No, we can not

Year after year I have returned to this city that once in a time was called Venice of East. But that was long time ago. The city has changed. Most of the windling klongs became streets for the cars and the MC’s. More and more people moved in, hoping for their luck somewhere, perhaps in the still growing tourist industry. Traffic jams, sky train, underground, buses and more and more buildings, some of them sky rocketing. Shopping malls, entertainment quarters, hotels, restaurants, bars – a growing mud of human hopes for glory.
But all this has a price, a very high price. Energy is not for free, and everything that comes with the growing machineries requires lots of energy, most of it electricity. And all ounces of electricity create carbon dioxide somewhere along the road. And all carbon dioxide provides more nutrition to the climate change.
Is it too late to make a U-turn?
I am afraid it is. We, humans, are too nearsighted even if some of us cry out and yell and call to environmental conferences.
I don´t want to appear as any doom’s day prophet, but I am very close to give an opposite message to Mr. Obama.
No, we can not.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance is not to be used in technical areas only. It is of course of importance to follow up and to make sure that the selection of people to qualified positions, based upon psychological assessments, is valid and safe enough. That is one of the reasons for me to make a visit to one Flying Training Schools in one of the countries in Far East. This kind of research project is a must if you will be called a professional recruiter.

A quest directed to all airline flight operation fans

Which airline carrier has a total of 85 aircraft, out of which – just as examples – are
four A340-500
six A340-600
eighteen B747-400
six B777-200ER
and so forth?
The company’s international operations makes it to the 11th largest in the world.
(The information has been provided to me directly from one of the staff members,)

Well, honestly, is an information and a quest like this important and of any value to anyone but the company itself?
Honestly – who cares?
Well, as a matter of fact I am convinced that there is quite a lot out there, who seriously and eagerly collect these kind of facts. It is comparable with collecting stamps or metal money or antiques or art or whatever.
We, the Humans, are not hunters only, we are for sure collectors as well.
And the answer to the quest is…..?

Ethnocentrism

Most people are obsessed by the idea that they belong to a group (may it be a national group, a sport competition group, a music group, a company group) that is superior to all other groups around. This is clearly visible wihin all fan groups around a soccer sport club. Dressed up in scarves or sweaters or caps in the colours of “my own club” lots of people are not satisfied to provide the club with their support only; they are prepared to attack “the others”, those who cling to the other competitioners, the other clubs.
This is a modern kind of ethnocentrism, principally exactly the same as the original bondings to “the clan”, the primitive racial group. We can also see the same movement being enlarged in the society, where thousands of people gather around the leader informing them that “we are being invaded by the intruders, with different cultural and religious background”. And this is not said as a sort of general education; it is a political message, requesting people to form a border line against all “the others” in order to preserve and to save “us, the clean ones”.
This is shere primitive reaction, which easily could break out into aggressive, hard and warlike behavior. Beware!

All Saints’ day

This day, October 31, is a day called for the remembrance of all our loved ones that have passed away. Thousands of people walk to the burial-places to light candles. There will be ten thousands candles burning this evening and through the night on the graveyards and the memory places – a mighty spectacle. This is a night for serious thoughts and close contacts within the families and relatives.
But the commercial powers have since some years turned this weekend to become the night of the ghosts and the days of horror stories, which has been called Halloween. By doing so it has become a party weekend, where especially the youngsters cry out for wearing ghost dresses, running around the neighbours to force them to give them candies – or money. And, for some reasons, this day has also been proclaimed as “The Neighbour Day”, presumably for us, commoners, to go to the stores, buying presents.
I have to admit – I hate this commercialized stuff. I do not want a lot of screaming kids outside my door requesting candies or money. And I am not fond of this USA-inspired “trick-or-treat”-things. I prefer the stillness and the space for remembrance of all those who have left us.
Michael Moore – you have still issues to deal with in your future movies!

