Dispatch from Mombasa

"….. 90% of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons  for supporting our predilections." - Justice William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Judge USA), * As the dust settles in the just concluded American elections, questions are likely to arise on what went wrong in Secretary Hilary Clinton’s campaign camp. Many people were of the opinion that Hilary Clinton was likely to win. Their observation was backed by opinion polls that gave her a between 4-8% lead over President-Elect Donald J. Trump. Secretary Clinton had a good message going. She spoke policy and the continuation of President Barrack Obama’s legacy which had seen the American economy register significant growth compared to when President George Bush left White House in 2008. What concerns me is the role played by strategic communication advisers for Donald J. Trump that left the Clinton camp stun and with egg on the face. Their role provides crucial lessons to any practising or a...

I cannot fully recall how the debate started but all I can remember is that we were having a debate about the communicative power of silence. I found the debate intellectually stimulating and decided to on my own learn a few facts about silence and communication. Of course I had to try and see how it links to my two pet areas of preoccupation –politics and internal organisational communication. Meaningful silence as advanced by Johannsen (1974) and Jaworski (1993) is where thought processes are involved and the hearer of the message intentionally withholds a response to the speaker. The speaker is left to use his/her own means to find out the response which more often is gotten from the nonverbal cues. Now, the 2017 general elections are just around the corner. Aspirants and incumbents in equal measure are running like headless chicken in early campaigns earnestly  trying to convince voters that they are the best choices. For incumbents, anything that seems to oppose or spea...