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| # 52 Taking responcerbility |
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In this country, folks have become so immune to people in positions of authority ducking their responsibilities when it all turns to custard.
What we should be is outraged. Why aren’t we? Have we become so desensitised by the actions of our leaders be they politicians, business leaders or public servants that nobody cares anymore?
When I was growing up, New Zealand was considered to be the least corrupt country in the world, even then when I was a lot less cynical than I am now, I thought that was a load of old bollocks. Now I’m totally convinced of it.
The Collins dictionary defines corrupt as: open to or involving bribery, morally wrong, depraved, and unreliable through errors or alterations. It’s the morally wrong bit that everyone tends to forget. The base problem I believe is that the average Kiwi is a naturally laid back group of people, we don’t like to make waves and consequently rock the boat. This allows morally corrupt people to get into positions of power and stay there, no matter what they do. It’s wrong, it’s bad for our country, and it sends a terrible message to our children who are following in our footsteps.
Each and every one of us needs to take some responsibility for allowing this to happen, simply because we consistently do nothing to stop it.
Once we were warriors, but now we are a bunch of sheep that stay with the flock in fear that if we speak up and demand that our leaders take personal responsibility for their actions, then these wolves may come hunting us. We have become gutless, scared little sheep.
Dean Carroll was a trucker, an owner operator and he died on the 14th April 2007. He had a massive blood infection, (septicaemia) in his spine caused by lifting a sheep into his mobile drenching plant. In the last three weeks of his life he was in ever increasing pain as the massive infection got the better of him. His mum and girl friend carried him into the hospital because he could barely walk at 3.50pm, at 7.10pm he was discharged from the Christchurch Public Hospital Emergency Department after having been given some painkillers and he died early the next morning, aged twenty five. The first I knew about this tragedy was the eerie sound of the ambulance arriving to late to save him, you see Dean lived not 200 meters from my back door. We weren’t mates, but I had known him half his life, I used to work for his Dad and I taught him to drive. He was a young rough and tough captain of the local rugby team, more than ready for a bit of a prank or a spot of rabble rousing, but still a bloody good bloke. Over the last three months I have watched the stress and strain his mum and dad have had to endure as they have fought to bury their son and get the independent inquiry into the cause of this catastrophe, he deserves. This sycophantic load of claptrap was released yesterday totally whitewashing the hospital of any negligence over Dean’s death, but it then went on to outline a series of failures relating to his care. How can this be, if there was up to ten things the independent inquiry discovered the hospital had failed to perform to care for Dean then surely this is negligence?
But once again those with the responsibility duck and run for cover and the hospital administration is not alone, there have been hundreds of examples of this type of quality leadership in New Zealand.
Remember Helens quick trip from Waimate to Christchurch and the infamous quote “I didn’t notice as I was busy working in the back seat” as she left her diplomatic protection squad team members to take the wrap. The National parties recent machinations in the last election and their secret squirrel meetings with the exclusive brethren.
Or even Fay and Richwhite signing over a check to the tax department for twenty million dollars, but completely denying that they had done anything wrong. The Winebox Inquiry, the BNZ bailout, the bloodstock and motion picture frauds of the eighties, the list is seemingly endless.
Sadly, our collective allowing of this state of affairs to continue unchecked, defines us as a people. Because if this type of thing were happening in France, the French truckers would be blocking every major city until heads rolled.
We as a nation should stand up and say “THIS IS WRONG” and damned well demand that heads roll; if we don’t then we may be as morally corrupt as all the rest, the ultimate in the “trickle down” theory.
Quality leadership has got to start at the bottom for it is surely lacking at the top.
New Zealanders should demand and expect a hell of a lot more than what we are getting, but sadly we may be getting just exactly what we deserve.
But then, that is “Just an old trucker’s” point of view.
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