Taking friendliness to heart

In patient endurance

In a telephone conversation that I could not wait to end that there was an urging in me to ask what the particular purpose of the call was, I held on still to allow it to come to its natural end.

It was not a conversation, I was on the listening end of everything and the work inside me was one where I rationalised to myself that it was a test of my resolve, I had to recalibrate my ability to engage my friend even when my eyes begin to glaze over and my neck stiffens in obduracy to avoid being swallowed in the mental chasm of his chaotic and yet charmed existence.

Then again, I was somewhat vindicated when he said that chatbots could not understand him, this is not just because of his accent which is quite distinct, much as I hate to use the word torrent, his speech is like a waterfall of words without attempted enunciation, you strain with much difficulty to understand him, you begin to tune out.

A burden of care

Beyond that, I had begun to associate this ‘speech impediment’ and it has to be that if we are speaking the same language and yet we cannot understand each other, with mental exhaustion. It is energy sapping with all the wringing of anything you can wring if caught in the web of this engagement.

Yet, my love for him is undiminished, as a friend and I will support him, where I can calm him down enough to have a conversation, and understand where he needs my support, he can count on me.

With all the tendency I could have to assess, I have come to another appreciation of what I need to do in terms of endurance and patience, there is much work to be done in being more longsuffering, for I have been forgiven much more than I have dared to forgive others.

Volunteering my volition

By my volition

I attended a session yesterday which would form part of a 10-week programme in the hope that it would kickstart something that would help me recover much of the sense of wellness and well-being that I have been struggling to settle in.

Caught between funk and frustration, I sometimes wonder how much more is in the tank for the journey ahead. Even when I feel quite exhausted something spurs me on as doubts creep into my mind about what there is to learn about who one might become as these changes in circumstances remain unsavoury.

One is not without constant encouragement from my partner, my friend, and my mother, but the feeling of being carried in the winds of a storm is such that there is no indication of where one might land. Between the lifting and the landing, brutal encounters might ensue for which in the consciousness of the event one silently prays to survive and in landing, one hopes not to be too severely bruised.

Maybe even the storm is to shake things up a bit so that when peace comes to reign supreme in the calming and passing of the storm, a new wholeness redefines one's present continuous experience of nothing missing, nothing lacking, and nothing broken. I have to believe in something, fixing on what; seems to elude me.

Incubating blogs

This blog was written hours ago and unlike many other blogs that I publish as I finish writing, I did not feel I had finished the blog and at the same, I had no inclination to change any part of what had already been written. When I had another look, I added the last sentence in the penultimate paragraph preceding this one that explains my thinking.

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.

[]

Thought Picnic: The many umbilical cords to cut

Cutting the cord means survival

The first umbilical cord by nature and for the preservation of life needs to be cut at birth; it is the time when the newly born baby has to begin a life of reflexive independence to breathe on its own and to take in food usually in form of milk to thrive.

However, that umbilical cord is the easiest to cut, there are many more that bind us to our parents or guardians, our communities, our societies, our beliefs and much else which should when the fullness of time is come be cut or the birthed will suffer a form of death – a death of freedom, a death of expression, a death of happiness, a death of ambition, a death of hope – too many deaths whilst still alive and it might breed resentment, despair, rebellion or depression – it mimics the cycle of life.

The point in time

At the point when a baby stops being a foetus, that umbilical cord is cut; just as when a child stops being a baby, when an adolescent stops being a child or when an adult stops being an adolescent – that is would be the ideal path of growing up but it is rarely the case.

The responsibility relationship between guardian and ward is dynamic, between them the cutting of the umbilical cord is a function of age, individuality, expression, responsibility and sometimes success which could determine the leeway one will give the other to be better at what they are on the way to becoming.

The last cut

The most difficult umbilical cord to cut is that where the guardian has to accept that their ward has come of age, where the parent appreciates their child has become an adult and should be given the opportunity to learn their own lessons, live their own lives and chart their own courses.

Obviously, guidance and advice is useful but instruction and diktat is unhelpful; the atmosphere in which the child has been schooled in the home will however become the foundation of the confidence, the self-esteem, the determination and the drive that child has like it did when it ventured its first breath at birth and performed the first suckling reflex to take in food.

