Yes it's that time of year when you start to send out Christmas cards to distant relatives that you have never set eyes on, make (or receive) a Christmas wish list, stock up on your cupboards/fridge of all those inflated "Christmasy" foods... You've placed an order for a 13 pound turkey at the butchers, and have just finished putting up the christmas tree with the delicate decorations... (make sure that all the lights are working, readers!)
Well I live in a part of the world where Christmas is another day. Yes we have our Christmas lights across town, yes lovers have their "special" dinner on Christmas eve exchanging their gifts, yes the commercial wave of "Christmas" has hit us like a giant Tsunami, but we are still a Buddhist/Shinto country, and the closest we get to a Christmas holiday is the public holiday on the 23rd of Dec., which is the current Emperor, Akihito's, birthday.
You see, Christmas for us in Japan means something completely different. It is a time when suddenly we have a dramatic increase in road works. The months leading up to Christmas usually celebrate a 4 to 5 fold increase in the number of redundant public works that have really no logical explanation for why it's happening.
I take the bus to work everyday; this has been my routine for the past 8 months. As of Nov. 11 there is now 5 road works along my bus route -- get this FIVE -- sites along a measly 20min route! The other day it took me 40 mins to complete a 20min journey! I got off at my terminal and asked the construction guys what they were up to, and why were they digging the road at the same time.
Routine Maintenance, Ma'm.
Huh? What do you mean routine maintenance? I've walked passed these streets and taken the bus for the pasth 8 months, and there was nothing wrong with it? Y R U digging it up and causing traffic congestion? My 20 min bus journey now takes 40mins?! Y R U digging it up NOW, not back in July for instance??
Routine Maintenance.
Oh, so you're telling me that ALL routine maintenance has be be done around Christmas/ end of year when business are closing stuff at work before people go on holiday. You do "routine maintenance" in the middle of fucking winter to build characters for your workers? Is that what you are telling me??? Y R U DIGGING THE ROAD UP IN 5 PLACES ALL AT ONCE????
Routine Maintenance.
I used to work for an engineering consulting company; I *know* the drills. I *know* why the number of road works increases at this time of the year...
The 4th quarter in terms of fiscal year is nearly over, and it's the annual budget revision time!
Yes, dear readers... in my country the local authorities are given a set budget at the beginning of the fiscal year and are told: OK you manage your public works: "we will give you this amount for the next year"... guess where the estimate for the following year's budget comes from?? What you spent the previous year, and the year before, and the year before... say no more.
In the private sector we have independent auditors (and bean counters) who will come in and scrutinise every penny spent and ask for "accountability" in every single area.... but the public sector? Well, in my country it's done thru "internal" auditors(i.e./ one of *them*) who will say after Q3 -- shit we have loads of money left over. We have to spend it before the big boss cuts our budget for next year!!! What can we do?
Routine Maintenance....
Today I walked passed a depression in the road that has been there for the past 3 years.(before I lived in HK!). The depression is no wider than 1ft in diameter. Someone has put a red marker surrounding this depression... Dear readers, you can anticipate what will happen next, right?
Another "Routine Maintenance"
It seems to me that the words Routine Maintenance has not become a pseudonym for "wasting-tax-payer's-money"
MY MONEY!!!!
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5 comments:
Lol...good post. We have a joke here "What's white and sleeps 6?"
"A city worker truck." Cuz that is their routine. It takes forever to get roads done here.
Alas... I wish I could take an alternative route, but basically:
1) I own neither a car, nor a drivers' licence
2) I take the bus to the nearest *station*
3) I usally wear a suit to work -- riding a bike is probably not too practical...
I will suffer in semi-silence for 4 more weeks. I don't think that they will be digging up the roads for that long.
DWR
Well I wonder how efficent your public works workers are DWR. As one commenter posted, it takes them forever to get road work done where she is at, and the same goes for me (But I do not know where she is from?). No matter, US roadworkers seem inefficent. I could be wrong, but in general and from what I have seen and heard, they take a long time to fix a road. But since I know nothing about it, it might really take that long to fix or build a road, but I doubt it. So are Japan workers fast at fixing roads or slow? (just in your opinion of course)
In general civil engineering projects like building roads, houses, etc. is VERY fast! In fact it's soooo fast that you wander if they aren't cutting corners and doing a "Cowboy" job. (no offence to real cowboys, but this is an expression used in England)
I think the longest part of any public works is "buying" the land to build their roads etc. (but that's another long story so I will dig in deeper, get you specific x-amples and post it at a later date) But once they plan it out, wade thru all the red tapes, hire a private construction company, everything goes according to your MS Project plan.
Construction workers are hardworking guyz, I suppose it's coz they get paid really well. The wages of people in the construction industry is, on average, higher than your average office worker. Plus I'm sure that public works are headed by the "Roadwork Nazi" or something...
Interesting, Here in the US when I pass by a construciton area all I usually see is a few guys leaning on shovels all looking at the same hole. Then off to the side some younger (probably new worker, or grunt if you will) is doing some sort of busy work. It seems to me, that in the area I live in, if a road goes under construciton, you can assume it will be under construciton for a good part of the season (the season is usually April-November). Right now they city is finishing up most of its road projects that they started in the begining of summer. And do not think that these construciton areas did any major work on the road, may be fix a hole here or patch up a bit here. Not like they tore it all up, and re did it. Just patches and things. My guess is that we are wasting more taxpayers money than Japan on road work, in comparing %'s. I am sure that the road workers are hard working and all, but I have not seen much of it, then agian may be I just catch them at inopurtune times.
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