Further nuggets for the Toli Scrapbook...
This month's zingers post covers a lot of ground. There has been a veritable effusiveness of jaundiced (and flowery - as my MIT-educated co-worker put it) prose from this joint on all sorts of topics. I hope these proverbial zingers provide a concise counterpoint to all of that.
A skewed outlook on life
He liked his women freshly jilted.Martin Amis - Heavy Water and other Stories (2000)
On the advisability (or lack thereof) of sending out withering emails to one's team
..like I just did this past week, and having to deal with the consequent fallout (consignment to the most menial system administration duties). Note to self: being right without being judicious is a fool's paradise.
Words are like bullets. When you release them, you can't call them back.Gambian proverb
An insolent tongue is a bad weapon.Senegalese proverb
The tongue weighs practically nothing, but so few people can hold it.Ghanaian proverb
It is a stupid dog that barks at an elephant.Ugandan proverb
On why I search
Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.Nigerian proverb
A touch of quasi-religious optimism perhaps
The sun will shine on those who are standing before it shines on those who are sitting.Liberian proverb
And perhaps a desire for no regrets
The stone that lies at the bottom of the riverbed, cannot complain about feeling cold.This one from my mother who had a little too much cognac (Christmas day 2003)
On being careful
If you want to improve your memory, lend someone money.Zimbabwean proverb
When you are surrounded by vultures, try not to die.Proverb from Cote D'Ivoire
On journalism in Africa
For after all our business is not only to discover wrongdoing, it is our business to expose lies, to expose smears. Not only the lies that public officials tell but the lies that are told about public officials. Much of the instability that has dogged Africa has its roots in the inability of the press to clearly tell the public which of the many rumours are true and which are not true. There is this idea that has taken root that getting access to the facts and making them public will hinder and undermine government, I have heard the argument that much of government is so complicated and so delicate that it is impossible to portray all the intricacies in a newspaper article or radio programme. In an area where democratic practices are yet to take root, I will suggest that it is in the interest of government that things are exposed.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
What is the common thread between all these quotes?
2 - Koranteng
I sort of hinted at it through the links but was sort of oblique... I've been going through a prolific phase of late and these quotes help explain them; there's a method to the madness - if you care to read...
1. Lights Out
2. Strange Bedfellows and the Journalist Impulse
3. On The Importance Of Biting Satire
A tangled web exposing my creative demons...