Republished here as the list is interesting. Though it seems to me to miss one critical factor - being surrounded by interesting and challenging colleagues; preferably in a diverse workforce with a range of views, experience and backgrounds:

"More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they're fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged.

But only 20 per cent of employees around the world report that they're fully engaged at work.

It's a disconnect that serves no one well. So what's the solution? Where is the win-win for employers and employees?

The answer is that great employers must shift the focus from trying to get more out of people, to investing more in them by addressing their four core needs — physical, emotional, mental and spiritual — so they're freed, fueled and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.

It's common sense. Fuel people on a diet that lacks essential nutrients and it's no surprise that they'll end up undernourished, disengaged and unable to perform at their best.

Our first need is enough money to live decently, but even at that, we cannot live by bread alone.

Think for a moment about what would make you feel most excited to get to work in the morning, and most loyal to your employer. The sort of company I have in mind would:

1. Commit to paying every employee a living wage. To see examples of how much that is, depending on where you live, go to this site. Many companies do not meet that standard for many of their jobs. It's nothing short of obscene to pay a CEO millions of dollars a year while paying any employee a sum for full time work that falls below the poverty line.
2. Give all employees a stake in the company's success, in the form of profit sharing, or stock options, or bonuses tied to performance. If the company does well, all employees should share in the success, in meaningful ways.
3. Design working environments that are safe, comfortable and appealing to work in. In offices, include a range of physical spaces that allow for privacy, collaboration, and simply hanging out.
4. Provide healthy, high quality food, at the lowest possible prices, including in vending machines.
5. Create places for employees to rest and renew during the course of the working day and encourage them to take intermittent breaks. Ideally, leaders would permit afternoon naps, which fuel higher productivity in the several hours that follow.
6. Offer a well equipped gym and other facilities that encourage employees to move physically and stay fit. Provide incentives for employees to use the facilities, including during the work day as a source of renewal.
7. Define clear and specific expectations for what success looks like in any given job. Then, treat employees as adults by giving them as much autonomy as possible to choose when they work, where they do their work, and how best to get it accomplished.
8. Institute two-way performance reviews, so that employees not only receive regular feedback about how they're doing, in ways that support their growth, but are also given the opportunity to provide feedback to their supervisors, anonymously if they so choose, to avoid recrimination.
9. Hold leaders and managers accountable for treating all employees with respect and care, all of the time, and encourage them to regularly recognize those they supervise for the positive contributions they make.
10. Create policies that encourage employees to set aside time to focus without interruption on their most important priorities, including long-term projects and more strategic and creative thinking. Ideally, give them a designated amount of time to pursue projects they're especially passionate about and which have the potential to add value to the company.
11. Provide employees with ongoing opportunities and incentives to learn, develop and grow, both in establishing new job-specific hard skills, as well as softer skills that serve them well as individuals, and as managers and leaders.
12. Stand for something beyond simply increasing profits. Create products or provide services or serve causes that clearly add value in the world, making it possible for employees to derive a sense of meaning from their work, and to feel good about the companies for which they work.

In more than a decade of working with Fortune 500 companies, I've yet to come across a company that meets the full range of their people's needs in all the ways I've described above. The one that comes closest is Google. I'm convinced it's a key to their success.

How does your company measure up? What's the impact on your performance? Which needs would your company have to meet for you to be more fully engaged?"

Corruption in Thailand begins right at school

19 September 2011 Bangkok Post letters page

"Re: ''In bad taste: tea money'' (BP, Editorial, Sept 15). Parents who worry about their inability to pay sufficient ''tea money'' to get their children into Thailand's so-called elite schools should think themselves fortunate.

What kind of education would they be buying for their kids? Their first lesson would be that it is fine to bribe authorities to get whatever you want, and that money and connections are all that matter.

Secondly, that a good education can be bought at a secret auction, and no doubt the qualifications, too. Is it any wonder that the practice of graft is so deeply embedded in Thai society, when it starts at such a young age?

Students need to understand that learning requires effort, and true rewards come from achieving good results, not by buying them. Ironically, by paying the most, those wealthy parents are giving their kids the worst possible start to their young lives. Perhaps these parents need some schooling, too?

D COOKSON"

And one comment on the BP web site:

"D Cookson. The scary thing about the truth in your letter is that Thai children see corruption and bribery as normal behavior. When many Thai adults especially those with influence behave with impunity what lesson do you think it gives young impressionable minds. The lesson is that money buys you literally everything from a place in a good school to a promotion in the workplace. The government talk about addressing corruption but they have no power against those with the most money who prefer to perpetuate it, as its easy money. Politicians and their families have created an art form in perfecting graft. Reform must start at the top as Thai society has always worked this way. Children will mi mick and adopt the behavior of their elders. So where are the moral and ethical elders? Where pray tell????"

Five years on

19 September 2011

Today is the five year anniversary of the 2006 military coup - and Thailand still suffers from the consequences.

Here is my commentary on the coup as it happened.

And my page of news on the coup from five years ago.

The coup was bloodless and at least in Bangkok was quietly accepted. Sadly the five years that have followed have seen Thai society polarised.

Thailand is not better, fairer, more progressive or competitive. What the coup did was maintain the status quo that retained the privileges, perquisites and inherent advantages in upward mobility for the coup makers and their supporters.

There is no such thing as a good coup. It reverses democracy.

At the time there was a conspicuous silence from civil society, the business community, and Bangkok's middle classes.

Remember that the coup removed a Thaksin government that had been re-elected by a massive landslide in February 2005. The yellow shirts under the People's Alliance for Democracy began to mobilise in August the same year, sporadic and scattered at first, thin in ranks and low on popular appeal.

But Thaksin did enough damage over the next 18 months to ensure there was little opposition to the coup.

The reality is that the Thaksin government was beset with all kinds of infractions, conflicts of interest, human rights violations, and abuses of power.

The Thaksin government had a new focus - the enrichment of his family and cronies. The final mistake took place in Jan 2006 when Thaksin decided to sell his Shin Corp telecommunications conglomerate to Singapore's Temasek Holdings amidst the political turbulence.

This sale became a lightening rod to the anti-Thaksin coalition.

So the coup removed bad government. The trouble is what followed was worse. The generals were in charge. Through coercion and manipulation, the 2007 constitution was rushed through a plebiscite with a bogus ''approve-first, amend-late'' understanding.

The promised December 2007 election did take place - but having tasted government the military were not keen to give up. To its credit, the Surayud government organised the election and left office expeditiously.

The Dec 2007 polls became the turning point of the coup.

Despite the constitutional changes the pro-Thaksin People Power Party won and took power in 2008.

