{"id":48092,"date":"2025-12-13T09:46:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/?p=48092"},"modified":"2025-12-13T09:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T06:46:43","slug":"lump-it-or-find-the-float-how-positive-deviance-becomes-the-new-first-water-at-aau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/48092\/","title":{"rendered":"Lump it or Find the Float: How Positive Deviance Becomes the New First Water at AAU"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went out for coffee. An idea flashed, immediately. I thanked\u00a0Balzac. The table attendant, due to some system flop, took ages to settle the bill. I was fuming, maybe, but aimed at\u00a0not sure. Walking home, the flash disappeared. It was truly lost, though, after I stopped at a pharmacy for a doctor-advised substance. This stuff instantly conjured\u00a0Dr. Selman Waksman, who coined “antibiotic” in 1941 from Greek:\u00a0anti\u00a0(against) and\u00a0bios\u00a0(life)\u2014literally, “against life”\u2014against the life that seeks to destroy other life. I noted all the great people lost before this discovery: a piece of\u00a0capsule wisdom\u00a0(from the Latin\u00a0capsula<\/em>, a small box, like the tiny, dissolvable medicine capsules) for the day’s\u00a0pithy sayings.<\/p>\n

The phrase “like it or lump it” (resign yourself to it) possibly derives from\u00a0lump, which once meant to\u00a0gulp down a bitter medicine… antibiotic. My effort to retrieve the earlier flash went nowhere. From the frying pan to the fire, my pop-eyed observation of a kid enjoying a\u00a0macchiato\u00a0with his probable granddad\u2014a vision of simple satiety\u2014only brought back my childhood neighbors\u2019 call “Nu buna tetu.”<\/em> I used to accompany my mother, carrying her cap and saucer, often wondering if the cap was too big for coffee. It worked out, though: after some nagging, I’d get a generous flow from the second\u00a0and\u00a0third rounds into the saucer. I\u00a0never\u00a0forget that grey-circled, artistic cap. I checked myself: “What is new?” This, in itself, only made me angry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Just last week, I’d confessed to a cousin that I’d developed a coffee addiction, blaming those kiddy days. Well, a man’s heavy throat-clearing yanked my attention from the lost marvel\u00a0and\u00a0sent it straight to\u00a0Japan. I had a friend, a true friend in need who was there on a testing day, who lived near Japan, closer to Bole. I had to use the fixed rotary phone at an all-wooden shack shop after visiting his rented place. This was when mobile fever hit town, when a 1990s\u00a0Ericsson\u00a0was soon dubbed the\u00a0duster\u00a0due to its ridiculous size. I had no mobile then; few had that luxury\u00a0or\u00a0privilege. Approaching the shop, a girl was busy\u00a0brand shopping paracetamol, the attendant showing off his sales knack with new brands. I had to stop that nonsense.<\/p>\n

Turning a corner, I met a woman from my old\u00a0Geez\u00a0class. An elementary school teacher, she was\u00a0never\u00a0boring. One day, she lamented\u00a0never quenching her thirst for mathematics, the pure elation of solving equations. Yet, she found solace in the successful completion of her two sons as\u00a0Engineers; talking about it made her face glow. This woman reminds me of\u00a0AI, embodying the essence of mothers\u00a0and\u00a0fathers to the\u00a0nth degree, even though the creators’ certainty hovers around one percent. It’s a new\u00a0infrastructure\u2014this Amharic teacher\u00a0and\u00a0her Engineering sons\u2014we have to navigate,\u00a0or\u00a0we\u2019ll look uneducated, like the US Education Minister calling AI an\u00a0A first. I avoided a long-time friend’s house, eager to get home\u00a0and\u00a0write. A good student, hard worker, integrity intact. A man who grinds his coffee with a\u00a0pestle and mortar,\u00a0never\u00a0bothered with an email, let alone the social media hassle. We recalled mocking a friend long ago who awkwardly asked if\u00a0Brezhnev\u00a0was dead when told about\u00a0Andropov\u2014forgetting\u00a0Chernenko\u00a0in between.<\/p>\n

