The Kenyan Scholar

The fundamental aspect of a given thriving society is family and religion. I want to talk about the Jews. The Jewish culture and Jewish lifestyle.

 A random quick fact. Did you know that from 1901 to 2022, more than 900 people have won the Nobel Prize. Out of the 900, 200 of the slots are filled by Jews (specifically the Ashkenazi Jews) . Furthermore, they have extremely excelled in economics. They have about 39% stake in Nobel prize, economics sector, 27% physics and others like Medical and Physiology more than 15%. Do you know the population of the Jews? They are between 10-20 million. In a population of 7 billion people, those statistics prove to be outstanding.  

We were having these convo with my pal in the US in the field of mathematics, and I was asking him one thing. "Do you think they are God Chosen people?. And do you think we Africans are cursed?".

Well, both are fallacies. Let me break down why the Jews are extremely brilliant/proficient. Well, one thing I have noticed with them since I lived in Israel, is, family. The basic unit of the society. It's starts with the family. Most of their fortune is passed on from generation to generation, and children are taught the art of business at a very early age. I used to think that this was child labor.

I think I was wrong. Book record, accounting, reading, and writing are necessary skills to thrive. Each family member/sibling is awarded a type of job according to their prowess. If you are not good with books, you source labor. They have a way of dividing chores. And they don't or minimize sibling rivalry and jealousy.  

Someone once said that their success is attributed to family upbringing, self motivation, resilience, and dedication to education and hard work. There was this boss of mine who used to call me at 1 am. I used to wonder when does he sleep and he wakes up at 5:30 in the morning and is super wealthy, and yet, I haven't made any progress and I sleep for 8 hours. They really outdo themselves. Their former PM Shimon Perez once said, "There is something in our DNA that makes us Jews never feel satisfied." Failure is not their option.

Another aspect I have noticed about them, there is no free money. No begging. You have to sweat. You have to earn that shekel. I think it's in the Torah or their religion, Judaism. 

Education. They have advanced education or are just tech savvy. That's why it is a start up Nation. There is nothing like their gene in their lineage that makes them geniuses. They earn it. Look at Technion University. One of the best in the world. It has more than 5 Nobel Laureates. Israel has more than 10,000 start-up companies. 

The last thing that is prominent with them here is euphemism. The art of being polite to good people. And being bad to the bad people. The energy you give them is the energy they give back. I don't know if this applies to all the Hews, but this is what I observed amongst many. What can we learn as Kenyans?

We want a better society. Start with the fundamental unit. The family. Our country can not be changed from the top, but rather from the bottom. Forget about politics. Trust me, the way I know us Kenyans, given chance, we wouldn't be different from the same corrupt politicians.

The politicians are just privileged to have been given the chance. We are the true reflection of our leaders. If we accept this, then we can change. We need a whole generation overhaul. Teach your children good virtues rather than vices. Don't let them look up on politicians but rather to the doctors, businessmen, teachers, engineers, etc. Nurture them while young. We are dependent on our parents because they never taught us how to survive in the jungle.

Most of us were really pampered instead of being shown how to handle life. Our survival skills are really low. Trust me, if you train your child to have virtues, then when he grows, he won't be subjected to the vices of the society.