Bloggers Association of Maseno University (B.A.M.U)

WHY YOU SHOULD EMBRACE ARGUING PLUS OTHER THINGS YOU ALREADY KNOW

At BAMU have been reworking the models of our recruitment and Ongea sessions since this semester we’ve had a very different membership compared to last semester when things were more meetings and articles driven. When we started, one of our goals was to be a go to platform for intellectual conversations on an array of topics that we thought the students would relate to. We also intended to remodel and redesign how bloggers here can come up with content for their blogs. 

And so this week, to usher in our three new members, we decided to have an Ongea session where we sought to discuss matters of one’s own perspective versus the conventions in society. Churchill started the session by inviting the members to share how they view conflict and disagreements plus how they usually tackle this. Rama, Liz, Fred, Clare, Simon and Mary all had beautiful answers to this as you’d expect. Oh agree to disagree, give up if the other party isn’t ready to listen to you, don’t let emotions get the best of you. Such. 

Left to right : Clara, Mary and Liz

 

What followed was a question posed to the group that elicited mixed reactions and before they knew it, guys were disagreeing all over the place. As to if they did what they prescribed earlier on, you’d have to attend one Ongea session to see how stuff goes down there. At the end of the session everyone was tasked with writing approximately 50 words of whichever topic they preferred based on the arguments we had during the session and what we learnt. And this, as Clara, Fred, Rama and Mary were told, is one easy way of generating content. Conversations and the arguments that ensue while we have them are one easy way of creating new content. Not that being persistently argumentative is good though.  So, here goes! Mary knits by the way. More about that soon.

MARY GITAU: Disagreements as A Learning Avenue

Have you ever found yourself in a heated conversation where you find yourself disagreeing? Is it wrong to disagree? Opinions do differ between people. A good example is that part of my friends think disagreeing is a good way of showing one is of a different opinion. It is also a good way of sharing and getting to learn from others. On the other hand, some find disagreeing being primitive, reason being that it may end up in fists when parties involved fail to come to a conclusion or rather an agreement. This then breeds the fact that the subject matter will have to apply and presentation of facts in a respectful and mature way. To sum up, disagreeing is a good platform to get to learn more and at the same time expands ones thinking capacities. It all depends how you to take it to be and the end.

CLARE JUMA: Religion, Believing and Breaking Away

Now I believe we all have that particular ' thing ‘or force  or belief or reason that drives us to be who we are-that  motivates our daily actions and shapes our  behavior and way of thinking. When certain doctrines and protocols spell out some part of our lives, especially when we are born to find them in existence, it’s only natural for us to follow  and become part of them and later when we are older maybe decide to break out and follow our own beliefs. Just like in religion. Nobody knows for sure whether what religion we believe in is real. We are either trained to believe, or decide to believe, or choose not to believe at all. So to sum it all up, being religious is a matter of choice. And whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Atheist, at the back of our minds, we all know and are free to decide who or what it is we truly believe in.

FRED MUMBI: If The Mind Is So Powerful, Why Is It Easily Coerced?

So we ended up arguing on how powerful the brain really is. Who said we ought to adopt the belief structures we found in place? Such concepts as religion, origin of existence and evolution that we have adopted, were a creation of people’s brains. Aren’t our minds powerful enough to come up with such belief structures of their own to adopt and abide them? The answer is yes, the brain is capable of such and more. Yet if the mind is so powerful, why is it easily coerced? 

Fred

SIMON WARIOKO: What Defines Success?
I wish success was a land; like the promised land where 'all our tears would be wiped out, where we would find joy and peace and where there would be no troubles any more'. But that is only a wish, and what more, do I really NEED to succeed? Our parents and the people of our society tell us to 'go to school, study hard, so that we can find a good job, and eventually have a good family.' And that is to them what I think is a road-map to success. It is a phrase that could arguably be a summary of what society has for all its existence been habitually inclined to live by. And its factual reasons not-withstanding, it is the department through which all part of society has been made, from law-making, medical care, construction to merchandizing, agriculture and artistry endeavors (which preserves all society).

Narrowing it down to an individualistic perspective, I think every human being with a sound mind at some point needs to have something in there lives. We are brought up not equal but in need. And one only knows the need only when one needs it. It therefore goes that first the individual has to have a goal. A definite major goal. A goal which they so desire to achieve that everything less is subservient. 

Liz, Rama and Simon

Some people want money, others fame, others want names say in their professionalism and still others want love, sex or romance, career success and/or self-fulfillment. These goals mentioned are all positive, not to insinuate there are no negative goals. These come along in the name of getting what is positive. Men have lied in order to gain love, yet others have killed and in search for sexual fulfillment, done things that only lowered them down to the level of a beast. This all in the name of success. But here comes a question, is there really success in doing what hurts other people in order to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve? And is there a way in which you can really get what you need without as much an effort?