Taking places

At a point in time, the parent or guardian will have to be put in their place, not so much to be put down but to be respectfully made to understand that certain decisions are now out of their hands and their influence is at best advisory and nothing more.

Along the line, between agreement and conflict whilst growing up we also encounter the more difficult elements of gaining our individuality. Expectations are high, criticisms are rife and praise is rare, punishment is severe sometimes to the point of brutalisation and power is wielded with deathly omnipotence that it feels easier to walk through prison walls than extricate oneself from parental overreach.

Parents do overreach and in the process attempt to blackmail their children thinking their parental responsibility required of them by society to provide the basics of protection, food, shelter, clothing, education and good example is the fullest expression of love without accounting for the deeper emotional needs of the child which will never be met with things.

Tough love facts

We did not ask to be born, but we have been born and there should be more times in our lives that we are grateful to have been born, to have the parents we have had and to have had the care and affection that they have showered on us from when we were hopefully bundles of joy at birth through when they patiently tolerated with exasperation their inability to control the child who is still under their roofs.

However, we return to the matter of umbilical cords or in other parlance apron strings. Children are not clones they are unique personalities moulded by the environments in which they grow, interact, find safety, experience abuse, feel love, witness hate, find acceptance and know rejection – we are moulds of situation and circumstance that are subject to the casts provided by those whose responsibilities we were in our formative years.

The path to acceptance

The healthiest relationships between parent and child will only find fulfilment when they all channel the Kübler-Ross model, which first studied the five stages of grief.

Denial comes with the guardian not believing that the child has come of age, there is anger that the child is not conforming to expected norms, there is bargaining as to how to regain the best control and influence over the child, then depression coming with unfulfilled promise or sadness that a situation might have become a lost cause and then finally, acceptance – accepting who the child has become; an adult with their lives, their goals, their purpose and their own decisions.

The point of acceptance is when the parent begins to respect that child and honour that child with guidance and advice rather than instruction, coercion and blackmail – the healthiest relationships will bring better communication, deeper interaction, more happiness and a glad heart for that parent as they approach their waning years.

It’s you or them

If the parent will not wise up to that necessity, then the child will at a certain point in time have to be respectfully forthright, frank, direct, honest and true – they will eventually have to find words to say, “I want to be able to live my live as a person, unique, independent, fulfilled and appreciative of you out of recognition of who you have been in my life.”

Acceptance or frank expression on the side of the either the guardian or the ward is that umbilical cord cut for the relationship to thrive. If you have not cut it yet, consider how better things can be if that realisation first dawns on you and then you make them see the light.

South Africa: Why again China is bad for Africa

Preamble

Just over two weeks ago, I wrote a blog based on WikiLeaks cables [1] about Chinese influence in Nigeria which ended with the conclusion that in the broad scheme of things, China is probably bad for Africa.

Now, from a South African perspective, the influence of China again drives one to the same conclusions that despite the investment coming in from China, there is no discernable concern on the part of the Chinese for the general populace of Africa, they might well be trampled upon by their leaders just as a majority of Chinese are acquiescently trampled upon in China.

A brick for the BRIC

China’s charm offensive in Africa [2] continues apace like a juggernaut hurtling down a steep incline without brakes.

Having built a presence in 40 African countries in their quest for resources and by extension influence they have carted in about 1 million Chinese to our tropical climes and have thrown a brick through the window of economic norms by flattering South Africa with a leap-frog over the larger economies of Turkey, Indonesia and Mexico with the proposed membership of the Goldman Sachs BRIC construct of countries to form BRICS or CRIBS.

There are lots of ways in which China’s investments in Africa are lifting up the African profile in the global context of things and at the level there are probably benefits but the subtext to all this is how it affects Africans who are not part of the elite that the Chinese strike deals with.

Chinese not aiding African good governance

The first issue that jumps out of the news article is this – “Even the government of democratic South Africa is fascinated by the perspectives of growth and prosperity in China under an authoritarian regime.”

This is as ominous as it is dangerous, whilst growth and prosperity is probably the goal of every good African government, the means by which that is created, maintained and improved upon is still under flux.

