Hijacking
Apparently a Turkish aircraft which hijacked by possibly Islamic terrorists has landed in Brindisi in the south of Italy. Two Turks hijacked the plane in protest at the Pope’s forthcoming visit to Turkey. One suspects that there is a direct link between the hijacking and the Pope’s recent reference to Islam.
Perhaps next time the Pope will choose the words he uses in his speeches a little more carefully, as it sounds as though a tradgedy may have been narrowly avoided, although the incident is not yet over. One hopes that it is concluded peacefully.
UPDATE: It seems to be over and no-one was hurt. There are conflicting reports as to whether the hijacking was inpired by the Pope’s words, or whether the hijackers were just after political asylum. One of them has been reported to be Christian.
Odd - I shall amend this entry if I’m wrong about the connection between the Pope’s speech and this incident. Whatever, it does seem to be on heck of a coincidence, no?
Some suggestions for Italian TV programmes
How about:
- Licencing the Antiques Roadshow from the BBC?
- Doing a series on Italians living abroad.
- An Italian version of Top Gear (a whole hour!!)- Italians love cars and motorbikes.
- Finding and doing up your ideal summer house.
- Italian design - Italians do great furniture and fantastic kitchens.
- The Agri-turismo show - where to go and what it will cost.
- Fly-on-the-wall - a real reality show, un-edited, about the day to day life of a family living in Sicily.
With a little thought these programmes, some of them, could even be marketed overseas and develop the ‘made in Italy’ brand.
You could even show these programmes at a decent hour, not after 11.30 at night or 10:00 in the morning. Let’s see some new faces too, not friends of friends or brothers and sisters or uncles and grandads of those already doing TV. There is some real talent in Italy. Shame it is not exploited. Oh, and a few decent drama’s, not those based on trashy novels, would be nice. Italian writers do exist.
Space could easily be found, ditch a few cop shows, shorten the reality stuff and eliminate a few of the nightly quiz shows. Repeat fewer films too. Italy is overflowing with imagination and creativity, but few examples seem to be evident on TV here.
Oh and Beppe Grillo is not all that keen on Italian TV either, so it’s not just me.
Risky business
Blimey, that’s a heavy topic. Yes, it is. I end up having to research lots of heavy stuff in my job, but I rather like it; variety and all that. Today, I’ve been looking at the subject of risk management which I shall abbreviate to RM from now on.
What exactly is risk management? Sounds like a stupid question, I mean, it’s self-explanatory, isn’t it? Well, not exactly. In actual fact, RM deals with anticipating problems and having some strategy in place to deal with said problems if and when they occur. Seeing as management always seems to be rather reactive, the concept behind RM sounds like a damn good idea. Although, thinking about it, in very simple terms RM should really be called GM - no, not General Motors, but Good Management. I mean, managing things is all about learning from past mistakes, keeping things on track in the present and planning for the future. Anything that can happen in the future could be deemed a risk in itself in view of the fact that the future is, well, rather unpredictable, unless you happen to be able to read spherical spheres of glass, that is. I can’t, alas. Thus you could go on to say that RM is the art of planning for the future, back to the GM thing, really.
You can pay consultants good money for advice on RM strategy, but why is this? Are modern managers so tied up with the present that they are unable to think about the future? Or is it just that modern managers are incapable of planning for the future? (Yes, I know it is not easy)
In the old days, normal people used to say ’saving for a rainy day’, now we should refer to having an (’an’ seems to sit better here) RM strategy. We should all have one, and to an extent we do - pensions, insurance (pensions are really insurance policies) and popping a few pennies in a savings account are all RM strategies. This means we are all risk managers. You have to be, or else you may find yourself up to your eyes in doggy do. Look at Enron, Parmalat et al.
Risk is, oddly enough, risky. Of course there are different degrees of risk, ask any actuary, but I won’t go into them, ‘coz I’m still reading up on the subject and thinking how I can build it into a course.
End of thought.
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Photos from Flickr
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