What's on the Blog
The Ultimate Test of an Airline
I've always said that you should judge an airline by how they handle it when stuff goes wrong. China Southern are now in my good books of airlines I can trust when things get sticky.
These guys made a spectacular effort while flying through Guangzhou, turning what could have been a really really bad day into a happy return home. Myself and a travelling companion were checking-in from the...
How To Succeed In Publishing
For two decades News Ltd has been successful at one thing, being more efficient. Their entire organisation has been lead by Uncle Rupert towards leaner and more profitable business practices that deliver returns to their share holders.
To this day efficiency is the primary focus of the management. The trouble with this model is that eventually something else comes along that is an order of...
Donkey Love
From a Chinese website encouraging the use of Donkey Carts in the city of Turpan. It made me giggle.
"When traveling in Turpan, you can take a donkey car to go around. It will make you feel another world. It will make you feel very romantic if you sit with your lover. Sitting and singing in the donkey car can make you relax yourself to the most. All the busy work and all the boring housework...
Save The Ice Berg
Yesterday I was lucky enough to listen to the 2011 CBC Massey Lecture on Winter. With Adam Gopnik. Inspiring and intensely thoughtful. Liberating even. It touched on almost every aspect of life on earth and our future ahead. I loved the reference to Elizabeth Bishop, and her poem "We'd rather have the iceberg than the ship."
It works on so many levels.
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/...
Why Choice Matters
This personal account of why pro-choice is important, and why it is not trivial, is worth a read for anybody. Killing people to save embryos makes no sense. Abortions will exist regardless of law. The rights of the mother cannot be ignored in the debate. Choice means just that, making your decision instead of being forced to follow someone elses.
Freedom to choose is essential to women's...
Nobody Tweeted Anything Nice
Injustice makes me depressed. Not just sad, but it stops me from doing normal things and feeling normal feelings. Injustice comes on many forms.
A lovely lady who travelled with me last year emailed me this week to share her grief over losing her 19 year old daughter. How do you deal with that kind of loss, how do you talk about the tragedy of young hope replaced by suicide? I also found out...
My Myanmar Moment
Last night I ate grilled meat on a stick while a street kid begged for scraps. It was just another moment during this journey through Myanmar that has reminded me how lucky I am.
In a crowded laneway of Rangoon myself and some lovely guests feasted on soft shell crab, grilled fish and tasty bits on skewers. When the beer ran out we ordered more beer. When the sticks ran out we ordered more...
The Punctuated Revolution
Back in the 1980s there were dire predictions of global climate change and warnings that in less than 100 years the planet could be thrown into environmental turmoil. The gist of it has proven true, only it's taking place much faster than expected.
The same is now true for the fate of traditional media.
Change is not linear and consistent, it's punctuated by events of great disruption. One...
