Serial incompetence or a justifiable excuse after COVID-19

Among the plethora of agonies, men and women have had to endure during a span of six months for a hundred or more years, thanks to the pandemic, is a suffocating incompetence in many walks of life.

The UK Opposition Leader, Keir Stammer summed it very well by accusing the government of Boris Johnson of “serial incompetence”. The Labour leader said the PM had been “lurching from crisis to crisis, U-turn to U-turn, excuse to excuse, when he should have been preparing the country for a possible winter” of perhaps, discontent.

We’ve had the exams crisis which raised questions about the ability of getting a grip on difficult decisions, or even run the country in a crisis. The great pandemic has led to an extraordinary expansion of incompetence, as well as “power grab”.

First, it was lockdown designed to buy time, so that the health service could prepare. Next it was to “flatten the curve,” then it was “follow the science” on face masks and social distancing, then it was “closing borders” with an effect on slowing the spread of the virus.

COVID-19 gave not only the British Government, but governments around the world the world the “perfect excuse” to monitor citizen’s movements through their mobiles, but the “test, trace and track “programmes which wanted to suck up, rather mop-up private data and store it centrally. This we are told was abandoned when Apple refused to participate. We are then informed that “poking swabs into the nostrils” or taking swab tests from people’s larynges without consent, will soon be replaced with “saliva tests”.

Big Government and inefficient private service

It is understandable that those who protest these draconian measures in the name of national safety, are quickly shouted down.

It is intolerable when people who are said to work at home give the latest excuse for their inefficient service, that they have not got their facts straight. Their excuse is an apology to customers having to wait, as much as one hour on the phone, to be fobbed off that they have not got the correct information. Complaints procedure takes weeks, if not months to resolve.

In the name of defeating Coronavirus, and we are told it’s all temporary, but is it?

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government programme, as the measures taken by governments seem unthinkable; have been implemented in haste without debate.

In every country, Big Government is here to stay, or as many governments proclaim, “here to help”.

In Sri Lanka, we see almost all important Government positions controlled or lead by retired members of the forces. I have nothing against retired people being at the helm of key departments. I am not in favour either of incompetent managers being put in charge of national security. I would only hope that these retired officers will be given understudy younger personnel in much greater numbers, so that the knowledge, experience, skills, and training will be imparted to much needed juniors. We lack skilled personnel in our key jobs. We need to give the youth of today something to learn from our elders. This is an emergency, which I consider needs to be addressed sooner than later. But who am I, living in the comfort of western insalubrious climate, to comment?

My own experience in UK

I do hope my readers will understand when I relate what the resultant situation has caused, notwithstanding the serial incompetence seen in many other walks of life for others, in the past few weeks.

To give you an example of the incompetence, the medical negligence that I have experienced. I thought I had twisted my ankle some three weeks ago. I had a swollen ankle, which caused me a lot of pain. I visited one of the leading University of London A & E Departments in the City. I was seen by a Consultant who told me to rest my leg, without a backup Xray, he sent me home and referred me to my GP.

Due to the pandemic GP surgeries are not automatically available “on call”. During a Virtual Conference arranged with my GP, I found to my dismay that it had to be abandoned due to the absence of a “Java” programme uninstalled on my mobile.

With my anxious wait, I was seen by a GP in person in surgery days later. Having examined my ankle, he prescribed me an Antibiotic. This did me no good as I had to be taken to a nearby A&E and be attended by a Fracture Consultant who ordered a series of “X rays” and decided to put my right leg in a “moon boot,” ordering me to rest for 6 weeks and asked not to doze myself with any antibiotic.

Blame everything on the pandemic

Sadly, the pandemic had completely exposed “serial inadequacies,” improper planning and lack of competence and capacity within not only institutions of government, but also in medicine and business. They may have been waiting in the wings.

However, some of the panic and reaction over the virus is well founded as it is a unique crisis and there is understandable confusion over how governments ought to respond. But at the same time, vigilance and resilience is required.

Victor Cherubim