A Year in Review, with Love

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” ?? -- Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities” - 1859

I couldn’t have found a better description of how the past year felt than this quote by Charles Dickens centuries ago.

As I reflect back in the past year, I also couldn’t help but reflect how life used to be, with my normal lifestyle consisting of about 250,000 km traveling or spending over 370 hours in the air (which is over one third of a pilot’s average of 900 flying hours per year). Although this past year had 0 hours of traveling, it was by far the busiest in my both professional and social lives, it can be described the best time, considering the current new normal conditions amid COVID-19 era, and the worst time not because of the pandemic but certainly due to my new normal after my huge loss in April 2020.

So first and foremost, I’d like to send my best wishes to dear friends and respectful colleagues in my circle, thanks for being in my life and enriching my calling in different aspects. Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year, and sending my love that I discovered is an infinite energy with the right focus.

Also, I would like to give a special recognition here to some of the meaningful collaborations done this past year through Fadia Survive and Thrive and Alexandrite Decisions, two of my main affiliates. ?

At "Fadia Survive and Thrive International Cancer Association", https://www.uicc.org/membership/fadia-survive-thrive-association, it was possible to focus on advocacy related to critically ill conditions and elderly with cancer in addition to our other missions of prevention and awareness campaigns, thanks to the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), the Advanced Breast Cancer (ABC) Global Alliance, the Advanced Breast Cancer International Consensus Conference, the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the Southeast Asia Breast Cancer Symposium, the Tashkent State Institute, the Oncology and Medical Radiology Department, and “Our MBC Life”, among many others, especially CAGI. Fadia Survive and Thrive newsletter should be coming out soon, with our new Scientific Advisory Board, please follow our Instagram account: Fadia_Survive_Thrive, for more updates and to get your newsletter copy once it is published soon inshallah.

At Alexandrite Decisions, https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/alexandrite-decisions, it has been a very engaging year with long-standing alliances and equally new collaborations, for that my appreciation goes to CCI-GrowthCon, SWI, iaelyon School of Management, the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania, the Swiss UMEF University, Antler, Invest Cyprus - CIPA, CIFA Cyprus, IMH Business, Horyou, Stonehage Fleming, GLG, African family firms, Tadarab, Cerwise Education Technology, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and Fiftyfaces Productions Ltd. The projects and activities couldn’t be more exciting, from family office mandates and nourishing human capital programs to sustainable development and institutional decision-making programs, there was never a dull moment. My only regrets would be for how the time couldn’t permit more collaborations with respectful candidate organizations, for that I would like to say I appreciate you and looking forward to opportunities to engage in meaningful projects this year instead.

I would like to take this opportunity to send some wishes based on my experiences and hopes of my various affiliations.

My first wish, as we continue to live in the new normal conditions of COVID-19, is for the politicians and decision makers around the world to try to go beyond the traditional easy fixes to more of real-world creative solutions to create a better place for everyone, we are in an ecosystem where everything we do and not do will impact the rest of us.

My second wish is for the business community to be well-aware of real risks when conducting business or investing, the traditional ways of identifying and measuring risks are not applicable any more, where we hinted through Alexandrite Decisions on the rise of broader types of risks after black swans and black elephants’ kind of risks, what we called "Chameleon Risks". Follow us at Alexandrite Decisions for more to share soon.

My third and last wish for the new year, is to find a cure for cancer, as impossible as it may sound, but one step at a time, where the first step, in my humble views, is to target aspects of wellness as oppose to symptoms of any diseases, by directing our research, efforts and innovation towards prevention and wellness of integrative aspects of our quality of life, eliminating any disease, including cancer, will be the byproduct.

On a lighter note, this past year I was more socially engaged in the local community of Kuwait, thanks to InterNations, where I became an InterNations Ambassador and prior a Consul with them in a relatively short time where I got to meet wonderful people from various nations.

Another good thing about this past year, that I connected for the first time in my life to the pure souls of non-human creatures, called cats, thanks to not traveling, a friendship relationship with that adorable creature developed into pure mutual love. I know some of you already have met these new friends via zoom and videoconferencing whenever they decide I took longer than I should on these online meetings and calls. Just as it's something new to me, I’d like to share how we, humans, perceive these creatures and how we tend to say, are you a cat person? Or a dog person? Or be careful, cats can change and be dangerous for no reason! If you pay attention to some of the pictures in this mosaic of my past year activities, you may say I am a swan person, or even a penguin person. Well; two things I learnt from that experience, first: it is humbling to get to know anyone and anything in their own universe with much to learn, especially in other worlds not related to us, take the morpho butterfly for example, a beautiful creature that inspired the invention of a camera that aids surgeons in tumor removal. Second, perhaps more in the philosophy side, it manifested my understanding of Robert Lanza’s “Biocentrism” idea of consciousness, where every creature is so special in their consciousness (nothing explains how a group of molecules in your brain create consciousness, the beauty of sunset, the miracle of falling in love, for example), these creatures are by far pure in love, fear and other instincts which makes them adorable. On that note, I wish you love and much health and happiness in this new year and always.