The Pursuit of Majesty

I have often heard the statement that we are co-creators with God.  This is usually used to express how potentially powerful human beings are, especially when they work with God’s help.  That indeed God uses the hands and minds of men to create things that are generally described as breakthrough.  Things that represent a leap from previously accepted limits of human ability.  Some aspects of science, and technology, and some aspects of visual art fall into this category.  The human race has therefore been constantly stretching the limits.  And once in a while they do break the limits and end up with some majestic creations.  From the Chinese wall, to the Egyptian pyramids, from the Eifel Towers to the Twin Towers, from the titanic to the Airbus A380, the pursuit of majesty abounds.  And anytime you come across majestic creations, it is self-evident – it is a silent Wow, from the core of your being.

And so it was when I recently had the rarely pleasure and privilege to visit and tour another of man’s majestic creations – a cruise liner!  I had the opportunity to tour the MSC Opera while docked at Cape Town harbour and Wow! What magnificence! What Majesty! This cruise liner is a floating 13 floor building, made of solid steel – How they even make it float is a wonder by itself!  It is massive! This liner carries 2200 passengers and a staff of 1000 odd!  Everyone has a room and bed and bathroom facilities – it is a massive floating five star hotel!  And this floating hotel has all manner of entertainment facilities, lounges and bars that would match any conventional five star hotel.  There are dining facilities, discos, theatre, swimming pools, fine dining restaurants, and an entire shopping arcade! And everything is glittering – they polish and polish and polish some more!  There are lifts from floor to floor! Wow!  And then of course, the staff and guests don’t share facilities and therefore a whole section of the ship has the same accommodation, dining, entertainment etc. facilities for the staff!  And then, since they spend many days at sea, all the supplies for food, water, fuel, … everything needs to be stored on board!

And then, probably the most magnificent of all, is that all these systems have to work together like clockwork!  There is a continuous 24 hour programme for dining, entertainment, cleaning, etc. for the guests and the ship itself has to cruise.  There is military like structure in charge of the ship – headed by the captain and all officers have to be in navy type uniform which clearly shows respective rankings.  The international nature of the business also requires that they hire staff from all over the world, who speak a whole wide range of languages.  Owning, building and running a cruise ship is really worldclass business! 

It is hardly surprising that sailing on a cruise ship is considered as one of the world’s most exclusive luxuries and features on many a bucket list.  Taking a round-the-world tour on a cruise ship features on Kiyosaki’s cash flow game as one of the ultimate retirement treats and a tour of MSC Opera confirms why this is so.  So the next time you have an opportunity to tour a cruise ship, go right ahead and enjoy the majestic feel, and if you are luckier to go on an actual cruise, I will envy you until my turn comes.  Happy Cruising!

Pursuit of Connectedness

A few years ago, before cell phones became as smart as they are today, one could only save 100 numbers on the phone. When one needed to save a new contact onto the full phone memory, one had to delete one of the old contacts. In one conversation, I heard how people agonised over which number to replace and it invariably ended up being the number that you had not called or heard from for the longest time.  This came down to not just how networked you are, but how current your network connections were.  In these days of unlimited storage on smart phones and numerous social media platforms, one need not worry too much about replacing contacts.

However, one still needs to think about staying networked and connected.  And being networked and connected is less to do with the number of numbers (forgive the pun) one has on their phonebook, but how useful these numbers are.  For instance, it is one thing to have the number of a most sought after personality on your phone, but it is a totally different issue for that personality to have your number on their phone.  This will determine whether your calls will be recognised when you make them, whether they will be picked or whether they will be returned at some point.  I once had a telephone fight with an insurance salesman who called me, and would not tell me how he got my number, and had the knack to ask me to give him the numbers of my friends so that he could sell to them as well!

At one point, a friend was being introduced as having come from a certain village.  He surprised us by sharing how disconnected he was from his home village.  He said that probably less than five per cent of numbers on his phone book would ring in his village.  Indeed he said that even less would ring in his home district.  We concluded that he was less of the villager and more of a Kenyan.

So what does your phone say about you?  Besides being a smart phone with trending apps and latest camera, what do the contents of your phone say about you?  How geographically diverse is your network? How racially diverse is your network?  In what language do most of your phone conversations take place because the person on the other side does not share your first language?  How does this reflect on the rest of your life?  How does this reflect on your world view?

