These holes happened on the other side of the world, in Ireland in the old days. In those days Irish roads were famously bad, and because Irish drivers were notoriously careless, cars at less than a year old usually developed  noisy creaking suspensions. There were rumours that half the money for road improvement projects went into the pockets of the government people. When it rained hard it would wash away patches of the new surface so that anyone could see how thin the layer was. Then when improvements were made, which was usually just before election time, the government made a big production number of it, and each road works had a big sign explaining that mayor X or Transport Minister Y was “helping Ireland move forward”. In Ireland they called it election economics, and the construction industry always had a mini boom at election time.

My Irish friend had a house in an upscale area, but nevertheless the road approaching his place was in a terrible place, with big holes in it. Something had collapsed under the road, and one hole was so deep that a neighbour had put the remains of a big Christmas tree into it to warn drivers away. It was getting close to election time, so I asked my friend Jimmy “It’s coming up to the elections.  This is an area of rich voters, so won’t the government  fix the roads now?”  His face took on a sad look as he said “You foreigners don’t understand. My district always votes for the opposition so there’s no way the government will waste money on the roads around here. But wait…”

I’m proud to say that I had given him a great idea. Within a week, Jimmy and his neighbours had  paid for some splendid signs to be made and concreted them in place at the sites of the biggest holes. One sign said “This hole is sponsored by Mayor X”. Another said “This hole is brought to you thanks to Transport Minister Y”. The fame of these holes spread rapidly and they were featured in several newspapers and on TV, though not on the government channel of course. Sure enough, a few weeks later the roads were repaired, though on this occasion no-one put up signs claiming the credit. The opposition won the election, so that meant all the opposition district holes would be repaired and the districts that had voted for the ex-government would suffer the unrepaired holes.

That reminds me. The road in my village in Makati has lots of holes. I wonder….?

Isn’t it an odd world that we live in?