{"id":1142,"date":"2021-04-25T19:29:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T17:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2021-04-25T19:29:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T17:29:53","slug":"that-was-the-week-that-was-19-23-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/?p=1142","title":{"rendered":"That Was The Week That Was 19-23 April"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Is The Year That Might Be<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the UN itself, we passed a number of very, very significant dates this week.  Monday<\/strong> perhaps not so much, at least according to the UN, but Tuesday<\/strong> was Chinese Language Day; Wednesday<\/strong> was World Creativity and Innovation Day; Thursday <\/strong>was Earth Day, of course \u2013 although the official UN calendar of such festivities gives it the much more new age title of International Mother Earth Day; and we were spoilt for choice on Friday<\/strong> \u2013 it was World Book and Copyright Day as well as both English and Spanish language days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday<\/strong> started world immunisation week, and Sunday<\/strong> was World Malaria Day.  Presumably we actually want it to be World Anti-Malaria Day.  Still, perhaps Sunday is the day we cheer for the disease, just to make it fair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone, almost certainly in the greeting card industry also tried to squeeze in a blossom appreciation day as well this week \u2013 which is distinctly geographically discriminatory as the southern hemisphere starts to take in full autumn colour changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to days we have weeks of various causes and of course we also have entire years.  This year is the European Year of the Train!!  Welcome to it.  Sadly, the train industry thinks that the European Year of the Train is not on track, or at least failing to gather a head of steam.  It risks being derailed by the pandemic, so the train industry is now petitioning for 2021 to become 2022, or to at least extend into 2022.  It kicked off at the end of March with a Zoom event.  The jokes about keeping to schedule and running late write themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, some in the European Parliament want to not only change gauge, they want to change modes of transport.  There is a group of MEPs, led by the indefatigable Jean-Marie Marinescu, who want 2022 to be the Year of the Plane, not the train<\/a>.  The pandemic has been just as difficult for aviation as for rail they argue and we all need the push that only a European Year of…  can manage.  Right.  Is there a heart that does not beat quicker at the very thought of being a European Year Of? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No doubt there are already people inside the Commission working on a new European Year of Intermodality, or something dull like that to resolve this impasse.  That is not the spirit that saw first the railways and then the airlines conquer the tyranny of distance, to bring the world together, to offer connectivity.  No, there is only one way to settle which of trains or planes gets the unbridled honour of being the European Year Of.  Run a race \u2013 first to get the entire cohort of MEPs from one end of Europe to the other wins.  No cheating, no use of cars or taxis or anything else.  All MEPs must proceed from their homes to the nearest relevant form of transport on foot.  Trams are allowed for Team Train.  Team Planes might like to consider building some new airports around Europe \u2013 which is, incidentally, exactly the sort of boost to infrastructure such European Years Of should encourage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the huge interest this will generate, the TV rights will pay for the entire adventure.  There is more than honour at stake after all.  We are playing for being the European Year Of!  On your marks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Is The Year That Might Be According to the UN itself, we passed a number of very, very significant dates this week.  Monday perhaps not so much, at least according to the UN, but Tuesday was Chinese Language Day; Wednesday was World Creativity and Innovation Day; Thursday was Earth Day, of course \u2013 although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1143,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}