Comment and Discussion

Africa’s Leaking Wound

(See M. Murphy, pp. 37–41, March 2013 Proceedings )
Dr. Edgar Bates (former Director, Maritime Domain Awareness, Naval Forces Europe/Naval Forces Africa) —Dr. Murphy is on target when focusing on the endemic corruption in Africa. Arguably, the Niger Delta’s illicit activity is caused because oil revenues are being siphoned off by government officials, and therefore the citizens do not see any tangible benefits from oil extraction, and they want a piece of the action. Equally pernicious, corrupt public officials in Africa are tolerated by their supporters as long as some of the spoils are shared with them, so reforms are not always welcome.
A significant mismatch is having the Navy component (NAVAF) perform law-enforcement training instead of allowing the Coast Guard to take the lead on providing fisheries enforcement and drug-interdiction training to African forces. With perceived deep pockets, the Navy is being tasked with noncombat activities that should be the responsibility of other government entities. In the words of former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy, “We are not going to have a successful system if one part of the government is on steroids and the rest is on life support.”

As globalization forces the world’s economies to become more closely integrated and dependent, the Naval Studies Board concluded a few years ago that it is critical that nations coordinate and collectively integrate their maritime security activities by developing maritime partnerships. Notwithstanding the challenge of AFRICOM to first more effectively plan, prioritize, align, and implement U.S. government activities in a collaborative interagency environment, a more concerted effort is essential to coordinate activities with African countries and our European partners who have long-established equities and operational relationships. Having this sort of regional “scheduling conference” would reduce duplication of effort, create synergy, and conserve scarce resources. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been critical that while some capacity-building activities appear to support AFRICOM’s mission, others do not because “AFRICOM is generally not measuring long-term effects of activities.”
The Maritime Domain Awareness Capability Maturity Model (MDA CMM) is a tool for assessing a country’s ability to monitor, patrol, and maintain its maritime environment; it was created at NAVAF for the exact purpose of providing key decision makers the metrics that measure return on investment and gauge a country’s relative improvements in maritime safety and security. According to the MDA CMM, the first of five levels is characterized by countries whose MDA systems are inadequately sustained, whereas at the optimum level countries take a leadership role in regional information sharing. The CMM is responsive to the GAO’s concerns and should be adopted by AFRICOM to help shape an effective investment strategy  See Proceedings Magazine - April 2013 Vol. 139/4/1,322

Perspective on Time Horizons

     A little more than ten years ago I was fortunate to spend a morning listening to Dr. Elliot Jaques discuss in an open forum many of the concepts that he had conceived during his illustrious career.  His notion of time horizons seems to ring truer today than at any other time.  For Jacques time horizons were the most useful and objective measure of the level and complexity of work.  While the janitor sweeping the shop floor might be thinking about what was for dinner, the assembly line worker might be more concerned with this week’s pay, a director of marketing more worried about marketing campaigns for next year, the chief executive SHOULD be looking to the future - even beyond his own time at the helm.  Jaques observed that organizations implicitly recognize this fact in everything from titles to salary: line workers are paid hourly, managers annually, and senior executives compensated with longer-term incentives such as stock options.

      Jaques identified seven different time horizons and argued that requisite organizations to be successful should assure the suitability of the employee’s time horizon to the task.  Indeed his research within the context of organizational development indicated that it was this disconnect that made for unhappy employees and failed businesses.  Jaques noted that in effective organizations workers with  differing time horizons worked  at a level where they felt comfortable. If a worker's job was beyond their innate time horizon, they would fail. Less and they would be insufficiently challenged. Level 1 encompasses jobs such as sales associates or line workers handling routine tasks with a time horizon of up to three months. Levels 2 to 4 encompass various managerial positions with time horizons between one to five years. Level 5 crosses over to five to 10 years and is the domain of chief executives. Beyond Level 5, one enters the realm of statesmen and legendary business leaders comfortable with 20 or 50 year time horizons.

