What’s failing us, all in all, is our power structures, which aren’t built to think big and fast at the same time. They should be bending rules to get planes and people to where planes can fly to get people home. They need to be thinking about and taking action about the bigger implications for the European and then world economies (more on that later). Companies of all shorts should be standing up to provide relief (Skype and Cisco offering video conferencing; pharmacy companies offering to help the people lost without prescriptions I’m seeing in Twitter; airlines should let us use their sites to book seats and work out the refunds later, promising not to rip us off; bus and train companies moving mountains to move people — instead of ripping them off, as is unfortunately happening in some cases). They are treating this is a short-term, one-time event. It may well not be. This piece in the Times of London explains why and how this could go on for sometime — and repeat itself.
via buzzmachine.com
Who is trying to pull workouts together? I see no one - do you?
This kind of crisis is surely only one of many that we will face as our too connected world bumps against nature and events. Volcanoes today, war with Iran tomorrow, a big storm - whatever. We can see that the way we depend on a few tightly coupled proceses will fall apart with often only a small push.
So then what?
What bodies will help use duck tape? For it is good duck tape that we need at first.
Then what is the key policy issue? I think it is that we have to plan to be more locally resilient. We can't rely safely on these choke-points.
Food and energy first.
