Tuesday 26 November 2013

Should we pay for public services that we don't directly receive?

In times of economic difficulties, it's very common to revise our budget trying to find unnecessary expenses to eliminate. And if we are undergoing a specially precarious situation it could be understandable that we expressed our reluctance to pay for some services from which we are not going to have an immediate and direct benefit. But in my opinion, regardless our particular situation, we all should pay to ensure that all the basic services are available for whoever may need them.
Firstly, providing education for all the country benefits us all. This is quite obvious: with a highly formed citizenship we will be a more productive country, and so we will be able to export our products or services to other countries improving our economy.
In addition, a widespread health service will help reducing the incidence of most diseases, reducing thus the likelihood of us being affected (from a selfish point of view). This will also contribute to productiveness, considering the country as a whole, in the sense that a healthier and, therefore stronger, workforce will be inevitably able to produce more.
Besides, public security is essential in order to maintain a minimum standard of living for everyone. Without security forces taking care of us, criminal activities would be omnipresent; no one would be safe wherever they may be because crime would be so engrained everywhere that it would eventually reach everyone.
Admittedly, when we pay our taxes it's difficult to think about the value of what we are having in return, but that does not mean that what we are providing as a country is not valuable, perhaps it just indicates that more should be done to raise awareness of the importance of public services.
Summing up, public services are not just valuable but essential in order to maintain a minimum standard of living for everyone, because the well being of our neighbors is our own well being.     

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Airplane!

Presently, I am immersed in a book called "peoples and cultures of the world" by Edward F. Fischer. It deals with anthropology and therefore, with language, as an essential feature of human beings. It is structured in lectures, and in the seventh one, titled "Language and thought," it is described how language and thought influence each other. Well, in this chapter we find a very interesting extract about direct and indirect language. In direct language you express very clearly what you want, and indirect language uses lots of subtleties to communicate the speaker's intentions, it could be compared with an understatement. Bosses usually use direct language to speak to their subordinates while subordinates tend to use indirect language when speaking with their superiors. Part of this extract may easily fit in a comedy as a gag in spite of its tremendously tragical nature.
In 13th January 1982, an airplane that was to leave from Washington National Airport took off and just a few seconds later it crashed down, dying 74 out of 79 people. The reason was that ice formed on the wings of the plane because it had been waiting too long to take off after being de-iced. Then it took off, the rotors and flaps couldn't move and it crashed down. The black box recording shows a very revealing conversation between the pilot and the copilot; take note of the indirect speech that the copilot is using to communicate his concerns to the pilot:

Copilot: Look at that ice just hanging there on this... eeer back there, you see that?
Pilot: (No response).
Copilot: See all those icicles on the.... back there and everything?
Pilot: Yeah.
Copilot: Boy, this is a losing battle here trying to de-ice those things, it gives you a false sense of security. That's all it does.
Pilot: (No response).
(Then they're given clearance for take off).
Copilot: Let's check those tops again since we've been sitting here for a while.
Pilot: I think we've got to go here in a minute.
Copilot: That doesn't seem right, does it? That's not right.
Pilot: Yes it is.
Copilot: No, I don't think that's right. Mmmm maybe it is.
Pilot: 120.
Copilot: Mmm I don't know.
(And then they take off. 37 seconds later they crash down).

Probably, if the copilot had been more assertive and had addressed the pilot more directly the catastrophe would have been avoided. Anyway, it would be unfair to put all the blame on the copilot when it was the pilot who didn't bother to take into account the copilot's warning.


Wednesday 6 November 2013

A story about gain and loss

Green, painfully green; as painful a green as the sight of all that was dear to you and has been lost in the way. Green, soothingly green; as soothing a green as the sight of the only familiar thing that remains in a world that means nothing to you, absolutely nothing. Right now, this deep green, as soothing as painful, as painful as soothing, is all that I've got, and there is nothing I can do. 
But there was a time when things were different. I used to be a wealthy man, wealthy in every single aspect of life. It could be said that I possessed everything that was worth possessing. 
And I must add, in my defence, that I held everything in the highest regard: it hasn't been a loss through waste what I have suffered. In fact, I was so aware of how fortunate I was that I kept everything I was fond of in the most meticulously arranged place: an enormous storage buried deep underground, solely accessible for those able enough to find their way out of a wickedly tangled maze of subterranean tunnels. Into the storage, a series of aisles were separated by rows of wooden shelves that faded in the distance as one strained their eyes trying to locate the end of the corridors.
And there was an amazing variety of items kept there: everything I had come across during my life, everyone I had met, and even replicas (or were them the original ones?) of everyplace I had been to.
But one day this frightening man appeared. He was as old as mankind, and there are no better adjectives to describe him than evil, ruthless, unstoppable and extremely effective.
He somehow managed to break into my sacred chamber and began stealing my most recent acquisitions. At first I didn't notice their absence, but as time went by and more and dearer items began missing I realized that I was being helplessly stripped of everything I had. I gradually lost my favorite objects, my most precious places, my dearest friends and relatives, and eventually I lost my own self, everything but these pair of green discs that stare at me from this unrecognizable face in the room beyond this crystal-like surface.
"Hi daddy, how are you feeling today?" Asked me a perfect stranger.