Ikejemba, we salute you

Chinua Achebe, Michael Thelwell, students and several guests discuss Things Fall Apart in this session of a Brown University undergraduate seminar course:

AFRI1060, "African Literature: Chinua Achebe"

Thelwell is a gifted teacher, who is evidently deeply knowledgeable and passionate about Achebe's work. He leavens the proceedings with mischievous wit. Achebe makes his appearance at 85:45 and the two men greet each other by the honorific Igbo names they bestowed on each other: Achebe is Ikejemba ("The power that protects the people") and Thelwell is Ekwueme ("He who does what he says he will do"). There are some gems here. For instance, in response to Charlie Cobb's question (at 121:39) about his ruptured relationship with Aya Kwei Armah, Achebe notes: "We are not enemies, but we don't find time to get together." Vintage Achebe.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: His life and his physics

Reading:

The Dragon Meisteress

How To Train Your Dragon

Reading (to the boys at bedtime):

Wonderful book. Beautifully written and quirkily illustrated by Cressida Cowell, the author. It's the first in the recorded adventures of one Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, an unlikely Viking hero. It routinely has the boys laughing out loud. And brings out a few smiles and chuckles in the reader too (me). The best thing I can say about it is: thank God there are eight more books in the series!

Authentic Leadership

Reading:

Greatness and Humanity

Reading:

When Hope and History Rhyme

 

The memoirs of Amina Cachalia, a prominent South African political activist, who died recently. She was a longtime friend and ally of Nelson Mandela. The title comes from some verses of Seamus Heaney's wonderful translation of Sophocles's tragic play Philoctetes:

History says don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

The Straits Master

The Start-Up of You

The slideshare visual summary of the book is now available.

Fair or Fowl?

Having just finished reading The Hobbit (a most enjoyable experience), the boys and I were in need of another bedtime reading companion. And so, foraging in the children's section of our local bookshop, I came across the latest Artemis Fowl novel prominently displayed at the top of the shelf. The eighth in the series. The eighth! Successful then, very successful, but are they any good? We shall soon find out. Being new to the series, we have begun at the beginning:

Rwanda, Inc.

Instant: The Story of Polaroid

The Second Bounce Of The Ball

Some say the world will end in fire

Prayers for Arsenal

Like any self-respecting -- and these days, it has to be said, long-suffering -- Arsenal fan, I've read (and re-read) Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby's funny and beautiful homage to football and Arsenal Football Club. Indeed, I own a copy, which I happen to be looking at right now. It's one of my most prized possessions. How could it not be? The first line alone is priceless: "I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it." (He was 11 at the time.) Fever Pitch was published exactly 20 years ago (in 1992) and was this year elevated to the rarefied ranks of the Penguin Modern Classics. Hmph. Took them long enough. Mr. Hornby recently revisited his old hunting ground in Pray: Notes on the 2011/2012 Football Season, a much shorter work (50 pages, as opposed to 239). He's lost none of his touch: "Arsenal's catastrophe at Old Trafford [an 8-2 drubbing at the hands of our arch-rivals, Manchester United], however, the worst defeat of my lifetime -- the worst defeat in the lifetimes of any Arsenal fan under the age of 115 -- could only partly be explained by money..."

The Tapster

Recently reviewed by Bill Gates:

 

The New Tycoons

The Checklist Manifesto

Explanations

"I don't understand," said Thorin, and Bilbo felt he would have liked to say the same. The explanation did not seem to explain.

-- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Creative Capital