We all know how much cars, Lorries and in general the present combustion engines used by vehicles pollute the environment whilst contributing to the rapid depletion of world reserves of crude oil.

It would appear that electricity driven engine which is by far more environment friendly will replace the combustion engines. Fuel cell hybrid seems to be the wining technology for the time being. The main drawbacks today are the relatively slow acceleration of the electric motors; the distance the vehicle can run without having to be recharged and most importantly the cost of the electric power system.

Toyota seems to be progressing with the dual gasoline and fuel cell hybrid.For the 7th consecutive years they have been earned top rating environmental awards. More developments will happen sooner than later. The pressure on the environment and the impact on the global warming will surely push to use of cleaner fuel and means much faster now.

How does Fuel Cell Hybrid works? Vectrix a scooter driven by this technology on its website gives some insights in the principle.

The fuel cell hybrid maxi-scooter features a fully-integrated 500-watt Protonex NGenTM fuel cell system that continuously charges the battery pack, which in turn provides power to drive the motor. The fuel cell shuts off automatically when the battery pack is fully charged.

The hybrid configuration uses the best aspects of battery and fuel cell technologies. The battery pack provides the quick bursts of energy for accelerating or climbing steep hills, while the fuel cell provides a constant trickle charge to help extend range and keep the batteries topped up. The patented throttle activated regenerative braking system (DAaRTâ„¢) further extends the range by directing energy back into the battery during braking.

I am on the watchout for the latest on the subject. I would wish to try out one of the Vectrix scooters sold today for USD 15000.

Apoc. 21,1-5.
Alors j’ai vu un ciel nouveau et une terre nouvelle, car le premier ciel et la première terre avaient disparu, et il n’y avait plus de mer.
Et j’ai vu descendre du ciel, d’auprès de Dieu, la cité sainte, la
Jérusalem nouvelle, toute prête, comme une fiancée parée pour son époux.
Et j’ai entendu la voix puissante qui venait du Trône divin ; elle disait :
« Voici la demeure de Dieu avec les hommes ; il demeurera avec eux, et ils seront son peuple, Dieu lui-même sera avec eux.
Il essuiera toute larme de leurs yeux, et la mort n’existera plus ; et il
n’y aura plus de pleurs, de cris, ni de tristesse ; car la première
création aura disparu. »
Alors celui qui siégeait sur le Trône déclara : « Voici que je fais toutes
choses nouvelles. Écris ces paroles : elles sont dignes de foi et
véridiques. »

Jn 13,31-33.34-35.
Quand Judas fut sorti, Jésus déclara : « Maintenant le Fils de l’homme est glorifié, et Dieu est glorifié en lui.
Si Dieu est glorifié en lui, Dieu en retour lui donnera sa propre gloire ;
et il la lui donnera bientôt.
Mes petits enfants, je suis encore avec vous, mais pour peu de temps, et vous me chercherez. J’ai dit aux Juifs : Là où je m’en vais, vous ne pouvez pas y aller. Je vous le dis maintenant à vous aussi.
Je vous donne un commandement nouveau : c’est de vous aimer les uns les autres. Comme je vous ai aimés, vous aussi aimez-vous les uns les autres.
Ce qui montrera à tous les hommes que vous êtes mes disciples, c’est
l’amour que vous aurez les uns pour les autres. »

Quelques réflexions qui ont retenues mon attention sur les lectures de ce dimanche :

Primo, ‘un ciel nouveau, une terre nouvelle, je fais toutes
choses nouvelles, commandement nouveau’

La résurrection nous a ouvert un monde nouveau, comment ? Qu’a-t-il de différent ? Par sa mort et sa résurrection, Jésus nous a ouvert une avenue qui n’existait pas avant. La nouveauté se trouve là. Le neuf nous réjouit toujours car il nous donne une nouvelle espérance.