In my view, diversity is a critical ingredient for your networks.  It gives you a continuously expanding world view that in turn results in your own growth and the quality of your conversations.  So the next time you find yourself with a bit of time on your hands, as you ride in the bus or wait for the next appointment, just scroll down your phone book and just think of what that list says about you.  From that, determine what you must do about that list.

PS:  Have you at some time found a number on your phone and you cannot remember who that contact was?  What does that mean?

The Pursuit of Pursuit

I started off this blog as a way of recording my unstopping stream of thoughts.  As part of my work, I travel a lot and travel gives me many hours of solitude, on long drives and long flights and in hotel rooms alone.  Solitude gives me many hours of thought and reflection and I completely and totally enjoy it. Focusing on a specific question helps me keep focused thought – since my mind would rather wander off somewhere else.  As I write, it has turned out that most of my blogs so far have been about pursuit of one thing or the other.  My observation is that human existence is driven by pursuit. At this rate, I may have to rename this blog to PursuitPursuit.

So, what are we all busy pursuing?  In an earlier post, we started with the discussion of the pursuit of starch, which if we do not achieve, we will be counting down hours do our death. Within this pursuit is hidden the fact that the pursuit of starch does not cease, because as soon as you quench the current fix, you start counting down do the next fix.  And so it is with all other pursuits.  Unless you have achieved a certain level of enlightenment, you may end up stuck in an unending cycle of pursuits.

I visited my vavorite (sic) brother recently and he put in my hand the most amazing book – The One Thing.  This book starts with a story about how the secret of life boils down to just one thing – and if you don’t know what that one thing is, then your (first) one thing is to find it!  The bible says that we should seek first the Kingdom of God, and everything else (all other pursuits) will be added unto us.  Solomon, the most successful man in Biblical history achieved his by knowing and asking (when he was given the opportunity) for his one thing.  Abraham asked for wisdom and it is recorded that on top of becoming the wisest man of all ages, he also became the richest in gold, livestock, wives, concubines, and all that was defined wealth and success in his time – Never mind the fact that after all his success (and wisdom), he declared that all is vanity, and the vanity of vanity is vanity. Maybe this blog should be named WisdomPursuit! Incidentally, wisdom is the power to perceive the best ends to aim at and the best means for reaching those ends.

If you ask a young person what his desire is, he may name a prestigious career, several year later, he may name desirable items like money, cars, houses, technological tools and so on, and he may desire bigger and better and faster ones five or ten years on.  He may desire to be enjoined with a spouse, have children, and bring them up around bigger and better items.  Yet, fifty years later, when he has gone full cycle, and if he has picked some wisdom along the way, he will figure out – as Solomon did thousands of years earlier that vanity of vanity is vanity.  It is Steve Covey who noted in his book, first things first, that no one on his death bed wished they had worked longer.  Most wish they had invested more in relationships, loved more, and ‘stopped and smelt the roses’.

So, as we review and look out for pursuits, what is your pursuit?  Will it stand the test of time that Solomon and Steve Covey discovered?  If not, what is your one thing?  Until you figure what your one thing is, your one thing is to find it.  Good luck!

There are bad people

I had the privilege to visit Cambodia just over a year ago on a working trip.  While on a short break, I managed to visit the magnificent King’s Palace and a few temples, and appreciate the deep cultural and spiritual roots that we all associate with the Eastern peoples.  At the same time, I visited the museum of the Cambodia genocide of the 1970s.  The Cambodian Genocide refers to the attempt of Khmer Rouge party leader “Pol Pot” to nationalize and centralize the peasant farming society of Cambodia virtually overnight, in accordance with the Chinese Communist agricultural model. This resulted in the gradual devastation of over 25% of the country’s population in just three short years. It is estimated that nearly two million people died in the genocide (http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/cambodian-genocide). The Genocide museum that I visited is set in a former prison compound that was the central ‘slaughter house’ of the genocide. 