Our democracies which are fledgling at best are still working on building strong independent institutions that honour the separation of powers, the rule of law, the security of enterprise and the accountability of leadership to all stakeholders within their countries and the relationships they have internationally, the Chinese model of government does not provide example to buttress these young democracies as it is authoritarian.

Accountability not authoritarianism

Many African countries have suffered under typically “China's centralised planned economy and forced domestic peace”, with military regimes and we have wholesale decided such authoritarianism does not augur well for both development and the protection of human rights which supposedly comes hand-in-hand with democracies of accountability.

If democracies are to roll back their frontiers to the Chinese way of doing things, the elite and leaders might have manifesto promises to make but never be bound to keep them; the entrenched incumbency that plagues those who on the taste power cannot face relinquishing their perch would not become a thing of the past.

Such countries as Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and Congo which once had democratic antecedents that have turned authoritarian have been the more fertile grounds for the Chinese influx; the Chinese have come to some grief in those that have a thriving democratic discourse like Zambia or Nigeria.

Ruling party restraint

The concern is where the ruling party has such control over instruments of power that it can be persuaded to discard the constraints of democratic scrutiny for a more authoritarian slant; in countries like South Africa with the ANC and Nigeria with the PDP; their resistance can be weakened by access to attractive solutions and funds provided by China without political demands.

“China is after good business deals and is little interested in how African leaders treat their own people or minorities.”

Leaders who are ready to sell out their people for pecuniary advantage should not be in leadership and one good reference is found in the WikiLeaks revelations about China in Nigeria for oil resources where one respondent said if the military were in charge the Chinese and Russians would have gained more control of those resources than they have now.

Bent on isolating the leaders from leadership

We should not allow ourselves to be sweet-talked by the Chinese, with the platitude, “China's aide to Africa is oriented towards Africa's needs without political pre-conditions being set.”

There are still aspects of African governance that need mentoring, guidance and urging towards improving human rights and compliance to international law – China has consistently failed to apply pressure on Khartoum with regards to the genocide in Darfur in the face of glaring evidence that the situation there is untenable, the same can be said in their not reining the pariah state of North Korea.

This is not to say that they should assume an imperialist posture with international diplomacy but China within its own borders has festering discontent amongst minorities that has extended to Chinese of no significant power whose rights are abrogated by the egregious “eminent domain” type powers that displace people for development without adequate compensation or redress.

The West should not throw in the towel

This is why the West needs to return to compete in Africa for the sake of Africans in general whilst continually holding the leaders up to scrutiny, the additional expansionist drive of India and Russia in Africa along the lines of Chinese-led indifference does not augur well at all, one can only hope that Brazil would take the course of the West with better negotiated compromises of engagement and development.

Whilst the Chinese are involved in some image management drive, the fact is the Chinese are not integrating into Africa, like they do in the West by learning the local languages and adapting to the norms and values of their host environments rather they gather in isolated enclaves almost like Sino-Ghettoes.

They are no doubt bad for Africa

They are doubly unpopular for dumping their cheap goods in African markets destroying local industry; working conditions in Chinese operations are miserable; they are involved in smuggling, poaching and over-fishing in many places that for all the investment they have made in Africa, the signs are obvious that China is bad for Africa until we change the way we engage with them whilst striving for a freer and accountable value system in all areas of government, economic and social development.

The postscript to this news article is the one about the ANC Youth League sending representatives to North Korea and according Kim Jong Il the accolade of "great guardian" for peace. Obviously, any communist or socialist slant must not take root in Africa or the people would suffer a lot more than they are suffering now.

Sources

[1] Akin Akintayo: Nigeria: NaijaLeaks and why China is bad for Africa

[2] Mail & Guardian Online | Chinese wooing in Africa: Boom without democracy

Maison Tropicale film in Amsterdam

Meeting Jeremy Weate

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeremy Weate of http://naijablog.co.uk on Thursday on his visit to Amsterdam to attend an event organised by the Prince Claus Fund [1], a charity named for the late consort of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and the African Architecture Matters [2] organisation.

Jeremy has a doctorate in philosophy, has lived in Nigeria since 2004; a veritable commentator on Nigerian affairs who has probably more than many indigenous Nigerians travelled the length and breath of Nigeria, seeing lots of unappreciated sites national importance, heritage and culture whilst running together with his wife a publishing outfit called Cassava Republic Press [3].

