Opinion: Watching the tombstones of integrity long dead

A great disappointment

A simple definition of integrity as offered by Google is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

Where we find leadership wanting in honesty, trustworthiness and truth, we lose our confidence in the people to the point that their leadership becomes untenable.

A damaged relationship

In a democracy, those who lead have responsibilities that derive from the consent of their electors, there is trust reposed in the elected to act in the best interest of all with fairness, truth, justice and principle.

We damage this dynamic irreparably if in the face of manifest wrongdoing, those we expect to know different acquiesce, condone, tolerate and excuse the reprehensible without shame or embarrassment.

An embarrassment of atrocities

A leadership unable to react with contrition and take reparative steps out of embarrassing actions of their cohort have taken licence to act with impunity.

They have become wayward, lascivious and debauched, reprobates beyond redemption whose end like history told many times before is utter destruction because the instruments of accountability that could have checked their excesses is too compromised to moderate anything they do.

What gives?

This is the story of many lands to which we owe allegiance, and if we are to rid ourselves of the unconscionable grip of the kakistocracy that holds sway like a swarm of locusts over our fields of grain, we must give voice to the need for truth, probity and justice.

Many events we have read in the news recently point to the moral bankruptcy of those we trust; we can only wonder what to do to rescue this atrocious set of circumstances.

We have to think about what this means for us as country, as a people and for the future.

Getting the benefits of therapy

The therapy of understanding therapy

I attended the first of a possible six sessions with a clinical psychologist as a pre-emptive and ameliorative exercise to appreciate my situation and circumstances to chart a course for the future.

It was not difficult for me to get into the conversation after I had filled in an assessment form of multi-choice options. I never ticked any of the extremes, apart the one about way I dress, I do not slack at looking smart.

The rest tended to the sometimes, the somewhat or the possibly categories of the affirmative than the negative which left the psychologist with a bigger job than she would have expected.

Coming from a culture where the idea of therapy has negative connotations of mental illness or worse, one has to work out the benefits of accessing such a professional service with an eye on what outcomes one expects at the end of the sessions.

Realigning perspectives

I convinced myself that considering the catastrophic losses I have suffered in means, in status and much else, I could easily be vulnerable to moods amenable to despair, depression or worse. I could not afford any of those feelings.

As to my outlook, I consider my life a story, I am the main character living the events and making my own history whilst having an eye on the type of ending I desire of my story; a good ending. Every waking moment is towards making that story lively, living and happily liveable doing amazing things.

The form of our sessions will not follow any structure but a series of questions, kind of discussion, interactions and clarifications.

Managing the regret syndrome

The question that is presently on my mind is one I avoid asking because the answers can usher in regrets, regrets of what I might have or could have done before or even done better to forestall where I am.

I do want to learn lessons but not dwell on my past, I need to understand that the present is what I have and from the present, one has many opportunities to chart the future.

This broadened the concept of the Kubler-Ross Model beyond dealing with grief or illness to life itself. The ability to accept where you are, to be able to move on, because one can easily be angry, be in denial, be bargaining or be depressed about one’s circumstances, none of which has the scope to move on.

In all the surveys, I noticed none address hope or expectation that I felt were necessary to deal with the negatives that accompany seeking therapy, they are essential to acceptance and progress.

Rather than regret, I have decided not to condemn myself in the things I have allowed. I know have allowed many things to happen or affect me, but those things just become facets and perspectives of experience and life. They are the elements of the story and hopefully that of the richly lived life.

This is useful

Before I knew it, the hour was up but I found it very useful, she was able to understand me as many stories and recollections painted the collage and the landscape of the type of person I am.

I am beginning to understand the things that matter; what are the means and what are the ends, a time of meditation and introspection will benefit me greatly.

I guess that is what therapy is all about, getting a professional to help unravel the knotty bits. It can give you the lift necessary to appreciate that in the daytime there is a sun shining beyond the gloomy clouds and at night, the moon might be absent but the stars do shimmer beyond the clouds too.

Let us do life and enjoy living it.

In praise of the art of conversation

A warm feeling

She shook my hand as we parted ways saying, “Don’t lose your sense of humour.” The phlebotomist had just drawn blood into five vials but we were literally chatting through that event.

