For many November is a time for reflections about our future as a society. It may be the imminence of winter when nature seems to rest – if not die –, or because our Christian upbringing reminds us that this is the month when we commemorate those who left this life.

The media does not seem to want to engage in this soul searching as it concentrates on giving us more news about what the high and the mighty in our society are concocting. This year we had the added pain of watching the political circus that was the US presidential campaign. But one question we all need to ask is whether our governments have lost sight of what political leadership should be about and concentrate on economic wealth while continuing to ignore social enterprise.

The need to promote social enterprise will always exist as long as there are people in our society who are economically, socially and physically in need of some outside help to survive. The more our society ages, the more there will be cases of disadvantaged people and it is shameful that many of these people no longer appear on political policy makers’ radar.

In 2010, the then Conservative leader David Cameron came up with the vision of creating “the big society”. The whole concept was to encourage voluntary organisations to get the help they needed to assist those in the British society who needed a helping hand to survive.

The most concise definition of ‘big society’ comes from Dame Helen Ghosh, Home Office permanent secretary: “We in central government need to focus of doing the things that only government can do. What we need to facilitate is that – at the most local, most individual level – people both identify and solve problems in the way they wish to solve them.”

But such a statement raises more questions than it answers. While the British Conservative Party has practically ditched the concept of the big society, every politician with a vision needs to consider whether the party he or she militates in is indeed helping to bridge the haves and the have-nots in our society.

From time to time, the popular media articulates graphic stories that clearly indicate that the voiceless in our society remain unheard, while politicians posture in front of TV cameras boasting of economic successes that are often very shallow but help to stoke the feel-good factor which is so vitally important to win political elections.

What the EU really needs is a new generation of politicians who take their social responsibilities towards the weak in society seriously

I follow the Irish media more closely than the local one. The Irish Independent recently carried a story that shows how a national culture built on the creation of wealth at the expense of adequate investment in social enterprise can cause so many injustices – which should make politicians blush with shame.

The Irish Independent reported how in Naas in Co. Kildare the local police found the remains of two elderly people in their home. A husband, who was a retired vet, took his own life after the sudden death of his wife – who was his full-time carer – from a suspected heart attack. Two elderly persons with failing health issues living on their own with little or no support from their families, or from government, or voluntary organisations ended their lives in the most tragic way.

I am sure that there are hundreds of similar cases in our own country, even if the poverty that afflicts some families today is varied and not necessarily linked to financial deprivation.Our voluntary organisations are crying for help – help that cannot just consist of government grants. Governments seem more interested in bridging fiscal deficits than filling social gaps.

Many argue that Cameron’s concept of big society never took off because it was too vague. UK politicians argued about what this concept was all about.Some accused the Conservative/Liberal coalition of using the big society concept to mitigate the effects of massive cuts in public spending, especially in the National Health Service.

Tony Blair created the same kind of confusion when he coined the term “third way” which was an array of seemingly unrelated initiatives, from a national voluntary service for young people to increasing access to government information.

What the EU really needs is a new generation of politicians who take their social responsibilities towards the weak in society seriously.

The present EU of bureaucrats, spin doctors and politicians determined to enrich themselves fast will never win the trust of ordinary people.

johncassarwhite@yahoo.com

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