This was not the outcome expected by the coup makers.  Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was disqualified because he had hosted a cooking show. Truly.

As 2008 progressed the winning party was not allowed to govern because of PAD protests, featuring the takeover of both of Bangkok's main airport ahead of the dissolution of PPP and a ban on its leading politicians.

With the PPP dissolved the majority party became the Democrats who then formed a military supported coalition which was famously brokered in an army barracks.

The rest should not have been a surprise. The disenfranchised red shirts took to the streets in 2009 and 2010 and eventually the military fought back.

Then in July 2011 the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party was returned and we are back to the Thai politics of 2008. Whether the election winners are allowed to rule and whether they can rule with manageable infractions and abuses will determine Thailand's near-term political stability. It is another chance for both Thaksin and his adversaries to come to terms and for Thailand to move ahead.

But recent history suggests more turbulence is ahead.

The 2006 coup failed because Thailand simply cannot reverse the powerful economic, social and political developments that have been unfolding over the past 50 years.

Instead the coup has left Thaksin Shinawatra in a stronger political position than he would have been if the coup had not taken place. The coup has also weakened other establishment figures who were seen as supporters of the coup.

But Thailand remains sufficiently polarised between rich and poor, city and country, yellow and red, that no one should discount more unrest or even another coup.

********************************
See also - Red Shirts remember five year anniversary of Thailand’s military coup – A photo essay

********************************
And this was the Guardian editorial five years ago:

The generals strike
Leader
Thursday September 21, 2006

Thailand's move from the ranks of constitutional monarchies to military dictatorship has been sudden, well-executed and dismaying to those who hoped the country might overcome its severe problems through constitutional means. The prime ministership of Thaksin Shinawatra, a nationalist oligarch who ran the country as if it was his own private business and roused support from his rural powerbase through a well-funded appeal to patriotism, has been decaying for months. His rule did not serve the country well and he should have remained out of office after leaving it briefly following the country's confused general election earlier this year. Instead Thaksin persisted, driven by a mix of arrogance and greed, in the face of opposition in the country's main cities and from many of its established institutions, including the army and the monarchy.
These forces came together in a coup that had the tacit endorsement of the king and which has so far proved both bloodless and popular, at least in Bangkok. Adrift in London and facing the threat of prosecution, Thaksin is now unlikely to return to power, something which will not trouble most Thai democrats. But the manner of his removal pollutes the country's claim to be emerging as one of the world's developed democracies. It is a throwback to a time when the king and his army saw themselves as the guarantors of national stability. Democratic institutions, including parliament, the courts and the constitution, have turned out to have shallow roots, ripped out with ease by the tanks and troops which appeared on the streets of Bangkok. Promises of a return to civilian rule and elections within the next year are no substitute for a political system resilient enough to renew itself without the need to call on the army.

Blame for the crisis lies at Thaksin's door, not just because of the way he profited from his power but because of his systematic undermining of national order. This was most explicit in the south of Thailand, partly Muslim and witness to growing violence, where Thaksin's bull-headed confrontation made the situation worse. The coup leader and army chief, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who is Muslim, has called for a different approach, and military and royal concern about Thaksin's record in the south was a factor in his downfall. The opposition Democrat party, which can expect to gain from this week's events, is strong in that part of the country.

But however dubious his record, Thaksin retained the affection of many Thais, especially those who have not profited from the country's breakneck pace of development over the past two decades. The fact that his opponents had to wait for the military to remove him, rather than trust in a second general election which might have taken place before the end of the year, is a sign of this. Opposition democrats who took to the streets in Bangkok earlier this year rather than engage in the first election are also partly responsible for prompting this week's events. However well-intentioned, they too helped destabilise the country.

Without Thaksin's presence and his money, his Thai Rak Thai party is likely to fall apart. It remains to be seen whether he is confident enough to return to Bangkok: the failure of any part of the army to back him suggests he will not. Ultimate authority rests with the Thai king, who has proved his democratic sympathies in past coups and who is likely to hold the army to its promises this time. But he is ageing and increasingly unwell. In the long-term, Thais will not be able to rely upon his presence to untangle the country's political difficulties. The king's son and heir does not appear to have his father's wisdom. The country needs to build democratic institutions that are strong enough to ensure that Thailand's 18th military coup since becoming a constitutional monarchy in 1932 is also the country's last.

Thai agency seeks new probe into death of Reuters cameraman

 17 September 2011 Reuters

"Thai authorities pressed for a new investigation on Friday into the death of Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto and 12 other civilians killed during political unrest last year, and said troops may have had a hand in the shootings.

The statement by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) marked a dramatic reversal from February when the agency's chief concluded the 43-year-old Japanese journalist and others could not have been shot by soldiers.

Muramoto was killed by a high-velocity bullet wound to the chest while covering clashes between "red shirt" protesters and troops in Bangkok's old quarter on April 10. He was among 25 people, including soldiers, who died that night.

Mysterious gunmen clad in black were seen among the red-shirted protesters, firing at troops.

Witness accounts in a preliminary DSI investigation seen by Reuters in December said the fatal shot came from the direction of troops. A witness was quoted as saying he saw "a flash from a gun barrel of a soldier", then watched Muramoto fall after he was shot in the chest while filming the security forces.

But on Feb. 27, DSI Director-General Tharit Pengdit issued a new statement that contradicted the preliminary report, saying the bullet came from an AK-47 assault rifle, which did not match weapons used by soldiers in the area that day.

The Bangkok Post reported that, before Tharit made the claim soldiers were not involved, the army chief of staff had paid him a visit "to complain about an initial department finding". The DSI denied the report.

It was unclear what caused the DSI chief to change position again and assert soldiers may have played a role in civilian deaths -- an extraordinarily sensitive issue in Thailand where the military is extremely powerful and deeply politicised.

"We want the court to be the one who investigates this so that the result can be accepted by all," Tharit told Reuters on Friday. "The DSI has insisted from the beginning that we found soldiers may have been involved in the deaths."

Tharit said his agency would send on Monday the cases of the 13 civilians killed to police, which would then submit the findings to prosecutors, who would bring the cases to Thailand's Criminal Court for a final investigation.

"We welcome this development and have always wanted to see this case fully investigated in a transparent manner. Muramoto-san's family and Reuters colleagues deserve to know how this tragedy occurred and who was behind it," Stephen Adler, editor-in-chief of Reuters News, said in a statement.

One crucial difference between now and February is a change of government and the rise of political leaders with ties to the red-shirt protest movement.

A party backed by red-shirt protesters won parliamentary elections by a landslide in July. Their leader, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, is the sister of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the figurehead of the red-shirt protest movement.

