Tag: Learning

Inspiration

The Parents We Do Not Want

Jilomes

“As we grow, we’ll realise that pushing our kids to start learning how to code from a young age or pick interests in sports is not different from our parents wanting us to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers back then.”

~ T. O.

Seeing this view on a friend’s WhatsApp status, it resonated well with my thinking that I decided to share a screenshot with a simple caption: “Care (Concern) or Selfishness?” It would appear that limiting the conversation to WhatsApp just would not cut it, so here is a full article inspired by T. O.

Continue reading “The Parents We Do Not Want” →
Change, Inspiration

The Big Man in Us

Jilomes

Do you know any person who used to complain about an alcoholic father, but is now an alcoholic? Or, maybe it’s someone who complained about a terrible boss, but is now competing for that title? Maybe you know a woman who always complained about her mother-in-law, but is now doing to her daughter-in-law the very things she used to whine about. I have seen a quote that says “we become what we hate”. However, I disagree. Maybe it’s not that we become what we hate, but that what we hate might be the default “normal” for humans, and we ought to actively seek to be different rather than merely complain.

Continue reading “The Big Man in Us” →
Change, Randoms

One Emergency Away from Doom

Jilomes

On Friday, 23 November 2018, a seven-storey building under construction in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, collapsed. With conflicting figures being bandied about, one sure point is that there were a lot of persons in that building when it collapsed because that day was a payday for workers and suppliers. As at the time of writing this article, ten days later, many persons, dead or alive are still trapped underneath the rubble.  Continue reading “One Emergency Away from Doom” →

Randoms

A Journey of Life

Jilomes

The Italian poet, Cesare Pavese, is attributed to have coined this: “We do not remember days, we remember moments.” This quote is very true as most humans cannot remember a full day, only key moments on certain days. The only exceptions are the few persons like Jill Price who can remember entire days of their lives. Sadly, we do not all have this gift (or curse?) of never forgetting, so it’s best we make good memories that would stay by our side all our days.  Continue reading “A Journey of Life” →

Change, Randoms

A Somewhat Subdued Rant

Jilomes

Benjamin Franklin once said, “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” Uncle Ben’s quote may have been triggered by someone or some persons whose excuses really pissed him off. Now, I’m surely not pissed off enough to say that an expert excuse creator cannot gain expertise in any other useful areas, but I’m just sufficiently pissed to want to write a blog post about excuses.  Continue reading “A Somewhat Subdued Rant” →

Politics, Travelling

Jerusalem: Land of Uneasy Peace, Religion and Business

Jilomes

This is the fourth part in a series tagged “A Stroll Through Israel”. If you won’t jump into the fourth episode of a Game of Thrones season, you may want to begin with the first article.

Our trip to Israel began with Tel Aviv, then Nazareth, Bethlehem, Rawabi and Ramallah. Having gone through these cities to view Israel and Palestine from a different lens, it was time to tour what is unarguably the most contested piece of hills in this galaxy. From being a space merely contested for mainly political reasons, Jerusalem morphed into the site of a religiously-charged contest, and has now retained the political dimension, making it a hotspot for flares. It is in this context that the #LetsTalkBusiness entourage went on a tour of Old Jerusalem.  Continue reading “Jerusalem: Land of Uneasy Peace, Religion and Business” →

Rawabi
Politics, Travelling

A Day for Palestine

Jilomes

This is the third part in a series tagged “A Stroll Through Israel”. If you won’t jump into the third episode of a Game of Thrones season, you may want to begin with the first article.

When you hear or read of the Israel-Palestine conflict, what comes to your mind? If all you think of is chaos, poverty, oppression and bloodshed, no one would blame you. The media have ensured negativity is groomed in people’s minds. However, there is more to Palestine than the media presents. Join me through a day spent unlearning and relearning about Palestine.  Continue reading “A Day for Palestine” →

Politics, Travelling

A Stroll Through Israel [Part 2]

Jilomes

Israel meets Palestine

It is commonly said that there are two sides to every story. One thing with life is that we sometimes seek to view life in terms of absolutes—right vs wrong, black vs white, good vs evil—but sometimes life isn’t something that can be linearly modelled as it covers more than fifty shades of grey. In this second part of the series, we relive a day spent partly in Israel and partly in land governed by the Palestinian Authority.  Continue reading “A Stroll Through Israel [Part 2]” →

Politics, Travelling

A Stroll Through Israel [Part 1]

Jilomes

The clock had just gone past 8pm local time when the EasyJet plane touched the tarmac at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. It was the end of a five-hour flight that had departed the UK earlier that day. On board were fourteen UK students, stepping into the warm Tel Aviv evening with eyes set on a trip that was months in the waiting. These students were joined by two others who had arrived on earlier flights. For me, it was the end of a four-month wait after an earlier disappointment.  Continue reading “A Stroll Through Israel [Part 1]” →

Automated "photoshop" at the EU's Parlamentarium Building in Brussels
Travelling

B is for Brussels

Jilomes

They say it is smart to kill two birds with one stone. In obedience to this advice, the “walking around spirit” directed a trip from Berlin to Brussels; a trip made possible by the EU’s Schengen area policy. So off we went to the capital of Belgium, and effectively the capital of the European Union. I hold Angela Merkel and Berlin in high regard, but I must confess that “B is for Brussels”.  Continue reading “B is for Brussels” →