Paper, paper, everywhere

Coruscating attack on the mounting bureaucracy imposed on the shipping industry by the International Maritime Organization (a slight digression – as a UK publication we spell organisation with an “s”, the IMO, despite being headquartered in London insists on it being spelt with a “z”; and if I were to spell it with an “s” I would have its press office on the phone to me insisting on it being changed, but it is just about the only time I can ever get to talk to its press department since on all other matters they are frustratingly aloof). In this piece, one of the industry’s most naturally gifted writers, Andrew Craig-Bennett, asks what exactly all the reams of paper that ship captains must continually surround themselves are for? “The correct answer is: ‘To enrich corrupt port officials’.”