In a message dated 6/4/2003 10:29:32 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> It's quite frustrating for one to see that despite our having a good name for this > process (metrology!) it is significantly marred by politics, conservatism and plain > simple lack of STRATEGIC DIRECTION! > > I find it (quite frankly) appalling that in this day and age one would still be > "fighting" to get through to these bodies about the necessity of conducting such > fundamental and VITAL foundational work! > > Had they taken upon themselves to do THAT VERY THING and we would certainly NOT be > in this incredible mess! > > I'd like to therefore submit that until this critical mission is finally addressed > there would be REAL minute hope of a TRULY GLOBAL pool of standards to take hold in > our planet's societies! Until this issue continues to be treated *politically*, as > opposed to **scientifically**, we will continue to have to endure stupidities such > as FFU, WOMBAT, ifp, whatever... > Not to sound too discouraging, but ... This morning my commuter train was late, and some of the people for the following train were already arriving at the station. One of them, a neighbor, is a staff member of a United States Senate committee. We got to talking about how things work, and I brought up metrication. He said that the US Congress was set up in a way to make it DIFFICULT to get anything done. The various rules, procedures, etc. make it hard to do anything that has any kind of controversy attached to it -- whether this is something good to do or not -- and he agreed with me that Congress does in fact listen to the whiners, and considers their opinions representative, and not to those who silently agree with something (people are much more likely to complain and disagree than to take the effort to write and say that they DO agree). This explains a lot, not only with regard to metrication, but, among many other things, with regard to why the USA is the only major industrialized country without universal health care. When entrenched forces with money don't want something, they tend to win under the system in the USA. Note that Australia, New Zealand, and Canada all have parliamentary systems. Carleton