Nothing comes more gratifying for me as the stimulation of conversation with strangers. In need to have blood tests done before I meet my consultant next week. The morning saw a deluge of rain, it looked like the makings of a miserable day that I considered postponing my visit to the hospital until Thursday, today.

Just as the afternoon moved into the evening, the sun came out radiantly, it offered the chance of a quick dash to and from the hospital, and so I set forth.

Canes for pains

A lady boarded the bus at the next bus stop and the movement of the bus meant slowly grasping down the aisle, almost too unsteady on her feet before she found a seat and sighed, “Eventually.”

A quipped about having something to hold on to before began taking about the differences between our walking canes, hers with a crook handle and mine without, where we bought our canes, she had hers measured for and the sophistication of canes.

In the ten-minute bus ride, I learnt of her husband, meetings she attends, the wonder of English weather and how it changes, whilst she was told of my living in Amsterdam, the freedom of riding bicycles and my visits to the Canary Islands where I got my cane.

The violence of silence

Spontaneity and engagement made for a pleasant meeting of minds that we exchanged pleasantries that are even more effusive when I got to my bus stop and she wished me well for what I was going to do at the hospital.

Hospitals – the cost of parking, too prohibitive and the fact that the renovations at the hospital I was visiting did not consider making more allowances for parking spaces.

The long tube ride was quiet and without event, until I got to the hospital where I was ushered to the waiting room. The first nurse to say hello when I arrived then came out to get me.

Facing the past

The conversation started with my date of birth, a date I wished was moveable to which she suggested whilst youth was good, retirement was even better.

I regaled her with a story of being recognised by a classmate in a bar in The Hague after 27 years of leaving school, I either maintained my looks or my friend does not suffer from any form of prosopagnosia, I just cannot make out the features of a face without my glasses on.

In her case, it was a friend of her daughter when she lived in Madrid who recognised her on Oxford Street after 15 years of their last meeting.

We relapsed into our various tales of the uncanny, laughing and cheering as my veins filled the vials that if were to expire due to exsanguination that would have been a happy conclusion.

Farewells and smiles

Job done, plaster applied and shirtsleeve pulled down, I buttoned up, put on my jacket, got my hat, strapped on my rucksack and with cane in hand, I bid farewell.

Small talk and the art of conversation, interaction with strangers and the spontaneity of it all, none of my interactions on Social Media gets close to the excitement of proximity and real social interaction, it is why I love travel, chatting to people about the mundane that we soon get to the serious.

We must retain the enriching qualities of face-to-face meetings uncluttered by technological interference and that is part of the beauty and joy of living.

Thought Picnic: The Plague of Distraction

Distracted

Distraction is the order of the day, damning the mind of the concentration necessary for productive engagement.

Some days come when the mind cannot toe the line of purpose; aims lie fallow in angst-ridden anxiety that assails opportunity slipping away from the grasp.

The will to do is lost to lethargy and worry begins to stretch forth tentacles of the procrastinate failings becoming a new reality.

Recompense

The benefit of hindsight then becomes the certainty of regret, things that in times past never happened are reaped in the sorrow of waste, indolence and haste.

But the time that has past, is past, it can only be profited from if demands are not made for those things yet undone as scope is then left for understanding and focus to gain importance in one's mission again.

Distraction of the mind is seated in the thoughts that drive the doings, many hardly useful. Your attention is divided, you become error-prone forgetting that your vulnerability is exposed by the obstinate, hubristic and sometimes foolish practice called multitasking.

The lesson to learn is to be rid of your distractions before they take a pound of flesh.

Nigeria: Every reason to believe our airspace is not safe

These are not coincidences

I find myself trying to juxtapose the stark realities with the press briefings of bluster and vacuous lip service to performance and efficiency that dogs our aviation regulatory organisations in Nigeria.

In the aftermath of two events, a fatal crash in Lagos with flight 5N-BJY operated by Associated Aviation and flight 5N-JRM operated by Kabo Air in a near-miss, in Sokoto, the Aviation Minister insisted that the Nigerian air space is safe. [5N-BJY – Aviation Safety Network] [5N-JRM – Aviation Safety Network] [Daily Times]

Lapses in compliance

Along with the unfortunate, ‘Act of God’ comment posited by the Minister, in another report, she suggested broadly that there were “operational lapses and non-compliance with the policy”.