Ainsi, nous pouvons rendre gloire à Dieu Père et Jésus Fils en même temps. Langage peut-être pompeux. Rendre Gloire veut dire simplement quoi ? Glorifier une personne dans le monde d’aujourd’hui n est-il pas de lui couvrir de félicitations, de louanges et de belle parole ? Quand il s’agit de glorifier le Seigneur Dieu, ce serait la même chose mais, magnifié à une dimension de l’infiniment grand. « Le Fils de l’homme est glorifié et Dieu est glorifié en lui » est pour moi de voir et louer Dieu Père et Fils dans toute Leur splendeur, magnitude, omniscience, et omnipotence. Etre en Adoration de Dieu.

Cette unité et réciprocité du Père et du Fils en sont la nouveauté.

Secondo, ‘Comme je vous ai aimés, vous aussi aimez-vous les uns les autres. C’est l’amour que vous aurez les uns pour les autres’

Dans son commandement nouveau, je percois que Dieu nous demande d’intégrer dans nos relations avec les autres cette meme unité et réciprocité du Père et du Fils.

Et enfin:
Notre ciel, ne serait–il pas de vivre en union permanente avec notre Dieu ? Notre ciel : ‘Voici la demeure de Dieu avec les hommes ; il demeurera avec eux’

This afternoon, I was discussing with an old friend of mine about doing something meaningful. He has been a successful entrepreneur and has been working very hard and smartly for the last 3 decades. He admits that earning more wealth for himself or his family is no more his prime objective. What motivates him to carry on in life? What kicks him now? He enjoys challenges, learning and making best use of his skills & knowledge accumulated through his life. He is after all an entrepreneur, an economist with a strong sense of finance. Whilst still the chairman of a number of very profitable companies; he has taken a back seat in running the companies. He oversees the companies whilst remaining the strategist of his group. To keep an interest in business, in general, he spends the major part of his day in Mauritius, studying successful entrepreneurs and have a keen eye on the stock exchange in the UK from which he is reaping couple of thousand of Pounds regularly.

One of the entrepreneurs mentioned by him and from whom one could learn from was Philip Green. The 4^th wealthiest man in the UK, he started with very modest means.Not only did Green not go to business school, he didn’t even take A levels. Having left formal education aged 15, he has built Britain’s biggest privately-owned retail group and accumulated enough debt-free assets to put him in that rarest of clubs: those who are not only worth a billion pounds, but created it themselves. I read what I could gather from the net on Philip Green and was stunned by the story of a self made 55 year old billionaire who started his first company with 20000 Pounds loan less than 30 years ago.

” ‘Retailing is bloody hard work. You have to be absolutely committed, passionate and prepared to get into every level of detail. It is all-consuming. We are not dead yet,’ he says.”

It is relatively easy to run a business where you are the owner, the operator, the controller, the marketer in the nutshell: the one man show. You do not need to possess any managerial skill as you only have to manage yourself. Your growth and consequently potential will be limited to what you personally can do.

An entrepreneur at least a successful one, I dare say is someone who, above all have the skill to run a business beyond his personal presence. Thus the entrepreneur has to develop his skill of leading & managing people, resources and understand the environment. You are called a manager only when you have people reporting to you.

I have been recently listening to Bill Bartmann, who is recognized as one of the best entrepreneurs of the US by NASDAQ some years ago. Learning from his mistakes, has been his greatest success. It is worth learning the secrets that took Bill Bartmann from a failure to a success, from bankrupt to a billionaire. You will thus learn real-world entrepreneurship tactics that actually work.

In short, entrepreneurs essentially should address the following:

Investment – Raise the money you need to grow fast
Recruitment – Attract top talent with creative compensation
Management – Get your business to run without you
Exit Strategy – Cash-out wealthier than you thought possible.

In many countries, May Day is also Labor Day. This originates with the United States labor movement in the late 19th Century, and very much inspired by similar actions taken earlier in Canada. On May 1, 1886, unions across the country went on strike, demanding that the standard workday be shortened to eight hours. The organizers of these strikes included socialists, anarchists, and others in organized labor movements. Rioting in Chicago’s Haymarket Square on May 4th including a bomb thrown by an anarchist led to the deaths of a dozen people (including several police officers) and the injury of over 100 more.

