One thing I often ask myself in these situations:
What do the inhabitants on these islands actually do?
There are 259 of them in this case.
Are they self-sustaining? How do they pay for stuff the want to import? Do they live off the cruise ships they supply? And do people generally stay there or do young people generally move to mainland?
Edit: For economy, it looks like they live off exporting langustas.
I think this is one of the few things as late that makes me feel genuinely proud to be British, because, beneath the hostility that feels so rife across our country recently, we’ve so many good people making things like this happen. Bravo.
It certainly involved a lot of skill and expense, but how many more lives could be saved if the same money had been spent on improved traffic safety or NHS in general?
Wow, logistics to <remote place> are very expensive! We could spend that money better in the cities!
Wow, logistics in <city> is expensive! We could spend that money better in rural areas!
I read about a new road tunnel in London last year, a ten-digit price tag for about 1km of road IIRC. I'm 100% sure some people suggested that that money could have been better spent in rural areas.
People respond to inspiring stories that show what is possible. Inevitably that means choices that might not match what a perfect allocation looks like.
Quiet, bland execution in government will get you voted out. Technocrats tend to come in after corruption, but they don’t usually last.
I'm no expert but that looks like an impressive feat of skill, coming blind through the clouds and picking out a relatively small patch to land on. Remember also it is late autumn there, pretty windy (according to TFA) and the wind would probably be doing weird things off the sea around those cliffs. All in all, very cool.
Agreed. The story is great, too. A really interesting logistical challenge that arose from unusual circumstances.
There's probably something to be said for the fact that TDC is a small, remote community, so it shouldn't be surprising that its website is reminiscent of a smaller, more communal web... but I'm not going to try to read too much into it and let the story stand on its own.
Until recently TDC had a very slow FCDO satellite link that required their website to be quite basic in order to actually be viewable on computers on the island.
They now have a fast Starlink connection, but I’m glad they’ve kept the website as it is.
In case you're as interested as I was, they have google street view.
Very nice story.
One thing I often ask myself in these situations: What do the inhabitants on these islands actually do?
There are 259 of them in this case.
Are they self-sustaining? How do they pay for stuff the want to import? Do they live off the cruise ships they supply? And do people generally stay there or do young people generally move to mainland?
Edit: For economy, it looks like they live off exporting langustas.
I think this is one of the few things as late that makes me feel genuinely proud to be British, because, beneath the hostility that feels so rife across our country recently, we’ve so many good people making things like this happen. Bravo.
The hostility is rife across social media. I don't see much of it day to day.
Unfortunately, for a few years now, social media is real life...
It certainly involved a lot of skill and expense, but how many more lives could be saved if the same money had been spent on improved traffic safety or NHS in general?
Probably not that many. You underestimate how expensive either of those things are.
We have obligations to provide services like this to the people living in our overseas territories, and you won’t find many people who’ll oppose that.
This is a classic. It occurs in two forms:
Wow, logistics to <remote place> are very expensive! We could spend that money better in the cities!
Wow, logistics in <city> is expensive! We could spend that money better in rural areas!
I read about a new road tunnel in London last year, a ten-digit price tag for about 1km of road IIRC. I'm 100% sure some people suggested that that money could have been better spent in rural areas.
You'd rather we ignored our overseas compatriots?
People respond to inspiring stories that show what is possible. Inevitably that means choices that might not match what a perfect allocation looks like.
Quiet, bland execution in government will get you voted out. Technocrats tend to come in after corruption, but they don’t usually last.
True, but this is military expenditure. So would you rather they spend this on an exercise or on actually saving people?
Yeah and helps demonstrate thst Tristan is strategically important
I'm no expert but that looks like an impressive feat of skill, coming blind through the clouds and picking out a relatively small patch to land on. Remember also it is late autumn there, pretty windy (according to TFA) and the wind would probably be doing weird things off the sea around those cliffs. All in all, very cool.
Amazing! Tristan’s entire website is a treasure. It’s a throwback to when the web was great.
Agreed. The story is great, too. A really interesting logistical challenge that arose from unusual circumstances.
There's probably something to be said for the fact that TDC is a small, remote community, so it shouldn't be surprising that its website is reminiscent of a smaller, more communal web... but I'm not going to try to read too much into it and let the story stand on its own.
Until recently TDC had a very slow FCDO satellite link that required their website to be quite basic in order to actually be viewable on computers on the island.
They now have a fast Starlink connection, but I’m glad they’ve kept the website as it is.
If they hosted locally, it shouldn't have been an issue, they could have had a mirror system, but that's by the by, I love the website
Wonderful. I love the poem at the end too.
What a heartwarming article.
The only reason military should exist is to perform such life-saving, not life-ending, missions...
What if you were Ukrainian?
then the military would also act life-saving, since they are defending the attacked country
> The plane flew between Inaccessible and Tristan
My god there actually is an island called Inaccessible Island! That's fantastic.
Literally one of the worst places to fall seriously ill due to the fact you are absolutely and totally stuck in the actual middle-of-nowhere.
Free (but admittedly useless) advice when you plan to fall seriously ill:
- do not get on a cruise ship
- do not get off at a remote island