The four UNICEF staff cross the bridge at different speeds:
- The gender specialist needs one minute.
- The private-sector-fundraising specialist needs two minutes.
- The innovation officer needs five minutes.
- The planning consultant (a long-retired UNICEF communication officer) needs eight minutes.
Whenever two UNICEF staff walk together, they walk at the speed of the slower person.
The batteries of the torch have been obtained through a competitive international bidding process, but only last 15 minutes. Will the brave UNICEF team manage to complete its mission?
Detlef if you and Ken were members of that Unicef team, I’d say Yes- not just that but you will ensure that the hand pumps are working in the village in the other side.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Sree
Who cares how long it takes or who gets to the side first…as long as they both reach the other side safely and make a difference for the children on both sides !! Bertie
ReplyDeletePS. Not all bridges across rivers in Myanmar as bad as the one pictured.
My thinking goes like this: Even if we manage to get all staff across the bridge before the flashlight gives up for want of new batteries, we wouldn't be able to fix the handpump without light. Ergo: Wait till morning and walk across and fix the handpump during daylight hours. Forget the torch. It's a red-herring. But it's a nice try, Detlef. . . . . .
ReplyDeleteMonitoring a water pump is one person's job. Not four! One person should be able to get the job done.
ReplyDeleteThe job titles of all four seem remarkably irrelevant to handpump maintenance and monitoring. The staff member who authorized the junket should be demoted and exiled to HQ. Steve
ReplyDeleteDear Detlef, I consider the mission shall only include the WatSan specialist and the Supply Officer to guarantee the suitabiluty of the habdpump, its proper installation and the selection & training of the local committee in charge of its maintenance and repair when required. Cordially, Blanca San Germán
ReplyDeleteThe solution:
ReplyDeleteThe gender specialist and the fundraising specialist cross the bridge (2 minutes)
The gender specialist comes back with the torch (2 minutes)
The planner and the innovator cross the bridge (8 minutes)
The fundraising specialist comes back with the torch (1 minute)
The fundraising specialist and the gender specialist cross the bridge (2 minutes)
Total: 15 minutes
This works as long as none of the team members starts debating the purpose of the mission, the expertise of the team, or whether an interagency team appointed by the UN Resident Coordinator would add more credibility to their findings.
Detlef: You keep saying that the blog should encourage debate. This is definitely the way to do it – your conclusion about how to get the UNICEF party across the bridge is, probably, quite correct arithmetically although I am not even going to check it as this is irrelevant, I believe.
ReplyDeleteThe trip objective is to monitor a pump, but you answered only how to cross the river with a torch filled with dodgy supplied UNICEF batteries. The fact that you’d arrive at the far side of the bridge with a torch which will no longer have functional batteries, in the dark, perhaps should be the clue to tell you that you simply haven’t answered the question: How to monitor the pump, in the dark with nobody drawing water?
Perhaps this debate might be a useful tool to tell the HR Recruitment Unit which aspiring handpump specialist candidates think clearly, and which do not, providing always that members of the HR Unit are not mentally challenged themselves. . . . . . .