Sunday 13 October 2019

The Worst Ethics and Correction to Bad Ethics That I Ever Witnessed

I could probably write a 300-page book over ethics and it's destructive capability, but I'll lay out this 50-line story which I think drives home the problem and the corrective mess it can trigger.

Three decades ago when the Berlin Wall came down....the city of Berlin decided that the three airports in use at the time....simply weren't up to the dynamics approaching.  So they decided that Tempelhof would immediately close, and they'd focus all efforts on building the 'mega-airport' (ready in roughly 12 years) and close the two remaining airports a year or two after that point.  On paper, it made sense.

So they opened up the bidding.  The city had the basic plan and they needed a company to build/operate it.  Two groups would come into play.

The two groups, using various corrupted means (probably to include bribes along to different elements of the political spectrum in Berlin)....came down to the end.  One was declared the winner, and one the loser.  An appeal occurred.  A judge stepped in, and found that the city really didn't do an good ethical job of deciding the winner.  No one was arrested, but the winner/loser thing was thrown out.

After this, these two groups met privately.  Neither wanted to focus on corrupted matters to do a second bid.  Instead, they did this rather odd thing.....they threw out the book on bad ethics, and simply combined the bid as one single group.  A win-win by most standards.

The city?  All shocked.  They couldn't imagine any idiot would figure out the game and cut bad ethics totally out of the bid.

The city tosses the bid process, and instead  choose to build on their own.   

No, they didn't hire competent managers for the project.  No, they didn't inspect by the book.  2011 came....the project was said to be finished.  It wasn't finished.

Literally thousands of things were screwed up.  The list went on and on.  Escalators were ordered, delivered and ready for installation.....then the team would discover that the top section went three to four feet above the actual top floor.  Or you'd have electrical cable laid out with no identifying markings for x-or-y circuits.

Ready to go in 2020 (9 years after the original date)?  Maybe.  Another two or three billion spent by then?  Probably.

But all of this bad ethics.....led onto more bad ethics, and you compromised the reputation of German skilled labor.  And for what?  


ISIS to Surge Back Up Now?

No.

I sat and read through various idiots who wanted to hint to you that ISIS will come back in Syria, after the American military leaves.  There's a problem with this 'hint'.

First, they would need money from their former capitalists who were funneling them the money before.  For some odd reason, I don't think these people exist anymore. 

Second, the funny support that they got from various Saudis in the background?  I would suggest that this war in Yemen, and the problems with Iran....now consume their interests.

Third, for ISIS to make a comeback....they need manpower.  Between what Assad, the Russians, the Syrian Army, and the US did....there's a whole bunch of them buried six feet down or sitting in Syrian prison camps.  Getting folks all hyped-up in Europe for another round of recruitment?  No, I wouldn't count on that.

Finally, for good recruitment.....you need some success story out of the past five years in Iraq and Syria.  Is there anything that you can openly brag about? 

So no, I don't see ISIS making much of a comeback.  They'd need to retire the 'brand', and open up a whole new vision of their sales job.