By Dr Muhammed Teks Tekanyi
Once upon a time during my childhood summer holidays in Jarra, we were as Serekunda kids fed with a lot of stories about village life but one very fascinating one I have of recent remembered and related to a particular political debate I had last week was that of a special snake with a sacred tail.
Then, we were told that there exists this poisonous snake with a very special tail that one can defecate on without problems or reactions because it is considered as non-intentional due to the nature of the squatting position but were strictly warned to never try urinating on it or worse on its tail because it will bite us to death.
Thus we got ourselves always equipped with this narrative as a guide whenever we were out with the cattle but never were we worried when squatting in the bushes because the “special” snake as we were told, was never bothered by a squatter regardless of motive.
However, our every attempt of urination even when raining was always preceded by a thorough search of the grasses just to avoid the tail of this “special” snake.
Sadly, with all those summers of caution in the bushes, I was never for once fortunate to see this so special snake.
Fast forward to last week and in the midst of a political debate. I was involved in on a friend’s page, appeared this very furious man whom by way of writing was harboring enormous anger for me which I guessed must have been accumulated from my articles he read and to harvest his anger, he started “this Teks bla bla …..” just to close his encyclopedia with “you must have been those doctors trained at Taiwan”.
From there I assumed, he was waiting for me to finally urinate on his nerve so that he can bite me as said of the “special” snake after having suffered a lot of defecations from my articles but then my mind went straight to the special snake and its sacred tail.
So I quickly puzzled a reply with thoughts of the fact that I have never known him despite the defecations he had struggled with from my articles and also for the reason that he actually promoted me although not intended by relating my training to Taiwan, a country I know and was proud to have done some trainings at.
I concluded then by applying the caution of the sacred tail of the special snake by just saying “thank you” and guess what? He never replied thus making me beat his expectations.
Therefore, we all must take note that some people are only in for trouble and not productivity in political debates like the sacred tail of the special snake thus recognizing and avoiding them early can save one’s energy from wastage on unhealthy and endless debates.
