Rants from the mayor

The mayor of this city has a weekly television appearance where he can rant about his current annoyances. It is kind of like giving public warning. Since the show is on Sunday afternoons that means that the Monday paper has a rehash of the highlights.

A few weeks ago he was ranting about the slow (ie non-existent) progress on replacing the bridge that collapsed last April. The latest word is that construction will start some time this month and will hopefully finish by next March.

This week the mayor is annoyed because a certain hotel in town does not comply with the mayor’s smoking ban which states that there is to be no smoking in public areas and that businesses must designate smoking areas. The hotel apparently has a lot of Korean guests and Korean businessmen are reputed to be big time smokers. So the mayor’s rant included coments about how Koreans also had to obey the law. Well, actually the hotel feels that it DOES comply with the law because it has declared the entire hotel a smoking area. Unfortunately for the hotel, the mayor is not impressed and has threatened to close it down if it does not comply.

The other noteworthy rant this week was against the boys who sell durien candy at the bus terminal. It seems these young lads have adopted a new business technique. They board the busses and sit in the seats with their wares. Then they insist that when the passengers board and wish to sit down they must first either buy a box of durien candy at double the normal price or else pay the boy a fee. I guess it is a seat warming fee? Anyway the mayor ordered the terminal officials to stop the boys’ illegal activity or the officials would face his wrath.

Remember that in this country, the mayor is king. Stay tuned for more rants from the mayor...