(Curaçao Chronicle)
It really does not stop; we keep taking (expensive) decisions without thinking that costs us tons of money.
Just to mention a couple, for example, compulsory education and free school for everybody. It is too sad for words, but what do you expect from politicians who do not even know what norms and values are, and consider it normal to whack each other in parliament, let alone having a high school diploma.
We are sitting now with a 5.4-million-guilder lemon, because we wanted, not for the first, but for the second time, to install cameras to try to tame the driving behaviour of our cowboys on our public roads.
Second time yes! A couple of decades ago, somebody came up with the bright idea to install cameras at the intersections because even then, driving through a red light was elevated to the level of national sport, and if somebody wanted to commit suicide, he would have a better chance crossing the road when the light is red than jumping off Juliana bridge.
They placed boxes on several intersections and they would keep switching the location of the camera so that you would not know whether you would be flashed going through a red light or not. In itself not a bad idea, and I still see my dear friend Angel Salsbach standing at the intersection at the Jewish cemetery at Ararat during the installation of the first camera. Everybody embraced the initiative and was looking forward to the results.
After a couple of weeks, they discovered that the film could not be developed in Curaçao, so that was the end of that idea. The poles with the camera boxes are still standing at the different intersections as a reminder of how not to do it.
Today in the papers they mention that the whole initiative to place cameras on the well-known racetracks of Curaçao will be discontinued because there is no law that makes the owner (not the driver) responsible for the traffic violations, like driving too fast or driving without the seat belt.
So the warning on all UTS cars telling people to report to UTS if the car (not the driver) drives too fast makes no sense either (like it makes a difference, because they don't even pick up the phone when you call them). There is no law that regulates the license plate liability, so the party is (once again) cancelled.
Again 5.4 million is thrown away because we did not think it through, and how it has to function and the sanctions to implement. Just because it works in Holland does not mean it can work here. So now that we know that, we will continue racing because there is nothing they can do.
You see, these are the things that make my day and put a smile on my face, because till today I still tease Angel Salsbach about his photo studios on the intersections.
I really keep laughing on this rock, because not even a donkey will trip twice over the same stone; no wonder we don't get ahead because we keep tripping.
Arthur Donker
