Azure: A blessing of the bright blue in colour like a cloudless sky

Share the useful things

Just a short note to acknowledge even the small blessings. Last night I happened upon some course material that had been lingering in the background. Microsoft offered a free hour’s webinar that I attended after work two days ago and in that hour, I learnt some things I never knew were possible quite surprisingly.

The technological landscape is changing, just as the workplace is. We are in the constant self-improvement quest to remain relevant and retain prominence. Everything is moving to the cloud. I had the course on playback on my television this morning and it just occurred to me to share it with some friends and on Twitter and Facebook.

See the unlikely rewards

I was gratified to know some of my friends were already exploring the option, others found it could be useful, but most notably, a friend with whom I have had a working relationship as far back as 2004, who had given me some insight in career development many times before, contacted me to offer some additional material and tips from his study programme, very helpful stuff.

Besides finding that it helped link me up with other friends. I liked the feeling that a simply act of dissemination in the hope that someone might gain some benefit has redounded more than could be expected.

I am even more thankful because illustrates the point I am swift to make; an open hand is that is ready to receive. That is how the blessing gets around.

The stuff to play with

If you are interested in gaining a cloud technologies certification in Microsoft Azure, you can start with Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, follow the 3:10 hours YouTube course Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification Course (AZ-900) below (There are quite a few training outfits offering the course and some bundle it with a free exam voucher.) then extend your knowledge of Azure with the free Learn Azure in a Month of Lunches book that you can read as a webpage and download as a PDF.

If you do find any of this useful and go on to do the exam, please return to leave a note of your experience. Thank you.

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Opinion: Beyond certificates to talent spotting

We’re looking for talent

It was interesting to juxtapose two separate, but somewhat related issues in my mind.

This was a tweet that I retweeted earlier today, “Applications for @spectator summer internships now open. Don't send a CV: we're looking for talent, not certificates: http://goo.gl/hapYP3.”

Reading through the article announcing the internships you get the drift that certificates do not necessarily confirm the presence of talent, ideas, or useful opinion that will make mentors suggest the intern is going places.

“We don’t mind where or whether you went to university; Frank Johnson was a superb editor of this magazine and he had no formal education to speak of. What matters is flair, imagination and enthusiasm. Skills that you can’t really learn in any classroom.”

A different resourcing scheme

Frank Johnson was one time the Deputy Editor of the Sunday Telegraph before he became the Editor of The Spectator for 4 years, he died in 2006.

Consequently, a definition of talent taken in the context of the tweet and the narrative is that flair, imagination and enthusiasm show amazing and recognisable talent, and talent cannot be taught.

The Spectator, which has been published since 1828 and has had the likes of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London as Editor appears to have cultivated the habit of seeking talent in unusual places making for a diverse and eclectic workforce.

The article makes bold statements about how they recruit, people who have come through a work experience programme and finally suggests how you can make them interested in you, by showing, doing and demonstrating in writing, analysis, suggestions and ideas.

This is quite refreshing and it means the path to access within establishment domains does not have to follow the course of landed gentry, public school and Oxbridge. There are many ways to skin a cat.

Climbing and clambering to cheat

Now, contrast this with the picture of parents standing precariously on window ledges in the attempt to help their wards cheat their way through to passing examinations glowingly so they can gain access to superior education and probably better the lives of themselves and their communities. [BBC News]

This embarrassing episode in the Indian state of Bihar which has a history of being one of the great learning centres of ancient India, has one of the largest service-oriented economies as one of the fastest economically growing states in India.

It is therefore no surprise that parents will want their wards to tap into this growth economy and bring the rewards home, first by hard work and then guaranteed by cheating the system to the point where their wards like doping cyclists can win the awards and access to greater opportunity.

Driven by corrupt purpose

The drive here is not in the search for talent, but in the acquisition of certificates, the more acquired the more it is probable that the person will find their way into some cushy job. Having earned it through concerted community corruption, it should be expected that the community will expect returns in corrupting acquisitions and malfeasance.

This malady of certificate presentation for opportunity creates the market for certificate forgeries and the purchase of certificates from diploma mills. There are too many examples of senior politicians and business people in Nigeria, who have been found not to have the certificates, the standard of education, positions or responsibilities they purport to have attained.