I dare say, Jeremy has almost unchallengeable claims to being quite Nigerian and for his birthday present just about a month ago desired having his own Nigerian passport – the irony was not lost on the fact that many with a Nigerian heritage could not see why he would cherish such an association whilst they had rejected theirs by exercising rights to other nationalities but Nigerian.

Jeremy was one of the founding proprietors of the Nigerian Next newspaper [4] which has a well visited online presence, he has since left that company to concentrate on other progressive and development ventures in Nigeria.

In any case, I received an Facebook message from Jeremy that he was coming to my city, I could not miss the opportunity to meet him, so I offered to meet him at the airport and help him round the city to his hotel, the venue of the event and possibly a vegan restaurant – we ended up at an Indonesian restaurant where we were well catered for addressing our opposite palates with tasty cuisine.

Modernist architecture and the Maison Tropicale narrative

The event Jeremy was attending brought together elements of colonialism and modernist architecture in a film featuring Ângela Ferreira [5] called Maison Tropicale [6] directed by Professor Manthia Diawara [7]; a perspective of prefabricated architecture prototypes of aluminium by Jean Prouvé [8] built in Niger and Congo Brazzaville between 1949 and 1951.

These buildings after much neglect and enticement coupled with collusion of African government officials were dismantled in 2000, refurbished, reassembled and put on display in London with permanent exhibits at the top of the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris and in New York where the one from Congo Brazzaville sold at auction for almost $5 million [9] in 2007.

The programme [10] for the evening at De Brakke Grond [11] included an introduction by Manthia Diawara launching his new book , African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics [12]; the screening of his film, Maison Tropical after which there was an open discussion with Manthia Diawara and Joe Osae Addo; a Ghanaian architect of international renown.

It was so easy to miss the import of the film and the issues covered because the obvious reference to modernist architecture and interest in architecture and the work of Jean Prouvé could easily have masked the societal, cultural, heritage and contemporary attitudes to things we should treasure but fail to appreciate – those matters I would address in a series of Maison Tropicale narrative blogs besides this one.

Afterwards, I met with lots of people from all backgrounds, many architects, had my copy of Manthia Diawara’s book signed by the author himself and found that I was not that much a dabhand at networking as Jeremy was. It was a fine evening and was glad to have been there.

Sources

[1] Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development

[2] African Architecture Matters

[3] Cassava Republic Press - feeding the African imagination

[4] NEXT: latest news, sport and views from Nigeria

[5] Ângela Ferreira – MAISON TROPICALE / e-flux

[6] Jean Prouvé - La Maison Tropicale - Presented by André Balazs

[7] Manthia Diawara - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[8] Jean Prouvé - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[9] The Prouvé Prototype Maison Tropicale Sold for $4,968,000 at Christie's | Home | Art Knowledge News

[10] AAMatters, Invitation for an evening with Manthia Diawara and Joe Osae Addo

[11] Brakke Grond - English - Language no problem

[12] Amazon.com: African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics (9783791343426): Manthia Diawara

Youtube references

YouTube - Angela Ferreira on her film project the Maison Tropicale

YouTube - La Maison Tropicale

YouTube - Jean Prouvé – 3D Animation construction of La Maison Tropicale

La Maison Tropicale Series

Maison Tropicale film in Amsterdam

Deconstructing Maison Tropicale - Introduction

Maison Tropicale - Ownership

Maison Tropicale - Heritage

Maison Tropicale - Corrupt enterprise

Maison Tropicale - Grand Projects

Ghana: No antibodies for this virus - Obama's speech

Not the miracle speech

Commentary has been flowing online and on the airwaves about President Barack Obama’s speech to the Ghanaian parliament.

I attentively listened to what he had to say and then read through the transcript of his speech just to corroborate what I heard with what was said.

I was almost annoyed with the bellyaching that has come from some who seemed to be expecting this speech to end all speeches, a work of oratory to make Pluto a planet again, words that would change Africa like Jesus said “Rise up and walk”.

Indeed, there were so many looking to be impressed and bowled over that they might just have lost the significance of the visit to Ghana and the speech itself.

