When you talk, people either hear you or listen to you or both. It is therefore very important to be thoughtful of what you say, where, whne and how.

Throughout my life, I have heard endless claims by people from different parts of the world that they are being denied freedom of expression. I believe that everyone in the world is free to express themselves. The only problem is that the consequences of whatever is expressed differ from place to place.

In recent times, in this part of the world, we have heard various outrageous statements made by politicians that had people talking. From Julius Malema and Helen Zille in South Africa to our very own MP Timothy Myeni. In all cases, these people were freely expressing themselves but may not have thought about the consequences of saying what they said. Hence I say, "you must think before you talk".

I have this intelligent 6 year old cousin who likes speaking his mind. He will not hold back from saying what he thinks regardless of who he is talking to, who is around or where he is. One Sunday; he was playing outside his church (when he should have been inside!) when he almost got knocked down by a car driven by one of the church members. Enraged by what had almost happened, the car driver got out of the car to shout at my cousin. He asked why he was playing on the road, why he was playing outside and so on and my cousin answered back with such calm that it gave the driver the impression that this young boy did not care about the fact that he almost got knocked down by a car. This made the driver more angry to the point where he said he would beat the young boy up. My young cousin just laughed and said'

"hey old man, you must think before you talk"

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