Why is the most modern iron ore carrier in the world breaking up in a Brazilian port?
Why are Canadian natives freezing to death in tents after billions have been spent on their housing?
Why is the multi-billion development plan for the F-35 strike fighter so ensnared in its own bureaucratic web that the US Navy would rather buy a twenty year old design than take a chance on the latest technology?
If you're driving the Trans Canada Highway from Toronto to Saint John you'll pass a water tower by one of the Fredericton exits. There are no commemorative plaques to inform you of this, but the water tower you see is the third attempt to build that water tower.
The first two fell over.
Not for a lack of expertise. The construction of the first two water towers was fully jobbed up with highly qualified engineers and consulting engineers and consultants to the consulting engineers. If there's a sure thing in Maritime construction it's that there isn't an engineering firm that made a donation to the party in power that doesn't have a little slice of the pie.
None of that expertise and none of those political donations prevented those water towers from collapsing.
When I was just starting my journey in the world of paid employment the farmer I worked for told me the story of the guy who had built the silos at his place. An old Scotsman, no formal education whatsoever, who'd spent most of his life building bridges and water towers.
In the post-war years there was a move afoot by the professional engineering cabals to make sure anyone building or designing a structure over a certain minimum footage had the proper qualifications. Our aging Scotsman, who had put up dozens of water towers and bridges all over North America, suddenly found himself building farm silos.
None of his stuff ever fell down.
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