Ghana was really second in Africa

Africa has 53 countries and in the run up to President Obama’s visit to Ghana we had all been made aware of the reason why Ghana was chosen as the second African country not as the first African country to be visited by him, that was Egypt – we sometimes forget that Arabian North Africa is very much part of Africa, the Middle East is geo-political moniker, not a continent.

It is clear that President Obama was persuaded of strong democratic institutions and reforms that engender development and opportunity. It would also appear that he had only had two countries to mind that met that basic qualification for validation in those terms and he mentioned them in his speech as Ghana and Botswana.

No antibodies for this virus

However, what must not be lost as the significance of this visit to Ghana must be the fact that President Obama in his status, stature and progeny represents by analogy for the first time ever a virus against which the pachydermatous and megalomaniacal leaders of Africa have no antibodies.

One glaring fact is exemplified in this statement made in his speech, “the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade”. Imagine the deluge of condemnation and contempt that would have swept over him from the Grand Despot of Africa if this statement had been made by any other leader.

In other words, President Obama was laying down the ground rules for constructive engagement with a changing world, but most importantly declaring the fact that the responsibility for change in Africa is squarely in the hands of Africans themselves. The fallback excuse of the legacy of colonialism can no more hold water just as neither the Japanese nor the Germans can blame anything in their countries today on the losses they suffered in the Second World War and occupation by the victors of that war.

Changing focus of aid

However, I have digressed, what I take from this speech is the radical change in the way aid is distributed and used in Africa – rather than having aid bolster businesses and bureaucracies of the donor countries, it would be geared to helping build capacity in recipient countries by engaging local resources and expertise allowed for a greater percentage of the aid to reach its intended purpose.

This I think would appeal to the Dead Aid bandwagon that have argued that the aid industry itself absorbs most of the aid reducing the amount of aid that is supposed to reach the intended causes for which aid has been raised.

Democracy and the opposition

Meanwhile, President Obama has not redefined democracy but he has clearly indicated that it is definitely more than the sprinkling of elections, there is a governance, accountability and responsibility to being in government by the consent of the people and for the good of all the people for the duration of the term for which that government has been elected.

However, more tellingly about the state of affairs in Ghana is the way the President of the United States of America was greeted by both the government and members of the opposition. The end of brinkmanship politics based on difference, rancour, power and abuse needs to be in sight for things to progress throughout Africa.

Speaking to a greater multitude

President Obama might have been speaking to the Ghanaian parliament yesterday but he was finger-pointing at a good deal of leaders not only in Africa but all around the world which includes those who “change constitutions to stay in power” as in Venezuela, Niger, Ecuador, Peru, the botched attempt in Nigeria and the failed attempt in Honduras – your books are marked.

I was not expecting the speech to be the beatitudes or the Hippocratic Oath of democracy, rather, the speech struck the right balance as an introduction to what is expected of those in leadership and those who seem to be in power but not in office – for some listeners however, it was the Riot Act and it probably would have smelt like tear gas to them.

Attachment

Obama in Ghana file, PDF with pictures and transcript of speech available from http://www.america.gov

A road runs through it

A birthday song

I called my father yesterday morning to wish him a happy 69^th birthday and regretted the fact that I had not followed a musical career whereby I would have been able to sing a birthday song.

He humoured me by asking me to sing anyhow; whilst I do remember being a chorister many years ago and do have a baritone kind of singing voice, having never developed or practised the art, it could well be frogs croaking down the phone.

He was just getting prepared for church as it was harvest Sunday and he happened to be one of the convenors of the harvest.

At our adopted hometown, my father’s status derives from his selfless community work going back over 40 years rather than the ephemeral and gaudy show of wealth – time and again, he has been honoured for his service and I am greatly proud of him.

The road through

Talk then got to the matter of the building of a dual-carriage way which is to run through the centre of the village, this plan has been in the books for decades, it now appears it is coming to fruition.

I wondered about how a major road might affect the dynamic of our village, the paternal part of my family hails from the north of the road, the maternal part from the south, the cemetery and market are on the north, I would suppose the king’s palace is in the south.

One thing they did to reduce pedestrian traffic crossing what would be a busy road was to sink another borehole in the northern part of the village but I was not satisfied with that arrangement.

Bridges of safety

I felt that planning should have included at least one pedestrian bridge but my father said after speaking to the contractor what I considered a critical safety feature was not in the planning nor was it budgeted for.

