The wonder of a man and his maid(en)

Too wonderful for me

I can only reflect on these sayings of the man of Proverbs.

From the King James Version – Proverbs 30:18-19

There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.

The first two are elements of nature and still a matter of wonder, the soaring of the eagle and the time it took for man to master the science and art of flight which still fills me with a bit of wonder, as for the serpent on a rock, we do not have a vehicle that glides over terrain the way the serpent does.

The way of a ship in the midst of the sea is now a no-brainer except when you lose power for satellite navigation and you have not learnt to use the sextant – but for people of those times – getting from one place to another mostly using sails still remains a wonder of seamanship.

The warmth of companionship

The last however is a dynamic that still defies explanation, what is between the man and his woman is just not something you can get instruments out to measure.

I learnt years ago that one should never interfere in that dynamic, it is a force that can be both overpowering and endearing, I have had opportunity to observe the Prince and his Princess, the husband and the wife, the boyfriend and the girlfriend, the boy and the girl and always been overcome with wonder.

Yesterday, I was out to Puerto Rico, one of the coastal towns of Gran Canaria where the ode to the built-environment reads like a thousand stanzas of concrete verse. All the hills built into with white beautiful and ugly hotels just because Europeans of temperate and arctic climes seek warmth in the sun on a European island as far South of Europe as possible.

Big brother

As I walked back with the bus stop with ice-cream cone in hand, he said, “Would you like an ice-cream”, she said, “Oh! Yes, please”. They were probably in their sixties and full of fun – the Prince was playing big-brother, it looked and sounded so nice, though I did not expect to see them skipping hand-in-hand to the beach.

Playmates

Then, you wonder why the older generations go to dance classes, I could answer that question – they were dancing the night away – waltzing, fox-trotting, tangoing and whatever makes ballroom dancing exciting.

The decorum of this kind of dancing sweeps away from sight the grotesque antics of embarrassing middle-aged dancers. The Prince and Princess were playmates – I could not dance with myself, I need to consider dancing lessons too.

Protector

Walking through the nature reserve of Maspalomas, one can walk the dunes bare-footed but on the firmer ground of dried plants with footpaths to negotiate, there are dangers. Double-sided prickly disc-like seeds which adhere firmly to your shoes or sandals – the preferred footwear in those places – so, this couple were on an adventure to encounter pain when I warned them of the dangers.

The Prince answered back gruffly, obviously slighted by the fact that I may have pointed out that his was leading his Princess into danger. The Protector was not really being smart. Maybe afterwards, after picking out the barbs from her soles, kissing it better might salve the pain – I interfered.

Patriarch

The restaurant serves a buffet, which means people have to walk around the food tables to get what they like. In most cases, they walk around, have brief chats about the food and then make their choices before returning together to their tables.

However, there were some Princes who were too princely to walk around, their Princesses did all the running around and served their masters who almost expressed impatience for the lateness of the plate and dismissively waited for the plates to be cleared. The man does have a maid here, reminds me of a cheeky comment someone made when he asked if I had laid the maid, (talking about my cleaner) some people can never attain comportment. Oh! There were quite a few Patriarchs in the house and these are Europeans.

Partners

They were looking for the beach promenade and had walked around in circles till someone decided to ask questions – they even had a 5-month old boy in the pram shielded from the sun because you could not really apply sun-tan lotion on the skin of a toddler.

In fact, it was he, who asked the question about directions and I found out that unlike the commonly accepted view that the men never ask for directions, in this dynamic, it was the lady who would never ask for directions.

They shared the joy of helping each other; he pushed the pram through the difficult terrain of pavements without ramps for wheelchairs or trolleys as we walked to the promenade and all the way down to the Playa del Ingles beach where we parted ways. The Prince and Princess were partners.

A-Partners

The last night, he literally wailed as she began to put a distance between herself and him by running. He said, “You find their jokes funnier than mine”. Any Princess would be to rid of such a pathetic Prince. Somehow, there is still a dynamic at work, there is still an attraction that manages to tolerate the insecurity, but would this go on for much longer? The Prince and Princess were beginning to look like A-Partners.

A-partners, coined by the Sun newspaper to describe couples who get on well after separation.

A triplicate is one not three

Double Hotel Jeopardy

Back to my hotel where the thought that I would checking out in four days is the comfort I have from what makes this place a real-life Fawlty Towers.

I know I would not be returning to this hotel and neither would it receive a word of recommendation from me.

