MALAWI FLAMES GO LOCAL

If you are an entry level job seeker, a simple job-description statement is the kiss of death: “Five years of relevant experience required.” You feel doomed by the frustration of not having the relevant experience. If you happen to be a student or recent graduate, it’s a catch-22.

“Catch 22” — the twenty-second of the guidelines used by military surgeons to “catch” those falsely claiming to be insane — is that an insane person should not believe or suspect that they are insane. Thus, to be recognised as insane, a person must not ask for an evaluation, because doing so implicitly shows that they suspect themselves to be insane. But, if a person does not ask for an evaluation, they cannot be recognised as insane because the evaluation is the method by which such recognition would occur. Thus, nobody can ever classify themselves as insane (even if they genuinely are), and thus nobody may ever use an insanity diagnosis to escape flying combat missions, ignoring the possibility of someone else recommending an evaluation for a peer.

“Catch-22” presents the illusion of choice while preventing any real choice. In other words, it refers to a situation in which multiple probabilistic events exist, and the desirable outcome results from the confluence of these events, but there is zero probability of this happening, as they are mutually exclusive. It’s the old adage, everyone has heard it: “You can’t find a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job.” So, how do you find a job with little or no experience?

Everyone has some experience at something, except for perhaps a day-old infant. For example, a student who has written numerous research papers could use the heading, “research and writing experience“. And, then, describe the experience: “conducted extensive literature reviews in the social sciences, summarized literature“.

More often than not we hear that so and so should not be included in the national team because they are not experienced enough or don’t have experience at all. According to the Malawi Daily Times “Kinnah eyes Pres Cup stars” article by Joy Ndovi on March 3, 2009, the Flames coach intends to give more local players a chance to play for the national team:

“I want to build a very strong local team. And as usual my philosophy is to always give players a chance to prove their worth. I will give a chance to outstanding Presidential Cup players for observation and training. I can assure you that I will include at least four or five in the squad that is currently in camp.”

“They say if you want to learn how to drive a car, then you must drive. If we don’t give these players a chance to train with the national team how are they going to learn?”

Nobody was born with experience.