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.]

 

Manners, Deities and Hanging Clothes

August 4th, 2009 | 0 Comments | Children, courtesy, Religion, Shintoism, Social Norms |

The day before yesterday, my daughter and her classmates went around visiting homes near their kindergarden. They were delivering their own hand-made thank you cards to those houses that a week earlier had given them water, fruits or money during a local festival dedicated to the deities enshrined in Hakusan Jinja (白山神社：White Mountain Shrine), one of the most famous sacred mountains in Japan.

During festivals of Shinto origin, the local deity (神、kami) is ritually placed in a portable shrine (御神輿、omikoshi), which is then carried around in a procession through the neighborhoods that worship said deity or are somehow affiliated with the shrine. In our community, it is common for children to build their own omikoshi with recyclable materials. Each kid enshrines a kami or their choice or imagination into the omikoshi. As their procession moves through the neighborhoods, people come out of their homes to give the kids water, fruits or a small amount of money.

There had been a “real” procession the day before the kids did their own. As part of the adult ritual, the men who carry the omikoshi cross a river so as to be purified by water. Earlier, when they were about to pass by our apartment building they stopped because they had decide what to do once they noticed somebody’s laundry was hanging outside.

I had heard that in the country side as well as in very old neighborhoods in the cities, the members of the procession always carry ladders so they can climb and remove any laundry that may be visible and hanging outside along the procession’s path. The reason is that clothing should not be at the same height as –let alone higher than– the deity or spirit that is being transported in the omikoshi. I always thought this was one of those tall tales that are concocted to ensure people’s compliance with certain behavioral norms. In fact, I had laughed at my wife last year when she ran in great anguish, after seeing in her calendar a “no clothes outside” note, to put the laundry back in the house. Back then I told her that she was taking a ridiculous tale a little too seriously, that it was impractical and illogical for the members of a procession to encumber themselves further by carrying a couple of ladders.

This year I was to learn that it there is no tall tale. As I mentioned above, the procession stopped near my home when they noticed that one apartment had clothes hanging outside. The wayfarers began to make inquiries about who lived in the offending apartment. They learned that it was a foreign family –not mine– who had not just left the laundry out but, worse yet, a bunch of undergarments.

The men in charge of the ladders and of bringing down the clothing were extremely hesitant about what to do. Thus the decision fell upon the most senior of the elder members of the pilgrimage. Without any dithering whatsoever, the old man reminded the younger members of entourage that festival’s date and the omikohi’s procession’s route had been announced well in advance, noting that it was obvious the tenants of the offending apartment had had no interest in finding out more about communal rules and why the notice had been sent. Then, without any fanfare, the old man commandingly gestured the younger members of the cohort to climb and take down the clothes that caused the procession to stop. My only regret about this episode is not to have been around when my neighbors came back. I would have loved to see their puzzled faces when they found their clothing neatly and mysteriously set in a basket.

 

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