This hotel is in fact two hotels combined in one, one side being an aparthotel – a hotel of apartments called Riu Flamingo and the other part is a hotel of rooms called Riu Papayas.

If you are on foot, you will have to go through the Riu Flamingo hotel to get to he Riu Papayas part, we share the restaurant, entertainment and recreational places such that if you are served you have to give your room number and hotel you are staying in.

It would have been easier to prefix the rooms on one side with a 1 and that way they automatically know which hotel you are in.

Sick bag breakfast

The breakfast is usually quite bland that I have taken to waking up late and going out for a full English breakfast where a real-life Barbara Windsor (Peggy Mitchell) figure and better, of German extraction but the most welcoming, friendly and engaging lady of the house serves with the comforting accent of a European polyglot.

Moby’s Restaurant is about a 20-minute walk from my hotel, but I have to go through the Yumbo Centre to pick my daily which is hardly a morning paper but a brunch one. The Daily Telegraph never arrives on time for all sorts of reasons, I have been sentenced to reading either the Daily Mail or The Guardian in the absence of my newspaper – I love reading my paper at breakfast which is usually straddling the noon hours.

Moby’s Restaurant is on Avenida de Tirajana just beneath the Tenesor Apartments and you would always be welcome there, good value, variety and a big screen for football if you are so inclined.

Triplicates are for a reason

So, this morning I needed to do some ironing and after so much sign language short of sticking up a finger we came to an understanding that I needed an iron which I have to take back to my room and then move the bed a good 1.5 metres to get the cord in the wall socket which is cleverly concealed behind the television – the room is a tortuous restriction, I might as well be in a prison cell and I would have a lot more wall sockets.

I also have some laundry to do which I have to put out on Monday before 9:00AM, I would set the alarm to get up that early. I did not find any laundry slips in my room, so I asked for one only to note that the slips which are supposed to be filled in triplicate had been split so each bag had a white, pink or yellow slip.

I explained to the concierge that these things should be done in triplicate such that the white copy goes to the laundry, the pink goes to hotel administration and I retain the yellow copy to ensure my goods are safe and make the right payments.

He would hear none of it, he said, it was no more necessary, the new system was just to have one slip of the triplicate and everything else is based on trust, I would suppose.

He could not however explain to me why the mini-bar had the “old” system of triplicate forms but the laundry had just one – it makes you wonder where they get such sub-standard staff from who believe in fudging the detail and dissimulation rather than be corrected and do the right thing.

Never without Palace

There is no doubt that this double-hotel is staffed with customer-facing cretins and intelligent house-keepers, there is a split when it comes to the night-duty personnel, the one on the Riu Papayas end seems to be a very amicable person, the other on the Riu Flamingo would lie to your face – I wanted to report the issue to the manager but decided the hierarchy must be as rotten as what I encounter.

Good managers hardly end up with rotten staff, I may be wrong. Never again for Riu Papayas, Riu Flamingo and any counterpart that does not include “Palace” in the name.

In Playa del Ingles, Riu Palace Maspalomas is very much the hotel with class, the Grand Palace variety is too way out of the town centre to get a look in.

Iowa is not Bethlehem of Judea

A baptism of hope

I woke up to the news that Mike Huckabee, the Baptist preacher and former governor of Arkansas State had taken the Republican nomination for the Iowa State caucus. The man was born in a little town called Hope where a Bill Clinton was born too.

Hope and Change are the message that resonates from the lips of Barack Obama the first-term Illinois Senator who took the Democrat nomination beating Hillary Clinton to 3^rd place.

Indeed, I feel sorry for Hillary and her organisation which apparently failed to convince Iowans of her experience and leadership qualities, it is an unfortunate situation but not one that she cannot recover from – Next is New Hampshire.

Convinced for change

The Presidency of George W. Bush leaves us in no doubt that there is a renewed need for change and definitely one of great hope – people need to be inspired beyond the foreboding of war, famine, disaster, turbulent markets and pocket-book strictures.

The people need a Kennedy-esque vision of what they can do for their country which would in turn make their country work for them to greatness and achievement.

Senator Barack Obama seems to encapsulate that view and concept, it is a good thing, but the Presidency of America is not just the leadership of 300 million American citizens, it bestows the mantle of leadership that encompasses the whole of over 6 billion people of the human race.

The people of America are very well entitled to vote for local issues, but their leader would be a global leader of great importance to the peace and stability of the world – we do not have review the Presidency of Bush that much to see where relative inexperience garnered from being a State governor has lead us to a more restless world than when he assumed power.

