The Height of Madness

The federal government, last week, decided not to allow Cuba to participate in the inaugural World Baseball Classic tournament. The basis of the decision, as claimed, was the trade embargo against Cuba (i.e. that Cuba's participation would allow money to be earned by Cuba). This is a silly decision on a few levels but opens up a larger can of worms.

First, the tournament is a purely sporting event. Almost all international sporting events (like the Olympics) are awarded to a host country with the understanding that no country would be barred from participating for political reasons. Ooops.

Second, has the embargo worked? Castro has been in power since 1959. That's 47 years. He's outlasted 10 U.S. presidents, including 2 Bushes. He's lost his Soviet subsidy. Despite essentially the same policy towards Cuba regardless of the party holding the White House, Castro is still alive and in power.

Third, we don't allow direct trade with Cuba, but we do allow Cuban "refugees" to send money back to their families. Is there a difference between funding the government and funding the people?

They say that the height of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a differnet result. It would seem to me a different strategy is in order. Why don't we inundate Cuba with Coca Cola, Levis jeans and MTV? Why don't we bring American culture to Cuba in a big way? It worked in the eastern bloc and it could work in Cuba.

One thing is for sure...the current program isn't working.

The Labor Stalemate...

I have been reading with interest about the labor dispute between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Transport Worker's Union (TWU). The MTA runs bus and subway service in New York City and the TWU's contract expired Friday morning.

As a mediator, I tend to take a different view of disputes than most people would. Most people tend to form an opinion about which side is "right" based upon the "facts" they receive from the news. Most of the news is just spin from the both sides and the depth of the average news report -- TV or otherwise -- is not very enlightening. The news is so "dumbed down" today, it's somewhat insulting.

Mediators are trained not to form opinions. In fact, we're trained to be open minded to even the most seemingly of extreme positions. Let me see if I can enlighten you from a mediator's perspective.

The MTA has a powerful weapon on it's side: NY's Taylor Law. This law prohibits public employees from striking. The penalties can be quite severe, including a fine that's twice what the worker would have made the day they strunk. On top of this, they could face additional sanctions from a court for violating a court order not to strike.

But here's something else that doesn't make the news. The MTA could probably care less if the workers went out. They are a corporation separate from the City of New York. A strike hurts the City in a number of ways. The MTA would ultimately get bailed out by the State of New York or via a fare hike for any losses caused by a strike. Plus a strike would give the union some bad press, further helping the MTA's position.

On the flip side, the TWU probably doesn't trust the MTA. When the MTA last hiked fares, it was ultimately discovered as a result of lawsuits that "cooked books" were used to justify the hike. This year, the MTA is running a $1 Billion surplus. They were so happy about this that they gave rebates to riders during the holiday season, ostenably to encourage use of public transportation.

But they are claiming that now that the next two years will show huge deficits, on the order of $2 Billion. If you knew that you had a huge windfall of money this year and needed even more next year and the year after, would you be giving part of it away (through free rides)? It does not make a lot of sense. This probably explains why the union is so hesitant to go to arbitration (where a neutral third party would make a decision on the hike).

The latest and apparently "final" offer by the MTA is 3% raises per year over the next 3 years. The MTA also wants to increase the retirement age for newly hired workers and increase some co-payments for pharmaceuticals and doctors visits. Public employees should not be punished just because they don't work in the private sector. On the other hand, public employees generally get better benefits and pensions than equivalent workers in the private sector. So that's the trade-off.

As in every negotiation, both sides must realize that they will not win on all issues. Both sides must figure out what is truly important to them and drive towards getting those in a new contract agreement. What we see now is a lot of posturing to appease the various constituencies.

I am having trouble understanding why a mediator has not been brought into the proceedings. A mediator would help cut through all of the bluster and drive the parties towards what is truly important to them. The NLRB or FMCS I'm sure would love to help. Heck, if they really want a good mediator, they can give me a call or look me up at http://www.sannsmediation.com.

I welcome all comments on any of my articles.

Playoffs Here I Come!

Being in a weak division has its advantages. I'm in a fantasy football league that has 12 teams in 3 divisions. Each division winner proceeds to the playoffs along with 3 wildcards. When you start the season out 1-6, you don't expect to make the playoffs. Well, I ended up going 5-2 the second half of the season and I finished in a 3-way tie for the western division at 6-8. The first tie breaker is total points, and I had the most of the three teams.

