Monday, July 08, 2013

Leading Indicators

I’m not sure what all this means, but certain events happened over the weekend that could be foreshadows of things to come:

1) Dozens Reported Killed In Egypt – Clashes between pro-Muslim Brotherhood protestors, angered at the ouster of President Mohamed  Morsi, and pro-democracy protestors, supported by the Egyptian military, clashed several times over the past few days. The Obama administration has wisely stayed above the fray, opting to wait and see before picking the wrong side to back.

As Egypt was one of the first of the Arab Spring protests to rise up a few years back, this is indeed troubling, particularly as Egypt (specifically its military) has been a long—standing ally to us in the region.

2) 5 Dead, 40 Missing After Train Explosion – Yes, the XL pipeline will be safe, huh? In case you missed it, a freight train derailed near a town in eastern Quebec province in Canada, leveling a small town. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper described it as a “war zone”.

3) Tales of Flying Cinnamon Buns, iPods, and Gaping Exit Holes – How does a Boeing 777 with presumably enough fuel to make the flight and then some, manage to crash flying at less than the minimum speed a jet that size should be descending at?

Given Boeing’s problems with its Dreamliner (the 787) are passengers now beta testing airplanes? Or pilots?

We’re sort of seeing a period of troubling instability across the globe and spanning economics and infrastructure as well as politics. Given the turmoil in the Middle East, including Turkey, and now in South America, it will be hard for anyone to focus on things like ensuring our bridges stay up and the trains and planes run on time safely.

Well, maybe our rescue will come from off-planet…