Yingluck's government has ushered in a series of changes to senior positions in several ministries and key institutions, including plans to change the chief of Bangkok's police. The red shirts, whose votes were crucial in her election victory, have long demanded a full investigation into the deaths.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung told reporters on Friday that the deaths of the 13 were "unnatural" and that it was unclear whether troops were involved.

"I want this to be very straightforward and everything is done under the rules of law," Charlerm said.

Muramoto was based in Tokyo and had come to Bangkok to help cover the anti-government red shirt protests from March to mid-May last year. A total 91 people were killed during the unrest, including an Italian photojournalist and several medical workers.

The DSI has identified the cases of Muramoto and 12 other civilians, killed over the course of the unrest, for its initial investigation.

Then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose government was backed by senior generals and the royalist establishment, repeatedly blamed the black-clad gunmen for civilian deaths despite witness accounts of soldiers opening fire with live ammunition on protesters."

Foreign Investors Turn Wary as Bangkok Starts Dabbling in the Financial System

15 September 2011 - New York Times
(Note this is just the start - this government has only been in office for six weeks. Thaksin gives the orders, Yingluck is marginalised and Chalerm does - and appears to have license to do, whatever he wants. Remember he is only the deputy interior minister but he gets all the headlines. This raid on the two brokerages got little play in the Thai medai who are all too fixated in a likely pardon for Thaksin and on the Shinawatra family's visits to Cambodia.)

"The confusion of Thai politics can even turn insiders into outsiders.

In the past, as the politicians played their games, foreign investors joked about the Italy of Asia and made little effort to understand the bewildering tangle of allegiances.

But the slowing economy and regional currency turmoil have put the country's politics under the intense scrutiny of creditors who are frightened by what they have found.

With 23 prime ministers, 17 coups and 15 constitutions since 1946, the country has not been a model of political stability. Nonetheless, because of consistent policies laid out by government technocrats, investors confidently poured huge amounts of their money into the country in the past decade.

Now, as an economic slowdown and regional currency turmoil throw the country into the international spotlight, this traditional political chaos could delay recovery.

"Today's political struggles are not that different from the past," said Mark Sundberg, Hong Kong-based chief economist for Salomon Brothers Inc. "But the country now has greater vulnerability to short-term capital flows, and its policy mix has been brought into focus."

Thailand's estimated $90 billion in overseas debt has created what Mr. Sundberg calls a structural dependency on foreign money. Much of that debt is short-term and soon due to roll over.

"Banks are really studying every political move now," said the country manager of an American bank that is one of Thailand's largest creditors.

"It is tough for those who don't have a presence in the country to second-guess what is going on here, and events like the raid on the brokerage houses last week don't put the country in a good light."

Last week, the police raided two foreign brokerage houses searching for the source of rumors that five commercial banks would close.

The raids, which shocked the financial community, have been dismissed by political observers as a melodramatic stunt typical of the deputy interior minister, Chalerm Yoobamrung, who ordered them.

A Jaguar-driving former police officers with a taste for Versace shirts, Mr. Chalerm is a Bangkok-based politician who has long wielded power beyond his party's numerical standing, serving in most Thai governments over the past decade.

In the November election, his Muan Chon Party won just two seats, yet the six-party coalition awarded him a cabinet post. He has many loyal well-placed friends in the police department but scant patience for those in his way.

"He is like a stick that the politicians wave at barking dogs to make them shut up," said Montri Chenvidyakarn, president of the Training Institute of the Association of Securities Cos. "In the Thai context, nobody takes his antics seriously."

Foreign investors, however, were not amused to have the stick waved at them. "I just do not understand how they could do this," a Japanese analyst said. "It is crazy."

Since the raids took place, foreign analysts and brokers have been wary of being quoted for fear of reprisals.

Another recent intrusion of politics into economic management took place in mid-May, when remarks by one of the prime minister's advisers triggered speculators to attack the baht.

"With freer capital flows, Thailand now has less control over its destiny," a diplomat said. "The markets can punish the country more readily for its errors and political hijinks."

After more than a decade of tightly pegging its currency, Thailand floated the baht on July 2. Since then, it has fallen by as much as 15 percent in value against the dollar. The baht fell to a new low on Wednesday. (Page 15)

Politics, some analysts warned, have also infected the country's financial institutions. These analysts cite the fraud-tainted scandal at the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, the slothful pace of mergers among the troubled finance companies and the damaging policy debate over the adjustment of the baht.

"In the early 1980s, when the country last faced economic crisis, the technocrats from the central bank, finance ministry and National Economic and Social Development Board all worked together," said Arporn Chewakrengkrai, chief economist Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Thailand.

Ms. Arporn, a former technocrat, said many of the best and brightest have left government for higher paying jobs in the private sector.

Phuket's decline

15 September 2011

Let's be honest - Phuket is tired, drab and for the most part hugely unattractive.

And it is a tragedy. The island's geography and climate should make for a great holiday destination. Mountains, sandy beaches, sunshine.

Walking the streets of Patong the strongest smell is of walls and telephone booths used as makeshift latrines. The loudest noise is from the touts for tuktuks, souvenir shops, massage shops and dvd sellers.

Tourists are not guests. They are prey. A tuktuk will set you back a minimum of Baht 200. In Bangkok a metered taxi starts at Baht 35. The sidewalks are almost impassable. Touts stand outside tailors trying to shake the hand of their new best friend and drag them into their store.

There are two main towns; old Phuket is the main Thai city; it is not a tourist destination. However, its old town with a mix of Chinese and Thai architecture has some appeal and there are signs of new coffee shops, bars, small guest houses and arts/craft shops.

Patong is where most of the tourists are. The beach could be great - except for i) powerboats and wave boats that are far too close to shore and ii) the amount of garbage that is washed up onto the beach.

We hired a car to drive around the island - Karon and Kata are looking really run down and old. In may be the quiet season but many places seemed to be shuttered for long term closure.

Nai Harn beach is pretty and hosts the Phuket Yatch Club hotel - but there is basically nothing else there and the area around the beach has become scrub land.

To the north of Patong Kamala Beach has some new development and Surin beach is pleasant enough. The trouble with all these remoter beaches is that at some stage you will want to get away and explore. There is little to see and do beyond the beach and the hotel that you stay in.

If you want to play golf be warned - Phuket has the most expensive golf courses in Thailand - and at some a cart will be compulsory in addition to your caddy. There is much better value golf in Bangkok, Hua Hin and Chiang Mai.

