“It is interesting to me to recall that the first meeting I attended after returning a few  years ago was about trying to get a community decision approved in view of the lack of a sufficient number of votes, which is the issue of the mandate at present. Meanwhile the mandate goes on in effect without a formal approval. Similarly, your need to get so many signatures for a vote on entry policy reform can be stalled in various ways, while you run out of steam and everyone forgets about the issue. Meanwhile the policies of the existing bureaucracy go on in effect, without serious challenge, as they must in order to maintain the status quo, even though a series of recent platforms has strongly voiced the need for systemic change. For it is the era of the financial status quo, and the required over-planning to achieve it, here as everywhere in the world. The era of reform can be deferred for a long time, simply by virtue of the principle of socio-economic inertia. The philosopher Whitehead once said that ‘evil’ is simply resistance to change. Here we might just call it stalling for the future.”

Rod Hemsell