An Anaconda is not a Pet – Think before Trekking, Julius Jeh
Martin K. N. Kollie writes….
Julius Jeh, someone just sent me a screenshot of what you wrote wherein you described me as a “fast food intellectual” and a “google scholar”. I will take a few minutes to quickly respond. Overloaded with misplaced modifiers and comma splices, your otiose comments under Don Zogar’s posts with direct reference to my person are not just misjudged but also jinxed. The boob and bluff have to STOP because you could crash-land very soon as a dining-room intellectual and a wheelchair scholar.
Though feeble and vague, you took a high-risk to have hidden yourself under Don Zogar’s posts before discharging your diatribes. You made a perilous choice without being mindful of your limits and scrawny abilities. Such adventurism is a naïve attempt intended to place your own neck under the intellectual guillotine. Don’t panic because I have no intent to behead you now. This brief rebuff is just a caution. Next time, you may not be so lucky to enjoy such clemency or compassion.
I laughed out loud after your futile effort to chew what you are unable to consume. I got no therapy for outrage. You are angry simply because I had to checkmate you a few days ago on gas pricing. Of course, your infirm analogy in defense of the government made zero statistical sense. What do you know about statistics and computation? Your computation was inaccurate. I did not call you any name even though the link that you posted to compare various pump prices of gasoline was sourced from GOOGLE. In good faith, I only said “you were wrong to have hyped such an analogy especially in times of economic paralysis”. This is not how to settle scores.
Jeh, I do not make noise about being a scholar or an intellectual. I have never laid claim to being an expert, a professional, or whatsoever because our struggle has no space for self-gratification and moral arrogance. People usually refer to me in such manner and often times, I tell them to stop because our struggle in pursuit of rights and rice is not about me. But your obsession of being “The Most Learned Journalist” and a “Scholar” is more of a gaffe and this fixation is about to put you into trouble. STOP overvaluing your worth because you are neither an intellectual nor a scholar. You are an intellectual rookie and chintzy scholar. It is oblivious for you to even process in your subconscious mind that you are an “intellectual” or a “scholar”. Such hallucination or illusion is similar to building a castle of fantasy on planet Pluto. STOP before your crash-land!
To call me a google scholar says a lot about your unfamiliarity and ignorance about Information Technology (IT). Do you know what a google scholar is? You think it is a human being? Google scholar is a web-based search engineer that helps researchers and scholars to easily locate academic papers including journal articles, books, and other scholarly literatures. So, this is the extent at which you are naïve and inept. You have not read anything yet. Sitting on a local radio to spew out what you’ve gulped from borrowed knowledge does not make you an “intellectual” or a “scholar”. You are more of a preschooler.
I really do not like to fly my own kite but I am constrained to say this much. Before Blue Crest College became known, the best Computer School in Liberia between 2003 and 2010 was the International Institute of Computer Studies (IICS). I studied Computer Engineering and graduated as the Valedictorian of the entire school in 2009. Amazon-based IT expert John M. Reeves alias Mar Tor is my witness. I can also publish my accolades. Jeh, learn this today, there are dozens of search engines and GOOGLE is just one of them. Let me just name a few: Ecosia, Ecosia, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Aol.Com, Ask .Com, etc.
Who hasn’t used GOOGLE before? Everyone, including scientists and acclaimed academics, has. Everything you’ve ever said on your talk-show is from GOOGLE. Current statistics from SemRush says, “GOOGLE has 4.3 billion users worldwide as at April 2021.” So, what’s this noise about GOOGLE? You’ve sourced secondary information from GOOGLE at all times. All of your weak analyses are subservient to secondary data. You’ve done no original research of your own. Never! Even in your own field (M.Sc. in Education Policy), you have not written a single policy paper. You sit on the radio and rely on borrowed knowledge every day.
While still a student at UL, I wrote several policy papers including columns and articles. To date, I am still a contributor to dozens of local and international journals. The National Youth Policy that you were discussing the other day on your talk-show, I headed the Secretariat on that policy while I was still an undergraduate student. I have participated in two original research projects. While we originate ideas, your work is to duplicate as a dolt. What do you know about research (e.g. quantitative or qualitative)? I just completed a quantitative research course last semester. What do you know? Do you know how to even test theories and analyze variables using empirical methods and tools?
It is time to put an end to all of the loose talking. Let’s get to serious business. For me, I do not have a master’s. I only have a B.Sc. from the University of Liberia but here’s the challenge.
