All over the world, former politicians are being handed jobs by current politicians at semi-public organizations. In my view, this explains why the European Central Bank is not following the Fed on interest levels. As a consequence, the euro is near historic lows compared to the US$. Now, we are even importing inflation.
Amsterdam Airport is an important airline hub and is mostly owned by the Dutch government (c.70%) and the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam (c.22%). Its current CEO is a former politician, who was appointed on 1 May 2018. Hence, pre-pandemic. Currently, Schiphol is cancelling flights due to labour shortages.
Several months ago, an American legal scholar made a comment on society’s farewell to the best & brightest (eg, the Fire, National Review, Wiki). His Twitter comments were not appreciated. His tweets are “being investigated for violations of “professional conduct, non-discrimination, and anti-harassment” rules”.
This American-Russian-Jewish legal scholar had criticized Joe Biden’s promise to select a “black woman” for the Supreme Court following his campaign promises. Once you restrict the American pool of best and brightest to (i) black and (ii) woman then this criticism is easily misconstrued as “racist”.
There’s a similar issue with gender representation on the corporate boards of directors. Apparently, executive and/or supervisory Board members need to reflect society at large. Hence, 50% needs to be female. I can still remember a comment by one of my female staff members, who pitied my director role. She was right.
The (male) Amsterdam Airport CEO said “sorry” for the inconvenience to holidaymakers due to flight cancellations. His “solution” was to decrease airport capacity. Airlines did not appreciate this. It’s indeed weird that a back-office intends to fail to support its front-offices and clients. Cancelling him is not an option.
I just wonder what could go wrong in society once we let go of hiring the best & brightest.
I think, feel and believe (sic!) that our beliefs – rather than our needs & wants – and our belief systems are responsible for the rise and fall of nations.
The diagram to the right is borrowed from a NRC Future Affairs newsletter. Its original YouTube source is from: Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio (eg, book, website).
I suppose that the stupidity of certain of our ideological beliefs is responsible for the decline of nations (eg, zero-Covid-policy in China, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, woke activism in Europe and USA).
I suppose that society’s farewell to the best & brightest is just one of the various tippings points.
Theme song from The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019) by Barenaked Ladies
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-band, Wiki-song
[Bridge]
It’s expanding ever outward but one day
It will pause and start to go the other way
Collapsing ever inward, we won’t be here, it won’t be heard
Our best and brightest figure that it’ll make an even bigger bang
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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