Poem about the banks

Once upon a time there was a person, who lived in a kingdom by the sea

The kingdom was great and had all the necessities of life, if you want to know the story just wait and see

He worked hard to gain his qualifications, and scored high marks the lowest was a C

He fell in love with a woman, but all he can think of is to walk with her along the quay

No outings, no dinners, no cake and coffee and no shopping spree.

He got himself great jobs that paid him well, but he always was short of funds by the end of the month

Holidays are not part of the plan, neither are extravagant dinners and food that waters the mouth

He tries to save to do something nice for his wife, his mum and siblings so he went north and south

Got better certificates and lived in tiny places that gave him shivering nights, and he had no couch

When he graduated they took him back in his earlier job, but the salary was ouch

He started thinking of why is this so, the harder he works, the more money he gets the shorter in funds he becomes

Yes he has a mortgage on a home a loan on a car installments on his furniture but he did the sums!

His holidays come out of the credit cards and his kids schools are paid off by the job but he is living on crumbs

Nevertheless he laughs, smiles, and chatters around and to however he sees he ups the thumps

He never complains as he is just wondering what he would do when the time comes?

Then he realized that most of his money is swallowed by the banks

They suck every pound, every toppings, every penny and even the precious stamps

They are ready to take your cloths away and if you run they bring you the tanks

They pay their directors the best of bonuses that out of your pockets it extracts

Even the central bank doesn’t believe you and is ready to have face blanks

The police send you messages pay or else you will have us behind your backs

He was thinking and thinking of what he should do to stop this injustice

Should he close down and go back to the his old country and lives in roughness

If he sell the house, rents a tent and lives in the desert is it an utter madness?

What would happen to his kids schooling and to the rest of the required grandness

Should he care about his friends and others who stood around without any sadness?

None of that he is going to accept, the banks are the ones he must defy

They are the ones he will go against and he will try and on himself he will rely

No government will help, no police nor the family or the friends they all will deny

He thinks “am I on my own in this world when a melancholy happens or when I cry!”

“And all the time I spent with those people, all the giving, and I did comply”!

So, he said, I must have a plan

The banks and the credit cards I will ban

I will do a business that will bring more money and I will read the Quraan

It must have a solution that will make me a stronger man

And when all is cleared, wait and see people, none of you I will help except those that can

Only those that got worried when I had the problem, but not those that ran!

Death and near death experience

One day I didn’t feel that great, dizziness and stomach churning, decided to lay down for a while as it must have been a bug of some sort.  I must have dosed off a bit, but when I opened my eyes and can see my body on the bed, I can feel my head and I can also see it swelled like a pumpkin, I see a watery liquid seeping from my mouth, I cannot open my eyes, nor my mouth to shout so someone can hear me and rescue me.  I heard a lot about how some people feel death coming onto them, but never imagined it to be in that manner.  There was no pain or suffering, only a feeling that I no longer belong to myself.  Suddenly I go back to that deep sleep and when I woke up I was fine, everything was normal again.  I am unsure if this was a dream or reality, but the whole thing was so real,  I can feel it till today.

I don’t talk about death a lot, but tonight my mum was saying that she would rather die suddenly sitting on her chair or just go to sleep and go away, I told her that it is not a nice way to die, and if she wants that she must tell us every night of the pending things that need to be done, so we can do them for her.  I told her that I always keep a log of the pending chores, so if I die in my sleep, then someone will finish those chores, and showed her the log on my phone to prove it (she cannot read or write, but she can record a voice note)

Talking about death is not a favorite thing for many of us, but you see a lot of that in the media nowadays, here are some numbers:

433 died in Gaza

298 died on MH17

10000 died in Syria

A million in Iraq

And that is only in the last few weeks; these are numbers and sometimes it doesn’t feel true as you have no direct relationship with the deceased, but when you hear that a cousin died because of a political unrest, you wonder what is happening to our world. It is enough that we have no idea when we are going to die, but dying because of politics is not something I want to happen to our world; so from tonight I will wish for world peace before I go to sleep, and this is going to be my favorite wish for the new year, my birthday, my anniversary, and any other occasion you and I can think of. 

This article is dedicated to Naseer, my cousin who died yesterday in Iraq.

When hiring employees, what skills are essential in a candidate?

It is always interesting to read the various studies on how to hire ones employees, it is a hard job, and requires intricate skills.  Hats off to those who work in HR.  

To me, an employee has to have deep knowledge in the field of study itself.  This is the most important of course, as one can bluff his or her way through the ladder but will be discovered at the end.  So the level of knowledge in own discipline is very important

Secondly, or as the research put it, the person has to have great communication skills.  Well, this is true too, but how many employees that I have encountered in my working life have this skill?

The employee has to have the ability to show initiative and has to considering the company is his or her own

The Employee has to have some general knowledge to engage in discussions when in meetings or committees.

The employee should have had some Internship or work experience and having a professional qualification (CIMA, ACCA, IMA, CPA, CFA and so on) is also very important

Work ethic (attitude, enthusiasm, punctuality, etc.) and team-based working skills are a focal points.

Understanding of fundamental concepts of mathematics and science, having critical thinking and problem solving skills and ccomputer skills are just few of the skills required when applying for a job.

Integrity, Respect for human values and perspective, Ability to understand human behavior and global cultural diversity are so important as we are working with other human beings and not robots. 

Last but not least we expect the employees to have an ability to appreciate artistic expressions from various perspectives, to understand how the other world works, know about football, advancements in technologies, new highways being established and new galleries that are opened and so on.  These last skills are so important as we gather at lunch breaks and want to talk about something that has nothing to do with work per se. 

Where is this fabulous employee?? I wonder

Where is the university or a college that teaches these skills? I wonder.