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Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

bbc.com

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Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#51

Post by huflungdung »

vasco wrote: post #25
shswkna wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not understand the downvotes. It is a rational response to bureaucratic excesses worldwide in public procurement. It is a plea to more common sense, to more down to earth thinking and decisive action in the public sphere. This is not a call to ignore processes. But it is a call for civil servants to respect that they are exactly that. In service, and their ambition should be to do it well and efficiently. The do…

You went from not understanding them to knowing exactly what they were an expression of pretty quickly!

[dead]

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#52

Post by SenHeng »

userbinator wrote: post #7

More than 20% of Japan's water pipes have passed their legal service life of 40 years, according to local media That is rather low. The US still has some wooden(!) water pipes in use, as well as other plumbing installed in the late 19th/early 20th century.

For some relevancy, this issue is still on Japanese minds because last year, corroded pipes led to one of the largest sinkholes the country has ever seen, swallowing a truck and drowning the driver in a pit of shit and piss. It took months to recover his body.

Many plumbing companies have since spoken up about how they’ve been requested to fix this infrastructural issue but without the appropriate funds because “how expensive can replacing some pipes be?” And “who cares about leaky pipes under the streets? The water just goes back into the ground.”

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/20/japan/pipe-corr...

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#53

Post by ionwake »

arjie wrote: post #17

It is an outrageously cool thing to give money for an infrastructure project. They must have some faith that the government can deliver on something with $3.5 million. That would be two public toilets in SF, one toilet of which actually cost $300k in paperwork and so on despite two local businessmen signing up to have the work done.

weird how contributing to your community is "outrageously cool".

How times have changed

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#54

Post by doublerabbit »

avadodin wrote: post #47
dcrazy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the reason that installing a 2-mile bus lane on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco took several years. They took advantage of the opportunity to replace the hollowed out logs that had served as one of the city’s most critical water mains since the 1906 quake.

going straight from mycotoxins to microplastics without going through lead speedrun

You owe me a coffee, cheers for the fountain of liquid out my nose. How much for a water feature?

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#56

Post by madaxe_again »

arjie wrote: post #17

It is an outrageously cool thing to give money for an infrastructure project. They must have some faith that the government can deliver on something with $3.5 million. That would be two public toilets in SF, one toilet of which actually cost $300k in paperwork and so on despite two local businessmen signing up to have the work done.

Of course they have faith - the donor is likely the prime contractor, doing a bit of casual circular accounting while doing a charitable donation tax writedown - or just some plain old fashioned laundry.

It’s hard to see another reason for the format of the donation.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#57

Post by ArnoVW »

pjc50 wrote: post #48
arjie wrote: post #17

It is an outrageously cool thing to give money for an infrastructure project. They must have some faith that the government can deliver on something with $3.5 million. That would be two public toilets in SF, one toilet of which actually cost $300k in paperwork and so on despite two local businessmen signing up to have the work done.

Japan, a culture so public-spirited that even the local Yakuza decide to contribute to the plumbing.

There's a pattern where criminal organizations fill governance gaps rather than starting as genuine governments. The Yakuza did this opportunistically at certain historical moments. Hamas is a similar example (not a criminal organisation, but..) , allthough they are more of a institution-building than the Yakuza ever was.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#58

Post by Hnrobert42 »

madaxe_again wrote: post #56
arjie wrote: post #17

It is an outrageously cool thing to give money for an infrastructure project. They must have some faith that the government can deliver on something with $3.5 million. That would be two public toilets in SF, one toilet of which actually cost $300k in paperwork and so on despite two local businessmen signing up to have the work done.

Of course they have faith - the donor is likely the prime contractor, doing a bit of casual circular accounting while doing a charitable donation tax writedown - or just some plain old fashioned laundry. It’s hard to see another reason for the format of the donation.

So cynical. Japanese culture is peculiar. Gold is anonymous.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#59

Post by Pay08 »

ArnoVW wrote: post #57
pjc50 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan, a culture so public-spirited that even the local Yakuza decide to contribute to the plumbing.

There's a pattern where criminal organizations fill governance gaps rather than starting as genuine governments. The Yakuza did this opportunistically at certain historical moments. Hamas is a similar example (not a criminal organisation, but..) , allthough they are more of a institution-building than the Yakuza ever was.

Probably the best example of this are American mafias.

Re: Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6M in gold bars to fix water system

#60

Post by Pay08 »

sharkjacobs wrote: post #23
userbinator wrote: post #7

More than 20% of Japan's water pipes have passed their legal service life of 40 years, according to local media That is rather low. The US still has some wooden(!) water pipes in use, as well as other plumbing installed in the late 19th/early 20th century.

Urban trees in Montreal (and presumably other cities) only survive through the summer because of the water they get from leaky pipes. > Maple trees drink about 50 litres of water every day, and it seems some of their hydration is coming from Montreal’s crumbling infrastructure. https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/montreals-leaky-pipe...

I just realised I've never actually thought about how urban trees get water. I never see them get watered and I assume that would be an incredibly inefficient way to do it.
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