I worry that Americans might be deluded into expectation of youth and right-sounding oratory without assessing the real substance of what it takes to lead the world by becoming the President of the United States of America.

New expectations

Now, the prospect of America having a black man as President means the country has moved by leaps and bounds, it does not mean that the issues of race are not still a problem, also the likeable prospect of a credible female President is something useful too, if America can be liberal enough to escape from the strictures of religious-driven male chauvinism to accept a woman as leader.

However, Iowa State, 26^th in land size and 30^th in population size which is not even a hundredth of the total in the United States is not the Bethlehem of old.- Out of Iowa shall not come the great leader that should take the world to new heights – the win in Iowa for Obama is a good and great one, but I still see Obama as better running for President in 8 years after having served as vice-President of the nation for 2 terms.

This job really does require experience, we need someone who would be ready and able on the 1^st day, the 20^th of January 2009 – Obama might be able, but definitely not ready to lead the world – there is a lot more to believing in a place called hope and it is not just in making us feel good.

The least significant

Note: The reference to Bethlehem comes from the prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ – made in Micah 5:2 and recalled in Matthew 2:6 (NIV) - But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.

Iowa is the first in the primaries and one of the least in the United States, but the political Messiah of the United States and the world will not hopefully be decided by the events of this morning.

The absence of character

People I meet

I cannot say I am good judge of character from the onset. People grow on me, I observe them, learn from them, appreciate them and sometimes judge them – I am only human.

However, everyone starts with a measure which has me believing the very best of them, some impress, some inspire and some disappoint.

I have been honoured by people who have allowed me to touch their lives in whatever small way; I am always full of joy when they go on to become very successful, where I have had opportunity to share my experience some use the information to positive effect, if they become more successful than I am, it gives me even greater pleasure and fulfilment.

In my time, I have also met people who have had difficult upbringings, like being fostered in abusive environments or thrown out of their homes by parents who sometimes forget that the child does not turn out to be something that is completely oblivious of their input or lack of it.

Not a perfect child

Now, I was not a perfect child, I gave my parents headaches and I once had one after being head-butted by my dad – I do not fault my upbringing, my parents did what they knew best; with hindsight there are probably a lot of things that could have been done differently.

This adds another item to my New Year's Considerations – estranged from the patriarch of the Akintayo clan for years, there are scars that have refused to heal, somehow, one has to resolve these issues – none of us are growing any younger, the time for feeling the pain should end for a time of reconciliation and possible restitution – if only.

Surviving as social misfits

Of these people, I have been seriously encouraged by their ability to strike out for survival, they may not yet attain or be able to afford luxuries but they are not burdens on society – some are still striving to better themselves and they would continue to receive both my support and encouragement in their development.

Unfortunately, much as survival is an instinct, most have become men but have been unable to become gentlemen. They lack a sense of duty or responsibility, their loyalties are built upon meeting needs rather than growing enduring friendships – there is no sense of character and they never take any criticism in good light, no matter how constructive, they are rebellious long before they are cornered or found out.

This absence of character is exposed at those points where trust, responsibility or expectation has been invested and they have come short.

My ruined pearls

Sadly, there are instances where the proverbial pearls are cast before swine and they are trampled upon – give them independence and they think they have the whole world; give them freedom and familiarity almost always breeds contempt – they burn their bridges long before they have had opportunity to cross them.

Somehow, there is a fatalistic tendency to act or react without consideration of the consequences – I am left utterly amazed at times, but in due course I learn that what makes a man is more than what you see of them in an instant - that instant is sometimes also the sum of who they are.

If the necessary pruning is not done when the young tree is growing, you might have to take completely developed branches off at a later date – in all, I still believe the best of people and hope that there are ways in which I can adapt to things that my opinionated perception finds repulsive.

Again, these are my observations, your experiences would almost certainly be very different.

The Royal Marsden Hospital fire

Saved from fire

Obviously, evacuating everyone from a building under fire is paramount and news that only two firemen and a patient suffered from smoke inhalation leaves one prayerfully thankful because it could have been a lot worse.

The Royal Marsden Hospital on Fulham Road in South-West London has today suffered a serious fire which has since been brought under control.

One can only imagine the stress and distress of patients especially the two undergoing surgery when the fire broke out – certain of the evacuated laid in mattresses in nearby streets as some who could walk were lead away in blankets. Third-World country pictures flash through my mind.