The thin line between Judaism and Christianity

Reading an interesting article in the Daily News (Dagens Nyheter), the Swedish newspaper. It starts like this:
“Jesus was a Jew and so were all his pupils, and so was also the most apparent apostle, Paul (Paulus). The last supper of Jesus was a Jewish Easter holiday supper. Paul preached in Jewish temples, wrote his letters to the Jewish congregations, was obedient to the Jewish laws and was convinced of Jesus Christ being a representative of Jewish prophecies.”
These short lines bring forward new / old perspectives on Christianity.
Where and when were the borders formed between Judaism and Christianity – and by whom? And why?
Try to answer those questions and form your new picture of what to believe in.

System ecology

Warning signals from everywhere, most of them from the serious scientists (among them my eldest daughter and her fiancé). We, all of us, belong to an interdependent, global ecosystem. We are created and we live in and by a direct response to the global nature as it is and as it has been developed during millions of years. But today this global nature is very, very close to a definite tipping point. We have not yet seen all the effects of the climate change, but we can, if we want, see quite a lot of it. The biggest Swedish newspaper is today reporting of a peculiar mass decease of sea birds, not only around the Swedish coasts, but in several countries. So far the scientists believe that this is an effect of a sudden lack of vitamin B (tiamin). This fast decrease of the important vitamin is an effect of the global climate change, making the oceans and the seas inhabitants change and where the tiamin is not produced as it should be done.
All the fish is affected, the whales and the dolphins and the seals are affected, the seabirds are affected – and very soon all of us will be affected. No, I am not too pessimistic and I am not a doom day predicant. I am just realistic.

Recruiting to “Safety always first”-positions

Recruiting people to top positions where the requirements are very clear about every aspect of “safety first” needs a first class recruitment procedure. Examples of such positions are Leaders and Managers for Medical Care Units, Commercial Airline Pilots, Sea Officers – and many more operators in advanced, high-tech professions. And the very first step in such recruitment procedures is the selection of qualified recruiters. By “qualified” I mean experienced, well educated, well trained and highly motivated people.
I have run into quite a few who, according to my point of view, definitely not are up to the level of qualifications. I have met those business focused people, dressed up in their black or grey outfits, where the dominance in their minds is about how much money they could earn (the salesmen and that kind of people), and I have met those who claim that they are so very competent because they have attended a course where they learned how to use a special psychological test, and I have met others who for sure do not have experience enough about personality assessments.
But, luckily enough, there are some -. not so many – who are proud carriers of both experiences and knowledges and whom I trust. But, as mentioned, they are not so many.

Judgement

Traffic situations in big cities: there is really a need for good judgement, especially if you are a car driver. Judgement is not inherited in your genes. You have to learn how to use your senses and how to cooperate with several intellectual (cognitive) skills, baking them together with your motor capacities: arms, hands, legs, feet. Judgement: to make very good, adequate decisions in seconds or less. Judgement: the ability to weigh several inputs into actions based upon years of life experiences and knowledges.
I have had the privilege, and still have, assessing candidates to professional positions where great responsibilities are of outmost importance, which means that the judgement ability must be there. Commercial pilots, Sea officers, Medical care unit managers. My co-workers and I have made thousands of assessments of such people.
It is not possible to measure the quality of judgement by a more or less simple psychological test tool. Judgement as an ability has to be assessed as a certain, important key concept during a profound interview. It is a challenge, a very tempting and interesting challenge.

Aeromedical Examiners

The former Civil Aviation Authority in Sweden is nowadays organised in the new Swedish Transport Agency. This official authority was finally formed in January 2009 and has missions as follows (I quote from the Agency’s homepage):
“The Swedish Transport Agency is working to achieve good accessibility, high quality, secure and environmentally aware rail, air, sea and road transport. We have overall responsibility for drawing up regulations and ensuring that authorities, companies, organisations and citizens abide by them.”
One of the Agency’s department is the Civil Aviation Department. This Department contains a very important Aeromedical Section (AMS), which, among other things, provides authorisations to medical doctors, specialising in Aeromedical services. There are about 180 authorised Aeromedical Examiners (AME:s) in Sweden.
Together with my close colleague and wife I gave recently a lecture for more than one hundred AME:s and representatives for the AMS about what to look for beyond ordinary medical examinations when there are questions of suitibility for commercial and private pilots. We had quite a lot to say due to the fact that we have more than forty years of experiences in these areas.