nice one!
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From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of P S Buttar
Sent: 17 April 1998 20:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: A parable
One day, the Fat Controller got fed up of passengers' complaints. They were
always moaning about how late the trains were, or how they were cancelled
at short notice. After thinking about it for a while, he decided that
Something Must Be Done.
'I have decided', he told the engines, 'that in future, you will decide
which trains are to run. I will provide you with the means to run them, but
you will take all day-to-day decisions.'
Thomas the tank-engine was most dismayed. 'But I don't want to do that,' he
complained, 'I just like running my branch-line. I like pulling trains,
it's all I've ever wanted to do. I don't want to Make Decisions.'
'Stuff and nonsense,' huffed Gordon. 'It's quite right and proper that we
should decide which trains run - after all, we know better than anyone else
which trains are important.' - by which he meant, of course, his own
trains.
The sad truth of the matter was that the Fat Controller simply hadn't
bought enough coal for all the trains to run. It didn't really matter who
made the decisions, some trains were bound to be cancelled. But this way,
he was able to report to those who re-appointed him every five years to run
the railway that he had done his best, and that all the remaining problems
were due to the endless squabbling of the engines.
So, eventually, when the complaints of the passengers grew too loud, it was
the engines who suffered. They were forced to do without spare parts and
new coats of paint, so that every spare penny could be spent on providing
coal. Even then, trains were still cancelled, but the old days when the
engines were looked after properly and kept clean and tidy were too long
ago for anyone to remember them...
Prit.
P S BUTTAR
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