a614: Re: Re: a592: A cleaner, healthier natural environment... and revenue too. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: K. M. Ives <kives@toast.net>

> From: JRAuguste1@aol.com
> Traveling back to Port-au-Prince from Lulie, Ibo Beach, a sharp observer
can
> see a thin blue smoke cover over Port-au-Prince in the distance; courtesy
of
> all the tap tap mufflers with their black thick exhausts. Does the
government
> do car inspection in Haiti? Is there any automobile emission control in
> effect?

No, there is no emission control, which brings up an interesting point.
Systematic vehicle inspections would surely contribute to cutting down
pollution, as well as reduce the number of accidents. Who has not been
blinded by cockeyed headlights while driving in Haiti or seen a brakeless
vehicle overturned at the bottom of a steep grade? Furthermore, it would be
a surefire way for the state to raise some revenues, charging, say, 100
gourdes for an annual inspection, and the same for public transport and
rental cars every six months. A relatively easy scheme to implement and
enforce. This was one of Francois Duvalier's money-raising formulae. Think
of the revenue stream from the tet befs of mayors and parliamentarians
alone!

Kim Ives