be an agriculturalist or a construction engineer?
Being a good spouse is no different from farming and masonry, either.
If you asked anyone after their fourth beer, they would confess that a husband or wife is just about the most boring task in this world.
But what these bright sparks don’t realise is that you might be the finest brain surgeon in East and Central Africa alright but you can’t open up skulls without ugali and sukuma wiki in your stomach. And no, this stuff doesn’t grow in the supermarket — someone with sweaty armpits has to raise it on a farm.
Drink and smoke
Besides, you might make so much money but quickly discover that you are too busy to spend it. In any case, wives and husbands don’t get very amused when your phone rings at crazy hours of the night and you quickly dress up and leave. Five times a week? Hell no!
You could also be the finest pilot in the neighbourhood but the thrill of it wears off in a short while when you discover that you are an overeducated and overpaid matatu driver who spends all your life away from your family. Meanwhile, the plodding farmer and the mason will still be sweating through a boring existence, feeding the nation, creating shelter, and raising solid families. With their rough hands, they feed themselves and build their own homes, something you can’t do. Let’s face it, you wouldn’t last a week if they shut down the supermarket.
But here is a parting shot: Pilots and doctors drink and smoke more than farmers and masons. Now you know whose life really sucks!
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