     In a world where there is no shortage of short sightedness from egregious examples of greed and short term profits that led to the financial meltdown in 2008 to political leaders who make and change policy based on the latest polls, Dr. Jaques perspective that great leaders are those that tend to be visionaries is worth revisiting. Arguably problems like governement deficits are intractable because we have an electorate that is at Level 2 and elects maybe Level 3 politicians when we really need Level 5 solutions. 

More on responsibility in the context of gun control

To follow up on the notion that the electorate is uninformed, it is incredible that the gun control zealots are unable to understand the problem, and when you can't define the problem your solution will not make any difference. As reported in the "Crime and Enforcement Activity in New York City" for the first six months of 2010: 95.1 percent of all murder victims and 95.9 percent of all shooting victims in New York City are black or Hispanic and 90.2 percent of those arrested for murder and 96.7 percent of those arrested for shooting someone are black and Hispanic. According to Ann Coulter, the murder rate among white Americans is as low as the murder rate in Belgium. "So perhaps it's not a gun problem," she has concluded. "Perhaps it's a demographic problem."

The gun control argument is that gun laws intended to put guns into the hands of "good guys" are the laws that also multiply guns in the hands of "bad guys". Note that these guns are hand guns and are not the topic of the current assault weapon rhetoric. Gun buy backs in inner cities have had mixed results and may be a short term solution, but in the long term the problem of the black ghetto underclass has to shift from the politically correct argument that white racism is the cause and black inequality is the result. As an example, Bill Cosby is one voice that has tried to transform black helplessness, frustration and righteous indignation into a sense of shared responsibility and action. As the dropout rate approaches 70% and the teenage single parenthood is about 80% in the lower economic neighborhoods, Coz has emphasized to the students the importance of their education: “Study. That’s all. It’s not tough. You’re not picking cotton. You’re not picking up the trash. You’re not washing windows. You sit down. You read. You develop your brain.” His message is that black poverty will only end when and if black people themselves take responsibility for changing their lives.

Ironically when the country has moved to where the president can and should be an inspiration for those in the black ghetto underclass, he and the gun control zealots are unable to place responsibility where it belongs

Responsibility

Wrote this before the concept of blogs was imagined! More true today...

America is faced with a shortage of personal responsibility at every level of society. In America, pre-World War II, the churches, the schools and the families inculcated the standards of acceptable behavior. New generations learned the established and agreed upon customs of cooperative and civilized behavior very much as they learned a mother tongue. Starting with the psychedelic 1970's, we have been encouraged to do our own thing and all the traditional concepts of right and wrong have been replaced by a psychological approach to values: instead of being taught that there are absolutes by which they must abide, children are taught, "You'll feel better, if you do the right thing." Thus, having replaced moral concepts of good and evil with therapeutic categories of desire and feeling, we have lost the ability to instill a sense of character in young people and will likely continue to produce new generations of cultural orphans. Character is about one's adherence to moral principles and the standards of conduct that distinguish right from wrong.

Moral principles are not relative to the revisionist history of the moment. A clear lack of personal responsibility is when the President of the United States can admit that he lied to the American people, but urges the American people to be angry with Congress for making an issue of his lying - and they agree. The philosophical basis of this new lack of personal responsibility is rooted in determinism, the argument that people have no control over anything they choose to do, since everything anyone ever does is the result of a chain of causes. In order to fill the void of moral accountability, Americans generally rely on the courts to support the moral underpinnings of our culture which among other consequences results in piles of regulations and commensurate numbers of lawyers. As an example, most pundits agree that runaway medical costs could be seriously checked by tort reform. During the 1980’s Americans did collectively start accepting greater personal responsibility for their actions. This new attitude impacted social programs, as people questioned the assumption that unequal distribution of wealth is always society's fault. More recently, both intellectual and financial success have been demonized and we are moving away from the traditional American value that people are responsible for their own lives.

Dr. Viktor Frankl was a Jewish physician incarcerated in one of Hitler's concentration camps. From that experience, he developed a new school of psychiatry; based on the premise that mental wellness is not achieved by helping the individual understand what caused his psychological problems, but by taking action to resolve the problem. When Dr. Frankl lectured in the United States, he would conclude with a plea for Americans to erect a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast to balance the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast because, he declared, freedom requires a balance between those two ideals, liberty and responsibility.

