The Three Queens

One of the most spectacular things I have seen this week – on television, and then on YouTube – was the turning of the Three Queens.

On 24 May, three huge ships of the renowned Cunard cruise line, ‘Queen Mary 2’, ‘Queen Victoria’ and ‘Queen Elizabeth’, sailed into Liverpool, one behind the other, and then made an amazing  synchronized 180 degree turn. Bow to Stern.

Thousands of onlookers watched the event, live, standing there, on either sides of River Mersey in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

But people like me had to be content watching the pictures and videos available online.

For three of the world’s largest cruise vessels to sail in a majestic array, to stop mid-river in a straight line,  and then to slowly turn around - all three ships at the same - it must have required a tremendous amount of planning and coordination.

The humongous size of the ships makes  the turning very slow and very hard to coordinate.

But if you watch a time lapse video of the same, in fast motion, available on YouTube, you would definitely deem it a daunting display. A splendid  spectacle.

The fleet commodore and his teams showed the world a marvellous  marine manoeuvre.

It is a fitting feat, I think, to mark the 175th anniversary of the Cunard Cruise Line. A company which, for almost two centuries gave each of its sea traveller, an experience of their life time.

When Samuel Cunard the founder was awarded the first British trans-Atlantic steamship mail contract, and founded the company in 1840, he probably never thought how shipping will change.

His first ships were built to mainly transport mail and cargo, apart from a few passengers.  But today, Cunard’s pleasure cruises are among world’s most sought after.

Apparently, in 1840, when the company's first steamship, the ‘Britannia’, sailed from Liverpool in Britain  to Halifax in Nova Scotia and then, on to Boston, Massachusetts, there was Cunard and just 63 other passengers on board.

Today, ‘Queen Mary 2’ alone can take in 2,620 passengers.  ‘Queen Elizabeth’ has a capacity of 2,058 and ‘Queen Victoria’, 2,014.

At the time of her construction, ‘Queen Mary 2’ was the longest passenger ship ever built, but she lost the distinction to Royal Caribbean's ‘Freedom of the Seas’ in April 2006; which too was soon overtaken by yet another other ship.

Today, ‘Oasis of the Seas’ of Royal Caribbean, is the world’s largest cruise ship, which can accommodate  – hold your breath – 5,400 passengers!

But coming back to Cunard Line,  we must know that it is now a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc.

And Carnival – which has about 9 different cruise line brands, including  Cunard – currently commands a  market share of 48 per cent of world cruise passengers, and 42 per cent of cruise market revenue.

“Cruise Market Watch” website says that, worldwide, the cruise industry has an annual passenger compound annual growth rate of 6.55% from 1990 - 2019.

But, did you know this? All the cruise ships in the entire world filled at capacity all year long still only amount to ‘less than half’ of the total number of visitors to Las Vegas, annually.

These Three Queens, today, may be great. But I still think, the world owes a lot to three other ships, which changed history.

They are ‘Pinta’, ‘Nina’ and ‘Santa Maria’, in which Christopher Columbus and his crew made the first notable trans-Atlantic journey.

Dear Jeans, Happy Birthday!

“Don’t wear skinny jeans, if you don’t have skinny genes.”

This axiom, you will agree, contains a good deal of truth.  Especially because, very often, our desire to wear something might be in direct contrast to the bodies we possess to carry that ‘something’ off.

Millions will admit looking into their wardrobes and wondering why they can’t fit into those jeans again; in which they had once looked good.

The blame rests not necessarily on the genes acquired, but also on the calories consumed.

“It's a recipe for disaster when your country has an obesity epidemic and a ‘skinny jean’ fad”, said an amusing e-card I stumbled across on Internet.

Immediately, the country that came to my mind was the country where ‘jeans’ was first patented; and from where, this wear, spread everywhere.

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were granted the United States official patent for copper-riveted jeans on May 20, 1873.

So, “Wish Your Blue Jeans a Happy 142nd Birthday”, says a latest TIME magazine article.

If you do that today, I think, you would be two days late. But you might still be interested to know that by the 100th anniversary of the patenting of ‘Blue Jeans’, USA was already producing 450 million yards of denim annually.

And the global denim fabric production, in 2006 alone, was over 2.7 billion metres.

About blue denim, Fortune magazine has this to say: “the garment has fit the thighs of miners, farmhands, cowboys, rebels, hippies, rockers, hip-hop artists, fashionistas and businesspeople alike. Even Apple founder Steve Jobs adopted them.”

