Beware Doug and Mary Ann: email is a tricky business as you can't always
see the smile on the writer's face. I've been emailing to forums like
this one for 14 years and seen lot of misinterpretations. Having said
that, thank you Doug to wake us up, once in a while.
Like you mate, there's nothing I like more than divergence of opinion and
Lord knows it doesn't happen often in this forum. We too have endless
fights on culture-free issues and even with outsiders who study our
stuff, including yourself (yes, we don't always agree with what you
say!). Our biggest fights are often on how to avoid creating a specific
culture of its own. Avoiding aviation culture is one thing, but not
creating a parallel culture as complex and prone to biases as the one we
wanted to avoid, another.
Our fights normally end with a Bordeaux and my famous smoked arctic char.
I did not perceive Mary Ann's comment to be negative and I know you
didn't either. Cultural issues get too little attention in this forum....
the only recent attention it got was to tell some members not to write
here if it wasn't to be in English... The party line is strong here, too
few will raise controversial issues. This forum has to be more than a
source for video tapes and CVR transcripts.
OK... who want to disagree with me?
Beware... when it gets too hard, I revert to French!
And for Mary Ann, I just saw you're in NY state.... just hours (maybe
minutes...) from culture-packed Montreal. When are you coming to see us?
Jean LaRoche
Aero Innovation
Montreal
P.S. My next contribution will come live from Hanoi where I'm going,
among other things, to tune Vietnam Airlines Flight Ops' first Internet
access and log the CRM Team onto this forum. Ciao.