逃犯條例風波，泛民念茲在茲要「伸張公義」，昨日有張超雄事件，之前又有楊岳橋等提出單次（即匪語「一次性」）修例、日落條款等。這伙人似乎（扮作）不知道中文「律」、「例」，英文 "law" 的意思。
律，清段玉裁《說文解字注》：「均布也... 律者所以笵天下之不一而歸於一。故曰均布也。」既云「法律」，則必須一視同仁，決不能度身訂造，「一次性」地針對。泛民等人諸多大律師，沒可能不懂這些常識。其實不止法律，科學上的 "law" 也必須是 universal。要是蘋果從樹上掉下來有一條 law，地球環繞太陽公轉要另一條 law，那就 law 不成 law，不是 universal law of gravitation 了。一條只能解釋蘋果掉下來而不能解釋香蕉掉下來的 "law"是沒有用的，因為沒有普適性。
「咁陳同佳案要點處理？」你問。難道就這樣由他逍遙法外嗎？是，正是這樣。
任何制度都不可能完美，必有「漏洞」。這件事當然涉及中港台敏感政治問題，又牽涉其餘七百萬人福祉，這早有人提出，這裡撇開這點。這裡想說的是泛民的「修例癮」其實是他們的左翼「大愛」及信奉 utopia 的又一體現。他們認為每一個人每一件事都能夠（以及必要）百分百達至完美，但有普遍性的原則不可能完美處理每件事，於是他們不斷 bend the rules，就每一次特別情況作例外處理，最後例不成例，變成人治社會。每次修法這麼麻煩，泛民議員個個都是包青天，未審已知此人有罪，何不直接由立法會判刑？
不錯，包青天式社會正是很多人的理想社會。在包青天的世界，其實是沒有法律的，但「公義」必能伸張。包青天式的「公義」怎樣 scale up 到整個國家？只有把政府職權無限加大。這當然又是左翼的 utopia 了。放眼歷史，何曾有過這樣的 utopia？
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Another Air France delay - though they have learnt their lesson this time
Two years on from the previous incident, I was on the exact same sequence of flights again:
AF1565 10/7/2019 19:20 BHX - CDG 21:35
AF188 10/7/2019 23:35 CDG - HKG 17:25 +1
(And if you wonder, why am I still flying with them? Well like I said, I need to use up all my mileage first, and although there is some progress, it is nowhere near completion...)
As you can see, the AF188 is scheduled at the exact times as two years ago, and AF1565 is scheduled 25 minutes earlier. The first thing I saw when I arrived at the airport was the flight is delayed... sigh. It shows a delay to 20:10. I then worked out (based on the timing last time) that there might still be a chance to catch the connecting flight. But subsequently it showed a delay to 20:45. It would need a minor miracle I thought; let's see whether they have learnt their lesson or if they want to give me another 800 euros.
The flight took off at around 21:00 - almost the same as 2 years ago despite the earlier scheduled time - and touched down 22:56 (9 minutes before the one last time, yay.) Again, there were 20+ people connecting to Hong Kong and some others to Beijing, Shanghai etc. And again they looked pretty inexperienced. I told myself, if we missed the connection again I'm going to teach them all how to claim the compensation - they didn't look like they know. That would be quite fun, wouldn't it.
One French (?) passenger commented that this flight was always late.
It turned out AF did learn their lesson. There was already someone standing at the arriving gate holding a sign of "AF188 Hong Kong" picking us up. He then led the way, and there was one lane of the security checks open. They probably were about to close - it was around 23:15, the last boarding time - and maybe AF told them to keep it open.
So, you see, with some moderate amount of planning, it can be done and you can avoid all the costs of flying a less-than-full plane, overnight accommodation, overtime for rebooking staff, and most importantly compensation for the delays of the intercontinental flights.
I was almost disappointed that they made it; I was already planning in my head what to do in Paris.
I was also upgraded to Premium Economy in AF188. They must have me on file as a troublemaker. Well sorry but I believe all I wrote were useful suggestions for you to improve your workflow (and hence profitability).
It turned out AF188's departure was also mildly delayed - by various reasons such as unable to close the cargo door - and it would be even more ridiculous if we were unable to connect to it because of something like security staff gone off work.
Unfortunately, while we the passengers got to the connecting flight, our baggage didn't and they had to take next day's flight. But at least they delivered it pretty swiftly (the plane landed at 17:35 local time the next day and the luggage was delivered to my front door shortly before midnight.)
All in all this post is to give credits to AF. Not for the delay obviously but for learning their lessons.
AF1565 10/7/2019 19:20 BHX - CDG 21:35
AF188 10/7/2019 23:35 CDG - HKG 17:25 +1
(And if you wonder, why am I still flying with them? Well like I said, I need to use up all my mileage first, and although there is some progress, it is nowhere near completion...)
As you can see, the AF188 is scheduled at the exact times as two years ago, and AF1565 is scheduled 25 minutes earlier. The first thing I saw when I arrived at the airport was the flight is delayed... sigh. It shows a delay to 20:10. I then worked out (based on the timing last time) that there might still be a chance to catch the connecting flight. But subsequently it showed a delay to 20:45. It would need a minor miracle I thought; let's see whether they have learnt their lesson or if they want to give me another 800 euros.
The flight took off at around 21:00 - almost the same as 2 years ago despite the earlier scheduled time - and touched down 22:56 (9 minutes before the one last time, yay.) Again, there were 20+ people connecting to Hong Kong and some others to Beijing, Shanghai etc. And again they looked pretty inexperienced. I told myself, if we missed the connection again I'm going to teach them all how to claim the compensation - they didn't look like they know. That would be quite fun, wouldn't it.
One French (?) passenger commented that this flight was always late.
It turned out AF did learn their lesson. There was already someone standing at the arriving gate holding a sign of "AF188 Hong Kong" picking us up. He then led the way, and there was one lane of the security checks open. They probably were about to close - it was around 23:15, the last boarding time - and maybe AF told them to keep it open.
So, you see, with some moderate amount of planning, it can be done and you can avoid all the costs of flying a less-than-full plane, overnight accommodation, overtime for rebooking staff, and most importantly compensation for the delays of the intercontinental flights.
I was almost disappointed that they made it; I was already planning in my head what to do in Paris.
I was also upgraded to Premium Economy in AF188. They must have me on file as a troublemaker. Well sorry but I believe all I wrote were useful suggestions for you to improve your workflow (and hence profitability).
It turned out AF188's departure was also mildly delayed - by various reasons such as unable to close the cargo door - and it would be even more ridiculous if we were unable to connect to it because of something like security staff gone off work.
Unfortunately, while we the passengers got to the connecting flight, our baggage didn't and they had to take next day's flight. But at least they delivered it pretty swiftly (the plane landed at 17:35 local time the next day and the luggage was delivered to my front door shortly before midnight.)
All in all this post is to give credits to AF. Not for the delay obviously but for learning their lessons.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
