UPDATED 4TH JUNE 2020
Welcome to the thirteenth short publication of the Kikulacho Cultures Series™ that discusses popular cultures that may be having a negative impact on your financial and personal well-being. The word “Kikulacho” comes from the Kiswahili (Swahili) language, and literally translated into English means “what is eating you”. However, in practice it is used in the Kiswahili language to mean “what is ailing you”. A popular Kiswahili saying “Kikulacho Ki nguoni mwako” is the inspiration behind the name of this short publications series. The practical English translation of this saying is “what ails you is within you”!
Currently, the news is dominated by the death of George Floyd, while detained by the Minneapolis Police department. In 1968, the U.S. Supreme court in the case of Terry Vs. Ohio ruled that a suspect can be “detained”, without any court issued arrest warrant, based on “reasonable suspicion”. This is a lower, and thus more subjective, standard than the one required for an arrest. For an arrest you need “probable cause”. This court ruling has been used by the police to detain suspects for “investigation purposes” despite their Fifth amendment rights barring self-incrimination. This was the court ruling that led to the detention of George Floyd on that fateful day, and which has also allowed the detentions of many others, including those detained during the “Stop and frisk” era in New York city. This court ruling has greatly increased negative interactions with the police, and greatly increased the chances of a negative outcome, be it accidental or based on bias.
There have also been numerous claims of sexual harassment in various work places. To-date, however, there has been no debate in regards to the kind of environment that allows harassment to be so prevalent in the work place. There are many kinds of harassment taking place in today’s workplace, and they can be traced to a work environment that values subjective criteria over objective criteria in the decision making processes.
The Cambridge dictionary describes the word Subjective as; “influenced by or based on personal beliefs or feelings rather than based on facts” and the word Objective as; “based on real facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings”.
Many of the decision making criteria today in the work place are subjective rather than objective. They therefore allow the decision maker to assert their biases into the decision making process, and since “feelings” are more important than “facts”, they have wide latitude in justifying their biased decisions. This in turn means that those seeking a favorable decision must conform to the expectations of the decision maker, even when the result is harassment.
ABRIDGED VERSION
(See Prof. Ngarua’s books on Amazon for more information on this topic. Click on the link below to view the books. Commissions earned if a purchase is made on Amazon)
Habari shujaa 