The Future of the Universal Postal Union

Abstract

Not many years ago, a friend of mine in the international courier industry used to arouse considerable admiration among his domestic colleagues by discoursing with great feeling on the difficulties of doing business in the territory of the “wily upu.” It would usually take some time for his audience to realize that he was referring not to an obscure Amazonian tribe but to the Universal Postal Union. Indeed, to be honest, neither my friend nor his listeners were any too clear on the distinctions between the two.

The skies above the valiant battalions of postal troops have been unsetteled by the volleys fired against them by the private couriers, intent on blasting them away.

A.C. Botto de Barros

Above all, any government activity almost at once becomes “moral”. No longer is it viewed as “economic,” as one alternative use of scarce resources of people and money....The absence of results does not raise the question, Shouldn’t we rather do something differently?

Peter F. Drucker