To be brainless and headless

My wife now knows that it is fruitless to ask me questions such as those the President asked us: ‘Do you think I am brainless because I am a woman?’ If my wife were to ask me such kind of question, she knows that I will be incapable of answering such it to her satisfaction. I also know that I will be unable to answer such a question in a manner that would maintain a cordial relationship.

So, if it is in the morning, I may try to answer the question. On the other hand, if it is after 5pm, I will choose not to answer the question as I do not want to go to bed when the wife is angry. So, I look at her as a statue. So, you don’t want to answer the question? I say, no ma’am. I do not know the answer to the question you are asking.

For me, if a person is asking me the question: ‘Do you think I am brainless because I am a women?’ I know it is a complex question. Firstly, I am thinking that an individual may not be brainless just as men may not be brainless. What is to be brainless anyway? For me, to be brainless can be a functional attribute or a structural attribute. In terms of a structural attribute, one is just concerned as to whether when you open the skull, you will find the brain.

Now, I may never have the opportunity to open my wife’s skull for me to confirm whether she has a brain or not. I do not want to assume that just because she is my wife then I know she has or she hasn’t got a brain. So, I will say to my wife that I love her, but I am sorry. I have no idea you have or you do not have a brain. If she insists that I take a position, then I would ask: what is your opinion yourself? Do you have a brain? If she says, of course, she has a brain, I then say that I envy her for believing that she has a brain.

The second aspect of having a brain or not is the functional part. If you ask some people as to what having a brain constitutes, they say: people who don’t believe in God are brainless; some say people who believe in God are the group that is brainless; others say that brainless people are those that are violent and destroy the environment. So brainlessness is not just that one has no brain in their skull; rather, it is having a brain that does not function. This makes sense in some way, for, of what use is the brain in the skull if it does not function?

Let me finish by relating to my Chanco days in 1991. I studied biology under a lecturer called Turdoff (Mr or Dr, I am not sure now). Lecturer Turdoff, in one of the experiments, brought us a fish called Amphioxus. Amphioxus has no brain, just a spinal column but no spine. So when the president asks us whether we think she has no brain, I will say: I am not sure Your Excellency.