The police were out on Beach Rd in Patong on Tuesday night - set up at the junction with Bangla Road. It is not an issue for them that touts are harrassing tourists to go to ping-pong shows. The police are there to get their few hundred baht from every tourist without either a helmet or a proper license. It does not matter that you barely see a Thai in a helmet in Phuket town. Now of course wearing a helmet makes a whole lot of sense; but lets apply the rules evenly.

Bangla Road is pretty depressing - the good news is that Patong's nightlife is largely confined to this one street and its side streets. And there is much new building undearway along the street which suggests it is prospering. The ping pong shows are in upstairs bars where I assume you get suitably ripped off on drinks prices. Most of the bars are open air, noisy and harmless. Some of the staff are working towards their pensions.

Beach Road really could be so much nicer - the tsunami of 2004 did give the city a chance to rebuild a new Patong; instead they recreated the old one.

The highlight on Bangla was Wednesday night's Elvis impersonation - with a strong backing band including a full brass section. Good fun.

Be careful of over-priced seafood. Make sure you are given what you ordered. As for other restaurants - the best are probably in the hotels but are pricier. There is a decent restaurants street in the JungCeylon mall - including a Wine Connection.

Officially tourist arrivals to Phuket during the current “low season” are actually up year-on-year thanks largely to the increased number of direct flights from Australia and China, according to the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA).

The improved performance was in large part due to strong arrival figures thanks to an increased number of direct flights from Australia.

China has become an important “new” market with non-stop service now available from 10 major cities. But they are not long stay visitors. My guess is that they are there for 2 or 3 nights; usually herded around in tour buses to see what their guides are paid to let them see.

In addition to major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, which have had direct links to Phuket for some time, Chinese tourists can now fly direct to Phuket from places including Xi’an, Chengdu and Chongqing.

There are also many visitors from Korea, Russia and Indian. And a large number from the GCC nations. Patong has two "Dubai" restaurants. And shisha is widely available.

Flood hazard

15 September 2011

The rising water is threat enough. But worse. A pack of crocodiles has escaped from a flooded farm near Pattaya. The animals escaped the Million Year Stone Park and Crocodile Farm in Pattaya, 100 kilometres south-east of Bangkok, after heavy rain triggered a flood that washed through the tourist attraction Monday.

"We don't know how many are still missing but I'm confident that we can catch them all because these animals aren't used to finding food for themselves," farm spokesman Suthawudh Temthab said.

About 100 employees were sent to hunt the crocodiles down.

The largest of the recaptured reptiles, identified as Jao Yai, weighed more than 400 kilograms and was three metres long.

"After four nights and four days, we have managed to recapture 29 crocodiles, but some are still missing," said park chief Suan Panomwattanakul.

He said anyone providing useful information on the animals' whereabouts would be given Bt5,000.

Flooding has upset the lives of about 700,000 people across 23 provinces.

To date the flood-related death toll had reached 87.

Beijing's new airport plans outshine Dubai

9 September 2011

In 1994, when I first visited, Beijing Airport was on old tired terminal, domestic flights on old Russian planes and a handful of flights from Hong Kong and the region.

Beijing's Capital Airport is now 3 runways, 3 terminals (the third is massive) and will soon be full.

This all makes sense. Imagine how air travel unites the USA with only 1/4 the population of China. Imagine huge hubs like Dallas and Chicago and then imagine their Chinese equivalent.

So it is no surprise that Beijing is moving to overtake London as the world's busiest aviation hub with the construction of a third airport that could have as many as nine runways.

The new mega-project is part of a huge expansion of China's airline industry.

NACO (part if the DHV Group) won the design competition. The location appears to be in the rural district of Daxing, about 31 miles (50km) south-west of the city centre.

On the roadside the Guardian has seen labourers building an elaborate 10m-high steel and concrete map of the world topped by giant red characters declaring: "Construction of a New Airport City for the Capital."

It was only four years ago that the existing Capital airport in the north of the city opened a huge third terminal ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Designed by the British architect, Norman Foster, it was then the world's biggest airport building, with more floor space than all five Heathrow terminals combined. But it has filled faster than expected due to the rapid growth of China's economy.

Last year, the airport handled 73.9 million passengers. By 2015, this is expected to rise to 90 million – 12 million more than it was designed for.

A plan for the new airport (shown in Airports of the world magazine) shows six parallel runways as well as two more at 90 degrees as well as two terminal complexes and two midfield satellites. The airport is planned to open in 2017 and will have a capacity of 130mppa. This could be expanded to as many as 200 mppa.

Once completed, the new airport will be connected to a new expressway and high-speed train line that will speed travelers to the centre of the city in 30 minutes. Today, however, Daxing is more than an hour's drive away.

Locals live in white-washed, one-storey brick homes, many of which are scruffily daubed with phone-numbers advertising well-digging companies. Incomes there are low – about 1,200 yuan (£105) to 2,500 (£215) per month. But expectations are high for the new airport and the money it might bring.

"Everything you can see will be airport," said Cui Hongxian, a farmer who owns a quarter hectare of land, with confidence. "We haven't negotiated yet, but I've heard they will start building next year."

Many others are hoping for economic benefits - and not just in Beijing. The government's latest five-year economic plan calls for the expansion of eight international airports, the construction of many more new smaller airports and feasibility studies for new aviation hubs in Chengdu, Qingdao and Xiamen. It has also promised to open up private aviation, which will allow China's mega-rich to splurge on luxury private jets as well as their Lambourghinis,. Rolls Royces and Aston Martins.

Meanwhile Dubai's new airport has shruk from six to five runways. Only one runway is open at present for freighter operations. There may be some basic passenger operations there next year but with a new concourse to terminal three and a new terminal four to be built at the existing Dubai international airport it will be some time before we see Dubai's new airport fully operational.

O'Emirates

8 September 2011

Emirates has announced it is to fly daily from Dublin to Dubai from next year.

The airline will commence services on 9 January onboard an Airbus A330-200. It will leave Dubai at 0700 and arrive in the Irish capital at 1130, while the return flights leaves Dublin at 1255 landing in Dubai at 0025.

"Dublin will be our 29th route in Europe and Emirates' customers in Ireland who currently travel through some of our UK gateways will be able to fly non-stop to our industry leading hub in Dubai and conveniently connect onwards to our broadening route network," said His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline and Group. "We see strong potential in Ireland through its industry, technology, tourism and the huge number of Irish nationals living overseas”.

The announcement comes after a new passenger terminal was opened at Dublin airport.

Etihad already flies to Dublin from Abu Dhabi.

Gaddafi’s and west’s love of the big lie

7 September 2011 The Financial Times By Kishore Mahbubani

An interesting read - though the writer forgets that however flawed western democracy may be voters can still remove unpopular governments - something that is impossible in many middle east or asian countries; including some that espouse democracy.....

