Time wasters

You are supposed (on average) to last till you're 75 years old or so. During your first 18 years you are on the learning curve, ready to make a difference and teach those "oldies" how to make things better. In the last 10 years of your life you are seen as a "know-all", better to be avoided when it comes to having an opinion.

So a quarter of your life is reserved. The rest, those 50-odd remaining years, you are supposed to make a contribution to society, to play a role, however small or large.

But you don't have all those years to yourself! You normally sleep eight hours a day, so for 16 of those remaining years you are laying in bed dreaming.

You are left with 34 years in which to work, eat, relax, go to church, visit your parents, watch television, pay the bills etc. etc. But all those years are your own. You can do with them whatever you please.

There are those who think differently. They believe it doesn't matter to take some of those years away and waste them on your behalf.

I guess I have lost around five years of my life waiting for workmen who didn't show up or were late because the mother of their nephew's sister-in-law had to go to the dentist.

Last week I was in St Luke's Hospital where around 400 people waited in different positions in different wards for different things. But they all waited and wasted a good part of their lives because somebody didn't have the decency to tell them to come at the right time. The economic loss is compounded by the humiliation of dependency.

Last week I was at a ministry, with a set appointment. I didn't need a favour, I just wanted to follow up the progress of a procedure. Civil servants, themselves not bound by any measure of performance, believe the whole world turns around them. Believing in their own importance, they love the habit of letting people wait. They play a sort of midget-god and steal part of your precious life.

As the Lord has restricted our life-span we should not waste our given time by waiting for an unknown duration. It is my experience that the waiting game played by les fonctionnaires shows their ability to abuse power, which is a lack of respect for the parties they should serve. I do believe in fair play, they don't.