Reactions to Renaut

Here's the intro to Macario Schettino's column on Friday:

The cellular telephone registry is a clear example of why we can't move beyond mediocrity. Before a poorly explained problem, a haphazard law was created, which half of those affected never took care, until time began to run out. Even with that, a third decided not to abide by it, while the businesses involved sought all type of loopholes to avoid its fulfillment. When the [registration] period ended, the businesses don't apply the law, and the authorities are neither able nor do they want to oblige them to do so. Great: when we have a problem, we want to resolve it with laws, we make them poorly, and then we don't want to enforce them.

Leo Zuckermann, in contrast, placed blame on those who ignored the requirement to register their phone:

Everything indicates that the great majority of cell phone users registered their cell on time and correctly. According to Cofetel, 70 percent of those phones were registered in Renaut:

58.3 million numbers. Twelve million that registered at the last minute still have to be processed.

Nevertheless, there is a minority of users who, unfortunately, don't behave properly with of a process that trusts in them and that therefore will make life easier.

To start, there are the lazy citizens who aren't willing to "waste" two minutes of their time to register their cell. That's just too much.

[Break]

Maybe it's true that Renaut won't function at all. But some of the blame must be laid at the feet of those irresponsible users that lied [about their name] or refused to go through with a fast and simple process.

Zuckermann's frustration is perhaps valid, but slamming the public is a questionable use of time and column space, because you can't elect a new citizenry. You practice politics with the voters you have, not the voters you might like, to paraphrase Rummy. The politicians, however, can be held accountable, and, though it doesn't require a superhuman effort from cell phone users, it's not clear that this registry will make life any more difficult for cell phone extortionists.