This morning I was waiting for a bus, and I couldn’t resist taking this photo:

The Chinese policeman is standing by the scanning machine, to make sure all luggages are checked. But his colleague, who watches the screen, is away (he came back 15min later).

It reminds me of some factory audits, where a manager proudly shows you several employees controlling quality in the lines. When one asks to see the records of their controls, the manager usually says something like “I will show it to you later–we have to ask the person in charge, who happens to be away right now”. Of course, in these cases there are no detailed records.

Without records, no accountability, and no data to work with. How can a factory keep operations under control if nothing is written?