Europe, ashed out

...couldn't resist that prison humor, sorry.

This reaction shows just how ill-prepared the modern society is to downgrade it's modern attributes to older ones which worked well in earlier times.

That's a mandatory skill for TEOTWAWKI, and it wouldn't hurt if we all had such plans on the shelf somewhere.

For example, the major airlines could have chartered cruise ships when they saw that the ash cloud was headed for Europe, and had the first ones ready to dock in New York or Africa (where the ash is unlikely to affect flight ops) by now. As far as I know, they haven't chartered the first ship yet.

The vaunted European railroad system should have had ALL it's passenger trainsets on the tracks, with extra trains running as often as possible, but no, I haven't heard of a single extra train running.

Lack of foresight, lack of preparation, all characteristics of governments with nannyism as their motivating factor instead of individualism.

Comments

[Justthisguy]

I wonder how many of the grounded travelers thought to book passage on freighter ships. You can still do that, you know. A lot of them have a few passenger cabins.

[Patrick]

Europe's leaders HOPE for the ash fall to CHANGE. When it didn't change, they are left with the current situation. I guess prayer and action weren't on their to do list.

[Yabu]

You called it...now it looks like, at least, they're getting the Royal Navy involved

[Skip]

Nanny does'nt give a shit about the little people, just about " Jeese we will have to do work 'an stuff 'an it could cost money 'n stuff '.

[Merle]

Don't forget about all the hand-wringing .....

Merle

[Gerry N.]

You overlooked lack of initiative, and the resulting lack of action.

I saw the same thing when that poor woman in Wales fell down an abandoned mine shaft and was allowed to lie there and die because some faceless bureaucrat had stated the equipment available was only to be used for rescuing firefighters. I stated on a forum that in America she would have been rescued using any available means and the protocols and dogma sorted out later. I was reviled by some on the forum as a "vigilante". I took that as a complement and stated "That's why WE (Americans) win". Quite a few took my view of the matter and were really ashamed of their countrymen for not acting to save the woman's life instead of sitting on their asses to protect their sinecures. Those members and I agreed that sanctions in this life were not likely to be very severe, but things in the afterlife would not likely be as non-judgmental.

Gerry N.