23 Sep 2023
PROTOCOL MEANING
“a system of rules that explain the correct conduct and procedures to be followed in formal situations"
In computer networking, a protocol is "a set of rules for formatting and processing data".
Above you will find the simplest meaning of the word "protocol". As per Google.
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I was at home one day with my wife during a national holiday watching the live events as they happened in Kasarani Stadium. The then President Uhuru was about to to do the stadium greet-the-people lap on his ceremonial open-top land cruiser. As Kenyans we all understand this process.
However, when the President's ceremonial car started its lap, we were surprised to see that the then current Nairobi Governor was with him. This was kinda unusual... but then again he's the President. The live newscasters covering the event went a buzz with comments of "Breach of Protocol" blah blah blah...
It was at this point when my wife asked me what exactly is the meaning of protocol or breach of protocol. Knowing my wife, I knew that I had to come up with perfect examples to make her totally understand the meaning of protocol with no further debate.
Using my own words I explained to her, "protocols are a set of common sense rules to be applied everywhere in our life. For example if a president from another country comes to visit us, our president will be the one to welcome the visiting president. On the other hand no president from another country can come to visit our country if our president is out of the country".
From the blank stare my wife was giving me I knew I had to offer more examples...
1. Do you remember that day I came home early you were not in the house but I found our house girl in the house. Since I'd never spoken to this house girl even though her work performance was very much ok, I took this opportunity to talk to her asking her about her home, her parents, where she came, from and all that.
When you came home you found me talking to the house girl in the sitting room and you just did your thing you went straight to the kitchen. The next day when I came home you were busy doing some house chores. Itwas until the following day when I noticed the absence of our house girl and I asked you what happened to the house girl I haven't seen her.
Do you remember what you told me... that you had fired her the previous day!!! I asked why you fired her as she was doing a good job and then you told me you fired her because you found me talking to her.
Now that was a "breach of protocol". I broke your protocol meaning that I had no authority to speak to the house girl and I understood your reasons.
2. Do you remember that day I came home in the evening and I found your sister was visiting with her boyfriend. I was angry for a whole week!!!
You were really confused and I had to explain why.
I got mad for finding a man in my house! Doesn't matter if he's your sister's boyfriend or my brother. What kind of a man enters another man's house, sit on his favourite seat with a drink within arms reach!!!
He "breached protocol"!. A decent man would have taken a walk outside till the man of the house welcomed him. How would you feel if you came home and found I had let you lady friend in to wait for you?
At this point I noticed my wife's look of bewilderment on her face and I knew that she now knew what protocol means.
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