I suppose that leeway accounting for safety had been consumed in the kickbacks that smoothed the allocation of the project to the winner of the contract.

I then recounted to my dad one occasion where I could not be bothered to do a 1.5-kilometre walk when it could be done by crossing an expressway and save me 1.1 kilometres under the Isolo Bridge on the Apapa-Oshodi expressway.

I heard a lot of shouting and warning sounds none of which I thought pertained to my crossing, I was blind-sided and oblivious to the fact that a car doing about 120 kilometres an hour was about to whiz past me and I was inches away from being splattered across the road like minced meat.

You could hear my father sigh and whisper a prayer, it brought home the point I was trying to make without going down the extreme of how if a burial were to take place in the north of the village from residents in the south.

The safety deficit in development

As I pressed home that point of the criticality of safety, especially when the road was still being built, my father interjected with the comment that it would not been considered and finished with the comment – Omo Oyinbo – (meaning white boy.)

It was not so much a derogatory statement as an acknowledgement of the difference of thinking we have always had for a long time, when many years ago he opined that I have always thought like a Westerner and more recently that I was never good at sport by a very good conversationalist.

On a more serious note it highlighted the trade-offs people were willing to make for development in developing countries; the implementation of grand projects without the considerations for adaptation, integration and safety for the persons the projects are to serve.

A big road would eventually run through my village, splitting it in half and maybe we should be the first to put speed bumps or traffic calming devices on a dual carriageway to slow drivers down for the sake of keeping the village folk from unnecessary sorrow.

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.

Don't ask that question

Managerial Integrity is tops

The last week had me in two interviews prospecting for permanent employment once again.

However, with some hindsight, I realize that I have gained knowledge about a lot of things in terms of experience and lessons but may have failed in the application of those ideas to subsequent circumstances.

In the last fourteen years of employment in Europe, 8 have been permanent contracts which exuded promise at the onset and ended in disappointment at the conclusion.

Having participated in an employee satisfaction which was part of a dissertation project of a fellow graduate student on an MBA degree, it was interesting to note the options that mattered to me.

In the end, it transpired that the one core reason why I left those jobs boiled down to the simple lack of integrity on the part of my managers.

Untruthfulness, concealment, cajoling, threatening, blatant lying, dishonest dealing and dirty politicking were some of the traits of the managers who in their minds thought they were being good managers.

They have led many of a feeble disposition to mental and health problems without any consideration that lives and livelihoods might be at stake.

In one case, it was about a manager who substituted himself for my training place, another tried to persuade of opportunities he could not offer to maintain interest and loyalty, even one had mastered the art of lying such that one was embarrassed for oneself and him too.

Potential over abilities

Anyway, I have had one manager who made an amazing difference to the work-life balance of his team.

Whilst he was well aware of everyone’s capability he did well to exploit potential, placing challenges in ways that not only developed the individual but gelled the team.

Alas! At times, management is perhaps more congenital than contagious, who knows, some people might really strive to manage their team than herd them in a bull run.

Two interviews cross purposes

The first interview was conducted with such candour and honesty, they had a lot to offer those who sought or had little and could not offer much to self-starters who have done that work of really charting out their careers.

That could easily be a foible, I learnt with some discouragement.

The other interview ended on the note of being asked to commit to employment when there were no clear indications of when the process would be completed or if it would be successful.

Biting my lip with restraint that failed woefully one could only remonstrate at what was seemingly bullying or a basic lack of decent interviewing skill. In fact, it was like interviewing a doctor from the perspective of the hospital cleaner.

10 years after the 5 year question

Where I however failed to carry over a lesson from times past was with the question of what I saw myself doing in 5 years time.

It is probably one of the worst questions to ask anyone at interview, but I am learning and still learning of how to deal with it.

This is the new perspective – layout what you see yourself doing in 5 years in the context of that job and organisation.

Then offer to ask the same question – Does the organization have the kind of career development that would view what I have said as achievable in less than that time and offer even more challenging opportunities that I have not yet considered or thought of?

Basically, this exerts the same level of soul-searching in the person, the organisation and that person’s relationship in that organisation.

The talk on interviews has only just begun.