My 'novel' fried posho recipe

I recently promised to give one of my friends a new 'one of a kind' recipe for preparing delicious posho (maize pap). I had been working on this recipe for about two weeks and was ready to brag it off to him when google changed my story.

Papa's fried posho and beans.

I am, in fact, a little bit disappointed with myself tonight. You see, just when I thought I had perfected my posho recipe, and was ready to proudly throw it around, I discovered that it is actually not something novel at all, if I can be very honest from the start.

Someone 'stole' the blue prints from me, did some editing and published the recipe in The New Vision almost three years ago! I was engrossed with other important issues like feeding bacteria, when a dude called Hillary 'Wharever' cut the tape. Yeah, go ahead. Do the 'ouch' thing. Smile. Infact burst out and laugh. Roll on the floor if you have ample space. And then write back and tell me how sorry you are about this. You being sorry that someone got this idea before and even published it. I know that is what friends are for. And that is why we like them. They comfort us. Sometimes after laughing behind our backs.

I am, however, glad that I googled my recipe name: 'Fried Posho', before getting down to write and post 'Papa's fried posho recipe' You know, high level science, and media in general, is extremely serious when it comes to the evil of plagiarism. I just wanted to be sure that I was not going to end up like someone who had done a copy & paste job just to impress others about my innovativeness. You know this business of getting other people's ideas and texts and reproducing them as your own without acknowledging the original author(s) is just so not cool. It is actually very unethical! It is very morally wrong. It is a sign of dishonesty.

Right now I am thinking that plagiarism it is akin to a pauper dressing up in the King's robes, riding into town on the royal horse and having everyone bow down for him! He, the pauper, will definitely feel like he is King but deep inside his stupid heart he knows he is a dirt eating impositor! I am sure you can imagine what would happen if the King's subjects found out that they were paying their respects to a disrespectful slimy-nosed pig. What would the king himself do to this hog?

And yet people continue to plagiarise!

Please be informed that I picked this from Wordpress:

Journalists steal their friends stories, panel beat them here and there and re-publish them. I read a little about a one Jayson Blair, a former reporter for the New York Times, who thrived on this evil. He finally lost his career! I have read about an academician (an Associate Professor) in the US who republished a paper that had already been authored by other people. I do not think, in my wisdom, that I should tell you where I have read these two stories from. I have already made it clear that 'I read' from somewhere! Besides, even if I told you where I got those stories from I am sure you would not cross check.

Anyway, let me tell you that I read about Jason Blair from here and the Associate Prof from here so that you do not think I made up  the stories.

I have also seen students ' reports with paragraphs upon paragraphs of text copy- pasted from the internet. Often without even a single reference quoted. I can not tell you where I read this from because this is my very own original writing from personal experience. Just believe me! But if you ever use this part of my information then kindly inform your audience that "Papa's Cocktail revealed that some students produce copy-pasted reports..."

It is quite sad that the internet has made it so easy for people to practice this vice. You see what you like on a website, you copy it and paste it into your document and voila! How often do you, for instance, see facebook status messages that you simply know could not have been conceived by the guys to whose names they are attached? It is terrible, isn't it?

I have told some students before that these days it is very easy for one's work to be checked for plagiarism. I can personally smell it in their work just by reading through once. It is possibe for anyone to get suspicious about some sort of fraud if they are familiar with your writing style and their know your capabilities. Sometimes I read something written by someone I know and a voice in my mind says "this is too good to be true...John could not have written this!" And I can confirm it by using various online plagiarism detecting tools such as Plagiarism Checker, Copyscape, Plagiarism.org and many others.

Well that  'novel' fried posho recipe of mine?! Are you still hoping to read the recipe here?! You wish.

I am very very afraid I am going to have to ask you to follow this link  and try it out "Hilary’s Fried Posho". All I can say, at this point, is that personally I do add a little salt at point number three. I have also experimented with a range of spices and different vegetables. But in moderation! And at point number four I add flour until I have a paste (not porridge)! Please do experiment and tell me how everything works out for you.