I left the genocide museum with a sick feeling in my stomach and the words that kept echoing in my mind were – there are bad people in the world!  I have spent time in Rwanda that was also subjected to genocide in 1994 and even visited several museums there.  But none of my previous experiences left me with such an effect.  I concluded that it must have something to do with the story that is told of one of the leaders of the Cambodia genocide.  The story goes that there is a guy who was the chief of the prison that was at the centre of the genocide.  Apparently, at the end of the genocide, the guy disappeared and found a job as a driver in a rural relief organisation. He worked in that setting for eighteen years before someone suspected him and blew the whistle on him.   He denied the accusations and it was until they took him back to the prison site and replayed some of the recordings of the time that he broke down and confessed.  I found that absolutely unbelievable – there are indeed some very bad people in the world.

I had completely forgotten this story until a few weeks ago when the African Union voted to petition the United Nations on some matters that are currently being handled by the International Criminal Court (ICC).  While the process of how these matters ended up in the court are not the focus of this article, I noted the blanket condemnation of the ICC.  In my understanding, the ICC is the instrument that the world has collectively created to handle ‘bad people’.  There are bad people in the history of our civilisation who need to be kept in check by systems that go beyond their own countries’ laws and judicial systems.  There are bad people who will corrupt the minds of large populations to cause immeasurable death and destruction.  There are many countries whose internal systems and institutions are not mature enough to push back these bad people.  And it is true that a good number of these countries are in Africa.

My concern is that as the Africa Union trashes and condemns the ICC, it does not offer any credible substitute to put bad people in check.  My concern is that as Kenyans cheer the African Union in this episode for their own patriotic reasons, they compromise the only institution that shields them, and others, from the possibility of bad people arising from their midst.  There is a song that goes: bad boys bad boys, what you gonna do, what you gonna do when they come for you!

There are bad people out there.  Who are you gonna call when the bad people come out?

Parenting made 'Complicated"

One of the most privileged duties of our human existence is parenting. Indeed, one of the duties that I have most enjoyed is parenting, and not just parenting but parenting of boys. Where I grew up, being a boy was a natural hazard.  You are expected to be hardy, self-driven, self-dependent and if God was on your side, you were expected to emerge and transition into a man.  A boy pretty much grew up on their own – much like the bushes and trees, and the birds.  The transition of a boy to a man should qualify as one of the greatest wonders of the world! This makes bringing up boys a most amazing privilege.  As it happens, we are now in a different age, a different space in time – in which we are to bring up children, (including boys); as opposed to letting them grow.

One of the more common challenges of parenting is whether to bring up children the way you were brought up, or whether to find some other (sometimes ‘modern’) way in which to bring up children.  I am involved in many parenting conversations and I find there are generally two types of parents.  There are those who want to bring up children the same way they were brought up with the same (sometimes tough) values that they were brought up with, usually because, they reason, that they came out just fine.  Then there are those who want to bring up their children in the way they wish they would have been brought up – with generous easy going rules, no hardships, and where the parent is a ‘buddy’.  Some of these parents have had some ‘traumatic experiences in life and somewhere in their history, they promised themselves that their children would never ‘suffer’ the same ‘hardships’ that they suffered.  So, if they did not like boarding school, they will ensure that their children do not go through boarding school; if they did not like certain meals, they will ensure that their children do not have to eat the same meals.  If they did not have enough pocket money, they will ensure that their children have more money than they need.

It gets even worse if one parent is from one school of thought and the other parent of from the other.  The constant conversation then becomes defending the children from one another’s perceived ‘tyranny’.  Regardless of the school of thought that each parent subscribes to, the bottom line is that successfully bringing up the next generation – into independent, progressive, self-driven, adults - is (or should be) the most important priority of parents.  Many times, parents get carried away in building their own success and forget to invest in the success of the next generation.  In Africa, you generally refer to people by their parents – son of or daughter of xyz.  The implication of this standard reference is that no matter how successful you will become, your success will always be attributed to your parents.  Wisdom therefore dictates that as you build your own successes, you also get ready to invest in the success of your children and the next generation – as a way to build your own legacy.  History will judge you by how successfully you brought up your children.

