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Tsunami: Mark Knight & "Getting on with life"

Editorial cartooning would be a diffilcult job to have these days, particularly when the dominant news issue and conversation item is as tragic as the Asian tsunami.

The job of an editorial cartoonist is to reveal the often awkward truth when many else would prefer a tactful silence or at least a delicate hand.  The Herald Sun's regular cartoonist, Mark Knight, has handled the situation magnificently during the last week.  His daily cartoons are always measured, clever and thoughtful.  Demonstrating his great feel for the balance between creativity and empathy.

Two of my favorites are this from December 29:

And this from December 30:

But I couldn't help but sense what I think is evidence of his sarcasim in today's drawin

It no doubt follows yesterdays appalling news that some holiday-makers in Patong  have swept aside the debris on the beach, set up their deck chairs and proceeded to work on their tans, sip fruity cocktails and spritzers and listening to their iPods...  All as if nothing has happened:

"Last Sunday, Patong beach was wrecked when a wall of water slammed into Phuket Island, claiming hundreds of lives.

Umbrellas, chairs and other beach paraphernalia were swept to the top of the tree-lined beach, taking tourists and locals with them. It was here that Perth baby Melina Heppell died.

But for some tourists yesterday, the tragedy was already a mere memory as they made the most of the weather. Many were in bikinis, some lounged on sunbeds while others swam in the water where so many had lost their lives only days before.

Their fun in the sun came despite warnings that aftershocks could follow the disaster that is now known to have claimed about 125,000 lives"

I know you have to "get on with life", but having a holiday in an area recently devestated by a tragic and incompehensible event that caused so much death and damage is, to me,  outrageous and absolutely mindboggling.    I don't know how anyone can seriously do it, and think nothing of it.

But having said that, many locals are probably pleased that the tourism industry has started to recover so (amazingly) quickly, with much of a blip.  Listening to a radio news report earlier, it would certainly seem that many of the locals are urging tourists to come back.

Tourists are the lifeblood of many of the beautiful islands in southern Thailand and this is the peak for overseas visitors, a warm, dry season coinciding with the depth of northern winters.

Thailand's resort islands, like much of the region, were scenes of devastation. Some hotels were wiped out, while others were untouched or minimally damaged

If there is a fundamental way of seeing the difference between those of us who travel to places like the Maldives or Phuket and the people who live there, it might be this: we are "covered" for every eventuality, yet disbelieving when the worst happens. They, by contrast, have no way of coping with the worst, yet are completely unsurprised when it happens, and as such can move on much quicker that we can.

 

The Great Jetstar Sale that isn't

I've banged on a bit about Jetstar (fledgling discount Aussie Airline)).  Last week, I blogged about how they don't give a shit about listening to the feedback of their customers.  Maybe that's because theire customers are angry that Jetstar "lie" (well, tell little fibs, anyway) to them.

Take their latest offering, which is splashed across their homepage "30 000 Seat Sale, from $19."  Sure, sounds like the same old deal that has been wheeled out before, except that this one has more fine print.  When you include taxes, fees, surcharges and whatever else, your $19 deal balloons out to $49  (+257%)...And $49 deals have always existed at Jetstar, so this is a Clayton's-sale that hides behind the fine-print.

In addition to being more than just a bit misleading, this move is significant because it moves away from the standard policy by airlines to quote airfares all inclusive.  Of course Branson's Virgin Blue have decided to dance along with Jetstar and do the same.

I understand the "marketing-think" behind touting the low-ball price, particularly when you are trying to increase demand on price sensitive leisure routes.  After all, they are trying to convince Mum & Dad to take the plane rather than pack the kids into the back of the Commodore and drive.

But I still think that moving away from all-inclusive pricing is misleading as well as being to the overall detriment of Joe Blow who is trying to compare apples with apples when budgeting for his family holiday to the Gold Coast.

(Johnnie Moore has a post about Romania's own discount air service here)

The Deaf Ears at Jetstar

What clowns they over at Australias own low frills airline Jetstar...

If you want to fly on Jetstar, they encourage you to book over the internet, or even via SMS; it's the way of the future, you know!

BUT, if you want to complain about Jetstar (like these people have been); you can forget about using the internet, or sending e-mails, because they don't like getting "chat-style, respond-on-demand" messages....If you are pissed off with them, post them a letter please.  That way they can make sure "they provide a considered and measured response to what they assume is a considered and measured complaint."

Oh dear.  What dills.

Wake up guys! The letter is dead.  Long live the email.

The email is our way of trying to have a conversation with you.  We don't always talk in "considered and measured" tones.  We are just people- your customers (you remember us, don't you?), not corporate robots who can only speak using "considered and measured" business blab.  Why not accept that sometimesyou will piss us off  and we will yell, scream and be angry.  But we might also knock our socks off with something cool that you have done, and we'll be happy, complimentary and congratulatory.  At the end of the day, we are going to talk about you and your people, and say whatever we want about you and them anyway.  You can't stop us.

But you can join us...talk with us.  Or not.

Maybe someone should "post" Jetstar spokesperson Simon Westaway a copy of Cluetrain...I'd email him a copy, but they don't "do email" at Jetstar. Pity.  He probably is as completely clueless when it comes to recognising that he and all the little Jetstar-ians dressed in orange are getting closer to greeting the sunrise on Day Three.

