Critical and Creative Thinking free essay sample

Critical thinking is an important and valuable skill to have. Critical thinking affects both your professional lifestyle as well as your personal lifestyle. Critical thinkers should encompass skills needed to thoroughly analyze all the variables in a problem. During critical thinking, decisions should be based upon logic, and relevant and accurate data. Problem-solving and decision making is part of our everyday lives. It is important to use critical and creative thinking when solving problems and making decisions. Without thinking critically, you may miss out on important details that may help you come up the best solution or make the best decision. Identify an important decision you have made that required critical and creative thinking One of the most important decisions I have had to make that required critical and creative thinking is selecting an undergrad university to obtain my bachelor’s degree. This decision required critical thinking because the ultimate choice would have a crucial impact on my future endeavors. An irrational person finds it impossible to detect and stand out strongly against issues put forth and which affect them in one way or another, falling victims of these issues. In regard to our parliamentarians, they tend to use ideological philosophies to mobilize people psychologically towards some desired goals. With the general election coming soon- in March parliamentarians who are interested in the presidency seat have already come together to form large coalitions which intend to bring different communities together by the goals they desire to reach. For example Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta has been seen around mobilizing Women and Youths in His campaigns as these groupings hold the majority of votes. They have done this, keeping in mind that their goal is to hold the highest seat in 2013 general elections. Since change is inevitable in the society, the ideas leading to this change has to be managed carefully and reasonably, otherwise we could end up with half-baked ideas which could be disastrous in the society. With these changes our parliamentarians have change their political positions and understanding from foreign influence, into critically appraising the national understanding of their own people. MPs are joining social networks with a good example being Hon. Martha Karua, who has used both Twitter and Facebook to educate Kenyans on her presidency bid, she also uses it as a feedback tool where Kenyans can freely interact with her by expressing their opinions using the social media. The current government tries to insist on people’s participation in thinking about any change in the society. Parliamentarians have overtime been forcing dogmas on people but it has emerged that people are becoming thinkers and hence giving the society directions in terms of ideas. More youths have gone through the education system and are coming back to educate their societies, thus parliamentarians have started indulging youths in their day to day activities as they have become the back bone of the society. For example, Hon. Raila is seen as a politician who is popular among the youths and also carries with himself a reform tag. This is a might be a massive boast for his presidential campaign because the voters in Kenya are no longer in the dark old days of KANU. They are enlightened on their rights, what their country needs and which kind of leader can create a better Kenya for them. In the recent past, members of parliament have increased their pays tremendously without being taxed. Thus they are not showing a good example to Kenyans, whose salaries are heavily taxed each month. A few members like Hon. Johnson Muthama has insisted that MP’s should be taxed by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in the same way as all other Kenyan citizens are taxed. He  is the first politician in Kenya to voluntarily have his Parliamentary salary taxed and he beliefs that if the poorest Kenyans are forced to pay their taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), then it is only fair that the highest paid Kenyans (many of whom are Members of Parliament or members of the government) should also be taxed. In regard to personal identity, most of our parliamentarians are in the second stage on individual development, in that they inherit mass conscience and ra tionality from the social environment, thus becoming authoritarian and paternal in their ways of life. The difference between our parliamentarians is to do with one’s own initiative in thought and action. A critical and creative person becomes an agent of change with unique identity. With this many parliamentarians will be elected back to power by what they have done to the communities. Some Members exhibit sensitive interpersonal intelligence where they tend to fully understand their people, their intentions, motivations and desires as a result to work effectively with them. This intelligence allows them to stay in power as voters still re-elect them for the good work and leadership they exhibit. For example, Hon. Johnson Muthama played a crucial role in the peace building efforts that various political leaders were involved in. Hon. Muthama spent nine days in the Rift Valley in the period of post-election violence, visiting Internally Displaced persons and looking for ways in which to assist them in their time of need. They use survival tactics that year in, year out they are elected back to the parliament, i. e delay projects so that just at the beginning of the election year they will promise to speed up the projects especially in infrastructure developments in their constituencies. Our parliamentarians tend to be intellectual people, who generate ideas that help solve everyday problems and who innovatively produces useful things. With the current regime many parliamentarians have used funds allocated to them effective in helping their communities, such funds include the Constituency Development Funds, where they have built hospitals, schools and create new ventures and businesses for their people. In parliament, problems are identified and solutions need to be decided upon. Some decisions are made due to intuition, where members trust their gut feelings more than they trust the analytical aspect. Though this thinking may be fast, it can lead to poor decision making due to prejudice and lack of open discussions. Decisions make as calculation tend to generate workable conclusions as there are steps required to follow, during parliament sittings when a problem is termed as strong, commission of inquiries are selected to find gather information, identify criteria, weighs them before coming into a concrete decision. They use people to gang up against each other on their favor; the 2007 General election may have been caused due to political influences on some sectors of Kenyan communities, who turned against each other, thus leading to the election violence. They tend to be very inconsiderate in their doings as soon as they are elected in to power. Most do not appear in their local constituencies for a whole year. Most members of parliament have been listed in corruption scams, where they use money allocated for a project for their own benefits. Recently Prof. Anyang Nyong’o The Medical Services Minister Prof Anyang has been on the headlines over the National Hospital Insurance Fund. Nyong’o who is ODM Secretary General has been on the spotlight over mass plundering of billions of shillings belonging to NHIF. It is also alleged that Prof. Anyang wired KShs 900 million to his personal accounts in Jersey and Cayman islands. Corruption cases have crippled the Kenyan economy and delayed improvements in various projects within the country. Reference 1. Wambari, K. (Ed). 1992. Reading in Introduction to Critical Thinking. Kijabe: A. I. C. Printing Press.