In many parts of Africa, many ‘successful’ – read wealthy, people have had their legacies destroyed because they did not successfully hand over the baton to the next generation – because they did not prepare the next generation.  Many parents of teenagers who detested ‘mom’s way’ find themselves going back to mom to ask for advice on how to manage these ‘wayward’ fellows.  I for one believe that mom’s way works best – even with the new techno-filled, friendly-parent, hurt-no-one environment.  I feel that today’s parent is struggling to find the necessary firmness required for successfully raising the next generation, and the young ones are having a ball of a time – oblivious of what it will cost them in the long term.  Good Luck, Happy parenting!

The Pursuit of World Class

I have just returned from another trip – this time from outside Africa – and as it often happens, trips like these leave you with more questions than answers.  On the one hand, these trips are long – very long and they leave you with lots of time to think and reflect on many aspects of life.  On the other hand, one has occasion to see many different things at work.  The one word that has been on my mind a lot on this last trip has been ‘world-class’.  I spent a few days in New York City, a few days in Washington DC and a day in London.  In each of these cities, I had many occasions to see many world class companies, delivering world class products and services to their world class demanding customers.

On one occasion, I took a long interstate bus ride, and even on such a mundane event, had the occasion to observe world class at work.  One simple constant element on this trip was time management.  The bus departs from the side of a street and not some glorified bus terminal – but even so, the bus arrives just five minutes ahead of departure time, passengers board by showing prepaid online tickets, and the bus leaves perfectly on time.  There is a ten minute break to the four hour trip and again, the bus stops for precisely ten minutes and onward to an on time arrival at its destination. This is over and above the high quality customer service, high quality buses that are also very well driven, on very well built and very well maintained roads.

The thought that has been running on mind therefore has been – what makes a world class service?  What make a simple business like an interstate bus service provide a world class service?  What creates a world class service that is evident from a bus service to the road the bus runs on, to the airport it transfers you to. What creates a world class culture? What makes people demand a world class service?  For the record, I know and observe many world class organisations in Africa.  In my view, Kenya Airways, for all its woes, provides a world class service in a highly demanding world class industry.  I know great schools in Kenya that provide world class education that matches any in the world, and whose students join their peers in world class universities across the world.  I know many hotels and restaurants, across the African continent, which provide world class accommodation and meals that can match any in the world.  There are many banks and telecommunication companies across Africa that have world class innovations and customer care that can match any in the world.

My concern is that while we have many world class pillars in Africa, the links that connect them are not anywhere close to world class and therefore killing any hope of an all-round world class experience.  When we create a world class highway, we fail to provide it with world class maintenance and world class constant improvement and therefore, the world class status is short lived.  One final example:  When Heathrow airport unveiled terminal four, some fifteen years ago, it was hailed as the top, world class, airport of the time.  However, the creators also knew that that status would not be valid into eternity and while they have maintained terminal four at the initial world class condition, they have seen the need to create a terminal five that then maintains the airports status as world class in the current time.

What will it take for more and more organisations and systems in Africa to be world class, maintain world class standards and provide world class good and services?  What will it take for the African customer to demand and receive end-to-end world class service? How do I mobilise my team to rise to world class?

The Pursuit of Space

You have probably heard the saying “It is lonely at the top”.  While it is true that it is literally lonelier due to the significantly lower number of fellow human beings you interact with as you go further up the pecking order, it is also probably truer because of the increased distance that we tend to give those who are further up the ladder.

As I write this, I am sitting on the first row of an economy class cabin of a Dakar bound Kenya Airways 737-700.  My front row aisle seat that was specifically requested for provides probably the best leg room space for an economy seat.  It also provides the best view into the first class (or as they call it – premier class) cabin, where I cannot help but notice the significantly more space per passenger that my fellow travellers are enjoying.  They have wider seats - two on each side as opposed to our three on each side; and they have more space between seats – technically referred to as seat pitch – which is 40 inches per seat compared to our 32 inches … L The bigger planes provide a pitch of up to 75 inches for first class seats while holding the economy class pitch at 32 inches… L L

It seems to me therefore that our aspirations to get further up the ladder result, either consciously or not, are the aspirations for more space for ourselves.  As your fortunes increase, you dump the bus and the train for a car, you move from a smaller house to a larger house, from a flat to a maisonette, then to a bungalow and possibly a villa.  You move from a small back garden to a half acre property, or maybe a five acre…  Even as you check into hotels, the key differentiators between various stars of hotels is the size of the room, and even within the same hotel there are standard rooms and superior rooms, and there are suites and penthouse suites – there are even presidential suites complete with several bedrooms and kitchens and offices.  Talking of offices – have you noticed how much the space you have around you matches your level in the organisation? Why did they introduce those modular “open space” cubicles in your office recently – and when they promote you they move you to a standalone office along the wall?  Have you noticed how much natural light flows in from the two sides’ full windows of the boss’s corner office?  It is not by accident that the boss’s office is the largest, has the most natural light and has the fewest available seats.