Between us, it’s as if\u00a0nothing\u00a0has changed since then. I wondered what he’d say if I told him the idea slipped\u00a0and\u00a0I was chasing it angrily. This teacher later lamented the\u00a0not-too-long-lasting friendship\u00a0prevailing among today’s kids. Walking on, I thought of my\u00a0geologist\u00a0friend I used to mock for\u00a0looking for something that somebody has not put. Now, though, I was digging in my own mind for something that\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0there a minute ago. Bitter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love working with Geologists,\u00a0and\u00a0I hate it. I\u00a0don’t\u00a0know why the\u00a0Ministry of Mining\u00a0sees me as a living artifact. If\u00a0not\u00a0for the billions I saved, I truly witnessed millions thrown into empty pits by\u00a0consumables purchase-driven drilling\u00a0based on maps drawn because gold mining was seen as a gamble requiring only\u00a0heart, not mind. This idiotic mindset is now being promoted by the\u00a0CEO\u00a0on social media. I remember a US drilling supervisor leaving the site immediately, terrified of putting that horror on his\u00a0CV. I also remember\u00a0cultural prospectors,\u00a0illiterate, pointing out alluvial deposits, burdens waiting improved cut-off grades.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0geologist, out in the field with their\u00a0geophysics\u00a0and\u00a0geochemistry\u00a0tools, is often bossed by men who\u00a0never used a geological hammer, led by someone with all the world’s answers from the latest science, asserting\u00a0the heart precedes the mind\u2014a claim dumb enough to wake\u00a0Mark Twain\u00a0for a definition of stupidity wrapped in senility, a folly that wasted millions. This reminded me of\u00a0Plato\u00a0and\u00a0Eyoel Muluwork, a rare gem of a Geologist who could assay massive data.<\/p>\n

Geological exploration\u00a0is\u00a0not\u00a0a sudden gold rush, it’s a\u00a0slow-burn, multi-phase grind\u00a0where failure is literally buried. You start with\u00a0Regional Reconnaissance, the\u00a0lumpen intellectual\u00a0phase: squinting at maps for a\u00a0sulfurous\u00a0hint of\u00a0anomaly\u2014the “lump it” part. Then\u00a0Prospecting, the\u00a0boots-on-the-ground\u00a0hustle.<\/p>\n

Real\u00a0geologists\u00a0with\u00a0geological hammers\u00a0chip away,\u00a0rock-hounding, collecting\u00a0float, looking for\u00a0gossan\u00a0(weathered ore) that promises bigger things. The\u00a0Geologist\u00a0is a\u00a0herculean\u00a0figure, alone, needing\u00a0people skills\u00a0because their only company is silence\u00a0and\u00a0the occasional local pointing out the\u00a0anomalies.\u00a0Next is\u00a0Detailed Exploration\u2014geophysics\u00a0and\u00a0geochemistry\u00a0roll in: the\u00a0seismic sorcerers\u00a0and\u00a0assay acrobats. Finally,\u00a0Drilling\u2014the terrifying, high-stakes sinkhole of millions to prove the\u00a0ore body\u00a0is real,\u00a0not\u00a0a CEO\u2019s fever dream.<\/p>\n

A country\u00a0never\u00a0achieves proper economic breakthrough\u00a0without\u00a0foundational resources like\u00a0coal and iron ore,\u00a0or\u00a0base metals\u00a0like copper.\u00a0Gold\u00a0is the flash, the curse\u2014neither\u00a0foundational\u00a0motivator\u00a0nor\u00a0stable\u00a0hygiene factor\u00a0(look at Africa\u2019s conflict zones). The\u00a0geologist’s\u00a0essence is this combined expertise: the\u00a0field geologist\u00a0spotting the\u00a0anomaly\u00a0and\u00a0the academic modeling the\u00a0ore body. Their isolation demands\u00a0AAU\u00a0prioritize\u00a0people skills\u2014neither\u00a0geophysics\u00a0nor\u00a0a\u00a0geological hammer\u00a0saves you from a\u00a0sulfurous\u00a0disposition\u00a0or\u00a0a community you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0talk to.<\/p>\n

