Lessons learnt from Manatt-Dudus enquiry

Cynthia P Cooke, Contributor

AS AN educator, I am always thinking about improving the classroom experience for our students. As such, I think about myself as a student. I was always struggling with 'paying attention'. My mind wandered off from the lesson because I had difficulty listening to what the teacher was saying. Even now I find myself looking at the persons who are speaking and trying to analyse their expressions and sometimes doing a sketch of their faces. I, therefore, tried looking at the proceedings of the Manatt-Dudus enquiry, to see if I could learn any lessons and improve on my attention span.

I ask persons who have been following the enquiry to try and recall as many quotes as you can from the proceedings. You will find that the ones that you remember are the ones spoken by the more interesting speakers. Lesson: If your class is interesting, your students will learn and retain whatever you present to them. Lesson: Some lawyers should stick to paperwork and leave advocacy for those with the requisite skills. Maybe we could go back to the barrister and solicitor days.

"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". We cannot ask God to forgive us until we have forgiven others. Forgiving is necessary to allow cleansing of the spirit, so God can find his way in. Lesson: If we carry around a grudge for 31 years, it becomes toxic and can poison our whole system. This may lead to poor memory, inability to reason and think logically and difficulty in differentiating between reality and things imagined.

I used to wonder why older persons pout when I spoke to them. One day I looked in the mirror and wondered why I was pouting. I realised the answer was age. Age causes some lines to appear around the mouth and the result is pouting.

The pouters

During the not-so-interesting moments that I was watching the enquiry, I began to notice the pouters. I was surprised to see that most of the speakers were pouters. That was emphasised when the prime minister was speaking. His picture frame was filled with pouters. I thought Hugh Small did not pout. I later learnt that it is because you see his teeth a lot. When his mouth was closed, he too was a pouter. Lesson: If you do not want to appear to be pouting, when you have passed a certain age, grow hair on your face, especially above your upper lips and below your bottom lips. Sorry ladies.

Finally, I want to ask some questions so that I can learn some more lessons. Why does the chairman look so sad? He appears to be on the verge of crying. Then his fellow commissioner to his left seems as if he was told to close his eyes and he is cheatingly peeping. Are their faces showing pouting in the superlative?

Who says this enquiry is a waste of time? Look how many lessons I have learnt.