My last day in Napoli

9/21/2012 Anno Domini:  Wake up and grab some breakfast at Capo landing on the way to the FIAT service center in Pozzuoli  to pick up the technician at 0800 who will recode my Panda for the new ignition key and remote. Fortunately, I had been there on Wednesday to purchase the key (former key went missing). , so knew the way because the center is not easy to find.  On the way, coffee spills and my Telepass device drowns.  Before leaving FIAT, asks the tech to grab jumper cables as car has been sitting in garage for several weeks.  Drive to Capo is stop and go, and I am sensitive to riding clutch because on Wednesday rental car clutch popped while on Tangenziale which is another story and one that I was fortunate to walk away from.  Somewhere around Vomero car slips back a few inches and nudges Polizia who just motors on...

Get tech on base through security and proceeds to synch key with car using his laptop.  Turns out battery in car is fine, but battery in laptop is not. After a few tries, the key and car are properly coded.  Drive tech back to Pozzuoli pay the 100 Euro service charge, then return back to the Capo base...

Stop at Vodafone to give them my Iphone which had a new SIM installed Wednesday but did not work.  (Note alternative was some sort of three month process to terminate phone service.) This was the second time, I had been to Vodafone with the same problem and so wanted my money (approx $50) back.  Clerk informs me that “this is not the way we do things in Italy.”  ...

Drop by the JAG office to get POA so Lenny can sell Panda after I leave.  Getting POA is a priority as will be difficult if done long distance.  Sign says be back in five minutes, after 15 I leave. Check in on Lenny but he is not in (my old) office.  Drop by Security, another priority, but they closed at 1100.  Participate in a much appreciated farewell lunch with Lenny and Kirsty. Strategized on how they could maintain the momentum gained in the last couple of years...

Drive to Support Site for 1300 meeting in housing. Landlord did agree to sign release form so that deposit could be returned minus some sort of year end 700 Euro charge for gas.  Did not dispute, but wonder why service would not be terminated if bill had not been paid in eight months, but apparently this is not the way they do things in Italy.  Got my deposit from cashier at support site in cash (largest note they had was 100 Euro). Remember that for a long time 500 Euro note could not be tendered in Naples because the notes were generally considered counterfeit. Go to NEX to terminate Telepass and phone.  End up paying about $50 for last bill which I am being told will be reconciled with a final final phone bill in about six months...

Drive back to Capo and JAG office.  Great that both Lenny and Notary are there, because this is a two part process where you have to go to motor vehicle office (fortunately in same building) to fill out form and then to JAG for notary.  Completed just before 1530 closing. Over to Security (open on a Friday afternoon!)  to sign some forms and do what they needed to do.  Next stop: Vodaphone. SIM and phone now working, but considering I leave Italy in less than 12 hours phone is not as useful as it could have been the day before when coordinating pack out and appliance pick up from the apartment in Marechiaro...

Go to Capo NEX to exchange NATO gas coupons for gift card. Kept one coupon to fill rental. Next, clean out Panda which is still on base. Car was best memory of Italy, but no opportunity to drive this trip to Italy.  Drive downtown to see if I cannot get a leather briefcase that I had bought and then had to return for repairs when the handle broke.  I had been back to the store at least a half dozen times, but they were always closed.  Stop on way to top off rental using gas coupon. Unbelievably store is open and clerk remembers me and DOES have the briefcase, but instead of repair, it is replaced with a different color briefcase.  I wanted my money back, but remembered that this is not the way they do things in Italy. Traffic congestion so bad that it took more than an hour to drive back to Capo and so had to top off car at Esso station near Hertz.  Suspicion attendant took my 15 Euro and never filled car, but needle may have needed more time to sense fuel level.  Return car to Hertz without incident. Nice stroll back to Capo, as I have made the same walk while in the rain with suitcases etc. ...