Quenching fire the old way

One must however observe that there is something a bit primitive about the circumstances - evacuation and fire-fighting - and is need of some modern-day thinking and innovation.

The fire broke out on the top floor and roof areas and it was contained in those areas but greater damage would be done to the whole building first by smoke and then by the amount of water that was used to douse the flames.

That we still douse flames with water most of the time, then at times with foam or sand, sometimes carbon-dioxide shows we are in need of some innovative thinking on fire-fighting.

Obeying the basic law of gravity all that water with the debris that it can carry would wash down through the building soiling and damaging anything in its path – this brings an interesting architectural challenge.

Beyond sprinklers

Beyond sprinklers, fire-retardant elements and other physical fire containment devices, we need to be able to fight fires exposed to the open air in ways that would contain the fire to its localised points and prevent further damage to the building and other equipment where the fire has not reached.

It would mean either avoiding the use of water entirely, or where water is used, part of the fire-fighting defences in the building should allow the water to be channelled off the just the affected floor, saving floors below, where it is known that the fire is just on a particular floor.

If the fire affects more floors, the channels should be opened to allow sprinkling on the lower affected floors.

Floor-sealing fire safety

Think of it as a kind of floor-sealing with built-in gutters where the water can be collected at ground level and passed on to filtration systems nearby, this can then by recycled to fight the fire till it is completely doused.

This means the way multi-storey buildings are designed and built will have to change whilst taking good care for the issues of access and evacuation in occupied buildings.

As for The Royal Marsden Hospital, founded in 1851 and the first dedicated cancer research hospital, I do hope that those evacuated would receive respite wherever they are moved to and the reopening of that hospital to it full functionality would be very soon.

As a saying in Yoruba goes – The burnt down palace offers the opportunity for something more beautiful – we can only have such optimism for bringing the hospital back to life.

They damned the consequences

19

I am still numb with disbelieve that Benazir Bhutto has been committed to earth, time and again, I have hoped for a playback to just before the 27^th of December where that scene could be reprised with a different act and outcome.

19, an age where most in the West are still tied to their mother’s apron strings whilst pretending to be grown-up. There is no doubt that people grow up faster in other parts of the world.

They take on responsibility beyond their years and stoically approach life with a resolve that leaves people in their 30s here, in shame. As recorded by Paul Hardcastle in his hit 19, the average documented average age of a US serviceman in Vietnam was 19.

Bilawal (One without equal) Bhutto Zardari, at 19 takes on the mantle of leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party from his murdered mother, 6 years too early to run for parliament and having hardly started at the Oxford University – the responsibilities that dynasties thrust on their younger members can be burdens too great for mere mortals to bear. I wish him well.

Feudal Politics

Asian politics suffers the feudal encumbrance of political dynasties where merit suffers at the expense of nepotistic succession because the name and the mystique of the cult of personality of Bhutto (Pakistan), Gandhi (India), Aquino (Phillipines), Bandranaike (Sri Lanka) carries more gravitas in their localities.

It takes populism and pandering to baser instincts for others to gain control of the political levers of government, sometimes through extreme violence – the fastest way to gain control however, is through a military putsch on the premise that the leaders deposed have been corrupt.

What worries me about Pakistan is the way the perpetrators of this heinous act of violence have damned the consequences of their actions not caring to the life of others, the stability of the country or the opportunity for people to chose their own leaders.

If Al Qaeda is denying they had any involvement in the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the man in sunglasses looks smart enough to be part of the unruly Pakistan intelligence services that Musharraf has presided over with cack-handed incompetence. They really did damn the consequences and their denials are sounding too shrill to listen to anymore.

Living with Corruption

I did hope that Kenya being one of the most tribally diverse countries in Africa would produce an electoral victory for Africa where the votes tallied would match the votes cast.

Naively, after watching Living with Corruption and the spotlight on Kenya, I should have known better. Up to 4 of the electoral officers have announced that there were serious irregularities in the tallying that gave President Mwai Kibaki a second-term in office.

This is a man who was first made a minister in Jomo Kenyatta’s government in the year I was born – 1965 – I am still amazed that there are too many grand-old men who cannot make way for the youth to lead their countries to more promising prospects than the entrenched patriarchy that keeps the poor poorer and allows corruption to grow without abatement.

The First Jezebel of Kenya

I had hoped I would be writing about the electorate slapping down of that dreadful First Jezebel of Kenya – Lucy Kibaki, the President's wife – with a much deserved rejection. She has become a law unto herself and literally out of the bounds of legal restraint and due process.

