Friday, February 18, 2011

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW WILL HURT YOU

BY BRIAN SSENOGA KIMULI
When I was still in high school my one of my teachers told a story of a woman who had a sick child so she went to the hospital where a doctor prescribed some medicine and told her to go and buy. The lady bought the syrup and on the bottle was directions for use saying; shake the bottle before you give the baby, very clear instruction. The woman instead did the reverse, it was a neighbor who told her that she was supposed to shake the bottle first and then give the medicine to the baby so as the medicine could be effective. In despair the poor woman opted to shaking the baby and eventually the baby died.
In such a scenario who is to blame for the baby’s death? I blame neither the woman nor the doctor who did the prescription but ignorance. Ignorance is a lack of knowledge about anything and this is what affects many people in Uganda, Africa and the world. One wise man once said “each and every one of us is ignorant but on different subjects” but I believe there is always a thin line between knowledge and ignorance and when you don’t know something you surely do not know.
Recently I was in a restaurant and there these two young men arguing about something and one asked a question to which another had what I would call a hurting reply ‘I don’t care and I don’t want to know’ Damn. Perhaps, living in a dark world of ignorance works for some people but as a student in search for excellence one ought to know each and everything not only what the teachers teach you in class but hunger for information for that is what brings knowledge. We go to school to learn and learning means acquiring new knowledge to add on what you know by narrowing what you do not know. Of course you cannot learn what you know already. As a student in secondary and even at university you need to care about knowing everything that is happening and read every readable material for “no fool writes” as Angelo Bbosa puts it in one of his books. You never know when that knowledge will help you.
A related incident is that of a twelve year old boy who instantly became rich out of the September eleventh terrorist attack on the world trade centre. The boy was testing his new camera on a plane flying over the city which ended up crashing into the building. Television stations all over America needed the pictures and had to buy footage from him. Out of a crisis he made money. He had information dearly craved for by the world at that time. Avoid shaking the baby by working against your ignorance for what you don’t know will hurt you soon or later.
ssenogabrian@yahoo.com