The US didn’t have to drop its Mother of All Bombs on North Korea after all.
Pyongyang did it to itself when its much-publicized long-range missile exploded on launch-off. The trigger-happy, loose-cannon Kim Jong-Un must be so red in the face.
As is the norm in the closely controlled state, no information nor details were provided by Pyongyang, except to say it never was a nuclear bomb they launched. They were only testing long-range missiles, they said.
So okay, the only one who went ballistic was Kim. The USS Carl Vinsons, a state-of-the-art aircraft carrier, was already at sea in the area, ready to fire or intercept any nuclear threat from North Korea.
Lucky for Kim, his missile launch backfired. Otherwise he would have been blown to ashes by firepower from the USS Vinsons’ big guns.
The US has shown it cannot be trifled with when it dropped the Mother of All Bombs on Syria’s military installation that launched the chemical nerve gas sarin on helpless Syrian civilians. The US also unleashed the MOAB on known lairs of the terrorist group ISIS in Afghanistan. A non-nuclear device, MOAB is the latest in America’s arsenal. It’s a bunker buster and must have blasted IS out of the caves they used as hideouts.
The US action in Syria, Afghanistan and preventive measure against North Korea met with approval from the International community. North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, Britain, France were the first to hail the US action.
And why not? Every peace-loving country in the world would love to see the likes of Bashar al-Assad, and Kim Jong-Un go—if not peacefully, even dragged kicking and screaming.
Well, not like the way a United Airlines passenger was dragged along the aisle by the airline’s security personnel. The passenger, an Asian doctor, protested because he was scheduled to see patients at his destination.
It’s hard to believe he was chosen at random by United Airlines because UAL had overbooked and needed “volunteers” who can be offloaded. Forcefully pulling a passenger from his seat and dragging him along the aisle is not the way to do it.
The spectacle was has since gone viral after other passengers took pictures with their cellphone cameras. The result is a public relations nightmare for the airline. For sure, prospective passengers will boycott United for its ugly manner of handling paying passengers.
Except for a letter to former Foreign Secretary Roberto R. Romulo, the father of Maria Cristina Romulo, Philippine Airlines has not issued a public statement on the matter. PAL’s public relations department must have chosen to keep the matter under wraps knowing full well a response would only further publicize the incident.
But hey, the public following the case would like to know how PAL is settling the issue, if it is at all. Or is PAL’s PR department just waiting until the issue blows over?
No amount of apology and compensation for the Asian doctor can repair the damage done to the airline’s reputation or whatever is left of it. This reminds us of our own national carrier Philippine Airlines’ shabby treatment of business class passenger Maria Cristina.
After cancelling its flight because of “technical problems,” PAL put Ms. Romulo on an overbooked Cathay Pacific to New York. To her grief, she was not boarded in Hong Kong as the CP flight to New York was also overbooked. PAL did not bother to check with Ms. Romulo in Hong Kong for the onward flight to New York. She was to attend the opening of the Romulo Cafe of which she is a stockholder.
There ought to be a law against airlines overbooking their flights. Passengers are treated like cattle just so airlines can put butts on seats and not fly half empty.
This is the pitfall of business. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Sharp marketing and proper handling of passengers are what make other airlines profitable. But airlines cannot be too greedy and overbook to cover operational downsides. IATA and the Warsaw Convention are supposed to protect airlines and passengers from unwarranted bad treatment. But apparently these international conventions are not helping right the wrong in the system.
A Department for OFWs?
On arrival from his official visit to three Middle East countries, President Rodrigo Duterte touted the million of US dollars he reaped for the country.
To his credit, the President also brought home some 90 Filipino workers charged for various offenses but pardoned by the Saudi King.
Exhilarated by the success of his visit to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, Duterte, upon his return to Manila, announced he would create a Department for Overseas Filipino Workers.
Whoa, isn’t there already a Department of Labor and the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency looking after OFWs interest? To create another agency duplicating the work of DoLE and POEA would be superfluous. Imagine the additional budgetary outlay and bureaucratic maze it would create.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello who was with the Duterte official delegation to the Middle East, is not on the same page with the President on the creation of the new department. He thinks that DoLE and POEA are already performing the functions of taking care of OFWs’ interest.
Careful, Bebot, you just put your President in a bad light.
President Duterte at the moment has been cutting off heads of his Cabinet for alleged wrongdoing. While Bello cannot be accused of anything, he might have incurred the President’s ire for speaking his mind.