Daily Lesson from Life 24 December 2008

"Dubai-style office stokes anger

The overly luxurious government building has sparked public anger about waste and corruption in times of economic crisis. -Wed, Dec 24, 2008 Reuters

BEIJING: AN OVERLY luxurious government building in east China some are saying would be more appropriate in Dubai is stoking public anger about waste and corruption in times of economic crisis, Chinese media said on Wednesday.


The compound in Changxing county in Zhejiang, one of China's richest provinces, had an 'unimaginably spectacular' night view with coloured lights shining on the surrounding fountains and an artificial lake, said a report on government website.

'When I first saw it I thought I was looking at the Atlantis the Palm Hotel of Dubai,' the site quoted a comment posted by an Internet user as saying.


The four buildings and attached facilities cost hundreds of millions of yuan and were being criticised as 'an extremely typical extravagance and waste of money', the report said.

Beijing has issued numerous warnings in recent years to local governments not to build ostentatious public buildings with official funds, especially in the country's poorer inland regions. Beijing has previously banned indoor gardens, multi-storey atriums and high-tech karaoke stages at government and Communist Party buildings.

In one case, the government in Zhanjiang in the southern province of Guangdong spent 11 million yuan (S$2.31 million) on a fancy five-storey poverty relief office in which only 20 people worked, state media reported.


Some local governments have also embezzled poverty-alleviation and disaster-relief funds to put up luxurious offices and other facilities for themselves.

A county government in the quake-hit province of Sichuan was paying 1.8 million yuan to build sumptuous, over-elaborate bus stops, a local newspaper said. 'The stone pillars supporting the bus stations are five to six metres high and one bus stop alone uses more than 60 tonnes of stone,' it said."

Why are we constantly uncovering and reading about such shameless and totally irrational spending of public money on questionable so-called 'public' projects? There could be many results but personal integrity and possibly the reward system have a lot to do with this: "Why would anyone in the right frame of mind do this?" phenomenon.

Lessons for me are:

1. people will find ways to spend money IF they are not going to be held accountable to irresponsible spending;

2. people will find ways to spend money IF they know they will not be monitored by an independent 3rd party even though they said they will be held accountable for irresponsible spending!;

3. people will find ways to spend money IF they know their performance is purely based on how much growth in the local GDP since such grandiose projects will definitely bring higher economic values!; AND

4. people will find ways to spend money IF they have NO ethical grounding of their beliefs. Behaviors are just manifestation of their thoughts. If they have unethical thoughts, corruption and waste are not their concerns!

Finally, the people who are the victims must learn to speak out to the right authority in the right manner so that they do not get snuffed out before their grievances get aired! So that corrective actions can be taken by the higher level authority who are anchored in ethics.

It really pains me to read about such abuses and the concerned parties, who are normally more educated and in position of power, who forfeited the chance to bring honour and pleasure to the people instead of shame and ridicules!

By the way, may I wish one and all a great X'mas eve. If you party, don't drink and drive. Have fun. Be Safe!!