"Dictators are falling. Democracies are failing. A curious coincidence? Or is it, perhaps, a sign that something fundamental has changed in the grain of human history. I believe so.

How do dictators survive? They tell lies. Muammer Gaddafi was one of the biggest liars of all time. He claimed that his people loved him. He also controlled the flow of information to his people to prevent any alternative narrative taking hold. Then the simple cell phone enabled people to connect. The truth spread widely to drown out all the lies that the colonel broadcast over the airwaves. Similarly in Egypt and Tunisia, the regimes lost control of the narrative. In short, technology has undermined dictators’ ability to lie to their people.

So why are democracies failing at the same time? The simple answer: democracies have also been telling lies. Now we know, for example, that the eurozone project was created on a big lie. All the major European politicians assured their publics that the contradiction between monetary union and fiscal independence would be resolved by insisting on fiscal discipline. Any eurozone member that violated the 3 per cent budget deficit rule would be punished.

All this was a big lie. When France and Germany breached the 3 per cent rule in 2003, nothing happened. This then opened the doors for others to break the rule (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain). Even worse, Greece began lying to its European partners from the very beginning. To be fair to Greece, its European partners knew Greece was lying.

The people of Europe went along with the big lie as long as they did not have to pay for it. The great western financial crisis of 2008-09 changed everything. Bankers had to be rescued. Taxpayers had to pay the price. Foolishly, the Irish government took on the liabilities of Irish banks, passing the burden to Irish citizens. Today, the German taxpayers balk at having to pay the price for rescuing an economic experiment that rested on a big lie.

Europe is not alone. The American people are equally angry with their government. No US leaders dare to tell the truth to the people. All their pronouncements rest on a mythical assumption that “recovery” is around the corner. Implicitly, they say this is a normal recession. But this is no normal recession. There will be no painless solution. “Sacrifice” will be needed and the American people know this.

But no American politician dares to utter the word “sacrifice”. Painful truths cannot be told. And there is an even more fundamental reason why they cannot tell the truth. In theory, a “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” in America. In practice this is a big lie. Take the US budget process as exhibit A. In theory, the government collects taxes to deliver public goods to the population. In practice, the US budget has been hijacked by all kinds of special interest groups. This is why the US stimulus plan failed. A small portion of it went to help create jobs. Most of it was absorbed by various special interests. As Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron says: “The stimulus was so poorly run that stimulus money wound up going to prisoners and dead people, bridges to nowhere, and useless government buildings.”

In short, the US political system is dangerously flawed. The American people feel in their bones that something has gone awfully wrong. They know that the financial elite is in bed with the political elite. The interests of the banks will be taken care of; the interests of the people will not. Yet while all this is happening, politics is on autopilot.

Few American politicians seem aware that the whole world was shocked that a “deal” was reached to get America’s finances in order without raising a single tax. When S&P delivered the natural verdict that this would not work, the messenger, as usual, was crucified.

Most people know what is happening. Hence, there is a simple way politicians can regain trust: tell the truth, even if it hurts. But they won’t until they learn that lying doesn’t work – it is not just dictators like Col Gaddafi who never will."

The writer is Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, and author of “The New Asian Hemisphere: the Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East”

We betrayed our values with torture

6 September 2011 Dominic Lawson in The Independent

The 10th anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Centre towers by two hijacked commercial airliners should be a moment of unambiguous moral clarity. In a way, it still is. Through special newspaper supplements and TV documentaries we are reminded (as if we ever could forget) of the horror of that beautiful sunny morning in New York City: the sight of office workers jumping to certain death as a merciful release from incineration; the desperate messages as husbands and wives, parents and children, made what they knew would be their final messages to those they loved and would never see again.

Yet this commemoration is mixed with something else; the feeling that the heroism of the public response to the horror of that day has been foully polluted by what has been done in our name to prevent a second 9/11. This is encapsulated by the revelations from documents discovered in abandoned buildings in Tripoli, appearing to show the complicity of the British Government in the rendition of a suspected Islamist terrorist from Hong Kong, into the hands of Colonel Gaddafi's interrogators.

Yesterday, another former member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Abdelhakim Belhaj, now commander of the anti-Gaddafi militia in Tripoli, called for the US and Britain to apologise for their role in his rendition to Tripoli and torture there. Belhaj is now one of the officially designated good guys, benefiting from Nato's air bombardment of Gaddafi's command and control centres, not to mention undercover aid and advice from Britain's SAS. Yet, as has been confirmed by other "liberated" documents published by the Sunday Times during the weekend, the British government had previously instructed the SAS to train the Khamis Brigade, the elite force Gaddafi assigned to counter the threat from his internal enemies.

This, of course, was all part of the "war on terror". Libya, under Gaddafi, had originally formed part of George W Bush's so-called axis of evil – hostile states with programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction. Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) played the main role in persuading Gaddafi, through its links with the Libyan intelligence chief, Mousa Kousa, to relinquish its WMD programme (such as it was). Most significantly, the Libyans then revealed to us just how the Pakistani nuclear weapons scientist AQ Khan had been offering to sell to sundry appalling regimes the materials needed to develop WMD.

The trouble was that the then prime minister, Tony Blair, exhilarated by this solitary foreign policy success in the "war on terror", proceeded to treat Gaddafi not as the thug and borderline lunatic he remained, but as if he were a civilising force in the region. The Colonel, meanwhile, with his customary cunning, played up the threat to his regime from the LIFG, and thus gained – as it now seems – our assistance in the capture and torture of his domestic opponents. The fact that they were often self-proclaimed jihadists made this all the more convincing to Washington and Whitehall.

Grotesque as Blair's smarming over the man ultimately responsible for the blowing up of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie was, one can at least appreciate the strategic arguments behind this wooing of a dictator. Just as in the Cold War, when the West supped with some pretty unscrupulous types in the fight against Soviet militarism, the full details involved in policies adopted in the interests of national security appear neither moral nor necessary when exposed to the light.

Yet, for all the excesses of the Cold War, we on the winning side never countenanced torture. Indeed, that is one reason why we won. By embracing the Helsinki process, which promoted the protection of human rights as an integral part of the struggle, the Western nations attained a sense of moral leadership which was deeply demoralising to the Soviet politburo. As it became increasingly clear that they, with their "psychiatric hospitals" for dissidents (the urban modernist successor to the Gulag), required mental torture to persuade the unconverted, the intellectual confidence drained away from those involved in the export of Soviet-style communism.