Much as the system appears to drive this illicit activity for long-term gain, it presents an embarrassing problem for India. What India cannot afford with its talent pool going to the ends of the earth is the impression that their qualification are not what they are worth on paper.

Dishonesty is not a virtue

Then another unqualifiable issue comes to the fore, if a person is found to be dishonest, is it possible to overlook that for the innate talent the person might possess?

We obviously have to have better ways of measuring ability beyond academic achievement, the ability to think differently and uniquely in such original ways that could change the world in ways we never thought possible.

I like that The Spectator model, we are not interested in what school did or did not go to, what letters you have after your name or how well your CV is put together, show us what you can do and demonstrate to us the way you think. Precious stones can be found in the most unusual places.

Now, look at the picture below and consider whether it demonstrates talent or something else.

PHOTO OF THE DAY: LMAO! See How This Indian Boy Was Caught Cheating in an Exam - http://t.co/4B67Wqkexv pic.twitter.com/7QMi96PMQY
— Adedeji (@iam_dejibalogun) March 23, 2015

My own history began on the 21st of December, 1965

Words and names

As I was told a few years before, I really was not expected the day I arrived and I did not get to go home until two months later.

Meanwhile, the somewhat accidental parents set about preparing for my arrival home and not three weeks after, the Registrar of Births and Deaths in the Walsall First sub-district typed in four names the first from my paternal grandfather, the second from my father and the third from my mother and my surname - meaningful and interesting as I began to master the Yoruba language.

Yes, I was a boy born on the Twentyfirst December 1965; the date was spelt out in words on the certificate of birth and thus began the documentation of my history.

Thank you all

So, today, after a time that has been eventful as it has been interesting, I find myself, 47 years young thankful, grateful, blessed and favoured in more ways than I can find words to express.

For the life I have lived, for the successes I have seen come and go but with undiminished hope of even better things to come, I have much to be happy for.

I have family, relations, friends, acquaintances and well-wishers who have sustained me through times that many hearts would have failed to see through, I have people who believe in me, people who trust me, people who lift me, people who praise me and people who honour me, all beyond anything I could ever deserve; why would I not be full of gratitude.

And thanks again

To God the strength of my life who gives me reason to expect beyond what I can imagine, I thank God for my wonderful 47 years and I thank you all for celebrating it with me – all your messages have been amazingly comforting, your generous help has been more than timely and for each year I get to see the glorious 21^st of December again thank you for being my friends.

I am still standing – Cheers!!! 

Thought Picnic: Licking my wounds

The battles of the mind

And so I sought a place to lick my wounds battered and bruised from the realisation that I am not what I used to be.

Shorn of courage and confidence by reason of time, event and circumstance, each encounter is like I need to tiptoe on the heads of hungry river crocodiles to ford the water from this end to that.

It is hard to be the shadow of the man you used to be – brimming is daring and adventure, out to do feats that angels will shudder to contemplate – now, to be roused comes with doubt and foreboding, the wish for luck and the hope for a win. There must be a time again to lift up one’s head and declare boldly, I will not go down.

Uneasy and unfit

God knows I prepared but never with much rest in body, mind or spirit – I could not concentrate much as I wanted to get things done well and properly. Yes, I took one opportunity to put it off but maybe never with enough time to rethink what might be.

So, restless but not panicked, I went to bed with one last desire to get what I wanted in. It all made sense but I could not make sense of it as sleep came without the rest that should follow.

The die was cast for the deed this day and early in the morn before the cock crew I was wide-eyed, half-determined and slightly bothered – it had to be done.

One is slain and I was beat

There was a time I scheduled 3 tests in a day and got them all done in 70 minutes including coffee breaks that had become the stuff of memoirs to be scripted for legend.

Once, after a heavy night out and literally no study, we are given free vouchers for tests I thought were difficult, I was a somnambulist in auto-pilot as I passed the test half dozing and yawning better than a hippopotamus having fun.

My knees never wobble and I never get to shed a tear when I most need to find out if my tear ducts are still functioning or need a rinse out. I feel myself crying out loud within myself though around me is the deafening cacophony of silence that takes your imagination to the expectation of horror.

It was time to face it; two tests for the prize and thankfully neither your pulse nor your frayed nerves are calibrated for scores. With 25 minutes to spare I scaled the first and with 4 minutes to spare I flunked the second – only just.