My anger now aimed at writing: how friends sometimes made me look a\u00a0buffoon. I was reminiscing about\u00a0AAU,\u00a0Tikur Anbessa,\u00a0Beyene Merid,\u00a0Kes Timhert Bet\u00a0with\u00a0Yeneta Dawit\u2014I’m a\u00a0nostalgia buff. I focused on\u00a0AAU, forgetting the spark. I was in a mini-bus taxi with its “weyeyet<\/em>” (discussion). Years ago, passing\u00a0AAU, I bored a young campus kid with old stories. His eyebrow kept raising amidst his disinterest. I excused my memory lapse, suggesting I might have the opposite of\u00a0progeria\u00a0(old in childhood),\u00a0not Alzheimer’s. We need pieces about Addis mini-buses\u00a0and\u00a0weyeyet<\/em>. I thought of unbridled pieces from a decade ago. Now, I questioned if today deserved writing at all. Two neighbors gave genuine responses: one returned a published piece as\u00a0behind time, boasted his kids\u00a0loathed\u00a0reading,\u00a0didn’t\u00a0have time to waste.<\/p>\n

The other bird’s-eye-viewed it, emphasizing the editing needed, proving I was\u00a0not only\u00a0out of time\u00a0but also\u00a0a bit disturbed. I remembered\u00a0Eudora Welty\u00a0and\u00a0Nathaniel Hawthorne: Welty reminding me to turn every encounter into writing, Hawthorne bearing poverty by reading\u00a0Shakespeare. The idea got lost anyway. I arrived home to a\u00a0Ministry of Health\u00a0text advising against using\u00a0antibiotics\u00a0without\u00a0professional advice. This reminded me of my piece shared with friends, even the reigning comedian’s joke\u2014a piece for the\u00a0Ethiopian Reporter\u00a0if they dared run it.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0antibiotic\u00a0message soothed me, bringing back my second-year teacher for life,\u00a0Meera Kaushik. She brought the substance into her management\/leadership class to explain the\u00a0Hygiene Factor Theory, giving me\u00a0cognitive gymnastics. She asserted that the use and effect of antibiotics is short or adrift of hygienic function: they don’t motivate healing, they prevent pain, letting the body’s natural drive do the work. The curing is the body’s natural response. This capsule wisdom is the plot. The issue is the cost and time to administer the drug\u2014expenditure on merely stopping dissatisfaction (Hygiene), not creating satisfaction (Motivation). This is “like it or lump it.”<\/p>\n

Think of Clarence Hemingway, Ernest’s father, whose suicide was tied to disregarding antibiotics\u2014not lack of success (Motivation), but unmanaged pain and despair (Hygiene). My classmates from high school bookkeeping streams didn’t care; I was left with her assertions like Don Quixote with passages, advised by a friend to only study the notes for the exam. This later connected to interdisciplinary discourse at Asni Gallery.<\/p>\n

My presentation at the\u00a0Zerfeshiwal alumni\u00a0group, where I was requested to speak in English\u00a0without\u00a0preparation, came after a period where my tongue faculty at work was lost. Work was cut into check boxes;\u00a0no\u00a0meetings, minutes forbidden.\u00a0Science\u00a0led the company, left to a\u00a0ghost science group. Raising science issues meant trouble. Individuality was mocked.\u00a0George Orwell\u00a0territory. The supreme leader mocked new ideas, calling people like me\u00a0new idea idiots. He never laughed since he was twelve, his scathing attacks on reports insulting his rule, destroying a company with virtue, with mocks like “this idea is not low enough to be told a mouth like yours”\u2014arrogance devised to\u00a0siphon energy\u00a0to make subordinates his tools.\u00a0No wonder\u00a0his preaching on\u00a0ignorance\u00a0targeted the educated.<\/p>\n

My presentation story: A project for\u00a0solar-paneled\u00a0lamps in rural Ethiopia. The key: maintenance was\u00a0exiged\u00a0to be carried out solely by people who\u00a0absolutely never\u00a0leave the community. They had to be the\u00a0utter washouts\u00a0deemed so by the community.\u00a0No wonder\u00a0hygiene\u00a0never\u00a0reminded me of\u00a0AAU’s\u00a0special dish for sport stars, the\u00a0teff<\/em> flour\u00a0in the\u00a0injera<\/em>\u00a0sauce causing a student protest (instigated by interest groups\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0grapevine).<\/p>\n

