Trinidad (more 1)

It's hard getting around here. Surprisingly taxis are cheap to take. That is providing you can get them to turn up at any time near that promised. This is definitely a country where manana is a concept implying undue haste and rush. Food orders are much the same. 20 minutes is an expression of optimistic hope, not any form of forecast that whatever has been promised and paid for is shortly to arrive, intact and hot. 

Trinidad

Well, it's hot and humid and different. Add to that the Hilton Hotel in Port of Spain experience, a hotel I have now abandoned. It's a building site. Most of it is closed for refurbishment. I had two nights there which were memorable only for how awful they were. The electronic keys didn't work to persuade the lifts to let me out on my floor. Then the replacement didn't work my door, requiring a trek back to the reception desk to get yet another. I don't mind a hotel refurbishing itself but I do object to them not telling me that almost all of the facilities that they continue to advertise aren't actually available to the unfortunate paying public.

Trinidad

Tomorrow I am continuing my researches into food in the vicinity of industrial operations. A strange place to have industry you may comment. Not if it's oil and gas. 67% of the Trinidad and Tobago economy to be precise.

I shall also be interested to see how BA fare on a near 12 hour flight? Will they have any decent films I have not already watched shuttling back and forth to Chicago in the last month or two. Will it be the crab salad and the beef again or will they have the green salad followed by the shepherd's pie? Will the seat work? The last two have not, electronics, electrics and entertainment all being up the proverbial creek.

The answer - part 1 (of many?)

Lies in the fact that all of the leaders I cited apart from poor Gordon Brown were hugely successful and had begun to believe in their own omnipotence. Gordon Brown may have believed in his omnipotence but he had no actual track record as a successful leader - ie the others flew too close to the sun and Gordon was and may still be on the ground waiting for clearance from ATC.

When are you past it?

I have been looking for some time at the issue of leaders and when they "get past it" ie when they lose the confidence of their stakeholders and end up leaving their organisations ignominiously. Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Lord Browne of BP, Tony Blair, Percy Barnevik of ABB are a few names that come to mind. 

The interesting question is why Gordon Brown hasn't got into the same position as yet; when on any analysis three months ago you would have said he was well on the way to the door.....

More anon.

More reflections on food

It's an interesting reflection that when you look at the area around my office in London, Embankment Place, you find that the food is only a modest cut above Whiting. Subway is next door, there are several microwave grease reheaters and a special grease sandwich shop. Until you get to the Very Good copy of japanese food (but mass produced and microwaved) it's hard to say there's good food.

Why do I care? Well, it's not just my own stomach but the health of the local population, including those who work for us. If they eat badly, will this affect their performance in a measurable manner either directly or through creating a longer term rising tide of health problems?

Is it our business that people don't eat well? Should we try to cajole them into eating more healthily or should we be providing them with only healthy food in our canteen? Or is it yet another hard to justify intrusion into busy people's lives in this increasingly cotton-woolled society?

Eating in Whiting.

No, not the Whiting  from the Lobster Quadrille, but Whiting,Indiana. A interesting place if you like not quite post industrial Middle America. An interesting place if your lunch aspirations lie in the grease arena (gyros (Doner Kebabs) or burgers or chili dogs...plus fries). Not so good if you like things with flavour or texture that don't stain the whole bag they are travelling in before being opened.