The protests were not immediately successful, but they proved effective down the line, as eight-hour work days eventually did become the norm. Labor leaders, socialists, and anarchists around the world took the American strikes and their fallout as a rallying point, choosing May Day as a day for demonstrations, parades, and speeches. It was a major state holiday in the Soviet Union and other communist countries.

Labor Day is still celebrated on May 1 in countries around the world, and it is still often a day for protests and rallies. In recent years, these have often been targeted against globalization.

May 1st, often called May Day, just might have more holidays than any other day of the year. It’s a celebration of spring. It’s a day of political protests. It’s a neopagan festival, a saint’s feast day, and a day for organized labor. In many countries, it is a national holiday.

Pope Leon XIII and later Pie XI who were very concerned about the condition of workers in the emerging Industrial era gave a Christian dimension to the Labour Day by declaring that the day will be under the Patronage of St. Joseph, the carpenter, father of Jesus. The example of St. Joseph throws a new light to the dignity of labour. Model worker to be followed, according to the Christian teachings, St. Joseph’s work was not only his means to offer his labour for his own betterment and that of his family, the perfection of nature around him and for the progress of the community, also a means to be in union and contributing to the mission of Jesus. Hence the effort of labour becomes a prayer.

I asked a few people: what is the public holiday for according to you? One replied it is Labour Day: a day of rest for the workers. Another one said: Labour day: day for political rallies. None of them thought of the Labour Day as a day of celebration and thanks giving for the work that provides us our sense of usefulness and dignity. Even for me who am, so to say “retired” I do need to have this sense of usefulness, a purpose in life?

I would rather see today as a day of celebration organised by the work force to give themselves a sense of pride & dignity and to discuss their contribution to the betterment of our society.

Bonne Fete a tous!

I was watching over the weekend on the BBC TV channel, an interview of Maurice Flanagan, the CEO running the most successful Emirates Airline. I was enthused to hear of Maurice’s abundance mentality and vision of the future. During the interview, he spoke of the fantastic growth that his airline has experienced and the challenge the airline has taken to grow even larger in the coming years with a detailed plan to operate over 150 fuel efficient wide body aircraft. Emirates airline has on order from Airbus 47 A380!

The development of the airline is in the overall strategy of the Dubai foremost family, the Al Maktoun’s vision to develop Dubai past the wealth that can be drawn from pumping “black gold” crude oil from the underground of the gulf area. Dubai today has become a center for many things and a great attraction for tourism, finance and trade.

Maurice grew the airline with the open skies policy of Dubai which today is served by over 110 airlines. I recommend the reading of the write up on the history of success of Emirates under the leadership of Maurice since 1978. He is known in the aviation field as a fierce supporter of open competition.

To the question of the rising competition being planned by the neighboring states of

Abu Dhabi and Qatar airlines, he replied in his interview that the more there will be competing airlines in the region, the greater the traffic in the region will grow. The Gulf area with great airlines he said will become an enormous airline hub for the benefits of the whole area and a cross road to serve east and west. A market place is a location where you have the choices between many operators. The larger the market place: more opportunities open up.Let the cake grow larger and may the smarter of the operators share the largest slice.

From his position as the sales Manager of B.O.A.C in Southern Africa when I first met him years ago, Maurice has surely forged himself a very successful career. I had the chance to meet him again sometime back in the 90’s when with my mate Omar Ramtoola we attempted to secure the general sales agency of Emirates for the Indian Ocean region. He used to be friendly with one of my bosses, the late John Ribet at Rogers Aviation in the early 70’s. We surely have to learn from Maurice’s business acumen.

“Emirates is run on the principle that customers are smart, recognize and reward better service – and are willing to pay for good value-for-money.”

