Could Malaysia Airlines Go Bankrupt?

With two very high profile tragic accidents in less than six months, could Malaysia Airlines go bankrupt within 3 years?

By: Ringo Bones 

With passenger compensation that could probably total in the hundreds of millions of dollars due to two very high profile tragic accidents less than six months apart, the long-term economic viability of Malaysian Airlines seems now in doubt. With the still unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Boeing 777 that vanished over the southern Indian Ocean last March 8, 2014 and the recent Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Boeing 777 shootdown over the pro-Russia separatist controlled part of Ukraine back in July 18, 2014 many in the airline business wonder if Malaysia Airlines would sill be around in the next 5 years. After all, Pan Am went bankrupt and closed its doors back in 1991, three years after the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. 

According to IATA, Malaysia Airlines only has 15 Boeing 777 that it has recently acquired to its fleet of planes. And in less than 6 months two of them had been involved in very high profile tragic accidents involving the death of all hands on board and the expected compensation payouts that could reach in the hundreds of millions of US dollars. It is safe to say that the future economic viability of Malaysia Airlines is now in doubt. And the airline company’s latest tragic incident had inadvertently diverted press coverage of the 2014 Farnborough International Air Show in southern England where there are new planes on offer that promise lower fuel consumption, lower operating cost – as in more profits for airline companies. It would probably take an extraordinary revamp on how Malaysia Airlines is run could save it from permanently closing its doors in a few years time.  

Cats In New Zealand: Not Economically Viable?

After a prominent New Zealand economist label them as “natural born killers” and therefore a liability, are cats no longer economically viable in New Zealand?

By: Ringo Bones

Unless scientifically verifiable evidence to the contrary emerges, cats had been introduced by the first white European settlers in an otherwise cat-free land of what is now New Zealand about couple of centuries ago.  During their tenure, cats had lead to the extinction of 9 native bird species in New Zealand and have pushed other native fauna to the brink of extinction thus therefore are seen from an ecological perspective as an invasive species in New Zealand. But will a draconian measure of a prominent New Zealand economist of spaying and neutering cats and not replacing the ones left to allow them to gradually go extinct in New Zealand even be an “economically viable” option?

The rather draconian cat ban by Gareth Morgan, a prominent New Zealand economist who is now labeled as the “anti-kitty economist” by his detractors proposes that by spaying and neutering stray cats and even cats with owners and allowing them to gradually die out is the most economically viable way to solve the native wildlife extinction problem in his country. Given that the New Zealand government had set aside large tracks of the country as a protected nature preserve and those outside the country have seen these via last series of movies by Peter Jackson – i.e. The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit – is economist Gareth Morgan’s plan for a “cat extermination” the most economically viable way to solve New Zealand’s native species extinction problem? After all, tenured ecologists have since pointed out the three main threats to native wildlife all over the world are pollution, climate change due to excessive greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere causing global warming and an over encroaching human population into ecologically sensitive areas.

According to Bob Kerridge, president of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says economist Gareth Morgan’s proposal is too cruel for New Zealand’s feline pets – economic viability or not. Even though being a prominent economist is not yet an elected position in New Zealand, Gareth Morgan could well kiss his future in New Zealand politics goodbye because cat lovers and cat owners in New Zealand won’t be voting him into public office anytime soon.