Motorway bridges without access roads and dams without water testify to the scandal

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/southern-europe-plagued-by-corruption-and-political-mismanagement-a-847229.html

07/30/2012 30.07.2012
The Origins of Crisis
Corruption and Nepotism Haunt Southern Europe
By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp

Jobs for your friends, contracts for your relatives, cash handouts for everyone: that's how politics works in Sicily. Now the island is on the verge of bankruptcy. It's an example of the underlying problem plaguing many parts of the southern European countries now struggling to contain the euro crisis. snip

The politicians have proven particularly adept at finding public service jobs for their friends. Today, some 144,000 Sicilians get their salary from the state, and one in eight of them is the head of something or other. Many administrative offices are full of people who have no idea what they're supposed to be doing.

When it comes to creating jobs, Sicily's politicians have shown impressive creativity. Some 27,000 people, for example protect the island's meager woodland, far more than the Canadian province of British Columbia employs to tend to its endless forests.

Sicily has in theory been entitled to some €20 billion in EU grants since 2000, but only a fraction of that money has been drawn. The region hasn't undertaken many projects that would be eligible for EU funding, and most of the money it did get was squandered. Motorway bridges without access roads and dams without water testify to the scandal. The mafia has made a killing.

[dipsydoodle]

1. bridges without access roads

Reminds me of Cuba's normal highways - not what we'd call motorways. Many such bridges there. My understanding of the situation in Cuba is that the purpose of the bridges is to effectively block vehicles over a certain size and act as a deterrent to land invasion - basic but effective.

With 27,000 people protecting the island's meager woodland it sound like they're in competition with Greece where one in four work in their public sector - part of the root of Greece's financial problems. In fairness the origin of that is / was reduced private sector unemployment.

[liberal N proud]

2. Bridges to nowhere

[Javaman]

3. No doubt that much of those jobs

have connections to the mafia.

While the mafia's profile in the boot of Italy has largely gone underground, in Sicily it's still a major force to reckon with.

I recently returned from a trip to Sicily. It's such a beautiful island and the people are incredibly nice and generous, but they still suffer the stigma of being the "outcasts" of Italy.

Full disclosure, I'm of Sicilian heritage.