Logistics of Noah ship!

"Transport Logistics: Past, Present and predictions" is one of the special book I have read on logistics. The book is well-researched, easy to read and provide sufficient examples. This book is not unique for its scientific outcome, but the author provides interesting discussions on logistics for different historical projects. Before reading this book, I could not even imagine stories of Torah, Bible and Qur'an being mentioned in a logistics book!   

Eleven historical case studies of construction, engineering, and humanitarian relief projects are presented in the first part of the book. These examples are illustrated based on the required transport logistics. Few examples are Nile logistics for construction of great pyramid, logistics of the great wall and the forbidden city in China, and Hannibal war. But I should admit, the most unexpected example in this book was the "Logistics of Noah Ship". No matter how we think about that story, the idea of some one thinking and writing on such topic in logistics and transportation field is interesting. 

Freight logistics industry and role of freight forwarders are main focuses of the second section. Relevant discussions on the freight logistics industries of China, India, Dubai, Egypt, and South Africa provide useful insights on IT-based supply chain integration and value-added service offerings.    

Final section of the book is related to the future of transport logistics, potential challenges including rising energy costs, security concerns, new technologies, and results of globalization.

Judging from academic perspective, this book might be not the first recommended text to read, but the provided examples on historical and recent cases make it an interesting book to read.         

Logistics of Chinese New Year Celebration

Sydney resides one of the largest  Chinese populations outside Asia, so no surprise to see how beautiful the Chinese New Year can be celebrated here. The festival is for two weeks with different programs everyday including outdoor markets, exhibitions, feasts, dragon boat race, film festival and so forth. One of the highlights is the Twilight Parade with thousands of attendants and performers.

 

Yesterday was the time for Chinese New Year Twilight Parade in Sydney, an amazing event to share the happiness of a great nation. Watching beautiful decorations, the giant Trojan horse, colourful carousel, and wonderful performances. With all those amazed people around us, I was thinking of the preparation, planning and logistics of this huge event. Where and how all those performers were organized? How the required resources were provided at the time when each group was supposed to join the parade? What if something goes wrong? Any contingency plan for unexpected problems? And it seems in addition to all the hard works of design, procurement, production and transportation, an interesting risk analysis had been performed. To me it was very interesting to read this document, with the potential risk scenarios, their impacts, evaluations and response strategies.

A book to read, a book to feel

Just finished reading "The book thief". It was not a book to read fast and skip lines; I enjoyed every single line, felt nervous, helpless and frightened with Liesel, Hans and Rosa. 

"The book thief" is a novel by Markus Zusak for the time of Nazi Germany. It about the life of a girl, her foster parents and a young Jewish man who hides in their basement for some time during World War II. The idea of narrating the story by The Angel of Death is brilliant. After all, who could narrate the events of those years better than Death?