RIFLE RANGE BOY

I remember a mate in school who thought that his teacher was commenting on the loss of elasticity of his school socks whenever the examination results were out and he was reprimanded on the outcome! Of course, over time he came to realise the real meaning of his teacher's message and he is now all grown and is somebody in society! For so long, the civil servants of the country have been working with a chip on the shoulder, thanks to the legacy left by the colonial master as CSR to the natives, knowing very well that their services would not be terminated. At its worst, they would be transferred to  another department. It did not matter anyway. They were not there to learn or do their delegated jobs. It is their part time job, really Their real job starts after office hours. With so much life of comfort, with the powers that be bending over backwards to cast a safety net to cushion any form of hardship, they had it good. So, when a crisis of magnanimous international magnitude ...

I wrote sometime ago about errors in signboards, atrocious state of English Language in the country and the lackadaisical attitude of people on power to ensure perfection or near perfection in whatever they do. Well, it looks like the country is only filled pompous over fed individuals who just delegate their duties to their subordinates, sleep on their job and just live off the hard work of foreign hands. Lately, it was brought to my attention of two notices that brought quite an embarrassment to the people who were given the responsibility to carry it on. ( see this too! ) In the first instance, a congratulatory greeting ended up emitting the wrong vibes. A simple misplacement of letters gave an embarrassment that stinked to high heavens. (from TAHNIAH to TAHINAH, as tahi denotes faeces, nah is a derogatory and half hearted way of offering something). As the message was supposed to be a congratulatory note to a very powerful man, many heads are set to roll. Trickling down ...

William D. Eggers and John O'Leary Policy Review Fall 1995,  Number 74 Excerpt: 'In a 1982 Atlantic Monthly article titled "Broken Windows," James Q. Wilson and George Kelling argued that disorder in a community, if left uncorrected, undercuts residents' own efforts to maintain their homes and neighborhoods and control unruly behavior. "If a window in a building is broken and left unrepaired," they wrote, "all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. . . . One unrepaired window is a signal that no one cares, so breaking more windows costs nothing. . . . Untended property becomes fair game for people out for fun or plunder." 'If disorder goes unchecked, a vicious cycle begins. First, it kindles a fear of crime among residents, who respond by staying behind locked doors. Their involvement in the neighborhood declines; people begin to ignore rowdy and threatening behavior in public. They cease to exercise social regulation over lit...