Here's to prove to you that Sierra Leone is a beaut!

That's the Atlantic you can see Sunset on Lumley Beach
That strip of yellow you can see between the blue and the green is Mama Beach. Did I hear you say unspoilt, deserted....

I think Lakka Beach (shown here) is the best beach in Sierra Leone and possibly West Africa. I know about River No. 2 and all that but I won't change my mind. Lakka doesn't have quick sand, so I am sticking to it.

Life Gets in the Way

If you read this blog and were waiting for something to happening last year, I am sorry. Life happened and then I didn't have time to write so much. Well maybe I did have time to write but I didn't have the strength to do so.
Anyway, I intend to make an effort this year to post something every week. Here's this week's post.......
Well this time last year, I was busy working on my African food products, finding markets, looking at packaging etc. when I was rudely interrupted by life. First I was in a little car that was hit by a London taxi (and those are really heavy!!!), I had chest pains for a mighty long time and couldn't really work. Then my father was diagnosed with lung cancer (well that wasn't a surprise because he was a very heavy smoker for most of my and his life, but had quit though) and then he died. That was a surprise. Firstly, I didn't think he would die so soon and secondly, I never thought my father would die. I had never thought about my parents dying, never. Anyway, my father's death took me back to Sierra Leone. That is when my life changed. I saw people and places that broke my heart.
Thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio and his friends, everyone knows about Sierra Leone. And before you ask, the war ended in 2002 and no I haven't seen it. I won't bother telling you about Sierra Leone about how beautiful it is and how warm the people are. Suffice it to say that war destroyed most of the country and now we struggle with electricity, water, health care, everything that you probably take for granted. Sierra Leone is positioned 177 on the UN Development index...oh, alright then...we are last. Worse than Iraq and Afghanistan and Congo who still have ongoing wars. Which means that we are regressing and we are one of a few countries actually called underdeveloped. Hospitals don't work, there are not enough doctors or nurses and here we have my interruption. I felt like I had to do something.
So here we are, I have taken a sabbatical from business and I am now working full-time for HealthySalone, a charity organisation that I set up to change the face of health care in Sierra Leone. Our aim is simple - to reduce the number of Sierra Leoneans dying from treatable and preventable diseases. If you would like to support us, you can go to www.healthysalone.org.uk and you will find all the details there. If you want to volunteer, yippee!! come join us. We are working to change one hospital at a time. If you are a Sierra Leonean health care worker who lives abroad, watch out for the official launch of our Desperately Seeking Talent Programme.
I will continue to update this blog but you won't hear about Simply African for a little while. Sorry.

Amiex

Willie Walsh and His Missing £700K

British Airways announced pre-tax profits last week that were up 45%. This after the fiasco at Terminal 5, and the fiasco with passengers bags and the fiasco with the unions...anyway after a number of rotten things that happened with the airline in the past year. The profits of nearly £900 million means that there is £35 million to be shared amongst the staff. Everyone of the 42,000 or so employees will get some money...except Mr Walsh. Infact even shareholders who have had no returns from BA in 7 years will receive dividends.
Mr Walsh decided to forgo his £700,000 in bonus because of the T5 fiasco. What a shame! If anyone deserves that money it is Willie Walsh. Why? Because that man and his team are so focused on their strategy that nothing not even something as big as what happened in T5 or the quarrel with different unions or any thing for that matter has stopped him from making BA profitable. I am, however, disappointed that he would let the media dictate whether or not he accepts his bonus. I feel that he chose not to accept the bonus because of what he perceived to be a media fallout if he did.
Mr Walsh, you are a leader but not a true leader if you let outsiders determine how you run your life or company.

