Obama is right on choosing a woman who “knows things”
There is something about weddings that just does not cut it for me.
I do not usually attend weddings anyway for several reasons: One, they take a whole day out of my life. Two, they are basically the same format—white dress, shiny suit, church, reception, cake, food, blah blah.
Three, the speeches! OMG, if there is any part of the whole event that is chockfull of irrelevancies, awkward moments and gobbledygook, it is this one.
So, last Saturday, I was subjected to all this humdrum until Meek and Nicki, the groom and bride, were called upon by the MC to say “a few words”.
This was after the parents, uncles, aunts, friends and workmates had had their say. So, I expected the couple just to say thanks and close this speeches bit.
Instead Meek started with how Nicki was now Mrs Him, then a throwback to when he first met her at Prime Time or some “fake” varsity event like that…blah, blah. It was my cue to leave…
But then I remembered that hawt bridesmaid who had promised to give me the nine digits later.
So, I decided to hang around the hotel. As I got to the lobby, there was a huge flat-screen TV next to the aquarium. It was showing POTUS Barack Obama in Kenya.
He was making a speech about why it is important to educate women and girls, or at least that was the part of the speech I got him at.
So, I sat down to listen. Any nation that does not educate its women and girls is bound to fall behind, he said.
The advantage of educating a girl, who becomes an educated woman, is that it leads to educated children. Now, this was a speech to listen to rather than the dreary ones I fled from.
This got me thinking hard. Beyond just education, any woman who knows things, is aware of her surroundings, and can learn is a valuable asset as a wife and a mother.
Even before beauty and the other criteria men tend to list about what they want in a potential partner.
And this is not just an elitist notion. I know there are young women who have graduated from university with fairly good grades but cannot subtract 15 from 900, do not know that Kilimanjaro is a mountain, or even differentiate nouns and verbs.
Yet, there is that rural uneducated woman who can figure out that if she sold her 100 kilos of maize at Shs1,000 each, it comes to Shs100,000.
She knows when the voters’ register will be displayed, and that her vote in an election is her voice.
Now, between the two scenarios, who is most likely to help with the children with their homework? Consider that for the latter, because of UPE, her children have a better chance of being in school than her.
It is sad but true that there are many women who feel cool being airheads.
But it has never been and can never be cool, not in the slightest bit. I hate airheads, and so should all other men—they put the nation at stake and the children in danger. So, choose wisely when getting a lifemate.
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