On Declining English grammar in our Newsprint

I am wondering whether there isn't a deeper problem of which shoddy editing work is a symptom. Can't we say the same of many other sectors? Dr Ndemo mentioned hiring practices and I wonder whether this isn't practiced almost across the board, including ICT. Our roads crumble almost as soon as they are built; and we have been training engineers since independence. Look at collapsing buildings. At least a misspelled word may not mean life and death. I could name many, many others like these. Yet we tolerate it; we still but newspapers with shoddy language; and the companies make money. What's the incentive for them to improve? Why pay costly editing services when you are making money anyway? And those roads: we still drive along them, mumbling and life goes on; and (indeed) we may even cheer those shoddy workers with loot coming from their short cuts! Kijana wa fulani ametengeneza pesa! As long as consumers tolerate shoddy work, shoddy work will be the order of the day. And the more this happens the lower our standards go! Baadaye ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com Agano Consulting Inc.; www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda; Skype: okiambe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they happen! Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info@aganoconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a workstation…" - Anonymous ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any attachments, without making a copy. Thank you.

Matunda, An error in the instructions for a mixture could lead to a worse outcome than just a collapsed building. Imagine is the requirement was for 1 part in a 10 and it was typed as 1 part in 100, if that was the ratio requirement for concrete imagine what the result would be. As in the case of Amin, it was off with someone's head all because of an 'E'. Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Matunda Nyanchama <mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, 11 October 2011, 16:48 Subject: [kictanet] On Declining English grammar in our Newsprint I am wondering whether there isn't a deeper problem of which shoddy editing work is a symptom. Can't we say the same of many other sectors? Dr Ndemo mentioned hiring practices and I wonder whether this isn't practiced almost across the board, including ICT. Our roads crumble almost as soon as they are built; and we have been training engineers since independence. Look at collapsing buildings. At least a misspelled word may not mean life and death. I could name many, many others like these. Yet we tolerate it; we still but newspapers with shoddy language; and the companies make money. What's the incentive for them to improve? Why pay costly editing services when you are making money anyway? And those roads: we still drive along them, mumbling and life goes on; and (indeed) we may even cheer those shoddy workers with loot coming from their short cuts! Kijana wa fulani ametengeneza pesa! As long as consumers tolerate shoddy work, shoddy work will be the order of the day. And the more this happens the lower our standards go! Baadaye ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama@aganoconsulting.com Agano Consulting Inc.; www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda; Skype: okiambe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they happen! Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info@aganoconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a workstation…" - Anonymous ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any attachments, without making a copy. Thank you. _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/robertyawe%40yahoo.co.u... The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

As Adeya points out in another thread (my apologies if you are stuck in the past of unthreaded email) we all have different talents. Some people are good in copy editing, bad in factual checking. The problem may be that the publication may not afford a copy editor, or enough of them. As for crumbling roads, one of the MPs on the list told me of how H & Young did a road in his constituency, only for it to crumble after a few months. He called one of the top level managers at the firm, who absolved H & Young of the blame. He said the Ministry of Roads had odered the road done to a low standard, with the aim of soon allocating funds for repair. In this nation, it is a pride to take the Short well trodden road to riches. We also love forgiving each other and apportioning much of the blame to Satan and evil spirits. We will soon hold prayers at Uhuru Park to ask the Lord to intervene in the matter of collapsing buildings. -- with Regards: blog.denniskioko.com <http://www.denniskioko.com/>
participants (3)
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Dennis Kioko
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Matunda Nyanchama
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robert yawe