It is in this context that one should see the signing by President Ronald Reagan of the United Nations convention against torture, which came into force in 1987. It was in the clearest breach of this document that President George W Bush, urged on by his deputy Dick Cheney, authorised the use of torture by CIA officers on captured al-Qa'ida members – notably by the process known as "waterboarding". (This method of simulated – but all too real – drowning was practised during the Second World War by some Japanese officers against captured American pilots: the perpetrators were tried and executed as war criminals.)

As is well known, Bush and Cheney managed to obtain a legal opinion by an assistant attorney general for the office of the legal counsel at the US Justice Department, one Jay Bybee, to the effect that waterboarding (and other so-called "enhanced interrogation methods") did not constitute torture, and that therefore the US was not in breach of its treaty obligations, or its constitution.

The Bybee memorandum declared that an interrogation method amounted to torture only if "the physical pain is of an intensity which accompanies serious physical injury such as death or organ failure". This novel and deliberately unverifiable definition is well in excess of that provided in the treaty signed by Ronald Reagan: "Torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for ... obtaining information at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official".

The Bush administration argued that Reagan could not have envisaged the circumstances prevailing in the US in the wake of 9/11 and in particular the fact that America's enemy would not be the regular army of a recognised state. However, article 2.2 of the convention states: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability, or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture."

In his memoirs published last week, Dick Cheney again argues that his "enhanced interrogation techniques" at Guantanamo Bay produced confessions that saved the lives of Americans (and Britons). That is his opinion. What is a fact is that this policy acted like no other in recruiting young men to al-Qa'ida. As a US officer who personally conducted hundreds of prisoner interrogations in Iraq wrote (under the assumed name of Major Alexander) in his book How To Break A Terrorist: "The reason why foreign fighters joined al-Qa'ida in Iraq was overwhelmingly because of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and not Islamic ideology."

In other words, it was by betraying the ideals which both America and Britain are meant to promote and defend, that we mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 not just with renewed sympathy for the victims, but a sense of shame that we have not honoured them.

Managing the swiss franc

6 September 2011

It is a risky strategy in volatile markets but the Swiss National Bank seems determined to devalue the swiss franc which fell more than 9 per cent against the euro on Tuesday after the country’s central bank surprised markets by setting a minimum exchange rate target and saying it was ready to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities if necessary.

The euro climbed 9.5 per cent to SFr1.2158, higher than the SFr1.20 minimum exchange rate target set by the Swiss National Bank in its effort to slow the franc’s rapid appreciation.

The SNB said it would enforce the minimum rate with the “utmost determination and with unlimited quantities of foreign currency”.

Investors had pushed the euro to a series of fresh record highs against the franc as they looked for havens amid the volatility caused by eurozone debt crisis. This had driven the SNB to intervene in the market in August, causing the euro to surge from a low of SFr1.0094 on August 9 to just below SFr1.20 on August 29.

But eurozone debt concerns had pushed the franc higher again, and just before today’s action, it had been at SFr1.020 versus the single currency.

The SNB’s action may spark fears of a new round of currency wars.

Understanding currency markets has become complex particularly for the US dollar but also for the world's other major currencies which seem to be in a competition to devalue. The problems are global and the markets seem to value the US$ as the worst of a bad lot.

Go figure; The US dollar is hit by political deadlock and rising odds of a US recession.

Japan has even weaker political leadership and the highest debt levels in the world.

The euro has no clear political leadership; a Greek debt default looks ever more likely and their is little goodwill in Europe to Greece whose austerity program angers its people while falling short of eurozone demands. Yet the euro still buys US$1.42.

Against the dollar, the Swiss franc was down 7.8 per cent to SFr0.8480.

The US has encouraged this revaluation of the US$. The nation needs to grow through exports and a lower dollar helps.

But the Japanese are desperately trying to weaken the yen. The swiss are doing the same to their franc. And the euro is exposed.

Currencies will remain complex and volatile for some time to come.

It's out with the old, in with the new for Nok Air cabin crews

6 September 2011 The Bangkok Post

The chance of being served by a cabin attendant older than 30 aboard Nok Air is already close to nil, with passengers most likely to be attended by a stewardess in her early 20s.

The budget carrier, whose cabin crews average 26 years old, embodies the growing trend among regional airlines, which are shortening the working life of their onboard staff and replacing them with younger ones.

Airlines across the region are recruiting fresh, young and good-looking faces to do the job, lowering minimum age requirements and imposing short contract terms.

For instance, Nok Air stipulates applicants should not be over age 25, while 24 is the maximum for Thai applicants at Taiwan's EVA Air as well as Thai Smiles, the regional offshoot planned by Thai Airways International (THAI).

In its most recent recruitment round in Bangkok ending last week, EVA even required female applicants to be single.

Much to the displeasure of cabin attendant unions, airlines, particularly in Asia, are grounding older cabin attendants, especially females, and replacing them with younger ones primarily to rejuvenate brand image and appeal to passengers.

Analysts say airlines also want to cash in on the energy, enthusiasm and dedication that are normally associated with youth in order to drive service efficiency and project a better impression on passengers, not to mention reduce salary expenses.

But many bigger legacy airlines with state-controlled status or powerful unions are prohibited from pursuing such an approach, although THAI can still ground female cabin attendants at age 45.

"This has nothing to do with sexist attitudes, but rather marketing," said Patee Sarasin, Nok Air's chief executive.

"We want to give Nok Air a dynamic lifestyle image while living up to passengers' expectations of being served by fresh, friendly and efficient staff."

The carrier's working cabin attendants range in age from 21-29, which puts it in the running for youngest stewardesses.

A Nok Air cabin crew is given a three-year employment term, with three-year extensions on a case-by-case basis if they prove able to sustain their work standard and looks.

Crews then "retire" to other airlines, which has been the policy ever since the budget airline took to the skies eight years ago.

"Pretty girls who are not very nice due to maybe big egos and ugly ones who may have beautiful characters can become Nok Air cabin attendants. What we do is combine the best of the two _ beautiful girls with nice personalities," said Mr Patee.

He said the result has been that Nok Air receives very few complaints from passengers.

Another Nok Air executive said among those that are received, the most serious involve stewardesses not smiling enough.

The age limits and short employment contracts have never proved a barrier to attracting new recruits for Nok Air.

More than 2,000 applicants vied for 41 positions in Nok Hunt #12, the most recent recruitment round.

The previous round saw 4,000 girls competing for 25 slots.

"We've never had any complaints about the terms of employment. Applicants are aware of the criteria and willingly accept them," said Mr Patee.

He said upon leaving, management helps them to find jobs at international airlines wanting trained personnel.

