-----
Original Message -----
From: Oliver L. Campbell
To: Editor@petroleumworld.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 4:10 PM
Subject: Article by G Coronel
To
The Editor, Petroleumworld
I
refer to “A
Comment on the First Law of Petropolitics by Thomas Friedman.”
I wonder if my good friend, Gustavo Coronel, is not being a little
hard in his interesting article on Mr Friedman's First Law of
Petropolitics. I assumed, perhaps erroneously, Mr Friedman wrote
the latter a bit tongue in cheek without intending to formulate
a law as such, but rather make an acute observation which has
validity in a number of countries. I compare this with other "laws"
that are no more than perceptions such as Parkinson's Law that
"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"
Another "law," in the same vein, by Brian Tracey states
that "Expenses rise to meet income." I have found this
very true in my own life. Every time I had a good salary increase,
I said to myself I will save most of it for a rainy day. In fact
I spent most of it in making hay while the sun shines!
I have certainly found Hofstadter's Law that "It always takes
longer than you expect" to be generally true. This applied
equally to preparing the Group Accounts--perhaps that is why PDVSA
are always deferring the publication of their financial results--as
it did to painting the front of my house. You always underestimate
the time sanding and preparation take
There are many other "laws," of course, and one of my
favourites is Murphy's Law that says, "If anything can go
wrong, it will." Doubtless the reader has suffered this.
Then we have "principles" which are a rung below "laws."
We all know the Peter Principle that people are "promoted
to their highest level of competence, after which further promotion
raises them to a level at which they are incompetent." I
have experienced this during my career and I just hope it could
not be applied to myself.
Perhaps these types of “law” are better referred to
as maxims, even adages, since they are just propositions, perceptions
or observations which we generally believe to be true--perhaps
because we hear them so often--but that allow for many exceptions
and certainly cannot be said to be immutable.
I enjoyed
reading Gustavo’s well-researched article and I trust he
will not mind my reflecting on the varied meanings of laws in
the English language.
Oliver L Campbell
19.07.06