Even as you attend a political rally – which is where raw power is demonstrated, the biggest Kahuna sits alone with significant space between his seat and that of his neighbour – while at the bottom, the lowest in the rank will squeeze among themselves for a view of the podium.  And as they leave the rally the biggest Kahunas depart at the back of the biggest cars, sometimes with the road cleared for them to maximise the space between them at the watus (pips).

We should then not be surprised that it is lonely at the top – while we all aspire for the same larger spaces as we aspire for the top.

PS: As we disembark off this 9hr flight at Dakar airport the first class passengers, all eight of them, leave in their own bus to the terminal building while the rest of us, nearly a hundred of the us squeeze into the next bus of the same capacity.  But then again – life is not fair – deal with it.

Shhh……. Listen…..

For the next one minute, just close your eyes and listen.  Count the number of distinct sounds that you hear….. Did you pick out anything new?  Did you pick out anything you have not heard recently? A moving car? A chirping bird? Shuffling of papers? A child’s chuckle? Running water? Foots steps? A rumbling stomach? Laughter in the distance? A barking dog? A wailing siren? A chiming clock? A ticking watch? A cough? A beeping cell phone? Clinking of cutlery?

We are all probably familiar with the expression – stop and smell the flowers. In our twenty first century world, where everything moves at breakneck speeds, we are often too rushed to be sufficiently aware of what is going on around us.  With all the technology that we have built around ourselves, we have created numerous humming background noises that drown out the rest of the world and we have lost the value of our sense of hearing. The five common senses are our bodies’ tools for interaction and connecting with the world.  Recent developments in information technology have resulted in an overflow of information and an also resulted in a competition among the senses around which sense is used to bring in more information.  As a result, most information now comes to use through the eyes.  We read newspapers, phone messages, emails; we even watch television in mute mode and read the transcripts, because we have submitted to a dominant background noise.  We read more and listen less.  We smell less and taste even less.  And with the definition of personal space, we touch even less.

Besides connecting with the world, the five senses are also meant to help us connect with ourselves.  While we have built all these alternative ways of connecting with the world through visual text, we have not built any ways of connecting with ourselves.  With time, we have lost our self-connection, our self-awareness.  When I grew up, my mother would retreat to take a nap and say that she needed “to listen to herself”.  By stepping back every so often and letting all our senses reach out, our bodies respond by expressing themselves to be “heard”.  You “hear” your digestive system turn as if to confirm that it is present and on duty!  You feel a sensation on your skin as if it acknowledges your attention.  The hairs at the back of your head stand and confirm that they are still part of you. 

In his various writings, Eckhart Tolle talks about being present in the now, which is about total self-awareness on a present continuous basis?  The beauty of it is that anyone can achieve self-awareness.   They only have to stop and “listen to themselves”.  Besides the heighted awareness for self-awareness’ sake, listening to yourself will make you happier and healthier.  Having your body in constant self-conversation will improve your body’s ability for self-repair and maintenance.  Listening to yourself will make you appreciate yourself and your environment, rediscover the parts of your environment that have been drowned out making you more at ease.

So, next time you find yourself in a noisy, rushed, tired, stress state, just stop, and listen…… to yourself.

The Pursuit of Equality

I recently watched with amusement a CNN documentary talking about Brazilian women footballers complaining about the low profile, respect and recognition they receive as women compared to their male footballer counterparts.  The documentary referred to a period in Brazil’s history, in the period under military rule, when it was illegal for women to play football in Brazil and by implication how sexist Brazilian football is. I am not sure anyone – male or female – doubts the might of the Brazilian football legacy and this article pricked for the nth time my curiosity at our human unending pursuit of equality.