Suggest a research topic of your liking or any topic that you think you have control over including a topic in your field. Let’s have a debate or write a research paper. This will be done LIVE via zoom or any medium of your choice without any external aid.
The other day, you threw out a writing competition to anyone from the CPP and I just laughed. What can you write? What do you know how to write? What have you written? Here’s another challenge. I will put up US$1,000. Suggest your own panel of judges and let’s go into a writing competition. Let’s go into serious academic writing. Again, you can choose any topic of your liking and this exercise will be LIVE via Zoom. I will pay for your talk-show. If you even survive in the first 15 minutes, let UL revoke my undergraduate degree. Without any reason to brag, I will decimate you in no time. What can you write or say? Gibberish!
Because you were privileged to have obtained a Chevening Scholarship, so you think you are a scholar? It is a faux pas on your part to conceive such witless notion. You’ve never been a scholar and you are not a scholar because your thought process even in your own field (Education Policy) is diagonal and dwarfed.
You have to know your limits and your peers, Jeh. Trust me, I am not one of your peers. I have read more literatures than you. I have published more than you. I have debated more than you. Most important, I have struggled and sacrificed my life for our people more than you. My history is an open book. You may have a master’s degree but your worth isn’t the same as mine. Probably, the only advantage you may have is in terms of age. Other than that, ring my line any day if you want us to have any intellectual or academic showdown.
Your solidarity with Don Zogar is Chevening-based and I can understand that. My analysis on Weah’s playground of a park was very apt and fact-focused. The crux of my argument was and still remains, “Weah’s park does not meet the minimum design criteria and standards of a sports park.” I cited relevant and expert sources to back my proposition but all you had to say “Martin is a google scholar”. More than 8 acclaimed architects and engineers have agreed with me on this matter. Don Zogar is now seeking solace and self-comfort because he has woefullly placed himself in the category of a disgraced architect who strives on little knowledge and more arrogance. It’s been one whole week, Don has not provided a single technical line to tell us why “Weah’s park is a sports park”. He’s been more political than technical. Such an architect can only impress you and CDcians, most of whom are victims of the Stockholm Syndrome. So, your outrage is too obtuse, Jeh.
While we fight to rescue the people from the iron fist of the deluxe ex-Soccer Star in George Weah, I won’t allow you to be a distraction. It is your right to have your name on Bill Tweahway and Samuel Tweah’s monthly payrolls in an effort to distort the truth on the radio and undermine the struggle of the people, but you and Don Zogar are making an egregious error to think that you can distract me. I can deal with the entire government and deal with both of you at the same time. I have the energy and the prowess to do so. It is your right to remain a pro-regime puppet because bootlicking is your forte but you’ve got no right to step on the tail of an anaconda.
The government has sent “giants” that are far above your dim intelligence and none has survived. The other day, they sent Abraham Godsent Wheon. I took less than 30 minutes to cool him down. Now, they have sent you. You are too little of an “intellectual” or an “academician” to withstand the weight that you are trying to lift. Your height won’t even permit you because of its decimal stature that is akin to dwarfism. STOP this bluff now or blame yourself later because I won’t spare you. You brag about your “education” too much. I will put an end to this bluff. Vulgarity has no place in the realm of intelligentsia. A riff-raff like your kind must never inflate your role in academia because you are still a juvenile both academically and intellectually.
As an activist, I respect all Liberian journalists and my relationship with the media remains very cordial and mutual even while I’m in exile. But your ballooned arrogance has to be tamed and I am prepared to that. For a victim of ankyloglossia (Tie-Tongue) like you to even think that you are the “smartest” in the media landscape is to give Mighty Barrolle the impression that it has a better team to beat FC Barcelona. I know dozens of Liberian journalists who are far more brilliant, critical, analytical, balanced, research-based, integrous, and investigative than you.
I respect everyone and I love all Liberians. Jeh, you are not my target and you’ve never been. The corrupt and incompetent government that you are paid to promote and protect is my target. Your benefactors are my target and not you as a crumb-gatherer. But if you want to be a distraction, you will be nipped. The struggle to liberate our people is far beyond your parochial interest and insatiable greed.
Since you have not crossed my red line yet, I won’t push you too hard. Don’t attempt to chew what you cannot swallow. An Anaconda is not a Pet – Think before Trekking. Be forewarned and foretold. The friskiness has to stop because I won’t spare you like this the next time. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.
Let me end in Swahili “anaconda si kipenzi. Uwe na hekima” which means in English “An anaconda is not a pet. Be wise”.
My break is over. Running back to business.
Activist Martin K. N. Kollie writes from exile…
