The Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Public Works are frequently blind and deaf until the people feel the disaster

Dear Editor,

I knew this would happen. I am sure miner Simona Broomes also knew the risk she was taking to herself and business. Therefore this is what raises her efforts to nobility of the highest order, especially since she chose to be publicly identified. Her reward will have to come from a more acute higher power, not from the obtuse and oppressive authorities we must presently endure here.

The Civil Defence Commission has advertised on Sunday April 28 for a national consultation on their draft Early Warning System (EWS) on Tuesday April 30. Are they serious? The document, which is available on their website, talks about involvement of local communities and a “bottom up” approach.

These words may sound nice, but both their EWS protocol and the EWS communication protocol starts with the Ministries of Agriculture, Health, and Public Works as the source of the early warning.

There is no protocol for the receipt of information by these ministries. And since they are frequently blind and deaf until we are feeling the disaster, we must still fear for our well-being; every man for himself, grateful for every selfless act in spite of tax-paid governance.

Social and moral disaster is already upon us, but the Ministries of Education and Human Services, in spite of doing some things right, appear not yet to have received the Early Warning.

For there is, unfortunately, an exponentially increasing number of people who use evil to justify evil. Simona Broomes and her team used righteous and courageous action to correct the evil they discovered.

We are aware that those young girls they rescued made some bad choices, but they were children. No doubt they were products of broken homes, which often come from (a previous generation of) greed and rebelliousness. Let us pray that they meditate on the sacrifice made to rescue them, and make the lesser sacrifice to curb their own tendency to wrong choices in future.

Yours faithfully,
Alfred Bhulai