The pursuit of gender, racial, generational, etc. equality pervades our daily lives in the current generation. Equality is a mathematical notion that is defined by the Oxford English dictionary as the state of being of the same quantity, size, degree or value.  It further defines equality as being of the same status, rights or opportunities, having uniform application or effect without discrimination on any grounds.  Even at the plain mathematical level, equality is merely a notion for explaining our world.  The only thing that is equal to two is two.  The fact that we notionally accept that one plus one is equal to two does not strictly mean that they are equal.  The only thing that is equal to one plus one is one plus one.

In social application however, the notion of equality has been used to manipulate society to create an unreal world.  The fact that we have created equality laws, in itself, confirms that equality does not exist in nature.  If it did, there would be no need to define it in law.  There are no two people in the world who are equal.  Even twins, who are genetically similar, and usually grow up in the same environment, are not equal and develop into very different unequal entities as they go through life.  The pursuit of racial equality assumes that people of the same race are themselves equal and therefore extending the same equality to other races.  In the same way, the pursuit of gender equality assumes that all people of one gender are equal and they are therefore extending the equality to the other gender.  I find this to be not only manipulative, but also unreal and intellectually dishonest.

By extension, the notion of equal opportunities assumes that given the same opportunities, everyone will make the same (good) use of the opportunities.  A casual glance at how we use our time will tell you that we will never be equal.  How you use your time and opportunities today determines the opportunities that will be available to you tomorrow.  Allowing people to throw away time and opportunities today and guaranteeing them the same opportunities tomorrow seems to me to be absurd and unsustainable.  We need to recognise and appreciate that history has seen different peoples use time an opportunities differently and that this has put them at an advantage in current times.  We need to recognise and appreciate that even today, different peoples are using time and opportunity differently and this will put them at an advantage in the future.  This is happening within and among races, genders, generations etc.  There is no law in the world that will force equality so long as this different utilisation of time and opportunity continues.

I submit therefore that our pursuit of equality will continue to be a mirage, as long as people expect to invest less in time an opportunity and expect to reap more or equal to others.  Back to our Brazilian women footballers – I doubt that they will get equal respect, attention, or recognition as the Brazilian male footballers – even if they create a law to decree as such.  I however expect that they will cut a much higher profile than women footballers from other counties, mainly because of the (unequal) profile that football cuts in Brazil, thanks to the historical lead developed by the Brazilian (male) football legacy.

Life Plan 101

It is said that there is a time and a season for everything.  And indeed there is.  And for each season, there is what needs to be done, which if not done will affect other seasons.  And so it is with life.  Your life is set out according to a plan, a life plan.  And in the life plan, there are times and seasons.
Imagine that your full life is divided into four equal periods.  Assuming a full life of years, each quarter would be approximately 20 years.  In each of these quarters, there is what would need to be done, in order to maximise the impact of that quarter, and also in order to best position oneself for the next quarter.  In my view, the quarters and their respective objectives are set out as below.

The objective of each quarter is to exit on top, and one can define what exiting on top means for each quarter.

In Quarter 1 (Q1) your objective is to build a foundation.  Everything is aligned to help you build a foundation; you have parents to support you, guide you, feed you, and to educate you.  It is not generally expected that you are generating money or bringing up other children.  Your role in this quarter is to focus on building a good foundation that will best position you for the next quarter.  Exiting on top in this case will mean getting a good education, keeping healthy and avoiding bad habits.

In Quarter 2 (Q2) your objective is to build a career.  You are expected to get into a trade and develop expertise in that trade.  If you are employed, you are expected to grow in responsibility and knowledge exiting in top management.  If you set up a business, you are expected to build it into a successful enterprise, solving problems and creating employment.  While you may generate money and even some savings in this quarter, it is not expected that you will get very rich.  Exiting on top in this case means that you have risen in responsibility and knowledge.  You will also have built significant networks and build a family.

 

In Quarter 3 (Q3), you are now perfectly positioned to learn on your expertise, knowledge and networks to build wealth.  Wealth is built by using your savings and putting them in the right investments, and leaning on your knowledge to steward towards growth and acceleration.  The right investments will come out of the conversations you will be involved in due to your good networks.  Exiting on top in this quarter means that you are well invested, in good health and within a loving family environment.

