Money, more valuable than lives?

THE EDITOR: The pathetic excuses given for the non-implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act are indicative of how powerful the business elite is in this country. In the face of the deaths of several workers due to unsafe working conditions, not to mention the innumerable others who are silently nursing injuries or health problems, the government vacillates on this critical piece of legislation. Every time a disaster occurs — a ship is blown apart killing people, a worker is crushed under a crane, workmen fall off scaffolding to their deaths — the promises of action are made. The citizens hold their breath hoping for some remedial measures, time passes, nothing happens, people forget about it. Then another crisis occurs, and the process repeats itself.

The only ones who remember are the families whose loved ones are dead. The nation mourns for the people who are murdered by criminals, especially those who come from prominent families. The letters in the media come from all quarters expressing outrage, regret and sympathy, ad nauseam. But are workers who are killed in industrial accidents any less deserving of sympathy? Do their families suffer less? Why is there no concomitant desire to protect the welfare of these people, workers as well as families? Or is it that money has more value, in this nation, than lives?

KARAN MAHABIRSINGH
Carapichaima