In retrospect of today's outrage by #KOT on what i shall deem a "perceivably offensive statement", one must truly stand in awe. Because it is all about perception, isnt it? I mean, the term "Primitive Energy" at first glance might be deemed offensive, but why so? Could it be due to the vastly misconstrued nature of the word "Primitive" as a demeaning noun or adjective? Coupled with societal conditioning to regard the same as such? Outcome being even a casual glance to a dictionary to see AND understand it's explicit as well as implicit meaning is an unthinkable notion. Scoring major points for both "Herd Mentality and Societal Self-Policing" that are so painfully rampant nowadays. Lets work under the premises that 1. Any language and in this particular case English is by it's most intrinsic definition simply "Syntax & Semantics". 2. And even at the very least, Std. 6 level grammar knowlege is still intact in the mind one anyone that "took offence" to the term "Primitive Energy". Right of the bat, syntax wise it is painfully apparent the word "Primitive" is preceeding "Energy". And while Energy is unarguably a NOUN, Primitive is performing a delimiting/descriptive function, and is therefore an ADJECTIVE. So the NOUN being delimited or described further is actually Energy... NOT Kenyans! :) Semantics wise: The resulting meaning of the term then becomes? For that, lets refer to what the Dictionary say about the word "Primitive" in adjective form? >> "Relating to, denoting or preserving an early stage in the evolutionary or historic development of someTHING!" Which complimentary as it may be in the descriptive sense with regard to our (Kenyans) Energy, makes even less semantic sense and is thus grammaticaly wrong! Seeing as how Energy is in a perpetual state of flux thus NEVER constant or as stated in the definition "preservable"! But lets not split hairs on Energy, the real issue/culprit here is the word "Primitive", and surprise sur-damn-prise! S. Korea Airlines didnt refer to Kenyans as primitive. How about that? :) But before one could even say... "I take offence to that"... BAM! A twitter trend expressing sarcasm in the form of jokes as well as others with genuine outrage. And all i could think was, are you kidding me?! If anything, the reaction validated the NOUN form of the word "Primitive" that is defined as a person belonging to a pre-literate era. Because, lets face it, If you cant read or probably can but not able to understand or contextualize a language, both are sailors of the same sea vessel righfully christened, "The illiterate". The mind being an Organic Computer too obeys the GIGO principle in full. Garbage In: Code/Language compiled (passed through an interpreter) that does it tragically wrong i.e Ignoring Syntax. Garbage Out: Refer to the #PrimitiveEnergy hashtag courtesy of #KOT on Twitter yesterday morning. I.e Exception Error, lets face it, it was "exceptional" LQTM. LESSONS LEARNT? 1. Speaking English and Knowing English are mutually exclusive and #KOT proved that.
From the generic tweep, to the self appointed "Grammar Nazis" that never miss an opportunity to showcase their "mastery and prowress" of the English Language. But most painful of all... The bloggers! LoL! One would expect Knowledge of English to be , oh i dunno... A friggin occupational requirement maybe?!
But i do recall a humorous statement from the movie "CONTAGION" in which a character refer's to Blogging as "Graffiti with Punctuation". I must say... Some (not all) #KOT Bloggers made a serious case for the statement's validity. 2. Korean's might know more english than us Kenyans! You know... colonized for centuries by the BRITISH from friggin ENGland and all! Please say it aint so! 3. Probably most disturbing of all, intake of information with a filtered and biased mind set that would rather rush to think the worst, act and feel extremely justified in doing so. And if this is how "The Educated Class" reacts, what of those less fortunate or not priviledged enough not to have attained a supposed level of mental clarity and logical thought ability? Can the information filtering and mental bias be applied to rationalize how PEV or Genocides have occured in the past and may very well do so again in our very own back yard come 2013? DISCLAIMER I am by no measure or form an expert on the language myself, far from it. I consider myself a life time student of English. And lastly perhaps a most fitting analogy this being a Techie forum to begin with; if theres anything i have learned and agonizingly still continue to do so through my Software Design experience, a single misplaced "dot" or perhaps lack of a "semi-colon" can result in a program with even 10000000 lines of code refusing to run. Just because of "." or ";"... So watch the goddamn language pris! On 6/18/12, hellen masita <hellenmasita@hotmail.com> wrote:
hope none of you are missing this amazing occurrence. it seems kenyans are bustling with a new kind of energy called primitive energy. as they say "nyani haoni kundule" follow line if you are curious. http://www.koreanair.com/etc/img/ft/ne/2012/05/nbo_eng.jpg
in case you are wondering, i am positively fuming and so are Kenyans on Twitter (#KOT). What't your take?
Ujinga ni kukosa kuosha kifua kwasababu roho ni safi
:)
-- Kind Regards, *Njung'e N. Lloyd Cell: +254 723 739 733*