The Cosmosapien

Dear Society,  As we struggle with measures of how to contain the coronavirus pandemic, there is perhaps a bigger malady that is ailing our society today. Woke culture is a pandemic that we need to seriously talk about. So, what does  woke culture  mean? It simply means being pretentious or pretending to care about a social issue. It is a new way of seeing the world in a dichotomy of oppressors and victims based on race, class, gender, sexual orientation, et cetera. While there is nothing inherently wrong with trying to make the world a better and a safer place for everyone, the  woke gang  has hijacked a noble cause and turned into a cancellation campaign on anyone who doesn’t see the world as they do. More than ever, social media has become a melting pot for hatred and culture wars. Fake activists have taken over the platform spreading rage over frivolous things. I call them fake because half of the  woke gang  are not any better when it comes to t...

Just two weeks ago, the world watched in complete awe as Space X launched two American astronauts into space, a historic achievement for the company and for America’s future space project. While launching rockets into space is something routine for Nasa and Space X, watching the event got me thinking quite differently. In the hours that followed, as we waited with bated breath for astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to dock at the International Space Station (ISS), a journey of approximately nineteen hours, I watched countless videos of space, rocket launches, stories about extraterrestrial civilization, you name it. The more I watched the videos and got more live pictures of space (as captured by the Hubble Telescope), the more I got in touch with my stoic instincts. It’s a big universe out there, and we are just some little creatures scurrying around on a rock as it hurtles through space. Anyone who understands the sheer scale of the universe will appreciate why stoicism is pe...

Community Spread of COVID-19: Why Stealth Transmissions Should be our Worry Coronavirus is a stealthy little bastard. A Slytherin of a disease, if you will, with a highly developed sense of self-preservation. It is lurking just about everywhere right now, replicating and spreading like we've never seen before. It's very survival as a species depends on how fast it replicates and spreads. As days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, the number of confirmed cases in Kenya will most definitely rise. This is not some sort of doomsday prediction, but a realization of the nature and extent of the threat we are faced with as a people. From the onset, the government and health officials have been waxing lyrical about the need for social distancing, and how it helps in the fight against the virus. However, to many Kenyans, such advice has been akin to singing opera music to goats. It simply means nothing to them. Zilch! Nada! Now, this is where we get it wrong as a people, an...

What is Social Distancing? Corona is finally here amongst us. Kenya has only one confirmed positive case of the disease, and the level of fear and panic is palpable. Even though panic is not the best way to go about it when a pandemic strikes, high vigilance and caution are highly advised. Developed countries like US, Britain, Italy, China, and Korea have already felt the wrath of the virus. One can only imagine what happens when it finally gets to the streets of Nairobi in the scales we’ve already seen in other countries. The WHO, CDC, and other health organizations have advised that the pandemic can be defeated if people follow the science, stick to the guidelines and avoid panic.   One such guideline is “ social distancing . ” Many people have asked legitimate questions such as “what is social distancing?”, and “how does it affect social life?” As we come to terms with the shock of Corona and its possible cataclysmic impacts, let’s understand what “ social distancing ” m...

Making Profit Should be a by-product of Purpose Eight years ago, a global study of high growth in companies was launched by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) to investigate the importance of three strategies known to drive it: creating new markets, serving broader stakeholder needs, and changing the rules of the game. However, the finding of the study was a major surprise, going by the admission of the brains behind the study. Although each of the three strategies did boost growth at the organizations studied, there was a fourth driver that the team had not even considered at all: PURPOSE. For many years, companies have been urged to make purpose form the core of what drives them. Unfortunately, the conversation has often been around having a purpose as an add-on—a way to create shared value, improve employee morale and commitment, give back to the community, and help the environment. However, as the study by HBR revealed, companies have moved purpose from the periphery of ...

Why we should be Weary of Big Corporations and the lesson we learn from Mr. Robot. Behind the geekiness and the quest for justice demonstrated in the film Mr. Robot, one of the most important underlying themes is that of the power of corporations and their abilities to control people’s lives. Elliot, the main character in the film calls such corporations E-Corp to mean evil corporations because of their evil deeds and their ability to get away with it. Using the only superpower he has, Elliot resorts to hacking as a way to expose the evil deeds of corporations. Even though fictional, parallels can be drawn between the happenings in the film and what happens today in the real-life corporate world. In the first episode of the Capitalisn’t , an economics podcast by Kate Waldock and Luigi Zingales of Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, respectively, a future is contemplated where Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg becomes the U.S president and revises the antitrust law to pr...

What are Universities Really For? The overriding conversation around this question since the 1990s has been that universities are important players in a global information-driven system where ideas and knowledge are paramount for success. The world we live in is increasingly dominated by knowledge which has become the main driver of economic growth. Education, in essence, has become the foundation for individual prosperity and social mobility. Around the world, more people are realizing the value of higher education and the role it should play in their success. In the United States, for instance, someone with a University degree is likely to earn twice as much in his lifetime compared to someone with just a high school diploma. These statistics are replicated across the world, including Africa. While we appreciate the fact that University Education is important for success, we fail to recognize the true value of a University Education.    What are Universities For?  W...