Wednesday 23 January 2013

spendthrift or plakateller

A delegation of officials from the city government of Berlin will be making a rather spartan holiday to the city of Athens, hoping to glean a few tips from the Athenians for economy and efficiency in operating a municipality under budget-constraints. The trip, planned for sometime in April, seems ironic and maybe a little bit disingenuous, since the German capital is not being threatened with real austerity, despite being unable to run its affairs without a significant in-pouring of funding from other German states, though I guess someone always gets the blame for bad management in the end. I hope there is no condescension behind the idea and that people take to heart what is working and what is not.  Maybe a little bit of fiscal-restraint, executed with empathy, will make for better governance and less hubris all around.