Saturday, December 23, 2006

On Days Like These*

More rain. More reported deaths from the floods. Gloom and a sense of foreboding that the worst may yet to come?

Red alerts. Now whats with our penchant for American military terms like pre emptive strikes and collateral damages. I suppose red spells danger but tell that to the Chinese who for thousands of years have associated the colour with 'ong' or good fortune. Also what happens to the colour blind?

It is noteworthy that for the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Code, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has wisely chosen to 'number' the security levels instead, from Level 1 when everything is 'normal' to a heightened Level 3 when all hell is expected to break loose.

* This has always been one of my favourite Matt Monro songs, a haunting bossa nova tune written by Quincy Jones for the 1969 movie The Italian Job.

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