Dear Editor,
I often wonder if government was not meant to defend our lives, liberty and property from those who would violate them and punish those who do. But according to the International Business Times, from Latin America to Asia -- and just about everywhere in-between -- citizens say elected officials don't care about the people.
If we are to believe that governments are there to do for individuals what it would be impossible or imprudent for them to do for themselves then there has to be a 'ratcheting up' of the love. Education, welfare, roads, bridges, primary health and hospital care come to mind.
Public officials are servants of the people and ideally should be upright in dealings and should always be thinking creatively about how to ensure needed public services get delivered. Over the years, successive governments and their agencies have been put there to serve the people, and despite the State's discomfort with those of us who speak out, we do no wrong in expecting the highest service standards and moral principles.
I find three recent examples of Government or its agency's bungling most disconcerting:
* The HEART Trust's bungling of a degree programme is an outright disgrace. Students completed a degree programme that did not exist and now they are left feeling robbed and cheated.
* A 99-year-old woman has been waiting for 40 years to collect $1m from Government for land sold to the State by her deceased husband and his business partner. This smacks of extraordinary cruelty. Should she die and not see any benefit? I hope they have a heart and take care of this matter. If they already have, 40 years is still an appalling wait.
* Stalling by fighting the payment of $8m handed down by the courts for a victim of a misdiagnosis is heartless. Any victim of such a hospital error, a diagnosis that is missed, wrong, or delayed should be given compassion and hasty redress. I would think that a caring spirit and kind-heartedness would be the more appropriate responses in doing the right things to ease the pain and suffering you caused.
It is one thing when private individuals or companies are recalcitrant and wayward. When it's your own Government or its agent that trumps the law or bungles your life, then that is just horrible and deeply disconcerting.
Sandra M Taylor Wiggan
sandra_wiggan@yahoo.co.uk
Oh, to be let down by your own Gov't
-->
I often wonder if government was not meant to defend our lives, liberty and property from those who would violate them and punish those who do. But according to the International Business Times, from Latin America to Asia -- and just about everywhere in-between -- citizens say elected officials don't care about the people.
If we are to believe that governments are there to do for individuals what it would be impossible or imprudent for them to do for themselves then there has to be a 'ratcheting up' of the love. Education, welfare, roads, bridges, primary health and hospital care come to mind.
Public officials are servants of the people and ideally should be upright in dealings and should always be thinking creatively about how to ensure needed public services get delivered. Over the years, successive governments and their agencies have been put there to serve the people, and despite the State's discomfort with those of us who speak out, we do no wrong in expecting the highest service standards and moral principles.
I find three recent examples of Government or its agency's bungling most disconcerting:
* The HEART Trust's bungling of a degree programme is an outright disgrace. Students completed a degree programme that did not exist and now they are left feeling robbed and cheated.
* A 99-year-old woman has been waiting for 40 years to collect $1m from Government for land sold to the State by her deceased husband and his business partner. This smacks of extraordinary cruelty. Should she die and not see any benefit? I hope they have a heart and take care of this matter. If they already have, 40 years is still an appalling wait.
* Stalling by fighting the payment of $8m handed down by the courts for a victim of a misdiagnosis is heartless. Any victim of such a hospital error, a diagnosis that is missed, wrong, or delayed should be given compassion and hasty redress. I would think that a caring spirit and kind-heartedness would be the more appropriate responses in doing the right things to ease the pain and suffering you caused.
It is one thing when private individuals or companies are recalcitrant and wayward. When it's your own Government or its agent that trumps the law or bungles your life, then that is just horrible and deeply disconcerting.
Sandra M Taylor Wiggan
sandra_wiggan@yahoo.co.uk
Oh, to be let down by your own Gov't
-->