By Ismail Warsame
Opinion Columnist
I find writing not only creative, but also liberating. I find conversations with most people unlightening and often boring, especially with people who spend much of their free time chatting on things that make no difference in their lives. I often see seemingly educated persons browsing the Internet and watching aimlessly anything that is animated for their wondering attention.
Sometimes, I get irritated when people choose every mudane happenings in the Internet over my articles on current affairs and critical analysis of events that affect them directly or indirectly. At times, I feel sorry for them for wasting their precious time on watching YouTube rubbish by dubious characters trying to get Google hits as a way of living, no matter how degrading for them and others it could be.
Recently, I had a chance to chat with a former minister here in Garowe. To be frank, he wasn’t related to the Puntland government. During our conversation, I could feel that he was addicted to browsing his smartphone. However, he was trying very hard to multi-task with our conversation (I must be honest to admit that I am guilty of the same sin sometimes, especially when I feel the conversation uninspiring). At the times, I needed his attention to emphasize a few points, but I wasn’t sure whether he was with me, causing me to pause my talk until he was done with the phone, which he rarely did. After all, It was an ambitious expectation of him on my part. You don’t continue talking when your interlocutor picks up the phone to answer a call. You wait until they hang up the device. Nevertheless, you don’t appreciate the interruptions for it isn’t the best way to conduct business. Worse of all is when your conversant doesn’t put his phone either in silent or vibration mode, but leave it on loud ring tone in a meeting. Others don’t learn the suitability of texting in today’s busy modern world, where voice speaking is inconvenient at its best.
I also feel deep sorrow for those who are removed from the world of readership and the power of the pen. You could only imagine what they have been missing in life. Reading is a habit one develops, and if not repeated too often, it won’t stick with a person.
A writer gets bored and feels uneasiness when he or she doesn’t get busy in drafting any sort of writing. Depending on how you look at it, that is their hobby or vice to find meaning in life.
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