Damned Damn Dams Damn Damn Japan

Let me see if I get this straight. After restoring, under the sponsorship of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), funding for the completion of the egregious Yamba Dam – an immense political liability for an administration for whom the Yamba dam cancellation was seemingly the only campaign promise it had not repudiated or altered beyond all recognition and a tumor that lurks within the budget passed by the House of Representatives last Thursday (J) – the Cabinet has just approved a further bill, again authored by the MLIT minister, providing funding for offsets and new economic revitalization plans for local communites that have been disrupted by the cancellation of dams. (J)

Who the hell is thinking up these bills? OK, the MLIT bureaucrats, given. But who in his or her right mind thinks that these bills will do anything but hurt the standing of the Democratic Party of Japan among non-aligned voters, who at 48.7% of the electorate are the prizes up for grabs in the next House of Representatives election? (J - with background in E)

These communities have already been pigs at the trough in the development phase of these cancelled projects. Now we are going to be giving them seconds?

Who the heck is in charge of this mess?


Later - Many thanks to reader PM for pointing out the broken links.