2MERRILL

THE NEAR DEAD

When the Lights are Going Out......

A child is born today and given the right environment, nutrition and all the good things that life has to offer, may live until 80, 90 or 100.  New born is new born, but long-live, meaning, death is far down the road for the new born.

When someone retires, at 60, 62, or 65, they are joining the near dead, those lining up to die soon.  Unavoidable as death is to taxes, death is an unavoidable biological process. What must we do, just wait to die?  Unfortunately, death is everywhere and come too early to some people.  UN staffs working in difficult duty stations that are in either famine or war are well aware of the near dead, not retirees, but innocent children and young mothers and fathers.  Therefore, death is everywhere, but people do not want to die other than in fanaticism.

SPEECH MISUNDERSTOOD

Learning the Tricks of the Trade by Marc Abrahams (HBR, April 2006**) reminds me of a few experiences I had with the UN in some countries.

I was a Finance Officer in UNDP, Sri Lanka in the mid 70S. Thus, all incoming foreign experts had to see me first to get their first living allowance. A Japanese fisheries expert walks into my room and says, "You mind I sit".  I replied, "I don't mind."  The expert shouts back, "You bad man, you don't want me sit."  I tried so hard to explain to him but he got angry and walked out.  To end the story, the expert went on to complain to another Japanese expatriate, who then explained to him what "don't mind" literally meant in the English language.  The man then apologized to me and made peace.

LOST LUGGAGE

Missing luggage will cost the airline industry $2.5 billion in the 2006 jet set. So about 1% of airline baggage will go astray, and for every one million bags handled 68 bags will be lost for good. With 3 billion airline bags expected to be checked in 2006 then 204,000 bags will be lost or stolen for good. 

What bothers me is why the airline industry could not use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags on airline baggage so that nothing will go a miss. Retailers are using RFID to great advantage, so why not the airline?  The advantage of RFID is that it could store passenger information limiting loss by baggage mix-up. The other racket is that in some developing countries, some passengers can walk away with a foreigners suitcase instead of their own. While paper tags can easily be made, a RFID tag can prevent such a racket. You even have to watch out for luggage been stolen from a hotel lobby. Perhaps, RFID tags can monitor a piece of luggage beyond the airport and aircraft as well. For more information on the RFID debate, also see the RFID Journal.

PS: I am not an engineer by any means. So if a scientist or engineer can add a comment on the feasibility of using RFID's for airline luggage check-in, please do so.

FORGIVENESS

Folks go to church but with all this religiosity do not forgive others as the religion teaches.

CYCLING IN KEY BISCAYNE

Any bikers coming on vacation from the east coast or elsewhere of the US would find biking in Key Biscayne a real treat.

TRANSPORT ALTERNATIVES

I sometimes wonder why we need so many school buses to take kids to school and so many cars parked at train stations. 

LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION

March 1-2, 2006, was the seventh year marking the annual Humanities Advocacy Day, which promotes federal support for scholarly research, education, and public programs in humanities, otherwise known as the liberal arts. During these two days, scholars, librarians, museum officials and other intellectuals from across the US are gathering in Washington D.C. to reiterate to government policy-makers of the public value of the humanities. Has a liberal arts education any value to society?