Life
Wikipedia summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadim_Sadek
I was fortunate enough to be born into a melting pot of different cultures. My father was an Egyptian mathematician who worked as an epidemiologist for the World Health Organisation. My mother was a mother more than anything, but she also worked as a nurse and teacher. They met in London, married in Ireland, moved to Egypt, and when I was born, started travelling.
My early years were spent in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Malaysia and Indonesia, and later Barbados and Antigua. I grew up in countries dominated by black and brown skin, in a mixture of Christian, Muslim and Buddhist beliefs, among both the very poor and the fabulously rich. I later undertook my secondary and tertiary education in Dublin. I live in London, a place I somehow never expected to be but now fully love and enjoy. Other places in the world I could easily live include Tokyo, Bangkok, Stockholm, Amsterdam, New York and San Francisco. Or Inishturkbeg off the west coast of Ireland.
I know from experience that having choice in life is the greatest treasure one can ever acquire. Other little aphorisms I have come to include as my guides in life include, ‘it costs a lot to earn a lot’, ‘you never feel worse after a shower’, and ‘when they’re all annoying you, it’s you!’.
There are two texts which hung in every home my parents had, and I hold them dear too, as a sort of moral code by which to try to live:
Desiderata:
““Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.””
If:
““If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!””
Please lend your support to the charities featured. This is a look-back episode in which Nadim returns to Cork a year later alongside other benefactors