Rise!

Back to the drawing board with the hope of more determination and resolve, I have 5 working days to revisit this thing and put it behind me.

I have to appreciate things are harder, I may not have as big a theatre to strut my stuff and thereby for the lack of practice you cannot perfect what you want to show yourself as confident in.

I have licked my wounds enough – Rise up man and go and take the world.

Thought Picnic: The Birthers have begotten a stillborn

The nasty movement

It is necessary to pen a few words on this matter because the micro-blogging forum of Twitter will just not suffice in offering a considered opinion.

For almost three years there has been a campaign contesting the eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to be the President of the United States in that he is not a natural born citizen amongst other disputable claims.

That fervent, virulent and aggressive campaign became ignominiously named the Birther Movement. There is no doubt that this apparently innocent and curious search for documentation of Barack Obama’s birth, birthplace and circumstances of birth had nasty racist undertones that left facts in the wake of the sensationalist element than brewed from this non-controversy.

However, it became a controversy on which many were willing to stake their reputations all with the assurance that they were onto something and something really big.

The Donald

As many reasonable and fair-minded people grew disgusted even after tons of unimpeachable research showed that Barack Obama was indeed American and eligible to be president by reason of all evidence provided some were just unpersuadable.

Then Mr. Donald Trump, a multi-bankrupt wheeling and dealing real estate maverick billionaire who would give the creeps to the creepiest things came in the fray and basically launched himself into the murky cesspool of the Birther Movement with the prospect of topping the ticket for the Republican Party.

He made you sick to the extreme as your stomach churned with perplexed disbelief as he lurched and scraped at the person, the integrity, the education and the office of Barack Obama.

Trumped

In what is a masterstroke of class and resolve, Barack Obama had instituted proceedings to have his birth certificate released for public viewing to put the silliness to rest, once and for all.

In my view, that matter was unimportant but when some people decided to make a mountain of a molehill such that it had become an unnecessary distraction from the more pertinent issues of the day the reputations of the incautious, the blabbers and the megalomaniacs must take an irredeemable beating.

I would hope that Donald Trump for all his influence and money gets shut out of polite company as he eats humble pie in perpetuity with the label that he lacks sound judgement which should extend to all other areas of his exploits.

The lesson to take from this is one advice I would give to my worst enemy, “Don’t ever cross Barack Obama.” His silence must not be taken for stupidity, his coolness cannot be taken for cowardliness and his patience simply presages a ruthlessness that is deserved by those who fail to exercise good judgement.

Those who sat on the fence on this matter should suddenly find themselves tethering on the edge of an abyss that is the bosom of the extreme lunatic fringe – Obama is no cuddly pussy cat by any stretched of the imagination.

Reference material

Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

White House Releases President Obama’s Long Form Birth Certificate « FOX News Radio

The Certificate of Live Birth on request (PDF)

The long form Certificate of Live Birth (PDF)

Analysis: Behind Barack Obama's decision to disclose his certificate

Thought Picnic: Regaining the verve

Regaining the verve

It has recently become apparent that the wealth of professional experience and the almost enviable record of impact and radical change that has somewhat been the hallmark of my career over 23 years was no more turning heads as much.

Times when one would turn down opportunities because the people had put you through an interrogation of waterboarding and asphyxiation whilst waiting for a better opportunity that always eventually came have somehow passed.

My first job

My very first job was in a brewery just after secondary school, by arrangement of my father who was the Chief Accountant, I went for interview where the test of my knowledge of chemistry and physics for a laboratory assistant’s job put my pride at stake and obviously the reputation of my father where if I performed badly, it would reflect badly on both of us and possibly any other recommendations for employment my father makes.

They were impressed and on the way back from the interview, I had by reason of the moving vehicle fallen asleep as I was wont to leaving the driver to a reckless manoeuvre that had a laden truck ram into us from behind and still had us at fault with no eye witnesses.

I did start work on the following Monday but there was no time to reflect on how well I did, but by the time I left, I observed that the end of the line in the loading bay had some cartons of beer poorly packed, with broken bottles and in one instance there was a cockroach in a ready-to-go delivery.

