“People will always need to eat, sleep and s**t, and plans fail if planners forget or ignore that”. Blindingly obvious and drilled into me twenty-five years ago with an unforgettable bluntness. I add to that appreciation of two other certainties […]
“People will always need to eat, sleep and s**t, and plans fail if planners forget or ignore that”. Blindingly obvious and drilled into me twenty-five years ago with an unforgettable bluntness. I add to that appreciation of two other certainties […]
On normal Saturdays, BBC’s ‘Breakfast’ programme is background noise as I recover from Friday evening’s excesses, think about the next 40 hours’ enjoyment and sort out personal admin. Last Saturday’s place in time meant it was far from normal and […]
I appreciate more the things that flick my switches because my many years include many experiences of their absences. Selflessness, for example, always gets top marks and will continue to do so especially after an unbelievable experience of selfishness on […]
This month in 1990 I travelled to Grantham, birthplace of Margaret Thatcher and Isaac Newton, for my recruits course. Day 1 started with briefings: most delivered through the bluntness of the British Sergeant Major. “Personal Hygiene is for you to […]
.The Port of Felixstowe, which claims to be ‘The Port of Britain’, was yesterday added to the list of sea ports I have travelled through or visited. A briefing filled with eye-watering facts about the port’s equipment had me recalling […]
The brief encounter with the young man at a South London bus stop had bugged me for close to two weeks. His request for money to buy some food from the eatery across the road had met with misfortunes of […]
Pondering what seems a growing reluctance to do a very right thing; only to follow that with grudgingly offered apologies. Simply say “excuse me”, with or without an appended “please”, and I’ll happily oblige. However, it seems you would rather […]
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) incursion into Sierra Leone’s capital in the early hours of Wednesday 6th January 1999 must be remembered. However, remembering the invasion only for the death and destruction visited on the city feeds the risk of […]
When citizens and friends of Sierra Leone piled into a room in south London one evening in 2014, the hope was for situation updates by representatives from agencies fighting the Ebola outbreak. It was August and we had for close […]
It was a huge first for Sierra Leone’s politics when six of the men hoping to become the country’s first citizen and the people’s first servant found themselves extracted from the safety and comfort of adoring fans to tell the […]