Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing.
We need to question the traffic management rort.
An recent article in the New Zealand Herald made me realise that one of the substantial costs in road maintenance and construction is the ludicrous amount of money paid for traffic management, but I had no idea just how huge the price was.
Not too long ago, Kiwis were known for sheep, now we are known for traffic cones. Back in the day there was something like five sheep for every New Zealander. Today the ratio of Kiwis to road cones is much higher. Any work done now requires streams of plastic cones and the contractors hired to place them, move them and remove them. These cones aren’t cheap and the fees doled out for their use and the traffic management itself is obscene. Some people are making a lot of money, paid for by rate and tax payers.
How much would you think traffic management costs contribute to a job, such as constructing a raised pedestrian crossing? Five percent? Ten percent? 15 percent? How does 35 percent sound? More than any cost by a long stretch, cones, and traffic management in general, dominates.
How is that possible and how is it allowed? Sure, I get we have health and safety requirements but this is what’s known as, taking the mickey. It’s no small wonder that stretched budgets force infrastructure plans into disarray when over a third is paid out to cone companies. Who owns those companies? How was it engineered that their products and services were deemed essential for infrastructure work?
Here’s a breakdown, as published in the New Zealand Herald:
“How much money does AT spend on a pedestrian crossing?
Williamson Ave pedestrian crossing costs
- Design/consultation/consents – $80,000
- Earthworks and clearing site – $19,000
- Kerb and channel/traffic islands/signs/roadmarking/surfacing – $34,000
- Concrete speed table – $33,000
- Footpaths/pram crossing upgrade/lighting – $47,000
- Traffic management – $172,000
- Stormwater upgrades – $87,000
- Site monitoring/quality assurance – $18,000
- Total cost – $490,000″ (Source: “Pedestrian crossing costs: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says Auckland Transport is wasting money,” by Bernard Orsman, 25th January, www.nzherald.co.nz
0 stars – this is an obscene abuse of the public purse.
Butter chicken scrap goes to court
Scrapping over who invented what is a time old pursuit. We are still locked in a yet to be decided wrangle with our neighbours across the ditch over who can claim to have invented the pavlova. Apparently, these things matter.
In India there is currently a fight to establish who is the actual inventor of the much loved dish, butter chicken.
“Owners of Moti Mahal, a famed Delhi restaurant, have filed a lawsuit against rival chain Daryaganj, accusing it of falsely claiming to have invented the dish as well as dal makhani, a popular lentil dish that is also laden with butter and cream.” (Source: “Why butter chicken is at the heart of a £188,000 legal battle,” 25th January, www.news.sky.com).
One party asserts that its predecessors invented the dish in the 1930s, while the other says that it did, just as India and Pakistan were created in the later 1940s. As in all things these days, the battle over provenance has divided Indians, with social media ablaze.
“‘It’s an offbeat, unique case. You really don’t know who created the first dish of butter chicken. The court will be hard pressed and will need to rely on circumstantial evidence,’ said Ameet Datta, an intellectual property lawyer at India’s Saikrishna & Associates.” (Source: “Why butter chicken is at the heart of a £188,000 legal battle,” 25th January, www.news.sky.com).
5 stars – at the end of the day, we are still left with butter chicken, no matter who actually concocted it first.
