Today I look at how governments (and companies, and exes) clean up the literal or metaphorical house when guests arrive, but let their own wallow in squalor.
The signal at hand is San Francisco cleaning up its streets, moving / removing the pimps, prostitutes, drugs addicts and homeless - along with their tent camps, needles and litter - that have long plagued their communities, not for the people who live there, but for a visiting trade delegation from China.
Not unlike how South African loadshedding is “cured” every time there is a visiting pompous global dignitary around, only to be plunged back into darkness as soon as the guests are gone again.
This signal of sadly popular government hypocrisy and disrespect of those who pay for it, explains not a little of declining levels of citizen trust in states.
It’s also a reminder to brands and businesses that happiness = expectations- reality.
Or, more bluntly, how overpromising and underdelivering is not great for relationship building.
Anyway, where else have you seen leaders prioritising strangers over citizens?
And are you guilty of negleting the employees and customers who depend on and trust you to impress an outsider?
Social contracts are fragile things. Ignore them at your peril - exit, voice or loyalty - which one of those three options are you encouraging among your constituents?
Read more :
True because it’s true : https://x.com/balajis/status/1724666626006815214?s=46&t=4ZnlXYawVpFiG2SlapEWwg
Serendipitous! http://htxt.co.za/2023/08/21/loadshedding-surreptitiously-suspended-returns-this-afternoon/
Social contracts and such : https://fluxtrends.com/the-future-of-us/
Serendipitous!