In Humanity

While following NDTV coverage of the Mumbai attacks, I came across this phrase used by Prannoy Roy and his anchors: "the faces of tragedy". As a consequence, I wrote the following lines, a reflection not just of Mumbai, but of the world we presently live in.

Orphaned by hate
Widowed by spite
Battered by brutality
Scarred for life
We are
The faces of tragedy
Sculpted by the tools of terror.

Stammering with sorrow
Uttering rage
Expressing uncertainty
Manifesting helplessness
We are
The voices of a city
Tempered by the trauma of terror.

Listening in anguish
Watching with disbelief
Waiting in fear
Susceptible to rumour
We are
The conscience of a country
Stricken by the torture of terror.

And, in our voices, on our faces,
In the depths of a conscience
We are
A breed of people
That can only wonder
At the inhumanity of humanity.

Freedom

I can go anywhere I want
And do whatever I feel
Answerable to none
With no bonds to keep.

I can be what I want
Gain all I wish
Liable for nothing
With no accounts to render.

Yes, such is my freedom
That I go where I want...
Do what I feel...
Be what I want...
Gain all I wish...

Within the bounds of
A solitary confinement.

SONNET

SONNET

A colleague of mine asked me, this morning, for a ditty on death. I responded with this sonnet as I feel death – in all its dignity and indignity – can never be dealt with in a ditty.

Proud am I, the owner of a brand new bed
Customized to suit my most unique want
Its plush satin, below me, so elegantly spread
Evokes memories that momentarily haunt
The people who have with tender love and care
Given me the luxury of such glitter and gleam
That my finest gown, I now do fashionably wear
And smile with the warmth of a most pleasant dream.
So, it is that I, in such profound sleep
Lie in the folds of the world’s greatest power
As, with destiny, my appointment I keep
And laze in the idyll that is Death’s calm bower

Thus I am comfortably cuddled in this loving cot
As my soul wanders and my body does rot.

Adding Value - Lessons from the English Premier League

Adding Value – Lessons from the English Premier League

It is not uncommon for me, especially on a Monday morning, to walk past students who are furiously engaged in a conversation on Arsenal’s chances in the Premiership, Ferguson’s substitutions or Liverpool’s dependence on Gerrard. As a consequence, I tend to use the English Premier League as a way of engaging my students during lesson time.

Of course, I do enjoy my sport – on the field and on the couch – which makes it much easier for me to relate to the entertainment that English Club football offers its now global audience, and consequently use football games, transfers and managerial discussions as a springboard for classroom discussion.

Quite a few might disagree with me and say that sport is a distraction in the first place and is too flippant a topic to warrant serious classroom discussion. This article might make them reconsider their viewpoints, but I hope that it serves as a guide to those teachers who might consider it a rather useful platform on which to base sports-oriented lesson plans.

Harry Redknapp’s rejuvenation of Tottenham Hotspur this season makes an excellent case study for the Business Studies teacher and the student. It can be used to discuss – in great detail – the effectives of management change on the dynamics of any team. It can be used to discuss motivation, morale and the need to understand the psychology of one’s charges. In fact, Redknapp’s role with what was a dispirited Hotspur team can be compared with the roles of Iaccocca at Chrysler and Gertsner at IBM, gentleman who turned around the fortunes of two struggling business giants. The advantage to using the Hotspurs as a starting point is that it engages students with something they are interested in, something that is happening in their lifetime!

Hull City and Stoke City have stormed the Premiership with some fascinating displays, showing that they have what it takes to stand up to the big guns. When the underdog performs the unexpected, everyone is amazed more so students who are fanatic about football. As a result, the teacher can use such detail as a stimulus towards discussion on how volatile any active environment is, which is why it is often difficult to consider the results of trend analysis. Past data might point you to one direction, but no matter how reliable or accurate it is, a volatile environment – which is the nature of any economic environment – is dangerously susceptible to change. Not only can one discuss time series analysis in context, one can effectively analyse its inherent weaknesses!

This year alone, on many occasions, I have asked the Liverpool faithful within the school about the influence that Steven Gerrard has on the side. The Carling Cup match against Tottenham (that man Redknapp again) makes pretty good point on the depth and breadth, (rather, the lack of the two) that the team has. This, eventually, can be used as a springboard for discussion on the need for a wide, diverse and strong “product portfolio” in the business world. Dependence on one strongly performing flagship product is too much of a risk in today’s business environment. Case in point: Apple’s dependence on its Macintosh line in the early nineties and its fall into the abyss until it was eventually revived by the modern world’s most fashionable product: the i-Pod!

This morning I had my Lower Sixth group of ten, half of whom are die-hard fans of “the beautiful game” discuss how they would tinker with their teams in different circumstances, ranging from a league final to a dead match. Not only did it engage them in active discussion and analysis, it also helped me use their answers as a platform for “tweaks” that are made to the marketing mix depending on the occasion or the circumstance. After all, that is what McDonald’s does with the Tsukimi Burger before and during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Japan: a classic case of a fast-food giant thinking global, but acting local!

Of course the flip side to using such an approach – and I do not use it always – is that there may be a segment that abhors football, especially the girls I teach. With them, I try to use an interest or pastime that they are familiar with to get the message across. In fact, I have been using football as an example only in the three years I have been in Zambia. Prior to that - during my time in Abu Dhabi - where most of my students where Pakistani or Bangladeshi, cricket was an ideal complement to my lessons.

Sport, as I have mentioned in an earlier blog, is fast becoming – if it already isn’t – a major commercial giant all over the world, with billions of dollars being spent within the industry on a global scale. As such, it is a marvelous opportunity for us to use it as an effective tool to get our students engaged with thinking about ideas and concepts that seem nebulous to them on first reading. After all, since they are at an age when they themselves are greatly involved with playing sport or watching their favourite team perform on a regular basis, it is only to our benefit – and theirs as well – to add value to the lessons we offer, lessons that we hope they will take with them long after they have finished their board examinations.

Of Memories and Dreams

Of Memories and Dreams
Of Memories and Dreams is a tribute to how influential the past and the future are to the lives we live in the present.

I ponder; and I see
Memories tinted with time
And
Dreams, a kaleidoscope of hope.

Yes, I look into my past
And
See my future beckoning me.

I ponder; and I remember
Dreams, nurtured with time
And
The memories they now offer.

Yes, I look into my past
And
See my future beckoning me.

I dream; and I wonder
Of all that can be
And
Of all that has already been.

Oh, I gaze into my future
And
Hear my past harking back at me.

I dream; and I think
Of what I can achieve
And
Of goals already attained.

Oh, I gaze into my future
And
Hear my past harking back at me.

I dream, I wonder, I ponder, I think
And
I see
Memories tinted with time
Dreams, a kaleidoscope of hope.