March 21, 2009

Helpful Tips – Egypt Recap


I came back into Nigeria yesterday, and I have been tongue and finger tied. When you learn too much in one doze, it can lead to intellectual constipation. In these kind of times, it pays to sit still for a while and let it all sink in. Afterall, it’s not what we learn that matters, it’s what we do with what we learn. 

It’s been 9 days of interacting with nature and history! I’ve been around a few countries prior to now, my first visit to Dubai made me feel that Dubai was the ultimate tourist attraction from Africa to Asia, but the number of tourists I came into contact with in Egypt, is a record I’m not sure will be beaten in a long time! Whereas in Dubai the crowd clusters were in shopping malls, in Egypt people queued in front of Tombs, in front of Temples, Mosques, Churches and Museums. People paid, yesterday night I counted my own tickets, to learn about the past. American’s, Europeans, Asians, Africans, Australians, all the continents were there, everybody taking out time to be on vacation, looking for something, asking questions, and where they were allowed, taking pictures. Continue reading

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March 12, 2009

Do You Have Dreams?


{Sightseeing should start tomorrow. You can keep up with the interesting things in Egypt as I try to give daily updates on my twitter section here or on facebook. Should see the pyramids closely tommorrow, then go for a 3 days cruise on the Nile. Tomorrow, I might be interviewing an inspirational South African Lady I met here… just thinking out loud :) )

We all grew up as young children full of dreams. We wanted to become this, to have that, and to go everywhere. When we saw an aircraft on TV, we wanted one, when we saw a big house, we dreamt we would own it, we even fantasised about the definition of beauty that the media had sold to us. If every anything we were dreamers, our imaginations ran ahead of our realities, we wanted more from life than mere existence. We had big dreams, and somehow in our minds, we were unstoppable.  As a child, I can’t remember ever worrying about how I was going to ever study Aeronautics Engineering.

As we grow up however, our dreams grow with us, but somewhere along the line, many of us lose the youthfulness to dream. We are so caught up in waking up early, spending quality time in traffic, coming back late, that we have lost our dreams. We have become realists, we face the facts rather than the possibilities, we live the lives of drugged zombies, repeating the same routine day in day out, and hoping for the “one day”. If it is true, that repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity, then we might indeed need to submit ourselves to some counselling. Some of us however have dreams, we still nurse them, we still hold them dear and are working towards them. Continue reading

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February 24, 2009

Now or Never


Dante Gabriel Rossetti a poet and an artist was once approached by an elderly man. The elderly man approached him to show him some of his works of art, for the great artist to make a few comments about their value and viability. The story says, that when Rossetti saw the works of art, he could not conceal his assessment of the fact that they were useless. Being a kind man however, he did not make fun of it, he simply explained to him, that he could not lie to him and felt that the works of art were of little or no value. The elderly man as you would guess, was disappointed, but the didn’t let it shake him too much. Before turning around to leave, he asked the great artist for an opportunity to get his remarks on the works of art of a student of his. The artist obliged him, and the elderly man presented the works to him. The eyes of the artist lit up! 

Dante Rossetti, was impressed with the works of art, and generously poured accolades on it. In fact, he told the elderly man to ensure that he did whatever he could to encourage the student. From what he could see, he really has real talent and something unique. Contrary to Rossetti’s expectations that the old man would feel hurt that his student had potentials to be greater, the old man seemed visibly moved, emotionally so! “Is that your son, the great artist asked?” Seeing that there must be some connection. The elderly man responded, “no, it’s not my son, that was me 40yrs ago, I only wished I had heard what you just told me now then, I would have been encouraged to paint.” Continue reading

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