The famous phrase “Let them eat cake” (wrongly attributed to Marie Antoinette) aptly sums up the attitude of much of Pakistan’s bureacrats and ministers, and explains why the country remains forever stuck in a mess. The latest variation on that attitude comes from “yet another minister”:http://www.dawn.com/2006/08/17/nat6.htm:
bq.. Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghouri on Wednesday said that the Karachi Port Trust Fountain, the world’s second largest, *had been built by the government for the poor people of the country who could not afford to visit Switzerland for rest and recreation.*
This statement came from the minister first on the floor of the National Assembly and later at the Parliament House cafeteria where he faced opposition’s criticism for constructing a costly fountain. _(link via “Karachi metblogs”:http://karachi.metblogs.com/archives/2006/08/one_mans_gift.phtml)_
The water fountain is visible from some of the poorest areas in Karachi – where drinking water is unheard of, let alone running water. Castration is too good for the bastards who came up with the scheme of wasting hundreds of millions on a water fountain for people with no running water. In other countries, the people misallocating such large amounts would be in jail and barred from public service.
I had “written earlier about the Karachi Port Trust”:http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/karachi/2005_04/karachi_port_trust.html, which as the above story shows, remains headed by idiots. The “underpass the KPT built flooded”:http://karachi.metblogs.com/archives/2006/07/underpass_flood.phtml at the first sign of rain, and the sewage pump aka the govt’s gift to the poor has been out of commision for the past few months. It’s a good thing the ships which unload at the port aren’t run by the KPT, or the port would be full of wrecks. It’s perhaps suitable that since the govt. doesn’t give much else to the poor besides grief, that they should think of them for once and put up a sewage fountain. A rose by any name smells just as sweet, so perhaps the govt. was sending a hidden message by putting a sewer tower as a “gift” to Karachi.
_the fountain is throwing up shit, toxic chemicals and other fun stuff, hence it is better known as the sewage tower._