Much ado about Much

Let me first begin by allaying the fears of any that may think this post is a boring commentary on Shakespeare's much ado about nothing, because it is not. I do not possess the expertese to delve into the depth of such scholarly undertakings and even if I did, I would require more more than a blog posting to do the work of that great man of letters, justice.

I rather wish to comment on a phenomenon that I first came across at secondary school the same which has  acquired prominence in the corporate world.

Back then in secondary school we had a group of students who had been assigned a tag of 'UNZA (University of Zambia) suspect'. Now these suspects as opposed to being individuals considered to have committed a crime against Zambia's first public university, were suspects of a very different type. These were known through out the school community as pupils who, come the following year, would be enrolled at the UNZA as their passage to that institution had already been secured by their zest and steadfastness in studies.

Strangely this conclusion had been reached at not beacuse of their academic credentials, because no one really cared about their grade point average or their performance in Math, English or Science, infact noone really cared whether they attended class or wrote any tests at all. Their status had been assured and secured by that irrevocable tag, 'UNZA suspect.'

That tag had been earned. It had been earned by pupils who showed everyone that they studied and studied hard at that. They would strategically walk back from the classes to the dormitories in the morning when everyone was going in the opposite direction. Their bleary eyes and bundle of books leaving you in no doubt that they had spent the night poring over mountains of books and that come the examination there would be absolutely no problem too tough to solve. Ofcourse to add spice to the performance they would sprinkle their conversations with a word or two designed to have the maximum effect of making the rest of us look intellectually ineferior.


'cooopulation!' You know thats another way of saying 'having sex'

I still remember one of my encounters with a suspect. Then I was dashing to the dining hall in readiness for morning lessons when I saw him ponderously walking towards me. Clutched underneath his arm were text books covering such varied subjects as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Geography. This particular suspect had somehow acquired the art of walking while displaying the titles of all the four books he presumably had been devouring through out that night.

"Hey man, what is happening" I offered in vernacular as I was in no mood for serious conversation.

He feigned surprise, shifted his books to the other hand and looked at me as if noticing me for the first time.
"I am sorry, my cerebral cortex, could not metabolise the stimuli in time for the cornea and larynx to extrapolate"

"Crazy fool!' I muttered under my breath and left him without saying another word. It happens that from an early age I had learnt that studying at night or in the wee hours of the morning was not my thing. I found that I concentrated better during the day and made the most of my day time with short but regular spates of studying. Need I say that when I was queeing up for registration at UNZA none of the suspects had made it. Their momentary fame the only reward they could claim for being UNZA suspects.

 I was to later learn in a rare honest conversation with one suspect that they usually spent the time at night, when everyone supposed that they were studying, discussing girls cars and football teams. They would then each master a few new words before waiting for day break so that they could display their newly gained 'knowledge'.

It comes to a simple basic truth. That while working and appearing to work may achieve similar results in the interim, when a true test comes the difference will always come out. Be it in a corporate setting, school even a sports team. For some reason which I do not understand, yet massively respect, posterity has never been a kind judge of mediocrity and hypocrisy. A time comes when pretenders are seen for what they are.