The Prince - Updated

 What makes us, humans, unique? Ego, because ours has no limits.

It has been known for some time now that repeating the same lies does not make them truth. Blaming the others for their own failings will not change the outcome of the missed opportunity they had to make a real difference. If they are not aware of their failings (and we suspect they naturally are deprived of self-reflection, apart from when they admire themselves in the mirror), they have been told so many times how to make things right.

Dr Zimmer of WCC, a formerly renowned school of integrity, keeps fantasising about his future prospects. Unbeknown to him, he is considered one of the most uninspiring principals the school has ever known. Ask the students. He is only interested in what he sees, his own perception of things. Even when he is reading these very lines, he is reading them twice to make sure he doesn't miss the between-the-lines innuendoes. There are a few, Dr Zimmer. Keep on reading.

Bragging about his next destination has been the talk of the school. As he can't help himself repeating what he truly believes is a truth, the teachers are left wondering whether it is narcissism or megalomania. One doesn't have to be an expert to understand that there are no words or innuendoes that could switch the bulb on. It is self-absorption. Total ego-centrism. He tends to use big words to impress. The bigger they are, the smaller he gets. The contradiction can't be any more stark. Fed and nourished regularly by some false compliments served by the few, he may even see himself as Alexander the Great or Lawrence of Arabia. Others think not.

In the aftermath of his destructive reign, people will still feel uneasy knowing he is just a few miles away. A menace, a threat, an acute paranoid feeling lurking in every corner of the school (and that's not the surveillance cameras installed in every part of the buildings).

It must be the pinnacle of Machiavellianism for someone to move to a place where the facts are more scary than its reputation in search of greatness. Having secured the backing of powerful people and used the work of teachers to run a programme he called educational but in reality it should be called lucrative, whenever you visit one of those sanctuaries of wonders, past and present, you will know that you have been used to promote his image and his own interest.

But Dr Zimmer is a master of 'despise'. He uses praise and compliments and then discards the very ones who helped him achieve his goals. He despises his own teachers but finds it easy to recommend them for extra-curricular work. It paid off. He will be enjoying the fruit of their labour when he resides in the current country, running to the embrace of his beloved. You have to admit he fooled everyone, including those who trusted him with the 'project'.

Nonetheless, there will come a time when greed culminates into a self-destructing force, a serpent that will catch up with its tail. Greed and self-promotion will consume his ever-inflating ego. He can't help it.

Update:

Just hours after we had published this blog entry about greed, staff at WCC received an invitation for the principal's farewell party. Daring move, but we have troubling news to share.

You would agree that anything that happens in the school is the principal's responsibility. You would agree that he is the type that micro-manages everything. You would agree that even when he claims responsibility or denies it, the onus is still on him. There is no way he could blame this on anyone else.

Well, the highest paid member of the school is leaving and the invitation to his party includes a mention to a 'contribution envelope' left at Human Resources. What contribution would that be? The card is there for messages from staff. So what contribution do they mean? We are wracking our brains to find alternative interpretations to the word in many contexts. Is this  standard practice for every leaving member of the school?

Does he have no shame? Is he that detached from reality that he allows this to be sent out in an email? An email sent as BCC. Why? Just chosen people but not all staff? Is it a financial transaction facilitated by HR, and not the Finance Department? Please check your school policies? When has the HR Dept become a collection centre? What role does the HR Department play in the school? Why would HR accept such a collection of funds? 

We think the Finance and HR Departments - or parts of their remit - should be completely independent from any authority of the principal. They should be under the Governors or/and under a committee of trusted staff members. 

We are just putting our pennies' worth here. 'Follow the money'!