Organic-Ally

 It's been another year of ups and downs. A recent trip to Montalbano and Godfather country (Sicily) to celebrate 25 years of marriage was certainly an "up", despite a burst tyre three minutes before reaching our first hotel (the "down"). However, I would place the highlight of my year as learning about goalball and watching it played 'live' at the recent "Blind Games" (IBSA: International Blind Sport Federation).  Back in August I decamped once again to a university in the Midlands to teach EAP (English for Academic Purposes) to incoming international pre-Master's students. Seven weeks away. I really do enjoy teaching these students. Most of them come from university cultures where they do not question the authorities and certainly not their professors. They were used to quoting their professors in order to get a good grade! Talk about stroking egos.  Imagine their surprise when I tell them that, "Look! Teachers do not have all the a...

  I've just suffered a most horrendous fortnight of coughing fits that kept me up at night, and now the headaches. But let's talk about WeWork. A few weeks ago, for some unknown reason, I saw on TV a documentary about WeWork (which has since filed for bankruptcy ). I've seen this business being advertised on TV but had zero interest in it. Picture source But there I was having afternoon tea with my family with the TV on in the background, and listening to previous employees of WeWork talk about its founder Adam Neumann. Within minutes I turned to my "boys" to say, "It is a cult." Grounded in my research in sociology of religion, I saw that WeWork functioned essentially as a cult. Its leader could do no wrong. What the leader says, goes, and information is not triangulated, tested against other sets of evidence. If an employee has a problem, "Adam will solve it." Those are just some of the warning signs. Alarm bells should have been ringing. For...