Oh, We Poor Match-makers!

I was at a conference. Soft drinks were served in their original bottles with straws provided to … Oops, I almost said ‘match’, and been hopelessly wrong. For the length of the straws didn’t match at all. The bottle shapes had been altered to appear anorexically slender and tall – so a hand could be put around their waist -- and I must say that were quite elegant too, even appearing to show they carried more of the liquid than the original ones. Indeed, may be in the new shaped containers, there was less drink than before.

The straws supplied had been made for use with the earlier shorter, relatively squatter, bottles. As a result, the older straws when inserted just went right down into the newer bottles right into the amber liquid! So perhaps, along with the straws, there should have been provided also a mini-kit to retrieve them when they went down into the drink.

Should not makers of new design bottles have informed the straw-makers before-hand and got them to provide the right new lengths to match, so that customers didn’t feel frustrated, angry, cheated?

Shouldn’t the same principle of coordination apply when we come up with wide bodied cars and our roads just do not have enough width for them to pass each other without unintended rough contact?

As cities climb vertically thanks to feverish building activity, and there are larger and larger numbers of inhabitants claiming use of the same limited quantum of available public amenities such as water, waste disposal facilities, parking space and so on, can tempers keep from fraying?

Are we poor match-makers, or just not match-makers at all?

Think.