 

 

Ce dimanche, la liturgie nous propose l’image du bon Pasteur qui donne sa vie pour ses brebis. Un acte d’Amour inestimable que seul Dieu est capable de faire. Tout donné jusqu’à la mort pour sauver le monde et de nous donner la vie éternelle. Ce qui m’a également interpellé est unicité du Père et de Jésus à faire ce cadeau à tous qui écoutent sa voix. La question reste quand et à quelle fréquence j’écoute sa voix ? Ma voie serait d’écouter sa voix!

On my last blog written in French, I shared my enthusiasm on the seminar I attended. It is worth noting that Process Communications is the brain child of Dr Taibi Kahler who formulated his process following works he did for the NASA to ensure the the team of Astronauts who had to live in close confinement for relatively long period had the necessary psychological tools for better communications amongst them.

Process Com provides very useful people skills to acquire by us all.The french book I am now reading thereon give a myriad of examples to be put in application in family, work and social environment. I recommend that you pay a visit to the web site.

Eric Berne nous parle de 3 types de leadership :

Ø Le leader responsable

C’est celui qui occupe la place de leader dans l’organigramme. Il est responsable du groupe et rend des comptes à une plus haute autorité (hiérarchie, conseil d’administration, actionnaires, …)

Son niveau de leadership se mesure par sa capacité à prendre des décisions en toute autonomie

Ø Le leader effectif

C’est celui qui est reconnu par le groupe comme ayant un niveau de compétence pointue sur un ou plusieurs domaines (techniques ou non techniques)

Son niveau de leadership se mesure par l’écoute qu’il suscite et par sa capacité à déléguer officiellement une partie de son leadership effectif à une personne plus compétente sur un domaine.

Ø Le leader psychologique

C’est le plus influent. C’est celui qui représente aux yeux d’une équipe l’image du leader. Il se révèle souvent dans les périodes de tensions. Il occupe, de ce fait, une place particulière dans le groupe.

Son niveau de leadership se mesure par la confiance qu’il inspire et par sa capacité à réguler les énergies au sein d’une équipe.

· Les 3 sortes de leadership peuvent être exercés par la même personne

· La réalité nous montre que c’est très rare

• Toutes sortes de combinaisons existent

Le leadership effectif

Le leadership

Psychologique

J’ai été enthousiasme du séminaire que j’ai participé la semaine dernière sur La process com.

Voila de ‘Quoi’ m’occupait pour la semaine : la lecture des recherches de Taibi Kahler et le livre de Gérard Collignon.

Merci Pierre Agnese pour ta brillante animation.

Cardinal Newman Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), prêtre, fondateur de communauté religieuse, théologien avait écrit sur ce texte de l’évangile : La faiblesse de la foi de Thomas, source de grâce pour l’Eglise. Ces commentaires méritent d’être lus. Sur demande, je serai heureux de vous envoyer une copie par mail.

Je vous livre mes interpellations sur le texte :

N est-ce pas notre cas ? Combien de fois nous faut il ‘voir pour croire’ ? Ne sommes pas des Thomas ? A l’opposé, des apôtres Jean, Pierre et les autres ont cru immédiatement aux témoignages des femmes qui ont été au tombeau. Ne sommes nous pas de temps en temps crédules par rapport aux dires des uns et des autres, et des fois n’avons-nous pas besoin de voir pour croire? Pourquoi ?

Cette leçon de Thomas me questionne sur ma Foi : La Foi don de Dieu : j’ai la Foi, un cadeau du Divin ou faut il que je désire la Foi pour qu’IL m’en fasse cadeau ? Quelle part l’obtention d une Foi vivante et inébranlable, je pense, nécessiterait une démarche ou une initiative de ma part.

Sur une note plus terre à terre, je vois un parallèle :

-Je désire quelque chose,

– je suis convaincu que je peux l’avoir,

-Je fais comme si je l’ai (la chose),

-Je l’ai déjà.

Ainsi, je ne sais pas combien est grande est ma foi en Dieu et mon espérance en la résurrection promise par Lui. Si je fais comme si j’avais cette Foi inébranlable, j’agirai différemment, et par là ma foi grandira et je vivrai la résurrection promise.

Peut être bien du « Wishful thinking » ? N’est ce pas cela l’Espérance ?