“What we did by suspending Dana’s operations is not making scapegoat of anyone. To suspend means that there must be operational lapses and non-compliance with the policy but it is always in tandem with international practice.” [This Day Live]

In the same report, she alluded to shared responsibilities and possibly gaps, and then she touched on a diverted return of another flight because the destination airport was closed as if either no flight plans were posted or other extenuating circumstances meant the trip could not be completed.

Having excoriated the people who have questioned reforms in the aviation sector, the Federal Government “also insisted that the safety and security of the sector cannot be fully achieved without funding.” The question then is whether there is adequate funding to ensure the safety and the security of our airspace.

The people in charge

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is empowered with “the Authority to regulate Aviation Safety without political interference, but also to carry out oversight functions of Airports, Airspace, Meteorological Services, etc. as well as economic regulations of the industry”. [NCAA]

Under the safety oversight functions of the NCAA, it is important to understand in detail what the NCAA does in Nigeria, the detail of which I have lifted from their website.

In Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is the apex regulatory body, overseeing the activities of all airlines and their pilots, engineers and cabin staff, airports, airstrips and heliports, navigation aids, all service providers including the airport authority and the air traffic service provider, aviation training institutions, etc. NCAA watches over the entire industry. Its role can aptly be described as that of "general overseer" or "referee:' For want of a better sobriquet, NCAA has even been address as the "police" of the industry.

While all these are correct, NCAA is essentially a facilitator of compliance of aviation safety and economic regulations. [NCAA]

We are left in no doubt about where the responsibility for safety lies; it lies with the regulatory, oversight and policing operations of the NCAA.

Going in broke

Which takes us back to that question, the question of adequate funding, because another news story suggests that the NCAA is broke; the more serious allegation is that the NCAA inspectors take bribes; they are apparently taking bribes because of the non-payment of NCAA inspector allowances. [PM News Nigeria]

Now, there is no excuse for taking bribes to overlook the functions and the duties necessary to protect our aviation industry. From the basic checks through airworthiness of aircraft to safety procedures and all the elements of responsibility as stated by the Aviation Minister, we cannot condone the dereliction of duty leading to the unnecessary loss of lives.

What is key is that we must realise that there is a shared responsibility, there is a collective responsibility, pilots are responsible, operators are responsible, regulators are responsible, government is responsible and all these must work together otherwise there will be a gap in the system. [This Day Live]

Temptations and pressure

An unnamed NCAA inspector, talked of compromise safety, dwindling training, struggles to procure basic needs and much else.

“Aircraft inspectors’ allowances are not being paid as at when due, leaving us to the open temptations of bribe and compromise from corrupt and desperate airline operators who want their planes to fly at all costs.” [PM News Nigeria]

The source went on to say, “Some of us that are due for training overseas are asked to fund our training and come back for a refund after the training. This is absurd, and they keep saying they are broke.” [PM News Nigeria]

A crisis and great doubt

Taking all this together, we can assume as the very best there is a crisis in the Aviation Sector. The matter of safety is compromised by acts of men; those in management in the NCAA and probably the Aviation Ministry because the NCAA people cannot do their work without interference and inducement caused by not paying their allowances and not ensuring proper training.

This situation probably needs verification, but it cannot be left without investigation because it casts great doubt on the idea that Nigeria’s airspace is safe and the ICAO report that suggests Nigeria is way above average in compliance and regulatory management of her aviation industry.

At worst, we do have an emergency played out in the number of accidents and near misses that have made the news recently.

Related Blog

Nigeria: Acts of God in our Aviation Industry or Rank Incompetence?

Thought Picnic: For the stories yet untold

Little time for the story

Some 21 years ago, my partner took me to see a friend of his who had recently returned from France having been given a compassionate pardon to go home for his last days.

He was racing against time as AIDS was ravaging his body, the pills brought horrific side effects and there were good days, but too many bad days.

