No, I’m not talking websites here (websites should never carry the words ‘Under Construction’ - it’s like saying ‘enter at your own risk’ or ‘beware of falling brickwork’). Lately, as temperatures plummet, storm clouds gather overhead and winds reach gale force, we suddenly have a spate of orange cones and men in safety vests digging up the roads.
For a long time comedians have made jokes about road working crews. Like, why do you need two men with stop/go lollipops, one man with a road roller, two trucks and three guys standing watching (one’s there to make the tea), working on a one metre wide by 10 metre long strip of new asphalt? Why, when driving during the weekend or holiday season, do you find yourself driving through ‘road works’ at 30kph for miles and miles while all the machinery is parked well off the road and there isn’t a worker in sight?
I used to think it was just a Kiwi phenomenon (why else was the Ministry of Works commonly referred to as the ‘Ministry of Jerks’?). Until I saw this video the other day. In the 1960’s, at the height of the Vietnam Conflict American singer/songwriter Barry McGuire performed a song "Eve of Destruction", exposing the hypocrisy of modern society. Forty years later comedian Dan Geiger has written new lyrics and made a video about road works!
Apparently Barry really enjoyed it too!
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