Tuesday, February 9, 2010

My Own Ignorance


Neville Angove

 I really should have read the manual first.

I saw the film, "Law Abiding Citizen", yesterday. At his first court appearance, the protagonist (Butler) seems to go over the top by claiming that the judge "...took it in the arse...." This was not needed at this time in the plot. But at the movie's end, it was obvious why it was inserted by the director (no pun intended). It reinforced the director's argument that no matter how hard we tried to abide by the rules, those who claim to live by the rules will change them to win, effectively giving all of us it "...in the arse...."

Since I am a victim of this behaviour by the public servants of New South Wales and its Health Department, I do feel some sympathy. It is hard to struggle against people who only care to retain power and avoid responsibility, and who do this by changing the rules to make sure no one else has any power to even suggest that some of these servants of the public are avoiding responsibility.

At the moment, government in Australia is determined by whatever faction of the public servants is the most persuasive. The politicians can play their games, but the public servants control the information flow to and from the politicians, determine what policies will be implemented, and self-assess how well they implement these policies. Even a hunk of the media is subservient to the wishes of the public servants, if it wishes to receive government advertising. The Fairfax media is a prime example, always pushing the public service viewpoint and criticising the politicians. Murdoch's media, in the other hand, criticises anything according to its news value.

You would think that the avoidable deaths of between 5,000 and 30,000 hospital patients a year because of negligent hygiene would generate some attention. It doesn't.
It does get much of the supporting medical literature censored, though. The fact that most of those in the medical profession tend to be scientific and statistical illiterates does not help. Then, since medical professionals believe they are gods, they can't be taught, can they?

In any event, junior members of the medical profession cannot take their seniors to task over their negligence, not if they want careers. And the senior members can't take junior members to task over hygiene negligence, since they have been involved in covering up negligence cases for their whole careers.

1 comment:

  1. Hospital staff will not admit to anything. Imagine admitting you might have helped kill a patient, or covered up the negligent death of one? Fat chance!

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