Suez was a disaster waiting to happen

A VERY large ship which stands high out of the water, was blown by the wind to block the Suez Canal, and media commentators suggest that we broaden the canal. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with such a suggestion, but I am always astonished that conformist citizens supinely accept such a disjointed form of world economics, where the boardroom of some shipbuilding corporation decides to build such a world menace.

I trust that the UK’s Department of Transport decides the maximum height of pantechnicons on our motorways, so that empty ones are not blown over onto other traffic. Commercial executives should not be free to decide.

Did some responsible canal inspectors consider delaying this ship, till the wind was less and the tide higher, to allow other ships through?

But every child who saw the number of containers on that ship, could imagine how many flat bed lorries would need to converge on the road system of any of the few ports worldwide which could accommodate this ship, all on the same day of unloading.

There is no city or motorway system on Earth which could cope with such a surge of lorries, coming in unloaded, or going out loaded, from such a huge concentration of containers. They would have to remain at the docks. This is grossly unmanageable, artificial congestion of market supplies, caused deliberately, inviting disaster.

My surprise is that ordinary adults are uncritical of such a stupidly divisive world economic system, which makes no effort to find optimum, coordinated mechanisms which would serve all people, and also serve the long term interests of our home, the planet. Stupidity reigns, because honourable ethics are absent, in the minds of the powerful.

C N Westerman Brynna, South Wales