Years at school and what do we learn? They try to help us understand the workings of the world and the complexities of the sciences and then to round us off nicely to face the world they try and slip in a little psychology to help us understand our f
ellow man. But have they missed something, these academics who do their best to put together a curriculum that will work to prepare us for life and help us gain employment.
This week we saw the HSA threaten to shut down a small business. Now this business I have to assume had to be struggling to stay afloat like every other small business in the current climate. I’m sure he’d pat himself on the back when he managed to pay his bills at the end of the week and look hopefully for a few clients for the next week all the while wondering where the next threat would come from. The sheriff for the overdue vat? The letter from the bank manager telling him they’d withdrawn his overdraft facility? But could he ever have imagined that a calendar could be his downfall?
That’s right a less than risqué calendar with content typical of any Sunday tabloid caused the HSA so much concern they felt it safer for all concerned that he be shut down if the said threat wasn’t removed.
These same HSA officers are educated men so what part of this foolishness didn’t they understand?
We’ve had elderly and supposedly wise members of the judiciary sending old men to jail for non-payment of dog licences while executives can evade the law when they cheat pensioners out of their savings.
When we have young people dying on our roads what do our garda, our guardians of the peace do? They set up speed cameras at the entrance to our towns on a Saturday afternoon to catch the housewives who apparently are the terror of the roads as they race for the last fresh head of cabbage at the vegetable stalls.
What are these people all lacking? Is it plain old common sense?
Our grandparents seemed to have had it with practically no education. So should we revise our education system? Or does the core root of the problem lay with ourselves? Are we too busy to pass onto our children what our forefathers gave us? The ability to use our common sense and find a rational balance when we are judging situations and people.
I don’t have the answers. I don’t know who does but we don’t need a tribunal or a committee to find out. Maybe just a few sensible heads could come together and help the bureaucrats to understand.
Yours,
Joseph Mc Closkey,
Ardara Road,
Killybegs.