It’s now about 2100 and I have a beer and special order pizza at the Capo landing.  Both are good. Italian bartender starts talking about how locals can't be trusted, and as an example he tells me that each year he gets a surcharge from the gas company for about 700 Euro when the gas company figures out that their pension plans have been underfunded for the year.  Now, this is THE way they do things in Italy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Aircraft Factories Shutter, Space Remains Bedrock Industry in Southern California

National Defense

April 2011

By Stew Magnuson

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Aerospace employed some 160,000 workers in the region in 1990, but that is down to about 47,000 in 2010, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Other states such as Arizona may have friendlier tax codes, or lower cost of living for employees, but one can’t easily pack up a satellite manufacturing facility and move it to friendlier states, said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing space and intelligence systems.

“What really built Southern California was the aerospace industry,” he said. The state would benefit from an understanding of why so many companies have left, he added. He did not want to elaborate, but taxes and regulations have been the oft-mentioned reasons for the exodus.

The late 1990s and early 2000s saw a wave of space industry consolidations. Both the Raytheon and Boeing facilities in El Segundo were once part of Hughes. Northrop Grumman merged with TRW in 2002, and took over its facility in Redondo Beach.

Hughes Communications Inc. carried on the famous industrialist’s name as an Internet satellite services provider for more than a decade after relinquishing its satellite manufacturing business to Boeing about the same time. In February, Englewood, Colo.-based EchoStar acquired Hughes for $1.34 billion. Soon, the only places where the legendary moniker may remain in Southern California is on the streets that bear his name.

Because of the different space-related nexuses in Southern California, the region has a unique and knowledgeable work force. Two of the three largest satellite manufacturers, Northrop Grumman and Boeing, remain in Southern California. Lockheed Martin, the third, is in Sunnyvale near San Francisco. NASA affiliated facilities such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and the Dryden Flight Research Center are nearby. The Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center in El Segundo and Vandenberg Air Force Base where rocket are launched to the north, are also located here.

Google for the Brain

A colleague of mine, Scott Coughlin, established a blog called a IT Thought of the Day. Afer reading an article in today's USA today about "augmented reality", here is my thought- coupling a Google for the brain with “augmented reality”.
How often have you recognized someone, but forgot their name ? Although this by itself may be embarrassing, memory loss can obviously have more dire consequences. Our brain is a sponge that absorbs a lot of information starting at an early age. Would it not be useful to be able to recall what is locally stored? Indeed, I find myself using Google to seek information about stuff that I was taught in school, but have forgotten. According to Gary Marcus, professor of psychology at New York University, “What we remember at any single moment depends heavily on the accidents of which bits of mental flotsam and jetsam happen to be active. Our mood, our environment, even our posture can influence our delicate memories.” Making our memories more accurate and more accessible would require a Google-like search engine which combines cue-driven promptings similar to human memory with the location-addressability of computers. Furthermore, there's no reason in principle why neural prosthetics could not incorporate this sort of functionality.
To take this one step further, you could upload this memory bank information to a smartphone which combines a camera, GPS and web access. The phone's camera can already "recognize" an object or place that a user is pointing to by overlaying the screen's image to location data. The travel industry is starting to exploit this new "augmented reality" technology to give tourist-friendly information about restaurants, sights and shops. This information could readily be displayed on the heads-up display of the wearer’s glasses. Imagine while you are talking to someone you have access to all his public information (e.g. Facebook etc.) and all the information that was shared in previous conversations or observations. A more far-future neural prosthetic might actually have a direct neural linkup to your brain, allowing you to see Google results on your retina. If everybody were on Facebook, we could know anybody’s name that we saw on the street – and more.
Opposing viewpoints about whether having a Google brain is a good thing or bad thing are discussed in Discover magazine's Google is Making Us Smarter and Atlantic Monthly's Is Google Making Us Stupid?.
There are additional cons. One issue that will have to be resolved is the downside of surfacing repressed memories which are usually traumatic in nature and block a painful time in one’s life. Another issue is that in general our Google brains also are changing to become overly dependent on the rewards of the Internet. According to neuroscientists stopping this frequent self-directed intellectual stimulation, may become hard to stop. Not only does this result in less downtime for our brains, but it also can lead to exhaustion. Many studies have shown how important downtime in the brain is for creative thinking, working memory in general, all complex problem solving, and of course, error detection.
After all, when we recognize someone we want to actually get their name right.