Simplicity

"Simplicity is the ultimate in sophistication" Leonardo Da Vinci

A motto I tried to live by navigating through life both on the personal and professional levels.
As if life is not complicated enough to have people make it more complex. It seems a lot of people thrive on complex relationships and solutions and then complain how tough things are and how they just can not cope.
Life and work are full with complex and simple problems but these problems do not require complex solutions all the time. A lot of problems can be reduced into several simpler issues with definitely simple, easy to implement and efficient solutions (similar to distributed computing a few years back).
I am not advocating oversimplification of life or work but at least let us attempt not to overly complicate it.

On Being Green

There is a debate raging in a LinkedIn Group "GREEN" in response to the question "Is Man-Made Global Warming Real? - The Number of Skeptics is Swelling - Many Scientists Beg to Differ..."

Well, the group members comments (almost 340 and counting) approximated real life with people feeling strongly about the subject from both sides of the divide and some middle of the road positions. What surprised me most is the amount of raw emotions displayed by what is supposed to be a bunch of cool and level headed executives.

I suppose Mama Nature deserves passionate reactions but those ranged from derision, ridicule, delusion and a few others.

All this passion and raw emotions made me think where do I fit in all this, do my contribution to Mama Nature's well being stops at buying energy efficient lights, weather proofing of the house or giving up a few degrees of comfort at home by lowering or raising the thermostat. Is being Green stops there. Well. uhum it is a start I suppose.

Realistically, man made or otherwise the planet is stressed, rain forests are depleted, strip mining is taking its toll, bio diversity is slowly being reduced, let alone gas emissions and pollutants are on the rise. This is not somebody else's problem, this is every body's problem.

What we need is to translate what we know and/or believe at the intellectual level to a more practical level to actions and contributions, easier said and done. I certainly don't have an answer but hopefully I will get there. Once I know I will tell all, honestly

Flashbacks

This short trip to Amman on the week end of the 24th has a special significance. It is the first time that I travel through Sharjah with Air Arabia since I have left almost 10 months ago. I can travel without having to see things through the eyes of Manager QA (like duh, get real once one always one).
Having friends in high places I got to use the HALA service at Sharjah International Airport. The airport upgrade completed, going through it was great, just whizzed through and the new First and Business Lounges were a joy, spacious, well lighted and well run. And yes, everybody SMILED.
Having travelled with the Service/Legacy airlines in the last 10 months, it was refreshing to see the young cabin crew of Air Arabia (mostly in their 20s) perform their duties by the book, brought back memories. The interaction between cabin crew and passengers during the service, almost like a souk, the one you only see on a low cost carrier, none of that chicken or beef and plop comes the tray.
It was such a joy to observe the cabin crew smiling and confidently handle the passengers, typical to Amman flight, with infants and toddlers by the dozen. I have known most of them from the day they joined, green and raw and seeing them perform as seasoned professionals, confident and smiling made me very happy.
I had such uneventful flights, even mother nature smiled upon us barely any turbulence.

Thank you guys for being so efficient and so human, you made me so proud

Life is about people some we know, others we wish we did know

Transitions

Life is about Transitions and how we handle and react to them. Looking back (with 20/20 hind sight) I don't think I was ready for any of the many transitions in my life whether personal or professional. Some I eased into like adulthood and others took me by storm like parenthood. Professionally, my transitions have been mixed but all great fun.
It is these transitions that shape, transform and polish/tarnish our characters, turns us into what we are now.
The most important transitions have been professional but they had the greatest impact on my personal life. These are the transitions that came with failures and successes, advancement and set back, that eventually crystallised my beliefs, core values and my passions in life. With them came the realisation that life (personal and professional) is all about People and not the technical aspects of a profession.
My passion for aviation transcends airplanes and the technical aspects of flying, into the people that make it happen, into the quality and safety aspects of the profession and industry, into the global human interaction that makes a 2 hours or a 15 hours flight a safe and great experience both in the air and on the ground and from its beginning until its end.

After all, life is all about people as we transition through it

Airports and Emotions

This is an old blog, but with most of us travelling I think it is very relevant

Airports for me present mixed emotions.Traveling back to see my family fills me with joy and anticipation, going back after being with my family I am filled with a tinge of saddness.
Going on business there is always that excitement of what to come, how would it go, what kind of adventure awaits me. I enjoy observing people and wondering what is behind the smile or the tears, transiting an airport gives that sense of detachment of being alone randomly observing people, sometimes not more than for a few seconds but always in awe of the human capacity for joy, love, saddness, loneliness and many other emotions that pass by so fast.
And when I am bored I watch how well or bad services are provided to customers by motivated and disinterested staff. I watch the ability of people to totally ignore their customers who are a few feet about them. Airports are learning experiences mostly about me then the multi national multitudes

Oussama's Take

Well finally I created my own blog, wow never thought it will happen, but we are here. It took a while to make up my mind on what will I blog about, and I am still not sure. I think a balance between the soft and personal (family and friends) and my other passion aviation and what is related to it.
Your comments and feedback will help me along the way I am still a novice at this and I will always learn a new thing. Most of all please feel at home and post your own blogs here.

After all life is about people