In Quarter 4 (Q4), you have done what you set out to do in this world and you are now ready leave a legacy.  In this quarter, you are a peace maker; you want to make peace for other people and to make your own peace with your maker.  You want to leave a legacy of peace.

 

Having understood this framework then, it is easy to understand underachievement and overachievement.  If one consistently exists each quarter at below optimal level, then overtime, the overall result is a lifetime of under achievement.  On the other hand, if one consistently exists each quarter ahead of the pack, then the individual records a lifetime of overachievement. 

The overall objective across generations then becomes a yearning for moving further and further up on the overachievement side, and therefore successive generations will record higher achievements in each lifetime than previous generations.

The pursuit of Starch

Of all human pursuits, none is more present, more permanent, more repeated, more focused or more unifying that the pursuit of starch.  While food has long been recognised as a basic need and in some cases a basic right, the real culprit in this loaded word is starch.  Starch is the fuel that runs our bodies and even nutritionists will tell you that in the absence of starch, all other forms of foods are converted into a starch equivalent and broken into energy.

I travel a lot to many cities in Africa and beyond and there is no sight more frequent that that of people walking around and popping some starch in their mouths.  Whether it is Mandazi, roast maize, potato crisps, cassava crisps or a piece of sugar cane, our united pursuit of starch is apparent wherever you go, wherever you turn.  This addiction comes out in its raw form when we sit round the table to take in our regular thrice day meals.  At each seating, pounds of rice, corn, bread, ugali, Millie pap, bread, breakfast cereals, chapatti, roti, chips, cassava, matoke, cake, naan,or pilau are gladly ingested by eager mouths.  We have a collective addiction to starch and everyone around you is sitting pretty because they have recently had their starch fix, and they have a clear plan to their next fix.  In fact, none of us can survive without this regular fix.  Even one year old babies quickly clue on to this addiction and learn how to ask for it and to ingest it before they learn anything else. This addiction comes out in its raw form when we sit round the table to take in our regular thrice day meals.  At each seating, pounds of rice, corn, bread, ugali, Millie pap, bread, breakfast cereals, chapatti, roti, chips, cassava, matoke, cake, naan,or pilau are gladly ingested by eager mouths.

Since time immemorial, wars have been fought and kingdoms have come down because of starch.  The famines recorded in biblical history and the food revolutions recorded across the world all underline the central role that starch plays in our lives.

The other interesting link with starch is the conversion to alcohol.  All societies in history, whether modern or traditional, have discovered in their own ways the interesting link between starch and alcohol.  As I grew up, my first experience with alcohol was observing adults crashing sugar can into sugar cane juice to brew traditional wine.  I later learnt that other communities di the same by fermenting maize flour while even other sophisticated ones would ferment barley to make beer.  Again, how all societies figured out their own links between starch and alcohol remains a mystery.

So, the next time you stand aside and watch the world go by, consider the various starch plans that your passers-by are on.  What is your starch plan today?

Switched Off: The next frontier?

Is it really possible for electricity to be switched off?  If we significantly upset the environment and all the natural protection it provides the planet, is it possible that electricity could disappear?  If that were a possibility, and we can develop scenarios of how catastrophic it would be, would that make us take more care of the environment? On the other hand, is it possible that God could switch off electricity as He is recorded to have switched of other human comforts in biblical times, as a result of gross sin on the part of humanity?  Again, if it were possible, would it necessarily make the world change its ways?

If electricity could be switched off, what else could be switched off? Electricity is just one of many currencies enables exchange, transmission and storage of energy.  If this form of energy can be switched off, what other forms can be switched off?  If those other forms can be switched off, what kind of scenarios would emerge?

Our understanding of electricity is possibly less than two hundred years old.  It has contributed in the vast social and economic development of humanity in this period, and is the foundation on modern technology. Before its enormous power and potential was discovered, the world moved on running its business as usual.  What other similar life changing technologies are out there waiting to be discovered?  If electricity were to be switched off, what alternatives would be discovered to make the same, if not better contribution to humanity?  Can these alternatives be still discovered without waiting for electricity to be switched off?

http://www.amazon.com/Switched-Off-ebook/dp/B00472OA8U/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1373372413&sr=8-7&keywords=moss+mara