He had a story to tell and all the drafts on papers strewn across the room had facts, detail, tales and much else, but he did not know whether that story would ever be told.

Tortured days

My job was to look at his computer and help setup Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1 to accept text and formatting – for all my computer precociousness and curiousness, this word processor was atrocious and unbelievably un-user-friendly, it was created to torment the tormented.

I earned my stripes on WordStar 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 & 5.5 and WordPerfect 5.0 & 5.1 doing styles, tagging, formatting and porting to desktop publishing software as Xerox Ventura Publisher, I knew what you could get word-processing software to do; the right one I mean. None of these applications made a good crossover to Microsoft Windows; in fact, they recoded Word for Windows from scratch for version 2.0.

The plan was to visit him again, sadly, I never did, his condition got worse and eventually that story never was told.

To story and the tool

Two news stories excite the memory of this man, on an island nation called Iceland where I would so love to visit, we learn that 1 in 10 people publish a book; they are an island of storytellers, following a tradition of old called Icelandic sagas.

Elsewhere, I read a Jeremiad advocating why Microsoft Word must die. We cannot rewrite history, the once unusable Microsoft Word that flirted with ignominy in the Microsoft Word 2007 incarnation is kind of the word-processing landscape, in fact, and it does tricks one never thought word-processing software would ever attempt decades ago.

Its death would only come with the death of the host, the desktop, the laptop or any other trendy device that can accommodate its bloated code.

Finished before departure

Then again, I remember James Andersen, a very good friend who finished his own book, The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta in 1993, we all gathered in 1994 for what was his last birthday, one of the authoritative opera buffs of a generation, snatched away by AIDS.

Many friends with stories of life and others of the work they do have come and gone, many completing their work but few surviving long after they had blazed that trail.

Dick van Galen Last before he died in 2010 was the authority on the conscription of African soldiers by the French in World War I (In Dutch), he was gone within two weeks of his defending his PhD, his voice trailing off as he stood the rigour of discourse and questions before he succumbed to lymphoma.

If we must, we should

This all reads like a dirge, but we have here, the desire, the project, the completion and the demise. For the desire to tell stories abounds, the project is rarely clearly defined if we are running against time on variables almost beyond our control like failing health, the completion leaves a mark and then rest is whatever life one has left to live.

I cherish the memories off all these people, the story, the tool and the product they strove with daily to meet schedules and deadlines. For those who never got to finish what they started, it is not a lost tale, and though I am saddened others never lived to enjoy the fruits of their amazing labours of scholarship and excellence, they will not be forgotten.

Sorry, I never told you ...

A page somewhere has become the memorial stone, where each year I have returned to lay a bouquet of thoughts in words too difficult to say.

Four years have gone in the annals of time like it was only yesterday, your smile, your embrace, your company, your fun was snatched away in an instant.

You had that piece of my heart no one ever reached or touched, where my head was never where it should be when we spoke and yet we never did the many things we should have done together because we were both foolish.

Now, I am wiser, but you are gone, four years gone, too far-gone, a memory still too strong to be forgone, I have no words but ones in this song. Sorry, I never told you, all I wanted to say.

Thank you for you taught me real love, if only you were here for us to share.

One Sweet Day

Sorry I never told you
All I wanted to say
And now it's too late to hold you
'Cause you've flown away
So far away

Never had I imagined
Living without your smile
Feeling and knowing you hear me
It keeps me alive
Alive

And I know you're shining down on me from heaven
Like so many friends we've lost along the way
And I know eventually we'll be together
One sweet day

Darling I never showed you
Assumed you'd always be there
I took your presence for granted
But I always cared
And I miss the love we shared

And I know you're shining down on me from heaven
Like so many friends we've lost along the way
And I know eventually we'll be together
One sweet day

Although the sun will never shine the same again
I'll always look to a brighter day
Lord I know when I lay me down to sleep
You will always listen as I pray

And I know you're shining down on me from heaven
Like so many friends we've lost along the way
And I know eventually we'll be together
One sweet day

Sorry I never told you
All I wanted to say

Mariah Carey, Walter Afanasieff, Nathan Morris,
Michael McCary, Shawn Stockman and Wanya Morris