Shaking it up

I suggested to my manager a quality checking procedure that meant randomly selecting 12 cartons at different times of the day to check for the quality of the contents, checking off a worksheet which fed back into the system to improve quality through all parts of the beer-to-bottle-to-carton process.

Each subsequent job where I have been allowed the latitude, I have been a change and improvement agent, just because it happens and just because it benefits the organisation and it was just a matter of course which when looked back on is radical in its effect and wonderful to behold.

Somehow, I have never been there long enough to reap rewards before another scheme called on my skills to do something simple and realise something complete, the knowledge passed on to the extent that one becomes too expensive to keep on – in any case, at that time, my work is usually done and pastures anew await.

Putting letters to the skill

Today, my marketing literature reads well but does not pass the muster because there are no letters validating basic knowledge even though the words speak of extensive experience from three countries supporting global enterprises in complex environments.

So, something needs to be done to get my stuff beyond those filters that prevent that first call, the contact, that chat, that interview and that job.

The joy of study for an examination was rekindled and I dusted some books, refreshed my knowledge on some obscure features and watched simulations of some activities and I prepped my system for some practice.

Having fun

I chuckled and laughed in the library as I watched the expression of the thinking that went into some processes, the apparently complex stuff being made simple and easy to grasp and understand.

I was having amazing fun preparing for an examination that I plan to take very soon and pass well, I would immediately update my curriculum vitae and send it out to those who matter with the hope that it would begin to percolate to the top.

Twice before, I scheduled three tests for the same day and did brilliant clearing the full certification in weeks, couple that with experience and a return to helping others in forums I have long been passive on and well, the makings of a bigger profile loom.

I am enjoying this and well, I am not throwing in the towel for what at certain times had me in the top 10% of experts in my field. I am even thinking of going back to university but there are pressing needs that need to be in order to chart that course confidently.

The fundamental lesson really is one has to change to remain relevant or the threat of irrelevance when not heeded to with radical change will leave you out.

Nigeria: Why Poor Countries Are Poor

Why Poor Countries Are Poor

It is important that people who are involved in the development in developing countries recognise the task ahead of them and the difficulties they face.

When I read the chapter “Why Poor Countries Are Poor”, in the Undercover Economist, I was taken aback by both the insight and truth of the things the author say.

I found an online version of “Why Poor Countries Are Poor” which I implore you to read.

The role of bureaucracies

There are many issues I cannot address here but one interesting issue is the role of bureaucracies in stifling development, progress and economic growth.

Corruption is exacerbated by the layers and hoops of unnecessary bureaucratic requirements that simply keep pen-pushers and deadwood in their positions of unwarranted privilege as enemies of change – people need to get things done and the only way to smooth out any activity is to grease grubby palms.

All certificates ever had

One interesting example of this useless bureaucracy is the story of someone who has had most of his education in Europe which includes a PhD from a reputable university along with 2 Masters degrees in different but related disciplines, a smattering of certificates and professional qualifications, almost countless.

He had recently been appointed to a senior directorial role in the government sector in Nigeria and he has been asked to produce all certificates he has ever had since he was in primary school.

So, after a 30-year career, you need to find the yellowing pages of teacher opinions when he was in primary and secondary school to do a job his peers already think he is well qualified for.

Documentation and searches

We have bureaucracies in the West, but also structures and institutions that work after a fashion and we recognise that the highest qualification attained might be the person satisfied the requirements for being granted that qualification, preceded by the person having satisfied the entry requirements for that course and all that down the line.

Another thing is the way we document and computerise records such that the search for any information or confirmation of any detail is at the behest of the enquirer rather than the giver of the information.

Unfortunately, these structures are disjointed in Nigeria, there is very poor record keeping that most legal deeds have to be given as sworn affidavits with no corroborative authority apart from the hope that the person has been truthful.

In those circumstances, one may not question too strongly the need for all certificates going back to the birth certificate.

Now, this is ridiculous

I was however thrown when I heard they also want the birth certificates of the parents; they have been long dead and were born sometime in the 1910s or 1920s, probably a tree was planted when they were born as was when my father was born, but birth registration and certificates?

What you may ask does the birth certificate of parents have to do with someone satisfying the requirements for job and being vetted to assume that position?

The birth certificate of the principal would if registered at birth have contained the names and professions of the parents, that should suffice, but bureaucracies breed mountains of useless data accumulated for no other purpose than to give mandarins and bureaucrats undue relevance and power to oppress or inconvenience the citizenry without helping anyone.

