A Bridge & An Earthquake
August 18th, 2009 | 0 Comments | Corruption, Costa Rica, Japan |
The day before yesterday, as I watched the 7 p.m. news broadcast, I felt indignation, rather than amazement, when I saw that the damage caused by the August 11 earthquake along a stretch of the Tōmei Expressway (東名高速道路) had already been repaired.
It goes without saying that I was not indignant at the repair, which allowed the expressway to be reopened at midnight on Sunday. I was miffed because the news reminded of the months-long failed repair of a simple expansion joint on the Virilla River bridge, which is part of Costa Rica’s most important road, the General Cañas “highway.”
This tragicomic farce is the best example of why Costa Rica has become, by its own volition, a non-functional state. The government is a showcase of endless inefficacy and ineptitude. The private sector, which tirelessly bashes the public sector while engaging in non-stop narcissistical self-praise about its own imaginary efficiency, evinces the exact same ills of the public sector. Yet, the Costa Rican private sector never hesitates to put its hand out to ask for and receive money the government extracts from tax-payers, only to squander it in malworks or works that are completely unusable for it can count on governmental inaction (politicians would be overcome with an overwhelming fear of not getting their campaigns financed). Besides, Costa Rica is a place where scandals seldom last longer than three days. Were this small country ever to have a government with the guts to demand that public works financed with public money be well executed (hey, dreaming still remains free and non-taxable), nothing would happen or change. Everything would then get gridlocked in court, assuming that previously it did not get bogged down in the never ending red tape of the Office of the Comptroller General, which is very fond of the wasteful paperwork it produces in honor of its legendary legal gobbledegook.
I do not believe that neither public sector –including the governments that have controlled in recent years– nor the private sector to be full of idiots. On the contrary, they are full of very intelligent and bold individuals. After all, this is why we have two former presidents –who are as of late very pious praying souls– on trial for their very sophisticated corruption scams, which were accidentally discovered by the press while there authorities were, as is customary, out to lunch.
I have been thinking a lot about a friend who lived in Costa Rica for quite a few years. We used to talk about the differences and similarities between Japan and Costa Rica and inevitably discussed the issue of bureaucracy and corruption in both countries. Japan has a large and chubby bureaucracy that thoroughly enjoys paperwork. But the paperwork is almost always very clear and Japanese bureaucrats usually know how to provide guidance about the intricacies of a given procedure.
The level of political corruption is probably similar in Japan and Costa Rica. The main difference is that, generally speaking, Japanese corruption does no keep things from getting done well. Just like in Costa Rica, Japanese companies collude. Their collusion, however, is not generally not used to mutually cover up their mistakes; there is a sort of an unwritten golden rule that if you screw up you automatically give up your space to another member of your cartel.
The other major differences are that scandals do not die off in three days. In addition, the media can be very punishing when cases of negligence that harm the public welfare arise. Furthermore, journalists in this part of the world cannot be brought to climax with a fancy dinner during which a politically and/or economically powerful person explains to them, while making them feel like the only buddies that know a great secret, why things are what they are not what they should be.
[Note: The damage caused by the quake to the Tōmei Expressway can be seen here from the 11-second mark. A clip showing the reopening of the highway and people expressing their satisfaction with pace of repairs can be found here.]
