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KENYA IS WISDOM DEFICIENT!

They say that no great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist. The dismal state of affairs in Kenya can be directly associated with the lack of wisdom amongst its populace. This country has never been short of intelligent people. Our learning institutions, work stations, homes and even the political arena are in excess of very smart brains. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of wisdom. As a nation, we are suffering from some Acute Wisdom Deficiency Syndrome, the one reason why we are still in the 3rd world. Biblically, the fear of God is the very beginning of wisdom. When God said to King Solomon; 'Ask! What shall I give you?' (I Kings 3:5), the king asked for wisdom. Verse 10 notes, “It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this”. God delights to give wisdom because out of wisdom, everything else is given unto you.... love, wealth, influence... name it! That's what Kenya is in dire need of. WISDOM is lacking amongst our political elites. It is the dose that is missing in our families and work places. Majority of our leading public figures are doing crazy and self-destructive things, not because they’re stupid, but because they’re foolish. Every new day, our politicians are publicly making fools of themselves for lack of this vital ingredient. The lack of wisdom explains why a Kenyan will reject development just because of political or tribal inclination. It explains why a bright youth will be radicalized into terrorism so as to inherit 72 virgins when he dies. It explains why the youth are a lost generation since their parents have failed in their duty. It explains why a wife would chop off the 'transformer' of the father of her kids without a second thought or a man resulting into alcoholism for losing hope in life. It is the same reason why university graduates still 'tarmac in jobless corner' yet they have skills to create the jobs themselves. Lack of wisdom explains why you will complain of corruption when you are busy bribing that 'soldier' to jump the queue in a bank... When that young hanging around the 'Base' consuming mogoka the whole day and cry sirkal saidia when they can't feed themselves. Wisdom and intelligence are not one and the same. Intelligence is about knowing facts, trivia and applying it for self- boasting or financial gain. It is that what you get from going to school. Intelligence is irrelevant to experience and has only a marginal relationship to good judgment. It only helps in the accumulation of knowledge, but does not automatically create knowledge. It only concerns reason, the use of logic, ability to make abstractions and the objective understanding of concepts and ideas. Intelligence is objective thinking. A person with a high IQ may be very intelligent, but may rate dismally on the wisdom chart. Animals display intelligence, but will never exhibit wisdom traits. What our learning institutions produce are nerds or smart fools. Smart fools who know more facts than you and believe that their superior grasp of facts make your opinion meaningless. The intelligent never take any extreme turn out of their comfort zones, nor ditch their old glasses to look through fresh eyes. Intelligence is simply technical... the adeptness in problem- solving and gaining factual information. Wisdom on the other hand is subjective. It is related to intuition. It is the ability to know something at the level of experience or sensation, not just being able to give an operational description of something. Wisdom subsumes intelligence. It is where you have good judgement. It represents the way we see ourselves and situations, how we judge the relative importance of things, and how we establish a meaningful relationship with others and everything around us. It defines us, shaping our thoughts, decisions and actions. Wisdom is knowing that you haven't learnt enough and also knowing that it does not necessarily require the ability to learn. Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. It is the ability of using the gained knowledge in making good decisions and guiding oneself through life. It also involves knowledge of one's own capacities and ethical sensitivity. It is practical. It helps the wise to do unto others as they would have them do to them. The wise will advise another about the dangers, problems and so on any issue. While intelligence is the ability to be book smart, wisdom helps one to be street smart. Since it is not taught in the classroom, one can be wise without being genius and at times that counts for more. To cut a very long story short, intelligence is technical knowledge while wisdom is your level of common sense and that's what is deficient in Kenya. As we welcome the new week, let's pray for Solomonic wisdom upon this nation.

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