The best thing any government of a developing country can do is reduce layers of bureaucracy, bureaucratic irrelevance and the people who feed that system – time to register companies, accumulation of unnecessary information, provide access to relevant economic data without strictures and nip all sources of patronage in the bud.

Certifying gullibility in Nigeria

Great opportunities in Nigeria

Somehow, I have always had a sixth sense about when a scam is in the offing. This goes back long way when I was a service technician in the eighties with an IT services firm in Nigeria which had very good initiation ideas but got run down by the happy-go-luck lifestyle of the owners. Quite sad.

I owe a lot in my career to the foothold IT Systems Limited gave me into IT and other interesting things I when on to do with high volume desktop publishing with Deji Sasegbon & Co Publishers who published the Nigerian Supreme Court Cases in 30-something volumes then using PCs and Xerox Ventura Publisher which put us well beyond the work Gani Fawehinmi was doing with older publishing methods.

Almost dazzled with red mercury

So, this interesting day, we got a call that from an office in a Lagos suburb of Ketu to help them fix computers. Hardly had I gotten there, another man arrived trying to get us interested in some deal that involved red mercury and turning black pieces of paper into wet 10 Naira notes.

Red mercury has always been the stuff of unbelievable myths, enough to engage and where you lose your guard you are done.

Somehow, he had 4 million of those notes that he had to pick up from the airport and he needed financial assistance to acquire more red mercury to process the notes, I was to raise 10,000 Naira and would eventually end up with 4 million Naira.

Now, would sound incredible to anyone, but I just knew within me that nobody makes money that easily except in a lottery, the danger was that once the deal was completed, there was so much at stake that rather than flying with the mile-high club, one would steady six feet under with the inheritors being the partners in the crime.

I walked away and thankfully, I had left no details about myself with them, now, in Europe, I would have been off to the police, in Nigeria, it was best to pretend nothing had happened live your life in peace.

Same crime different medium

So, when I started getting emails pertaining to the Advanced Fee Fraud – 419 scams, it did not take too much to realise this was variation on my earlier experience.

Unfortunately, many are too wide-eyed with gullibility to some extent, greed in others and plain foolish having suspended reason for fantasy, they get their fingers burnt and are fleeced of the pennies and pounds they have saved up all their lives.

Nigeria now has an anti-graft agency called the EFCC, this somehow strikes fear into those who cannot account for how that have come into so much wealth. Sometimes, it is as if everyone is a Cinderella with a fairy god mother who waves the wand and the next day you are rolling in money like it is going out of fashion.

There are many who are getting hounded justly to account in much more detail about the provenance of their wealth, some have even fled the country to avoid being apprehended, but the interesting part to it is how many of the old hands on the oil tiller are getting implicated by these investigations.

An instrument for bias?

Despite all this, the agency is susceptible to accusations of bias and the possibility of being used as a political tool for people who can pull strings in the agency like to Presidency to get at political opponents.

A number of cases have arisen where Nigerian citizens nabbed for money laundering abroad and rather than the Nigerian exercise the kind of interest that would allow for those cases to be dealt with in Nigerian courts and under our justice system, our Attorney General gets carted off to argue cases to keep those culprits abroad.

That ploy has in cases backfired because sometimes foreign justice systems would rather not wade into the murky waters of explaining the intricate matters of the Nigerian constitution or do the dirty work of other vested interests.

The Emperor’s funny certificates

Anyway, what is most interesting is that another scam as a result of the work of this agency is now being perpetrated; some people are issuing corruption-free certificates very much like one might get with a credit reference.

Some people are buying these certificates which they hope would be some sort of absolution testimonial when seeking political office or engaging in some business activity.

Well, what can I say? Does having a corruption-free certificate give me the confidence to deal with someone who has been so easily fooled?

This is the stuff the Emperor’s new clothes is made of and whoever came up with that idea must be both enterprising and a nasty crook, just as we have been educated this week about pretexting with regards to the investigation of Hewlett Packard directors, the clever crooks have been pretexting as EFCC officials with the authority to issue certificates which might be about being corruption-free but that does not make the recipient incorruptible.

Like with every scam, a fool and his money are soon parted.