So next weekend I start in the playoffs. I'm not sure I'll get far. Most of my stars are Giants and with their injuries, it could be a tough week.

War on Terrorism???

George W. Bush, since 9-11, likes to remind everyone very frequently that we are in the middle of a war -- a war on terrorism. This war, W tells everyone, is different than the other wars previously fought. I presume that he's referring to conventional armed wars and the Cold War (with W it's sometimes hard to tell).

This war, we are told, will be fought in the minds of the people who are the enemy (of course, this is never fully delineated). We must chase the terrorists whereever they can be found. We also must stop the financing going to the terrorists.

The US government just spend millions of dollars to prosecute a University of South Florida professor and three co-defendants who were accused of racketeering, conspiracy to maim and murder, and providing material support (i.e. financing) for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A federal jury acquitted them on most of the charges and deadlocked on the rest.

Meanwhile, in the middle east, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has just approved a new law which provides monthly grants to the families of "shahids". Shahid is Arabic for martyr. These are people that Israel and the US may well consider terrorists -- people who go into malls and restaurants and blow themselves up. Each shahid's family is entitled to $250/month plus another $50/month if they were married, $15/month for each child, $25/month for each living parent and $15/month to each brother the shahid was supporting.

While this might not sound like a lot of money to a westerner, this is a lot of money to a Palestinian whose average annual income is around $1000. Suddenly this seems less like compensation and more like an incentive. The average Palestinian that walks into a mall with a bomb vest is worth a lot more to his family dead than alive.

But let's examine where the Palestinian Authority gets its money from. Its primary donation sources are from the European Union, United States and other Arab countries. So in essence, the US and EU are now funding terrorism. What seems even more ironic was one of the Bush Administration's rationale's for invading Iraq -- that Saddam Hussein was giving each Palestinian shahid's family a $25,000 payment. I guess the US and EU are going to pick up the tab now.

Bush Administration foreign policy has been schizophrenic since inauguration day of 2001. This only further solidifies that perception. It ought to be interesting to see how the Administration and Congress reacts.

How Quickly We Forget...

Last weekend, there were plenty of news reports about how we really haven't learned many lessons in security from our experiences on 9-11. Certainly, there are things that have changed, but in reality, we've been lulled back into a sense of complacency.

I was reading through "Business Travel News", which I get in the mail. In it was an article talking about how the Transportation Security Administration is considering relaxing rules on what can be brought onto an airplane. Among the items they want to allow are small knives and scissors. Yes, you read that correctly. These are items that can be used as weapons and in fact were used to hijack the planes on 9-11 that lead to the deaths of some 3,000 people.

Have we forgotten about Richard Reid, the shoe bomber? Only the diligence of a passenger and the crew prevented a disaster there. Hence why lighters are banned.

So please tell me why our illustrious government wants to allow dangerous items in the passenger cabin again? The reason is that the TSA wants to make screenings more efficient. Well, getting rid of screenings altogether would accomplish that too. The purpose of screenings is to prevent security breaches aboard flying missiles. A small hole in a dyke in time accomplishes the same as a large hole.

For those of you who have never traveled overseas, you really have no idea how lucky we have it here. If you go to any mall in Turkey, you will go through a metal detector. Could you imagine that here? They even make you go through the metal detector and x-ray machines (all luggage) BEFORE you enter the terminal at the airport. One or two incidents here and we'll see that too.

We need to keep the stringent security in place.

Launch time...

I've finally launched my mediation business. I've chosen the name of Sanns Mediation Services, which is a division of Sanns, LLC.

I do both family/divorce mediation as well as commercial/business mediations. Mediation is a quicker and less expensive way to resolve a dispute.

For those who don't know, Sanns should have been my surname, but it was changed to Schuldiner when my grandfather was born back in the old country to keep the Schuldiner line going (it was my great grandmother's surname). Sadly and Ironically, the Sanns line was essentially snuffed out by the Nazis.

If you want to know more about mediation or what I do, you can find many answers on my website: http://www.sannsmediation.com . Or feel free to contact me.

Incidentally, Sanns in German means to think, thus I've used Rodin's the Thinker as my company logo.