Photo Credit: Daily Mail
Politicians have never been the most popular people in any society. These days, with times being harder, they are becoming ever less popular. It doesn’t help when they do stupid things that make them increasingly unpopular.
For example, environment minister for the Czech Republic Tomas Podivisnky wasting public funds on underwear. The expenditure, which had been included in the end-of-the-year budget, has outraged many people as it is a colossal waste of the taxpayers’ money. A beaver has been pictured on the knickers for women while a cormorant adorns men’s underwear. This move of using the picture of a beaver has been termed sexist by many. Nearly 1,000 pairs of underwear for men and women have been budgeted in 2013 spending.
The Department expects the purchases made will highlight the “Czech Nature campaign” which aims to encourage people to take an active role in protecting the environment. Nearly £18,000 has been spent on purchasing pens, crayons, pencils, umbrellas and cufflinks. However, this merchandise seems more distasteful and offensive than pens and pencils. Hnuti Duha, green campaigners and Friends of the Earth Czech Republic also found the decision “pathetic.”
It was felt that the money could have been used to conserve national parks and protect the landscape. Tomas Podivisnky was accused by Pinos of sexism. Since beavers and cormorants were no longer on the protected species list, it was not right to use their pictures when promoting nature conservation. It has been reported that the chairman of the Czech Green Party, Ondrej Liska felt that the money could have been more profitably spent on protecting human health and environment instead. However, Podivinksy was of the opinion that the underwear purchased would be a better way to send the message rather than purchasing umbrellas and pens. He was of the opinion that this purchase had triggered discussions that were intensive and interesting.
Pinos was concerned about the many experts that had to step down for not conforming to the former ruling party’s whims. The environment minister has been fired from other posts in the past for extravagant spending.
Elsewhere, Rob Ford, the flamboyant mayor of Toronto, let everyone know that he had great ambitions despite being hauled up for purchasing illegal drugs and smoking crack cocaine. In his interview with John Roberts of Fox News Channel he revealed his desire to contest for the role of prime minister soon. He informed Toronto in an interview that he apologized profusely for his mistakes that could have been committed by anyone. Shortly after videos were aired which documented the erratic behavior of Ford, the City Council of Toronto stripped Ford of his powers. His public admissions of using the Class A banned substance was at least met with some repercussions. But in spite of this, Ford is confident of winning the mayoral election next year and turning up to Council to debate every issue.
Another example of political stupidity is the scandal with expenses made by Margaret Moran in the UK, who believed that the public would not be remotely interested at how taxes were being spent. As such, she used taxpayers money to purchase a seaside house in Southampton in the beginning of 2009. Politicians like her usually care about public opinion, but in cases like these they stupidly play with the public, which in the end causes the damage of their career.
Maybe they just have some strange sense of humour that the rest of the world doesn’t get. David Waddell, a town councilor for North Carolina, recently handed in a letter of resignation written in Klingon. It’s actions like these that make us thankful Obama only smoked a little bit of cannabis….but if he starts giving speeches in Klingon, then we can get worried.
