Today's Boston Globe article about the Big Dig reminded me of the story about the two african dictators talking about how much they personally had benefited from foreign investment and aid. The host gestured out from the porch of his mansion at the gleaming new highway and said "Fifty percent of the money for that went straight into my pocket." The other one just shrugged.
Two weeks later though, he hosted the other dictator, and gestured out from the porch of his mansion. "You see that highway?"
"What highway?"
"One hundred percent."
That's why I can't get too excited about the boondoggle at the Big Dig, not to mention the six or seven ways in which public transportation got screwed because the Big Dig ate the budget. At least it's actually happening.
Thank you,
-Vardibidian