Dear Editor,
Current events, national and local, lead one to contemplate a study of incompetence: its occurrence, its typologies, its effects and its uses. A mere outline of the topic forebodes the depression, nay despair, awaiting the hapless researcher in that nether field. Still the subject is of such relevance that the investigator must not shrink from the task but take up, even as a preliminary, the comment on your letters page today headed ‘Solution for incompetence?’
What is going on so pervasively in a country which only a generation ago was celebrated for the talent of its people, and still exports so much high-quality labour, even to the extent of ninety per cent of its university graduates? The monster loose in our land is one of vested interest. This is an entity of manifold concentric circles of cynical opportunism, both heedless and knowing, typified and manifested at all levels of business and governance.
Paying servants of the state, even of the law, so little as to attract few entrants of talent or aspiration to any standards but greed, and to force incumbents into corrupt practice in emulation of the way so much of the public purse is spent, is surely a creative use of incompetence. Looking into the future, following our abandonment of any vision beyond the next election, the next national budget, cannot inspire policymakers universally guided only by short-term personal gain.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