\u00a0AAU\u00a0desperately needs\u00a0guidance and counseling\u2014neither\u00a0students remaining ID numbers\u00a0nor\u00a0classrooms instead of lecture halls. I learned from\u00a0TOT\u00a0that students need to be trained as teachers, amplifying the respect for teaching.\u00a0Gen Z’s\u00a0problem talking to strangers shows a lack of life-call training.\u00a0Hygiene\u00a0never\u00a0reminded me of my own class, Seid, a teacher with his bamboo stick checking us on Mondays.\u00a0Not even\u00a0the deaf pensioner in Addis, keeping the road from\u00a0Tekle Haimanot\u00a0neat, whose hustle against waste was\u00a0never\u00a0tolerated by officials, unlike\u00a0Nicholas Gogol’s Inspector General\u00a0reminiscence.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0AAU Charter’s\u00a0future:\u00a0neither\u00a0massive resources poured into\u00a0hygiene factors\u00a0(kludgeocracy\u00a0management,\u00a0teff flour\u00a0protests, bureaucratic\u00a0rataplan)\u00a0nor\u00a0their neglect. Too much pain kills\u00a0motivation\u00a0(Cognitive Athletics). The\u00a0Acting President\u2019s\u00a0structural promise is\u00a0hygiene factor\u00a0recognition: cleaning the wound,\u00a0not\u00a0running the race. We must\u00a0not\u00a0devolve into\u00a0Zugzwang\u00a0nor\u00a0Ayn Rand\u2019s\u00a0nightmare of\u00a0theft-wired homo sapiens. The\u00a0osseous\u00a0theft\u00a0and\u00a0filiopietistic\u00a0politicians are the contaminants forcing energy expenditure just to maintain non-pain.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0AAU Charter\u00a0must shift: from\u00a0torpid\u00a0pretense to teaching students to\u00a0engineer themselves\u00a0through rigor\u2014that is\u00a0Motivation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Orwell\u2019s\u00a0warning about mocking individuality\u00a0and\u00a0ghost science groups\u00a0is the ultimate\u00a0hygiene\u00a0breakdown. The\u00a0utter washouts\u00a0used in the solar lamp project, a system requiring people who\u00a0absolutely never\u00a0leave their community to handle maintenance, is a twisted version of\u00a0positive deviance\u2014a\u00a0hygiene\u00a0fix achieved by low expectation,\u00a0not\u00a0high\u00a0motivation. This is the\u00a0opposite deviance\u00a0we must note: successful outcomes achieved by anti-conventional,\u00a0negative\u00a0means.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AAU must reject this. It needs\u00a0counseling and guidance\u00a0to ensure students\u00a0neither\u00a0remain ID numbers\u00a0nor\u00a0fall into the\u00a0lumpen intellectual\u00a0class.\u00a0Gen Z’s\u00a0lack of people skills is critical for the isolated\u00a0geologist.<\/p>\n

The way out is the\u00a0Jerry Sternin\u00a0model: find the\u00a0positive deviants.\u00a0Not\u00a0the\u00a0change artist\u00a0whose wisdom leaves with them.\u00a0Not\u00a0TBU\u00a0(True but Useless) conventional wisdom.\u00a0But\u00a0finding small, successful\u00a0“deviant” practices\u00a0already working\u00a0and\u00a0amplifying them. The focus must be\u00a0neither\u00a0on the systemic failure that produces\u00a0opposite deviance\u00a0(like the\u00a0utter washouts\u00a0succeeding in maintenance due to their forced local immobility)\u00a0nor\u00a0solely on the overwhelming\u00a0hygiene\u00a0needs,\u00a0but\u00a0on isolating the local success stories (positive deviance) within the academic system.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0AAU charter\u00a0needs to transition from\u00a0psittacism\u00a0to\u00a0Lacedaemonian\u00a0discipline, forging the mind until it is\u00a0turned to steel. The waste of the brilliant surgeon due to\u00a0machtpolitik\u00a0is a catastrophic\u00a0hygiene\u00a0failure that nullifies his talent (motivator). We have to stop squandering intellectual revenue,\u00a0neither\u00a0in\u00a0sardanapalian sloth\u00a0nor\u00a0kludgeocracy. We have to produce minds that offer solutions,\u00a0not\u00a0more\u00a0logomachy. That’s the tea.<\/p>\n

The door stays closed because I am the door,\u00a0but\u00a0the lock must be steel,\u00a0not\u00a0Jell-O.<\/p>\n

Contributed by Tadesse Tsegaye<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went out for coffee. An idea flashed, immediately. I thanked\u00a0Balzac. The table attendant, due to some system flop, took ages to settle the bill. I was fuming, maybe, but aimed at\u00a0not sure. Walking home, the flash disappeared. It was truly lost, though, after I stopped at a pharmacy for a doctor-advised substance. This stuff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1928],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-bits-pieces"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}