For a generation or more, no one ever gave a second thought to Iceland. Now it has shaken up the whole world. An Icelandic volcano is spewing ash into the sky making plenty of planes paralysed. A number of travelers are stuck thousands of kilometers from their homes. Business is grinding to a halt. The airline industry’s losses have surpassed $2 billion, which it will take years to recover from. Why does a volcano make the whole world come into messes. After thinking deeply for a long time, I figured out two points.
Firstly, globalization has made the world into a small village. It took several months to post a letter to a distant place in ancient time. However, emails ping from continent to continent in the blink of an eye nowadays. Money, trends and knowledge spread all over the world. Every small part counts a lot. We have to look at the world and the problems we meet in a pair of global eyes. It is very difficult to survive without considering other countries as a whole part.
Secondly, what happened struck the alarm clock. It reflects the “black swan” phenomena. Black swan is a financial phrase which means unexpected things may happen if there is no contingency plan. They are a warning about the fragility of the modern economy. Air travel is useful, but we should not just rely on it. What we can do is to foresee some unexpected things and to find out solutions to it.
Luckily, the ashes did not last too long. However, we can learn something from this accident and try to avoid the same problem later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Indeed the destruction of the volcano eruption lies in globalization and lack of preparation. It's an educative lesson amidst huge sacrifice. On the other hand, I read a report that the cancellation of flights saved huge amount of carbon dioxide emission also.
ReplyDeleteSimple phenomennon, but sophisticated reasons!
ReplyDeleteYour analysis are very good especially the second reason. What we can learn form this incident is jist like a chinese saying "repair the house before it rains".
ReplyDeleteI was very disturbed by the news that SIA was losing millions each day. To be able to recover fully from the recession looks like a very difficult thing at times.
ReplyDelete