| Sink or Swim (2) |
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The Amsterdam Municipal Executive has hastily decided on a reshuffle of the puny budget. Radical cuts are being made at the secret alternative underground location along Brouwersgracht (see WR 78) so as to release the necessary funds for the campaign against the upcoming referendum - a referendum that should enable the population to reject the planned spin-off of the Municipal Transport Company. The thing is that too many citizens are opposed to the spin-off plans as it is, if for no better reason than to revive the city administrators' socio-political conscience as a last-ditch remedy. Memories of the last referendum are still fresh in everyone's mind, the outcome being that the Inner City Constituent Council that none of us inner-city dwellers wanted was rammed down our throats notwithstanding the overwhelming majority we obtained in the ballot. I'm sorry, but that's about as elegantly as I can put it. In actual fact the impact of this cost cutting exercise on the subway budget is a most accurate reflection of the Municipal Executive's ultimate spin-off objective, in that it is the administrators' response to the civilian ability to "make do". This, after all, has for some time been the purpose of the inner-city loop and of the preposterous renovations in places such as Dam Square and the stretch of Singel from Spui to Koningsplein. Provided everything goes according to plan, the public will in due course have its pick of deserted buses and trams, with the free market mechanism ensuring that sooner or later someone or other will get behind the wheel, thus restoring exploitation by the entrepreneurs among us. Meanwhile the surplus of cabs will have something to keep them busy. These tubes will enable cyclists to travel from A to B safe and sound. Unfortunately only reclining bicycles will qualify, but crouching inline skaters are welcome to hook up. When this picture was taken, the artificial fog generator designed to enable the unobserved supply of materials and man power had just been switched on - too late, of course, for I had already seen what was going on. |