"If we retired them at age 30 or above, the opportunity of finding new jobs at other airlines would be more difficult," Mr Patee added.

Glamour in the Skies

6 September 2011 New York Times

Judging from the popularity of the Broadway show “Boeing Boeing” and plans for a television series based on the world of Pam Am stewardesses, the public seems to long for the days when airlines prided themselves on their flight attendants and the pampering they provided.

Those days are long gone for most carriers. But some long-haul airlines are betting that service that harks back to the glory days of flying will give them an edge.

Emirates Airline is one of them. The airline, one of the fastest growing carriers in the world, plays a crucial role in making Dubai the center of a network that links the West and the East. It is using the image of an Emirates flight attendant — her smiling face beneath the signature red hat — on its Web site, on advertisements and even on duty-free shopping bags to make the point, as one airline executive put it, that the service provided by Emirates is of “the utmost significance.”

“It is what we are judged on more than anything else,” said the executive, Terry Daly, a senior vice president at the airline.

Shashank Nigam, chief executive of SimpliFlying, which provides branding advice to airlines and airports, said in an e-mail that delivering a level of cabin service and high product quality “gives Emirates a sustainable competitive advantage.” He added, “For an airline providing mainly long-haul flights, the in-flight experience becomes supremely important.”

Emirates is one of a half dozen airlines, including Virgin Atlantic and Singapore, that cultivate an elegant image for their cabin crew. Because Emirates is growing so quickly, it is in constant need of more flight attendants.

So far, it has had little trouble recruiting them from around the world. “It’s a fun, glamorous job,” said Nicole Domett, chief executive of Travel Careers and Training in Auckland, New Zealand, who has sent a few students to Emirates. “For those who have that confidence and thrill of adventure, I mean, wow, it’s really exciting.”

Mona Issa, for instance, was a doctor in Egypt before joining Emirates. “The way people look at you when you say, ‘I work for Emirates,’ ” she said, “It’s magic. Everyone will treat you with respect.”

Blake Celestino just joined the airline from Australia, while Maurine Moraa of Kenya decided to quit her job working for a nongovernmental organization to fly for Emirates. The job has also been a safety net for people like Mohamed Jaber, a 31-year-old American who was laid off from JPMorgan Chase in the economic downturn.

Newly hired cabin attendants have just over a month to earn an international safety certificate while learning how to apply makeup flawlessly and turn an airplane trolley into an attractive display of duty-free products.

To accommodate the 60 to 120 recruits who arrive each week, the training center runs 16 hours a day. For the first few days, students just get acclimated to the blazing heat and ubiquitous sand. They live in an apartment complex in an area of Dubai where camels graze near the parking lots. Catherine Baird, the senior vice president for cabin crew training, said that when the trainees see the camels, it sinks in that they are a long way from home.

Ms. Baird is equal parts cheerleader and mother superior. “We know you can do this job,” she tells them at a morning assembly shortly after they arrive, “because you are brilliant.” But she is also tough, if, for instance, she sees a student in uniform with her long hair loose.

“We don’t want anything to be too distracting from the hat, from the logo,” said a training manager, Helen Roxburgh, of the signature hat with the silky cream-colored scarf that is evocative of the Arabic veil.

Ms. Roxburgh must teach students the rules regarding the most minute dressing and grooming details. Acceptable shades of hair dye? No more than two shades from one’s natural hair color. Tattoos? None that can show while wearing the uniform. When to button the suit jacket? All the time.

The trainees also get a primer on the travel industry, learning about everything from loyalty programs to duty-free merchandise. “Many people think that to become an Emirates flight attendant is about pushing a trolley up and down the aisle and pouring tea and coffee,” Mr. Daly said. “It’s way more complex than what people think.”

Emergency procedures are taught in a full-motion cabin simulator that is more expensive than the static training cabins used by most airlines. Kellie White, the safety training manager, said students need to know what an emergency looks, sounds and feels like.

“They’ve had an experience that mimics the real thing,” Ms. White said of the cabin that rocks, pows, bangs and mists. The day Ms. Celestino practiced water landings by jumping into the swimming pool below the school’s training airplane, the water was uncomfortably cold, a reminder that the real thing will not be a day at the beach.

This year, Emirates plans to add 2,500 flight attendants to its roster of 13,000 to work on the new Airbus A380 jumbo jets that will soon be delivered. The airline must also replace flight attendants who leave. The average time on the job is just 4.3 years, a result of the rule requiring them to live in Dubai, Ms. Baird said. The high turnover is a challenge, but it also has its benefits, she said.

“We want to have a balance of both. We want to keep our experience and our maturity because you invest so much in it. But we want to have some movement because that’s where you get the energy.”

Ms. Domett, who runs the Auckland flight crew school, said it was critical that flight attendants felt that their job was valued by the airline. “I don’t think that the American flight attendants feel it’s a really glamorous job,” she said. “Americans are fantastic at service, but on an aircraft, it’s not the same.”

Knowing that every job eventually loses its luster, Emirates has one cost-free strategy for sustaining enthusiasm. The pilots and flight attendants are required to walk through the airport in one large attention-getting group, much as they do in a scene in the movie “Catch Me if You Can.” It is a head-turning display of retro pizazz that promotes the flight attendants and reinforces to these employees that much of the airline’s reputation is entrusted to their care.

Top ten safest airlines

1 September 2011

The Geneva-based Air Transport Rating Agency (ATRA) has named what it considers to be the ten safest airlines in the world. These are mainly American and European carriers, which makes the ranking quite different from those focusing on customer service and usually dominated by Asian and Middle Eastern airlines.

Indeed, the Sydney Morning Herald points out that no airline is in both the ATRA top ten and the top ten in the Skytrax awards, which recognise “front-line product and service standards”.

ATRA came into being earlier this year, and this is the first rating in what it intends to be an annual series. It compiled its list not only from historic accident rates, but by assessing airlines on 15 criteria such as net financial result, average fleet age, in-house maintenance capability and dedicated full-flight simulators. It trumpets a similarity between its technique and that used by the World Health Organisation.

It is interesting to consider how to respond to the rating. Would anyone choose, say, British Airways over Singapore Airlines because of the former's place in ATRA's list? After all, Singapore is considered a safe carrier. Flyers might, though, choose Singapore ahead of BA for its service. I suspect passengers are more used to the notion that the world's leading airlines offer varying degrees of comfort, than that they offer varying degrees of safety. ATRA's work might change that, but it's the accidents that stick in people's minds.

ATRA's ten safest airlines (in alphabetical order): Air France-KLM, AMR Corporation (American Airlines, American Eagles), British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways.

