You have seen through my clever and condescending manipulations of surnames, Mr. Rivas-Pita. Hat’s off. Or may I call you Julio? I don’t wish to exclude you from the “fraternity.”
But really you may be assured these surnames you find so troubling are either an excess formality on my part, ignorance or uncertainty about what to call people I’ve never met. So I admit to inconsistency. In any case, you may call me Robert.
“Third-world” was used as a synonym for inefficiency and
corruption, not as a defamation of unnamed
countries. I agree that such conditions may obtain anywhere, including
the
Mostly I lament the slow death of Good Faith. I mean the spirit to unite in the aftermath of a disaster, the resolve and stamina to examine thoroughly and fairly, but at the proper time, what went wrong and who failed their civic charge, and the collectively apolitical determination to make things right no matter the public relations consequences. I think this did exist once, to some extent. The reason this should exist is because corruption and incompetence are very bad for free society, far worse than any storm.
Unfortunately, I don’t see a return of good faith for now. Instead I have a dismal vision of how this all will play out: a deepening mire of recrimination, with shrill charges and counter-charges, each citing one or another “official report” as evidence of their own righteousness and the other's malfeasance. Meanwhile, corruption and incompetence will whistle merrily along.
, OSB, 1924-1996)
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