It is amazing how often I see mediocre rich kids being given jobs — in academia and the development sector especially — just because they know how to talk the talk and walk the walk, because they know the right people and went to the right schools. This is despite them being completely out of touch with anything outside their own little elite bubbles and having little drive, initiative or passion for what they do. Meanwhile countless others who’s English might not be great and who don’t have access to fancy schools but who actually possess a wealth of knowledge, have experience and are committed are passed up without a second look and dismissed as under-qualified or for not ‘being the right fit’. Sociologically, we know that this is how the elite reproduces itself, but that doesn’t make this any less maddening. Published in Daily Times, March 21st 2018.