At least we don't have this problem--yet

[Kip Powick]

BOGOTA—For years, people in Colombia's capital stood by as thieves hauled off manhole covers to sell as scrap. Drivers simply tried to swerve around the gaping holes where the 50-kilogram, cast-iron lids used to be.

Even after a record 10,000 were stolen in 2005, Bogotanos mainly just laughed about the missing covers, viewing it as a minor irritation compared with terrorism and other violence associated with drug trafficking and leftist guerrillas in this South American nation.

But the apathy was swept away Christmas Day.

That's when a 6-year-old boy playing near grandmother's house fell into a coverless manhole.

He banged his head on the iron rim as he fell in and then drowned in the sewage.

The story of little Jordan Paez has dominated newspapers and airwaves for a week, leading officials in this city of 6 million people to launch an emergency campaign to replace covers and try to cut down on thefts.

Hundreds of people have written to the media or phoned the city to demand a crackdown, while mayor Luis Eduardo Garzon scolded citizens for their long indifference to the problem.

Drivers relate stories about car wheels getting jammed in gaping manholes, where they typically remain until five or so good Samaritans give a heave-ho to free a vehicle.

The dead boy's grandmother, Amparo Martinez, said Jordan was chasing after his Christmas present, a new remote-controlled race car. She hopes his death will have some meaning.

Thieves make $5 to $10 (U.S.) for each cover, a lot in Colombia, where 60 per cent of the population is poor and the unemployment rate runs in double digits. Perez said such thefts are common throughout Latin America.

While police try to reduce theft, the city has been looking for ways to discourage thieves, but has had little success. Failed strategies included plastic covers that popped out if cars drove over them at the wrong angle, and welding some of the 200,000-plus tops shut. That didn't work because workers need to crawl in and out of manholes so frequently, it became too costly to have welders running around town to open and reseal covers.

[J.O.]

Even after a record 10,000 were stolen in 2005, Bogotanos mainly just laughed about the missing covers, viewing it as a minor irritation ....

Kip:

That's what some safety experts would call "Normalization of deviance". It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye (or a child).

Jeff

P.S. I replied to your PM.

[Guest woxof]

This is an explanation of why some countries stay the way they are, including I'm sure our own. It is not because of the terrible U.S. or whatever that these places have problems. It is because of their own people. Many of them laughing about 10,000 stolen manhole covers, yet not stopping to think of what can happen and how dangerous it is.