Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Public Disservice

Roadwork has started on the northern end of our street last April, and it was nowhere close to being finished. That's why I had to pass through the side streets and take the longer route home for the past few months. They said the old pipes need to be replaced, and since the pipes on our street are located right smack in the middle of the road, they can't do repairs one lane at a time. The entire width of the road has to be smashed up, hence making that section of the street inaccessible to vehicles. I wonder what's taking them so long. Limited supplies? Budgetary constraints? Not enough manpower? Or too much time off for the workers? and I wonder why they have to start doing their repairs at the start of the rainy season. Everything was fine before their work started, we weren't experiencing any problems with water drainage. I wonder if repairs were really needed to be done, or if this was just another opportunity for incumbent politicians to show that the taxpayers' money are working for them since elections are going to be held next year. Heck, ever the cynic, I suspect that this also gives those politicians a chance to siphon more of the tax payers money with their under the table deals with construction companies.

When I got home from work this afternoon, there were a lot of people outside, but i didn't really mind them. I was so tired, and all i wanted to do was lie on my bed and sleep. When i woke up several hours later, I heard the sound of trucks outside. And--- I swore i could have been wrong at first, but i was hearing the sound of jackhammers. I went outside to take a look.

F*ck. Just like that, someone had the bright idea to do roadwork on our part of the street, even when the northern end was far from being finished! Now the entire length of our street was closed! My dad and grandparents were pissed, because apparently we weren't informed beforehand! Even our neighbors weren't informed beforehand, and everyone was angry! My dad and my brother had to park their cars on some side street a mile away, while my car was trapped in our garage. Who wouldn't be pissed? For the next few weeks--- or god forbid, MONTHS, knowing how road work crawls at a snail's pace in this country... I'm back to using public transport. Our other cars would be exposed to possible theft. And then there's my grandmother, who has already been rushed to the hospital several times this year, most often in the middle of the night. How the heck are we supposed to carry her all the way to our car that's parked a mile away and reach the hospital in time when the road outside our house resembles a demolition site?! At its present state, it looks as if an atomic exploded!

My dad has talked to the mayor (who's my grandfather's friend), and he said roadwork would be done in a few days. It's possible--- on another city, roadwork was done in only two days... but then again, the house of the mayor's mother was on that street. The same thing cannot be said with regard to the other streets in this country though. That's too bad, because having VIPs within the vicinity seems to be the only way to make people work both quickly and efficiently. A little over a week, let's see. That's what the mayor said. We're just hoping nothing bad happens within the next few days... nothing emergent, nothing critical. No life or death situation. because if something does happen, you can bet on it... our family will SURELY raise HELL.

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