Picking up where I left off some time ago with our vacation in the Périgord, France.
Starting with a look around in the village Paunat.
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Posted by Bart
on 21 April 2022 - 09:59 AM
At this point it would be quite a job, but I'll bet that thing is gorgeous when stripped down to bare metal. I guess government agencies are the same world over. Only do enough to get by.
--Ron
Here they would farm it out to the lowest bid contractor,
. They could maybe sand blast them on site and repaint them, but that would probably be expensive and grumpy old people like me might whack someone with our Shillelagh for the inconvenience, (we can be an angry lot when poked or inconvenienced).
I rate Belgium and England a tie for the most attractive post box's. The U.S. and Sweden...they're functional.
You know, the phrase "it's complicated" seems to been invented to describe our government system.
We are about 11 million on a surface that's hardly noticeable even on a EU scale but our politicians have found it necessary over the past 40 years or so to saddle us up with more governments than you can count on one hand.
6 to be correct. I've added a link to an official webpage because I never quite remember how many there are (guess I'm still in denial
) There's a reason our politicians are sometimes called "the masters of the compromises" by politicians from other countries.
Beneath those 6 governments, there are still the provinces and the cities.
Just to say, I wouldn't know which one is responsible for the maintenance of that mailbox I showed - at this moment in time.
Could also be the postal offices but, last time I heard about it, they are a privately owned company - with the federal government as the majority stockholder, I bet.
Such a company or a governmental department are completely budget driven. Which almost always means that the assigned budget has to be spent by December 31st. No matter what
Spending a budget for a governmental department is indeed not simple. Of course not. Heaven forbid! There are numerous rules about the procedures to be followed but the lowest bid is no longer the deciding factor.
See, they do learn. Sometimes it takes a long time with two steps forward and one step back or vice versa but at least they got the part about the lowest bid figured out.
During the last years, in the epidemic, there were even some - very small - voices suggesting we had too many governments to act efficiently in times of crisis.
Think committees of ministers of health
For 11 million Belgians!
By the way, our normal mailboxes look really simple and functional, not unlike the ones Peter showed.
Posted by Bart
on 20 April 2022 - 10:46 AM
an unlikely pair
but then, animals don't tend to make things as complicated as humans sometimes do.
Lovely b&w winter mood as well!
Posted by Bart
on 20 April 2022 - 10:43 AM
Posted by Bart
on 17 April 2022 - 05:06 AM
Posted by Bart
on 11 April 2022 - 11:32 AM
the b&w is indeed of a different level.
I guess colour might win on a sunny autumn day.