read along or still don’t care about the written word. Some write plays, some act and others just
watch, make a loyal audience that cry when a character cries and laugh and love when he do the same. They align their lives to what they see in the plays, in the movies and in the showbiz programs, re live the life that a particular character portrays and have no qualms doing it over and over. It turns out then nature is quite fair since we all have something which we are best at. Could be you are best at being a nuisance, you are good in being a moron, you are good in cramming, drinking keg, writing mwaks…Anything! Put it in another way we all have talents.
Some discover their
talents early, others discover them late, still others die with their talents
intact, and though they may have used them at some point in their life, the
world never acknowledge their talents, could be theirs was a normal talent, the
ubiquitous one or they were, for a lack of better word pure shit in what they
did. Whether one is a singer, a dancer, an actor, a writer, a pastor (euphemism for a thief) whatever one
does best, being talented is common among the entire world population. You need
not be unique, you don’t necessarily need a monopoly to own your talent; you
only need to be yourself and do what you do best.
There are those who have multiple
talents. To others, like me, talent has been elusive. I have been on a personal
trail; an in-depth search trying to figure out what is it I am talented in. I
thought of singing. At first it was a pleasant thought then I realized how
irrational it was since, to be quite frank, a croaking frog would rank better. Or,
perhaps not since it seems the Kenyan audience in its entirety, (how do I say this without offending you?)
has a prevalent hearing problems. Could
be the mechanism of our ears is not wired to discern the gibberish. How else
can one explain the rhetoric that is the Kenyan music? How else –and am emotive
to say this- can anyone sing along to Jimmy Gait Furi furi? That song, whether it was for IDPs or whatever reason
just don’t auger well with me. Claiming that it is a gospel, even to a
religious iconoclast like me, amount to sacrilege.
Anyway, such is
the Kenyan music consumer. We seem to enjoy the rubbish, balderdash, and
gibberish: we gulp the hogwash effluent of the slumbering brains of our not so
talented musicians. Humming the incoherent tunes, we cheer them on, we envy and
emulate them instead of being pithy and tell them how stupid and trashy their
nursery school rhymes are. If we are to agree that Kenyan musicians are talented,
it must be in one thing: lack of talent! Sound stupid but who said truth must
always be intelligent?
Try
telling an up-coming musician - and they are always up-coming – that you think
his song has a shallow theme and you risk a dislocated jaw. They get irritably mad,
insolently shower you with expletives; totally impolitic for anyone calling him/herself
an artist. Rarely will they evaluate the validity and truthfulness of your
opinion. But maybe I am a hater (whatever
that is), maybe I am unpatriotic. You are at liberty to brand me anything
you wish but I won’t obsequiously, sheepishly and silently partake in telling
you that you have your clothes on when you don’t. This form of blindness has gained
currency particularly here in Kenya where patriotism and loyalty are used as a
weapon, twisted to the benefit of whoever holds the card. It is a slogan, a
strategy and a stinking ploy that has been employed by all and sundry; our government
included. Our jingoistic proclivity has blinded us; we are willing to defend,
justify and sacrifice quality for shoddy alternatives so long as it is local.
We advertise tenders and lock out potential competitors to shield local
industries and professionals. As a result, no research and development is done
to try and come up with new cheaper and better production techniques which
could ultimately culminate in lowering the prices of commodities. It is easy to
argue that imported products are only cheaper because the governments in their
home countries subsidize them. On the same note one should continue to say that
the producers of these products employ cheaper production methods consequently,
lowering their production costs giving them a wider competitive edge. But our
industries, just like our women will continue to whine, their sissy C.E.Os will
keep on crying to the government and other industry regulators(I have CCK in mind and someone you know
too well) whenever the bitter pill of competition is
prescribed.
Politicians
are not left out of this honey pie. They know far too well how the psychology
of a Kenyan voter is twisted. They divide the country into units and fill all
them with the tribal seed of antagonism. They have demonized our diversity with
mentality of “us” verses “them”. Everything nowadays is then a combination of
various units depending on the mission at hand, where various tribes group
themselves and form alliances to fight the enemy
and anyone who hold a different view from theirs. That is what we pride as the
freedom of speech, which the new confusion
(constitution?) guarantees. If these politicians can pull such trickery and get
away with it, I bet that qualifies to be a real talent.
After
a thorough search of what my talent is, it finally downed on me. In fact it
came as a surprise, an insightful experience. I have always known that I am a
fault finder, that I criticize almost everything yet performs equally poor when
I am given a chance to improve what I criticize. Still, I felt that there must
be something else I can do well so this revelation was a welcome surprise. It
was a eureka experience, made me think of running naked in the streets shouting
eureka so that the whole world could know I also have a talent. I removed my
shirt and was battling with the buckle of my belt when another thought rushed
in mind. “How many other people have the same talent as me yet they don’t
realize?” Apparently we are many. Even so I can at least now proudly tell the
whole world that I am talented with the talent of lack of talent. That is my
talent; not singing; not writing; none other: lack of talent it is! The thing about being good at nothing, those close to you wont tell you how crappy you are. They sugar coat it, saying what
a great voice you have, how humorous you are and countless others. Woo onto you
if you believe them.
I
know my talent now; the dilemma is: how do I use it? Any ideas? I hope you, too,
know your talent.
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