When President Barack Obama threw the opening pitch at a Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 2009,  the commentators spent more time discussing his jeans, than the game.

Of course, I exaggerate.  But Obama went on record then, saying, “The truth is, generally I look very sharp in jeans.”

That is why songs of praises, of jeans, abound in pop culture. “Forever in Blue Jeans” by Neil Diamond, and “Jeans On” by Keith Urban are my personal favourites.

I remember how I pestered my parents for blue jeans, when I was in High School; and got that grand ‘Wrangler’ pair which had thrilled me no end.

Later, at college, it was my third pair of jeans, I think, which still brings back a painful memory.

In Chemistry Lab, one day, I was holding a beaker with some concentrated sulphuric acid, when a friend knocked me over, accidentally.

The beaker broke, the acid spilled, the desk burnt, my legs burnt, and my new blue jeans was completely ‘hole’d.

Thanks to the thickness of the denim, my thighs did not get burnt a lot. For me, then, the pain of my damaged-jeans was actually more, than that of my singeing skin.

When they realized what could have happened if my pants had been of normal fabric, my parents were, obviously,  glad they had given-in to my demands for jeans.

But, that aside, what is true is this.

Whether you wear a boot cut or a flare leg, a slim fit or a low rise,  a dirty wash or a stone wash,  a skinny one or a stretch one, these jeans are here to stay.

The thick blue denim has weathered time, for over 142 years now.

And, I am sure, it will not ride into the sunset – on the thighs of some guy, with a girl - any time soon.

Women and US Presidency

The New York Times carried an article this week, titled “Who Is Running for President (and Who’s Not)?”

And among the six Republicans and two Democrats that it mentions, as ‘definitely running’ for their parties’ 2016 US presidential nomination, are two women.

Only two. But that could be a record in itself.

Hillary Clinton the Democrat, and Carly Fiorina the Republican, will now be vying for a nomination as presidential candidate, from within their respective parties.

But of course they must, first, battle it out with mighty men inside, in order to win their party’s favour and nomination.

Hillary Clinton, we have seen, was unable to win her party’s ticket for Presidency in 2008, losing to her party colleague Obama.  But  she is now bravely going at it again.

Her legal background, and her role as the former Secretary of State could play in her favour, but Obama’s questionable policies and controversial performance could work against the whole Democratic party itself.

Eight years ago, when I briefly taught a management course, for a Canadian distance education university, I used to give as example, the leadership style of the then world’s highest paid female business executive.

She had become well-known for a huge HP-Compaq merger, during a time when PC and printer industries were riding on the crests. Her name? Carly Fiorina.

During her tenure as CEO of Hewlett Packard, from 1999 to early 2005, HP's revenue nearly doubled, rising to $87 billion, from $44 billion.

Of course, it may be the HP-Compaq merger that made the numbers grow, and not necessarily her skill. But she should be credited for brokering the deal.

The deal was aimed at beating IBM, then the world’s largest PC maker. And then, predictably, IBM saw where its business was going, and sold its PC division in 2004 to Lenovo. And focused on its more lucrative services and consulting units. But that’s another story.

Now, Carly Fiorina is saying, “I think I’m the best person for the job because I understand how the economy actually works.”  Maybe, her confidence reflects her 'learnings' from life.

But will the major parties think it is finally time for a woman to become their nominee for Presidency? That is the big question now.

No woman has ever won the nomination of ‘a major party’ in the history of U.S. presidential elections.

I remember, in 1984, how the world went gaga over Geraldine Ferraro becoming the first female vice presidential candidate ever to represent a major US political party.

A woman wanting to be, even,  a Vice President of USA was unthinkable then.

Much water has flown under the bridge in the last 30 years, since Geraldine Ferraro  and her running mate, the presidential candidate Walter Mondale, had lost the elections to Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush.

But did any other woman become a Vice Presidential nominee, from either of the two major parties, since then? No.

Did any woman become a major party’s  Presidential Nominee? No.

We must acknowledge, however, that in 1872,  Victoria Woodhull becoming the first female candidate for President of the United States.

But  her People's (Equal Rights) Party was not a major party, and as she did not get enough votes. And she is hardly recognized, even though she was the first woman to open a bank on Wall Street.

Now, it would be a extremely shocking and very interesting if both women become their respective party’s nominees. And make it clear for us that 2016 will see a female as POTUS.