When commerce outweighs compassion

A woman died yesterday in Auckland, when the power company came around and disconnected her household for unpaid bills.  The woman was ill and dependent upon oxygen delivered to her via an electrically powered system.  The family contend they explained to the contractor who disconnected the power supply about the womans condition and her dependence upon power being connected to her home.  The power was disconnected regardless and the woman died a short time later.  You can read the article here.

While the company is using it’s process as a defence, the family would have had warning letters and a disconnection notice, it is really no excuse.  The woman had only recently been released from hospital, her husband had been forced to cut back on his working hours in order to care for her and his family of four children.  With a seriously ill wife to care for, the upheaval of tooing and froing from the hospital, doctors appointments and day to day care of the children, it’s easy to imagine him putting things like the power bill to the back of his mind.  The contractor who visited should have waited, period.  When he was told about the oxygen being power driven, showed the seriously ill woman and her condition, he should have referred the family to the power company and left.

What kind of society have we become, where contractors follow instructions like robots without an ounce of thought toward the consequences?  When the mighty dollar outweighs compassion?

Should profits outweigh the care of society?

Update 1247:

Sue Bradford of the Green Party is not somebody I generally I agree with, however she has released the following statement and I agree whole heartedly…

Green Party MP Sue Bradford called for a public inquiry into the death describing the decision to cut the power as “mercenary”.

“Is there no social responsibility requirement? No code of conduct? Listening to the company spokesperson this morning it would seem the company sees it as entirely the responsibility of the consumer to make contact, provide documentation and argue their right to be allowed to live,” she said.

“Surely there is some flexibility to use compassion and common sense in this type of very rare situation.”

Christian Bigotry alive and well in NZ

Destiny Church in New Zealand’s leader “Bishop” Brian Tamaki has spoken out today calling for restrictions on non Christian religions.  For the full story click. 

“Bishop Brian Tamaki says members of other faiths should enter New Zealand on the basis they are entering a Christian country and have to conform to certain standards. He says they cannot be regarded as equal and should be subject to restrictions.  Bishop Tamaki says these would include not allowing them to pray in schools, or do things they would normally do in their homelands in relation to their religion.”

“Bishop” Tamaki has just told the world he is an unmitigated bigot!  What’s next? Will people who aren’t of Christian faiths be forced to wear a star on their clothing so we can identify them? Then will Christians who aren’t Destiny Church converts be forced to wear a letter denoting their belief? A for Anglican, C for Catholic?  What about the Jews? I bet he’s got some ideas up his sleeve for them.

This man is dangerous, this “church” is dangerous, an American style televangical movement complete with NZ version of Jim and Tammy Faye.  Destiny heavily tithes its parishoners at 10% of their gross income, meanwhile  self proclaimed “Bishop” Tamaki and his wife “Pastor” Hannah collect 6 figure salaries, live in a multi million dollar clifftop home He has a new boat worth more than $100,000, drives an $80,000 Ford Explorer and got a $35,000 Harley Davidson for his birthday.   Cultwatch, a small cross-denominational group that monitors Christian organisations, says it has “grave reservations” about Destiny’s methods and has been investigating the movement.

Thank goodness the majority of New Zealanders see the Destiny Church for what it is, a bigoted and cult like organisation serving the aspirations of its Bishop.  The point is, we cannot afford to be complacent.  Look what happened in Nazi Germany.  This “church” needs to be pushed back into the dark ages where it belongs.  This is a new millenium, we are supposed to have learned from history and to be tolerant of other races and religions.  We cannot afford to give hate like this a forum without a balanced counterpoint.

I say so what if people aren’t Christian, that is their business, by the same token so what if they are.  Religion is a private matter, between you and your God and nobody has the right to charge you for your beliefs, nobody has the right to censor your beliefs.  Discussion and debate are one thing, but to actively ensure beliefs other than Christian ones are treated as second class, well that is Bigotry.