Emirates 777 continued flight after loud bang, messages

31 August 2011 Flight Global

The US National Transportation Safety Board revealed in a preliminary report issued 30 August that an Emirates Boeing 777-200ER crew continued a 5h flight from Moscow's Domodedovo airport to Dubai on 5 March after hearing a "loud bang" and receiving several error messages on departure.

Pilots of Flight EK 132 (A6-EMH) reported the incident after landing at Dubai, according to the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates, the authority handling the investigation.

"Following the bang a number of status messages were annunciated, these messages occurred over a 16 minute time as per the Boeing AHM (airplane health management) data," the report stated.

Messages indicated a problem with the right Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engine, and included a thrust asymmetry compensation message that is issued when the flight control computer automatically uses rudder input counter the yaw effects of a failed engine.

Four additional messages were received on departure, followed by two AHM messages after landing.

Flightglobal's ACAS database shows that the 14-year-old aircraft is owned by Veling and has Trent 884-17 engines, members of the Trent 800 family. As of 31 June, the aircraft had accumulated 61,581 cycles and 12,945h, according to ACAS.

Inspection of the aircraft in Dubai revealed "a large section" of the right engine's inboard fan duct and thrust reverser were missing, starting at the trailing edge and ripping forward.

Overall, officials estimated that 2.8-3.7m2 (30-40m2) section of engine covering to be missing, along with the primary exhaust nozzle outer skin. The primary nozzle inner skin had been "holed in several locations at the 12 to 1 o'clock position," the report stated.

External to the engine, the one tyre on the main landing gear "was observed to have a large cut to the sideway" of approximately 36cm (14in), officials said. Examination of the aircraft and engine was to continue but the results have not yet been posted.

The report does not discuss what procedures the Emirates crew followed after hearing the bang and receiving the AHM annunciations or whether the aircraft should have been returned to Domodedovo.

But the very fact that the NTSbindings of the report are a pretty big hint that continuing this flight was imprudent.

On 22 August, an Emirates Boeing 777-300, registration A6-EMU performing flight EK-60 from Hamburg (Germany) to Dubai (United Arab Emirates), was enroute at 35,000 feet about 20nm east of Rzeszow (Poland) when the crew decided to divert to Vienna (Austria) (distances: Rzeszow 20nm, Krakow 110nm, Warsaw 155nm, Budapest 200nm, Vienna 240nm) due to problems with the left hand engine (a Rolls Royce Trent 895)

Topless air hostesses and champagne pool parties

31 August 2011 The Daily Mail

British Airways bosses fear having to scrap lucrative flights because of mounting complaints about raucous cabin crew parties at luxury hotels. Now BA has warned its captains to control their crews during overnight stops – or the airline may be forced to abandon at least one route.

The problem is particularly acute on routes crewed by young recruits – so-called ‘mixed fleet’ which was at the heart of the recent BA industrial dispute. A BA source said: ‘Mixed fleet crews are basically kids of 18 and 20 years old, in their first jobs on pretty low pay, who think it’s a wonderful life staying in posh hotels.

‘They pilfer champagne from the aircraft to drink in the crew hotels because buying their own drinks in a five-star hotel is too expensive. Then they run amok, holding wild room parties and going topless in the pool.’

Crews on long-haul flights to the Kenyan capital Nairobi have been told the route could become ‘financially unviable’ unless they rein in their behaviour.

But in an internal memo sent to BA captains recently, a manager warns: ‘We continue to receive complaints from our management team at our crew hotel in NBO [Nairobi] regarding the behaviour of some of our crews. ‘In the current security environment, the current hotel is the only approved hotel available to us.

‘Should they choose to terminate our contract, or elect not to renew it later this year, the route will become financially unviable.’ The note begs captains and senior cabin crew members to ‘sensitively manage pool/room parties and any raucous crew behaviour’.

Other routes allegedly suffering ‘crew behaviour issues’ include Mauritius, Las Vegas, San Diego and other U.S. destinations where the legal drinking age is 21 – meaning crews who cannot drink alcohol in public bars are more likely to party in their hotel rooms.

Separately, BA has sent out an internal message to all crews warning they face dismissal if they are caught taking alcoholic drinks off planes without paying for them. However they are allowed to buy them under the ‘crew purchase scheme’ at cheap rates.

Although cabin crew are banned from drinking alcohol in uniform, another BA source said: ‘Those rules are only adhered to “in public”. What goes on in the hotel room is different.

‘Often when away from home, crew have room parties. Crew are able to buy cheap alcohol on board the aircraft and consume this in hotel rooms, thereby avoiding expensive bar prices. Games often played are variations on “spin the bottle”, “truth or dare” and “I have never...”.

‘The room parties often get quite wild. I have seen damage occurring to the hotel, I have seen nudity and streaking. I once saw two male crew members leaving the room party with a male pilot, and they reported the next day that they had a ‘threesome’ with the pilot.

‘In Cyprus once, crew returning to the hotel from a night out found a donkey tied up in a field. The donkey was led back to the hotel and the crew managed to get it into a lift and up to the fourth floor, before hotel security intervened.’

The source added: ‘A phrase often used is: “What happens ‘down-route’ stays down-route”, however this is not always the case. Rumours do the rounds all the time.

'The rumours are known as “Galley FM”, and cover everything from who's sleeping with who, to what plans the company has for routes or expansion and so on.

‘When away from home, crew are accommodated at British Airways' expense in luxury hotels. The agreement between the union and BA means we have to be put up in somewhere with restaurants/bars etc, therefore we end up staying in some of the world's finest hotels.’

A BA spokesman said: 'We speak to all of our hotel suppliers on a regular basis. We purchase around 5,000 hotel rooms a year in Nairobi for our crew and have received a small number of concerns from the hotel.

'We take any complaint extremely seriously and have reminded our Nairobi crew of the high standards that are expected of them when off duty overseas.'

Melbourne replaces Vancouver as the 'most liveable' city

31 August 2011

Melbourne is now the world’s most liveable city, ending Vancouver’s nine-year reign on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) bi-annual Global Liveability Survey.

Vienna was rated the second best place to live, and Vancouver the third. Toronto and Calgary rounded out the top five. In another coup for Australia, Sydney jumped ahead of Helsinki to sixth spot.

Longtime runner-up Melbourne edged in front for its low crime rates, political stability, and comprehensive health care and infrastructure.

Melbourne’s vibrant restaurant scene and European-style café culture didn't hurt its ratings, either.

Vancouver fell from grace because of the recent intermittent closure of the key Malahat Highway, causing the city to lose points for infrastructure, said the EIU. Presumably the Stanley Cup rioting cannot have helped the city's image either.