mail@davemoral.es

We are not Norwegian Cruise Line customers, nor have we booked a voyage with them. I suspect that their public affairs office advised their CEO to send out a note to anyone who has ever booked with them alongside any registered user on their website.

i.e. The shotgun approach of  ”Lets get some communication out and tell anyone who will listen that we are not like the other guy”. Contrasting with Carnival, parent company of Costa Cruises, who will be utterly destroyed in the aftermath of the Concordia accident.

“We operate all of our vessels to meet and exceed the requirements of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention and the International Safety Management Code maritime standards, the international safety requirements which govern the cruise industry. Every crew member is well trained in the Company’s stringent safety protocols, participating in weekly safety drills onboard every one of our ships.

Our Captains are experienced seafarers with an average of 33 years at sea. All of our Captains come up through the ranks progressing from Second Officer to First Officer and then Chief Officer up to Staff Captain before they can become Captains. On average, it takes at least 15 years for a Captain to be promoted into that role. We further ensure that our Captains regularly undergo rigorous simulation training on navigation and bridge operations.

To assist our Captains and Officers while at sea, we have extensive navigation protocols in place. Our bridge operations are based on a two-person team approach. Accordingly, there are always two officers in charge of bridge operations, mandating strict adherence to operating procedures. Furthermore, our bridge teams follow pre-set voyage plans which are thoroughly reviewed and discussed by the Captain and bridge team prior to port departures and arrivals. In addition, all of our ships employ the latest state-of-the-art navigational equipment and technology to ensure that our bridge teams have the most accurate data regarding the planned itinerary.

Prior to every cruise setting sail, we hold a mandatory safety drill for all guests during which important safety information is reviewed and demonstrated. We also show an extensive safety video which runs continuously on the stateroom televisions should further information be required.”

Much has been written and shared about Steve Jobs, his impact and his legacy, in the days since news of his death entered the collective conversation. His passing saddened me and I have been ruminating and reflecting upon his legacy ever since.

As with many, I first learned of his death via Twitter, as my feed exploded with platitudes, compliments, reflections and simple comments, coming across in a torrent. I am unable to count myself as one of the lucky few to have met the man personally. My closest contact with Steve came in a mass of many thousands, packed into the High Temple of Apple Keynote as Jobs delivered, with aplomb, the message of the day.

The occasion was the unveiling of the iPhone, January of 2007, at MacWorld San Francisco. Waiting in line with thousands of fellow migrants the excitement and anticipation was palpable. The spectacle of a Jobs Keynote lived up to legend. Clothed in his signature black turtleneck, jeans and sneakers Steve worked the crowd, his delivery and timing perfect. I have watched many pitchmen, many a executives make presentations. Steve was the best there was and the best the technology community has ever seen. Above all, Jobs was a man of passion, vision, poise and supreme confidence. He was speaking to the collective masses, believers in his vision for a technological future but all the while he was making a much broader pitch. Steve was transforming his company that morning. Twice before, in the preceding decade Apple lurched in new directions, first with a rebirth of consumer computing under the iMac and years later a new focus on personal content and media with the iPod. The iPhone pitch, it’s vision for a quantum leap in mobile communication and collaboration was equally important.

That morning, as Steve stood on stage, trumpeting the advantages of his new technological wonder, you shared his vision. You believed, as he did that everything that had come before was leading up to this. Every piece, every step along the way, building atop one another to some larger, master plan for the future. Flawed or perfect, correct or misguided Steve’s vision, for his company, for the industry, for society he believed to be the correct one.

Jobs’ second act at Apple is, unquestionably the greatest business comeback in American History. Steve, rightly, deserves the plaudits as an entrepreneur, industrialist and executive. Yet what separated Steve Jobs from many other leaders, and what makes him truly a special person is his overarching vision and force of will. As leader of Apple 2.0, Steve made missteps, errors in products and services however a unified, cohesive vision always outwardly guided his leadership. Vision, true confidence of where you want to move something, people, an industry, indeed a culture is far too rare in this world.

To this day, the brilliant advertising campaign, spawned by Jobs shortly after his return to Apple, Think Different, and its opening television ad moves me to near tears. Vision, passion, true belief in making tomorrow better than today need not be separated from business interests and the bottom line. Steve was a great man. He left the world better than he found it. His legacy upon technology and culture will persist. Steve thought differently and changed things…

Recent days have been a torrent of emotion and forced reflection.  We loose sight in this nation of how precious life is.  We are profoundly blessed to have fellow Americans  willing to stand up and place life and limb on the table for liberty.  Watching the highlights of the Ft. Hood Memorial one profound passage of General Casey’s remarks moved me:

It’s a tradition in our special operations unit to go to the Book of Isaiah when eulogizing fallen comrades. At the funeral, they read, ‘Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking ‘whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ Then I said ‘Here I am. Send me.’

We forget, far too freely, the impact of this simple sacrifice our countrymen make, every day, of every year for our Republic.

On a day when we honor our veterans and remember those who have fallen in defense of the freedoms we all share there are no better words than those offered by an American President 146 years ago:

That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I am stubborn in my support of things and people.  Once I cast my lot in with an idea, a person, an approach, I tend not to change my mind very easily.  To do so is to effectively admit you were wrong in your initial analysis (and I don’t like to be wrong) *sarcasm*

I have stood by this President through thick and thin.  He did not earn my vote in 2000, but did in 2004 and I have been one of those 25-ish% of Americans who still approved, on balance of his job performance.  The past two weeks the dam has burst and I have now officially disowned him.  Step one was his gopher-like behavior during the fiscal crisis, popping up and emerging form the oval office only long enough to make a brief statement.  Then, after refusing to take any press questions or further reassure the country, he scurried back into his hole in retreat.

Now comes these remarks, within the context of record drops in the markets, and after a $700 billion transfer of taxpayer money to the private sector.

As global markets plunged, President Bush on Monday said “it’s going to take awhile” for the government’s $700 billion financial rescue plan to bolster the troubled U.S. economy.

Gee, thanks for the reassuring words Mr. President.

But, he added: “We don’t want to rush into the situation and have the program not be effective.”

Don’t want to rush? I see, so the fury in Congress the past two weeks, the midnight meetings with Treasure Department, the warnings of pending doom and gloom and calamity was measured and restrained?

Give me a break.