taken for granted, but not granted

The Philippine beaurocracy never fails to amuse and surprise - shame it is always to the downside.

No ECC yet. Maybe to be decided by December 15 2051. Paje - some bluster but yet another flake in the system. Perhaps he was the best chance to distract Pres Nong Nong into doing something. But no political mileage on this issue, so no clout. Seems even I was over-confident on Tampakan by suggesting the ECC was in the bag in 2011.


http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=TopStory&title=Tampakan-permit-in-limbo&id=44239


Reports say $300m spent so far on Tampakan plus whatever WMC wasted on it. One could easily build a multi-billion dollar metals empire in the Philippines with that sort of coin done the right way in the right places.

But kudos to arp33 for being right and me wrong - due to their extensive fund raising activities IRN can now probably afford for more of nothing to happen for another 20 years.

So on reflection of 2011 and IRN and despite my reasonable track record on calling this show, I fail twice, i.e. no ECC this year and no problem for IRN to absorb the perpetual delays. But I guess that's not too bad for a myopic commentator, as one who may choose to assert predictions on the basis of media spin would look rather fruity by comparison.