Going around assaulting people because she is the wife of the president, one of the most ignominious examples of first-lady excess as exemplified in the death by misadventure of Stella Obasanjo who died due to cosmetic surgery complications in Spain or that of Grace Mugabe – the First Shopper of Zimbabwe whilst people starve in what was once the bread-basket of Southern Africa.

These women in steeped in the spirit of Imelda Marcos and Eva Braun do all to make the good work of other first ladies like Graça Machel who has been first lady of both Mozambique and South Africa or other demure but positively activist ones like the first ladies of the United States of America.

Shameless complicity of the West

However, I cannot believe the stance of the West at the rotten results of the Kenyan elections where indeed the violence must stop but the talk of reconciliation which implies accepting the results rather than going to the right result of the votes is unfortunate.

We need to fulfil the demands of democracy first before we devolve to the machinations of diplomacy and not the other way round – we are being sold short again.

When would Africans be allowed to get the government they have really voted for?

When would we be able to say with all confidence that our votes have been tallied and the numbers announced are clearly representative of what happened in the privacy of the ballot box cubicle?

It is saddening that people are protesting to have their votes counted properly and they are being shot down, killed and burnt severally by the police, the army or intra-ethnic violence for seeking what is fundamentally a human right in the West but almost certainly a death sentence in Africa.

Too many times, we have failed to deliver the truth of a basic democratic process, especially when we have to contend with an incumbency-beholden electoral commission so typical of the one in Nigeria.

And like the Nigerian one , they damned the consequences of their actions. Somehow, we still have a plague in Africa of leaders who care nothing for the legitimacy of their standing as long as they can wield power and suppress dissent – we are sentenced to being ruled rather than being lead or governed by men of honour, dignity, who are honest and who command real respect.

In Pakistan and in Kenya some people just damned the consequences and blood flows unabated for what could have been better managed if these people ever knew what was right to do. We need to have ways of seeking and getting just for these actions.

New Year's Considerations

Greetings

To all my readers, friends, well-wishers and not to forget my detractors – I bear you no ill – I wish the very best of 2008 – the dawning of a new year bring the realisation of hopes, the strength to meet great challenges and a willingness to end the year well beyond what you have ever thought you could achieve.

Consideration not resolution

I was chatting to my friend who came over from England who smokes like a chimney, even Santa Claus would refuse to be blackened by the soot in this vertical tunnel – he had no resolution to stop smoking but he had consideration.

I have long opined that resolutions are too strong a stricture to apply to our weak will-power and resolve, however, maybe considerations are better.

You can break a resolution but a consideration means you are thinking about it without the self-flagellation and self-loathing that accompanies being unable to do what you "resolved" to do.

My considerations

And so, I have a few considerations, first of which is to manage the issue of my romantic failures, I have been unfortunate in relationships in 2007 – I know what I do not want in a relationship, but as usual one gets confused about what one wants in a relationship – I am learning.

I have a gym membership that has been running for years, maybe it is time to visit, you used a palm-print and pin-code which showed your picture to get through the turnstiles, hopefully, my palm has not evolved into a non-descript identity-less fossil – that would put paid to one area of forensics.

Professionally, there are a few irons in the fire including the possibility of a new role at the company where I am a consultant – we should see how that pans out by the end of the month. Meanwhile, I might get on the certification track of Microsoft again, after 9 years – just for the fun of it.

Blogging, not an English word

Blogging would continue as usual and hopefully with more vigour and enthusiasm, sometimes one is caught up in blog-think but unable to write anything down – been having too many of those lately, might have to try writing shorter blogs; that would be difficult.

I am surprised that blog, blogging & blogger have yet to make it into the standard English dictionaries of word processors – they must be lagging behind the times.

Finally, without having asked the permission of my outrageously handsome baby-face brother – Gosh! I’m jealous – He sent me a text message written in SMS-English but I would transcribe it to traditional parlance – to wish me a Merry Christmas and I cannot but share his words here.

Be it,

Climbing to Attain,

Running to Obtain,

Walking to Retain,

Or Standing to Maintain,

You shall be extraordinarily distinguished,

Amongst Millions.

A few more of those people on earth and what a wonderful place this blessed planet would be. Thank you brother, love you lots.

Happy New Year! Everyone – Hopefully, you have all recovered from the excess of the two nights before, if not, you need a resolution more than you need a consideration.