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MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER
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Worzels World - If it ain’t broke…We live in a world where we only seem to want to fix those things that are not broken.
Many is the machine of morality, the engine of tradition that has reliably chugged on for centuries only to be tinkered with in modern times by those that tell us they know better. And what is worse, believe it themselves. Due to conscientious and long-suffering support, David Bain’s innocence or at least lack of guilt, was proved beyond reasonable doubt. It is reasonable to assume that there are many others who lack such support who, though innocent, serve long lags at great cost to themselves and the taxpayer. And of those who are guilty? Does our system of incarceration best serve them or the public? Government ministers occasionally apologise to the wrongfully convicted and their families but fall short of an apology to the taxpayer who after footing the bill for the criminal investigation, the legal processes, prosecution, trial and incarceration also end up paying compensation to the wrongfully convicted. There has yet to be an instance of a contribution from those actually responsible. Our justice system is but one of many social institutions tried by the harsh judge of time that has, though not perfectly, at least stumbled on well enough through the ages. Sadly in modern times deluded arrogant fools, thinking themselves smarter than the accumulated wisdom of ages, upgrade, re-brand, alter, adjust, readjust, and generally tinker with things that actually work until they end up breaking them. Our volume of law increases year by year yet it serves us less and less. Rather than providing guidelines to assist honest well-intentioned citizens it more often than not places before them frustrating hurdles that curb our freedom and lower our capacity to be productive. It is difficult to work and live without interference from legions of know-it-all’s in the public service who insist on telling us how and what to do then charging us for this dubious service. The Novapay farce is a good example. For hundreds of years we have been paying school teachers. In New Zealand there is no recorded instance of significant payroll failure until the Ministry of Education decided to spend $30 million replacing a system that wasn‘t broken with the Novapay product, which was. Paying people is not rocket science or brain surgery. Humans have been doing it since we gave up clubs for cash. Yet with all our technological advancement and hi-tech tools, somehow we can’t seem to manage it anymore. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating then it’s a flat pavlova tasting of sour grapes. They fixed what wasn’t broken. Some years ago I was forced to surrender my $5 lifetime firearms licence and jump through hoops to obtain a new $65 plastic card with a photo of me looking like a psychopath. This expired after six years. When last renewed it cost $263. Since the introduction of these new licences and the raft of legislation that accompanied them the incidences of both firearm related crime and accidental death has skyrocketed. They fixed what wasn’t broken. If a system doesn’t work perfectly – and no system does – it is no excuse for failure. It is the quality of the people within the system that makes the difference. Nor does an imperfect system justify changes that only make things worse. Many in authority work awfully hard and obtain awful results. Destroying time honoured systems that function they completely ignore obvious problems that need urgent attention. Presumably the rational is that they will go away of their own accord or that they are somebody else’s problem and that hopefully someone else, somewhere else, will deal with it. Nothing is done and the problems like cancer grow and become harder to cure. Is it too late already? I can offer no better advice than that we stop bullshitting ourselves. Remember that when someone says ‘Trust me I know what I’m doing’ and appears to believe it themselves, it is time to start treating them with suspicion. Self-empowered hypocrites have no trouble peddling half-baked doctrines and empty promises to a gullible populace desperately hoping someone somewhere has got some solutions. They are deceiving themselves and trying to deceive you, me and everyone else. It is tempting to throw up our hands at the magnitude of the job at hand thinking it too big, too complex, too hard, continuously treating the symptoms is a waste of everyone’s valuable time and resources. Any problem must be honestly appraised and truly understood before it can be solved. More training and reviews of processes never fix anything but willing conscientious people prepared to take on a job and learn how to do it, can and do fix things. We must stop fixing what isn’t broken and start fixing what is. There are few problems that with understanding and hard work cannot be overcome. Are we prepared to rise to the challenge? ■ prof_worzel@hotmail.com If a system doesn’t work perfectly – and no system does – it is no excuse for failure. It is the quality of the people within the system that makes the difference. Nor does an imperfect system justify changes that only make things worse. |
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