AES
2014 WELCOMES AFES 2015
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| Prof. Max Spoor on his feet dramatizing his inspiring speech |
What
a beautiful way to welcome blissful members of a wonderful family! It was
impromptu, informal, brief but impressive and fantastic indeed!
It
was a Thursday, 25 September 2014. The venue was at the highest point on the
fifth floor of the monumental ISS building. The “Grand-Papa” of our Major
(AES/AFES) Prof. Max was there; Prof. Jun was there; Prof. Maurat was there and
other PhD aspirants were the special guests for the occasion!
Kana,
the Japanese –angel-class-captain of the old batch, supported by other angels
were the commanders-in-chief of the event - WELCOME PARTY FOR THE NEW BATCH.
That was the occasion. And boxes of pizza, cartons of beer, variety of fruits
and candies were scattered all over the place. I don’t know where the pizza
came from. But I suspected they were from Italy, or Spain, or Lebanon if not from
The Hague! But nobody cared so much about the kitchen where they emerged
because they were mouth-watering, delicious, sumptuous and pleasing to the
tongue!
Barely
2 hours before the party, which took off at 18 hrs. one angel of our batch accosted by chance and said: “Mawu, we want
you to recite some poems at the event for us!” Then I asked, ‘Are you sure?”
She said “Yes,” “But you didn’t tell in advance so that I could be prepared?”
“Sorry, but it just occurred to us,” she said. Then I said, “OK, I will recite just one
short piece!” She had no choice but to agree.
That
was how the whole programme was planned
at the fort court of Dorus outside, not even at the common room inside. And it
turned out to be one of the most magnificent get-togethers of AES/AFES in
recent memory. When the time came, out of the blue, the ideas came from nowhere
and everybody was ordered to introduce himself or herself. “Old batch or new
batch?” Next; next; next; and it was beautifully done in the most humorous
fashion. It was such a fun that someone laughed and laughed so much that she
could not remember her own name.
Then
when Prof. Jun was requested to say a few words to welcome the new batch in our
mist, he too humbly and diplomatically passed on the baton to Prof. Max who
also was his one time boss at that
faculty of knowledge - AES/AFES.
Now,
it was the turn of Prof. Max to demonstrate how to be humble even before your
own students. He could have been sitting to talk to us as a boss and his
subordinates. But he stood up and delivered one of the most inspiring and
profound speeches in the 21st century. He gave two simple pieces of
advice to the new batch:
1. “GO
AND BUY A BICYCLE
2. “DON’T
FIX YOURSELVES IN ROOMS IN THE HAGUE LIKE METERS. MOVE OUT AND SEE OTHER PLACES WHILE YOU ARE HERE.”
Then
Prof. Max told the new comers that ISS is like fast moving train. “You cannot
jump out, so you must brace yourselves up and study hard like your old batch colleagues,” He
added that very soon, they too, would feel relaxed after presenting their RP draft report at a
seminar. Then they would just go and dot
their ‘ises’ and cross their ‘tees’ here and there and that would be the end of
their MA programme at ISS. The ovation for
the speech was WOW!
Report
and pictures by Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath (Mawu AES)