Not The Lonely Planet Guide to India

My good mate Ben has been travelling around India for the last six weeks.  Here's his list of the 10 best of India, and top 10 worst of India.  Not surprisingly many of these items don't appear in any Lonely Planet book:
Top 10 best-
(1) Cost of living!- where else can you get a hotel room for 45 ruppees($1.50/60p) a night. Sure prison cells might be more salubrious, but what a bargain.
(2) Lassi- yoghurt/curd drink mixed with fruit. Perfect start to any meal. Some places will even whip you up a bhang lassi if your having trouble getting to sleep in your 45 ruppee room.
(3) Varanasi- where else is it normal for a dead body to float down the river. Back home the police would have the whole area locked down, with the media encircled. Here it's just another day!
(4) Temples/forts/monuments- doesn't really need to be said but India's got it all. Everyone's seen the Taj on TV, but don't think it ends there. There are many mind blowing sights.
(5) Chai (Indian for tea)- Like English tea except very milky, extremely sweet, and boiling hot.
(6) Weather- especially here in Goa, guarranteed 30 degrees. Beats the Melbourne winter blues.
(7) Cricket- mention your Aussie and the conversation will insantly turn to cricket. Even better because we won this time.
(8) Seafood in Goa- only $6/2.50pound for a plate of prawns. Been living the good life for the last week. Any weight I lost in the first 6 weeks is rapidly being put back on.
(9) Shopping- everything and anything you could ever want/need can be found here. Even if they don't have it they'll find it for you.
(10) Photo Ops- if my photos don't come out I'll be really pissed off.
Top 10 Worst-
(1) Rickshaws- 3 wheeled golf carts that spew out fumes. The driver usually tries to rip you off blind. For starters he'll try to charge 3 or 4 times to correct fare, and then he'll try to take you to his mate's hotel where he'll get commision. Don't believe anything they say!
(2) Touts- like rickshaw drivers, not to be trusted. Lie through their teeth and wont leave you alone. They too get commision.
(3) Scams- it seems India is the home of scams. If your stupid enough to think you'll make money you probably deserve to lose your money. If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is.
(4) Indian traffic/driving- no such thing as road rules here. The aim of the game is to use every inch of the road to fit as many vehicles in as possible. They end result is gridlock, at which point they all hold down the horn, deafening you.
(5) Indian plumbing- seems the only thing that moves more slowly than the traffic is the shit. No toilet has been cleaned for years, and most are of the squat variety.
(6) Holy cows- just like in Animal Farm where the pigs ran the show, it seems the cows run things here. No one will touch them for fear of bad karma. Bus drivers would rather crash their bus than hit them.
(7) Indian children- real cute until they learn some English. From then on all they want is 'one pen, one chocolate, one ruppee'. Stupid tourists are to blame for turning the kids here into beggars.
(8) The hard sell- these guys are the masters at getting you to buy shit that you neither want or need. No/Neh doesn't seem to register, even after you repeated it for the tenth time.
(9) Vegetarian diet- OK for about 3 days, at which point another plate of curried or fried vegtables is not so appealing. Even if you manage to track down the only resturant in town that serves Western food, your usually left dissapointed.
(10) Indian cities- Shitholes! Only been to 2 of the big 4, Mumbai and Delhi. This is probably 2 to many. Overcrowded, polluted, smell like urine/rubbish, traffic clogged, full of homless people and beggars. You might all think I'm being a little harsh, but take my word for it their only use is as a transport hub. Best avoided!

Great stuff.  Looking forward to catching up when you return Ben!

Jetstar, Qantas & meat wrapped in foil

It is ironic that Todd said that he found my website after I blogged about the Australian Airline industry, because I intended on posting about it today...

I am going on holidays in a few weeks, and will be flying on Jetstar (yes, that Jetstar). Not because I wanted to fly Jetstar in particular, they just had the best combination of pricing and availability when I wanted to fly. My return flight though is with Jetstar's big brother Qantas.

I last flew Qantas about two years ago, and it seems a lot has changed since then. Back then, Ansett had just gone under and Virgin Blue was relatively new in the marketplace, and making decent inroads. So Qantas realised that it had to cut costs to survive. So, some good things happened to increase efficiencies, but it was about that time when Qantas apparently foresaw a future where the customer got less service.

The most noticeable thing about Qantas circa 2002 was that it started to reconfigure some of its planes, getting rid of business class seats, and creating the all economy QantasLink. But more noticeable to me was that despite flying in the early evening, the inflight dinner (that I expected) had become a cold, rabbit-food like salad roll thingy shoved into a designer box as well as the traditional sealed cup of water that explodes everywhere when you open it.

Surprisingly (because airline food is notoroiously bad), this created lots of complaints, particularly from Qantas' bread-and-butter customers like middle-managers and small business people who flew in economy. So this week Qantas announced that the pretty little boxes have gone, and that passengers will now be served hot breakkies, hot dinners and decent lunches. And some of the planes that lost their Business Class seats have got them back again.

And why has all this happened? Three Guesses.

Jetstar.

If you are a leisure traveller who wants low-cost, low frills flights, where the food costs extra, and to save time and airline money you don't even make a seat reservation. Jump on Jetstar.

Which means that Qantas can get on with repositioning itself as a full-service carrier, while Jetstar and Virgin Blue can slug it out at the budget conscious end of the market.

I am looking forward to making some comparisons about just how different the airlines actually are. Plus I am going to get a food tray with something wrapped in foil. Can'twait to dig under that foil!