Friday, April 19, 2019

Carry on camping . . . (1988)

From the April 1988 issue of the Socialist Standard

A firm in Stroud has designed and marketed what they refer to as "high-tech tents" of aluminium frames with heat-reflecting panels. According to a Times (15 February 1988) report, the firm last year had sales worth £2.7 million — to Arab states. The firm's managing director has said that the tent is particularly useful in the desert because it is light and easy to erect. The firm has in fact adopted the title "Nomad International Structures". We were at first gratified that, at last, advanced technology had come to the aid of the poverty-stricken nomads of the Arabian deserts — until we read that the tents were being purchased by Arabian governments for sheltering tanks:
  Without the benefit of the tents, which can have camouflage and infra-red reflective coatings, the tanks would become too hot to be serviced comfortably during the fierce heat of the day.

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