TrakDot: A Singularly Useful Device For Travellers

Air New Zealand as always excelled themselves. It is by far the best airline in the world. I was travelling from Washington D.C. to Fiji via San Francisco and Auckland. While in San Francisco I learned that my wife’s sister had died in Australia which meant that Fiji was off and I made arrangements for me to travel to Sydney instead. The problem was my bag which was checked in for Fiji. Air New Zealand arranged for it to be retagged manually to Auckland; and in Auckland they again retagged it for Sydney.   With so many opportunities for error I was not optimistic that my bag would make it. But as soon as I turned on my phone I got the message below that my bag was in Sydney. How? TrakDot.

TrakDot (www.trakdot.com) is a small device which runs off 2 x AA batteries. You put it in your bag and when it is in the vicinity of an airport it sends a message via e-mail and/or SMS to a list of contacts you provide.  I have my wife on the list so she knows that my bag has arrived—and so in theory so has the husband. For only some $60 and a small annual fee, it is great for peace of mind. More than once I’ve arrived somewhere and got the message my bag was elsewhere and so I didn’t waste time needlessly hanging around the baggage claim area. One time our local airport rang to say my bag was there but my wife said I was on the way already since I knew the bag had arrived. She was surprised—and impressed.

So if you are a frequent traveller get a TrakDot—you won’t regret it. And also fly Air New Zealand whenever you can!

Tuvalu After Cyclone Pam–The Recovery

The World Bank does not usually get involved with recovery efforts immediately after a natural disaster such as Cyclone Pam. Our strengths are in the reconstruction phase. They differ insofar as the recovery phase focuses on the immediately needs after a disaster: food, water, health, basic shelter. The reconstruction phase is about building back—hopefully better—and helping life return to a semblance of normality. However, since I was on the ground immediately after the disaster, I had a front row seat on the recovery and it can best be described as graduate school on steroids. Both myself and my colleague Nora—who is planning for a career in post-disaster logistics—learned a lot and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to be in Tuvalu at such a critical time.

Tuvalu After Cyclone Pam

Cyclone Pam was a Category 5 storm whose 280 km/h winds caused massive devastation in Vanuatu. I departed Vanuatu a few days before the storm for Tonga—after having completed preparation of an emergency project to address issues at Bauerfield International Airport in Port Vila—where I was working on a project rebuilding Ha’apai after last year’s Cyclone Ian. From there I was travelling to Tuvalu which, since being outside of the ‘cyclone belt’ I did not expect to be affected much by the storm. My Tuvaluan friends say that cyclones are created in the waters of Tuvalu but are a gift to their neighbours. This time they were unfortunately wrong. So my planned mission to review the aviation project turned into a post-disaster ‘Damage and Loss Assessment’ (DALA) mission which would help identify potential support for the World Bank after the disaster.

Supporting Charities

Working in developing countries one has an opportunity to see the effects—or lack thereof—of charities working in the development sector. For years I have been a strong supporter of Kiva which is a micro-finance site where we can identify people in different countries and provide support to them through a micro-loan. Of the 31 loans I’ve given, only one has not been repaid which is much better than I had anticipated. I use Kiva to find people in the countries I’m working in and support them, and my wife and I also don’t give gifts for birthdays etc. but Kiva vouchers.

Another initiative I support is ‘Give Well’. I came across them through a program where professional poker players give 2% of their salary to the top charities identified by GiveWell.

The philosophy behind GiveWell is that there are three qualities which really make a charity effective:

• Serving the Global Poor: Supporting developing countries
• Focused on Evidence Based Interventions: Programs which are evidenced based for making an impact.
• Thoroughly Vetted and Highly Transparent: There needs to be open public discussion of their track record, both good and bad.

The evidenced based criterion is controversial. I remember listening to an interview of a large NGO providing cows to farmers in Africa, with expenditure of hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, and they had not done a single proper analysis on the poverty impact of their efforts.

The GiveWell site has a database where they give an assessment of a range of charities. What is telling are the ones which declined to participate in the review—one of which was Helen Keller International which I raised funds for as a child. It’s also interesting how many don’t meet the above three criteria—including several that I have (and continue) to support.

They do recommend four top charities for support:

• Against Malaria Foundation
• GiveDirectly
• Schistosemaiasis Control Initiative
• Deworm the World Initiative

When you read about their efforts and they way they operate it is clear that they are making a real impact. So I’ve used GiveWell to support them. After all, if poker players can do this so can I!

Rebuilding Ha’apai: One Year On

It was just over a year ago that Cyclone Ian destroyed much of the infrastructure on Ha’apai. I’ve been very grateful to have the opportunity to lead the World Bank team’s efforts at supporting the reconstruction. We’ve made progress—contracts have been let for constructing 400 houses—but it is not fast enough for my liking as people are still not rehoused. Hopefully not too much longer …  This video shows why such a project is not only important, but personally the most rewarding work I’ve done for the Bank.

Kiribati Road Rehabilitation Project

Since 2014 I’ve been working in Kiribati—first on a project to rehabilitate the main road and then on aviation. The Bank prepared a really nice slideshow and story on the road project which can be found here.  It’s taken a lot longer than anyone had hoped, but we’ve an excellent contractor who is doing great work and the outcome of the project will be some excellent road infrastructure.

Because of work demands—I’ve been asked to prepare an emergency aviation project for Vanuatu—I have turned over the Kiribati projects to someone else to finish them, although I will continue to provide support as I have all the institutional memory!

Reducing Road Trauma

When I moved to Toronto at the age of 5, my first friend was Rob Beatty. We went to primary school together, summer camps, and had amazing adventures together—kind of like Calvin and Hobbes at times. There was this wonderful toboggan run of death in the ravine behind his house … Rob was killed in a car crash a few years ago. Poor road design was a major contributing factor. Left his wife and four children under the age of 10.

As a transportation professional, my view is that we should not construct roads that we suspect might kill people. But I often take it a step further, because the tragedy of Rob’s death presents itself to me on every project. Have I done all I can to ensure that the projects I am responsible for will minimize the potential for road trauma? I hope so.

The New Zealand Government is promulgating an approach called ‘Safe Systems’. This shifts the responsibility for road accident trauma from the driver (or pedestrian/cyclist), to those of us responsible for the system. Mistakes happen, but have we designed a system which is ‘forgiving’ enough that these mistakes are not translated into major trauma or death.  Not only is road accident trauma a tragedy for the individual family, but it is terrible for society as a whole. In some countries some 5% of GDP is lost due to road accident trauma.

The video below was prepared by the NZ Government and is aimed at transport professionals. Very thought provoking and well done, it will challenge your views on road safety. For more information check out www.saferjourneys.govt.nz. Think about what we all can do to reduce road trauma, from driving differently to having safer vehicles. And as engineers, safer infrastructure.