The Importance of Diversity

I am back to The Apprentice today. After seeing the show a couple of weeks ago, I thought I could catch up with BBC iPlayer. Wonderful invention by the way and it's free! Last night's episode was a good example of why companies need diversity, why people should be forced to learn other languages in school and also why people should be taught about cultural diversity.
The candidates were taken to Marrakesh in Morocco, a mostly Arabic and French-speaking Muslim country. Firstly, most of them had no knowledge of Morocco, not an iota of French or Arabic and there were a number of them swearing their way around the city. What I was amazed by was that some didn't even know the difference between kosher and halal. And one of them claims to be Jewish! (When pressed by Sir Alan who is Jewish, Michael suddenly became half-Jewish). It is crazy that these are supposed to be a few of the best people in corporate Britain.
Lee had the best team for this task because he had the most culturally diverse team. Raef and Sara knew how to deal with traders in the souks because of their backgrounds. Consider how many companies would do better if they would only take advantage of the diversity of cultures and people in this country. Britain is in a better position than any other country to take advantage of the human resources it has but many companies fail to take advantage of that. There are companies who employ the bare minimum of ethnic minorities because the law says they should. Even when they employ ethnic minorities they prefer to treat them like the plague. Imagine a lance corporal in the British Army being allowed to call another soldier 'a black bastard' or 'nigger' without any consequences. How desperate, how sad.
Until Britain starts to make full use of its culturally diverse workforce and companies stop employing people based on the colour of their skin or which school they went to or because they see certain people as cheap labour, Britain will continue to lose out in this global economy.

Business and Pleasure

The early stages of business can be difficult. I earn a lot less than I would be earning had I stayed in my job as a Senior Scientist for a major pharma. However, there a lots and lots of perks of working for a company I own. I am doing what I love and I am fully motivated to make it successful.
I now like business trips because they give me a break from the routine. This week I went to the beautiful spa town of Harrogate. Harrogate reminds me very much of Bath but of course it is not as beautiful as Bath. It is difficult to beat Bath. I stayed at the Crown Hotel in the centre of town and it is a lovely hotel. My room was huge. It had a double bed, a sofa, a coffee table, a work desk and a very large bathroom and still there was so much space to move around. The service wasn't bad either although they had no bagels to make me my smoked salmon bagel I ordered from the menu. The girl at reception (I won't name her here) was a little stroppy probably because she doesn't sleep much. She was at reception when I arrived at 5pm and was still there when I came back from the theatre at 10pm. 8am the next morning, I came down to breakfast and there she was again. The worst bit was that she was with another colleague moaning about guests even though I was sitting in the lobby. Sadly, these are things often missed by businesses especially those in hospitality and leisure. Your staff are only going to give as good a service as they receive as employees. You cannot expect an overworked person (and often also underpaid) to treat your customers well. They probably don't even treat their children well. The other thing is that staff may have no genuine way of voicing their opinions and grievances. And if you don't give them a forum wherein they can talk about things that are bothering them without fear of reprisals, they will air them in public.
Its not about your equal opportunities policy, it is usually the little things that make a big difference.

Amie

The Apprentice

The beautiful one has been fired! I can't believe that you can't go far in business just because you are good looking. It just doesn't seen fair. I think beauty and grooming should count.
I hadn't been watching the new season of Sir Alan's The Apprentice. I am never at home when its on and when I am at home I am on the computer. Just as an aside, people are definitely spending more time using their computers than they are watching TV. At least I am. Anyway back to Siralan (as he is called). The task: two pubs for two teams to create theme nights. Make some profit, he who has the most money wins. Simple, yes? No, not quite. There is the small matter of 'the team'. These are not really teams because they are competing for a job. Everyone wants to look good. So when your idea seems better than mine and you are in charge, I will do my best to undermine you. This is the philosophy of the apprentices. Anyway, no matter. The girls won and the boys had to deal with Siralan. Sir Alan fired the good looking one. Now there is no point in me watching because the majority of those people are there because they want to be on TV not because they are capable of running anything more than a bath. I am more upset because I later found out that the boy fired lived in a pub from age 14 and his dad still runs the kitchen in the pub. Oh the irony!

Not laughing, Amiex

Farmers Market Here I Come

I didn't realise that starting a new food brand was going to be as tough as this. Most of my problems stem from the fact that this is not the only thing I do. I currently run a catering company which always requires my attention. I am also working on an online portal, SAFARAMagazine.com which will have recipes, travel news and interviews from Africa and Africans. So perhaps I have taken on much too much. But I am coping. The effect has been that I have had less and less time to work on my spices. I still haven't chosen the recipes I like and the one I am going to use but I am determined to start selling my spice blends at the end of February. I have got a name, which is a step forward. I have also decided that I will take my wares to a couple of farmers markets near me, which would serve as market research anyway. Even going to the local market requires a lot of preparation. Thankfully, my kitchen has been registered by the local authority and it is easy to get insurance for selling at the market. I still need to choose packaging, choose the logo I intend on using and print the labels. But not to worry...I like the pressure. I will get it all done by the end of Feb.
Look out for a range of African spice blends, next time you are at the farmers market.

Signing out, It's Amie