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“O Tempora, O mores”

We’ve had Royal commissions on the banks, financial institution, sexual abuse in institutions, and more. We’ve had cheating in cricket!

Wherever we’ve looked we’ve found dubious practices – sometimes criminal.

This is my response.

Robin Ford, March 2019

Three Fireballs

1971     Ford Pinto 
It’s said, by counting beans, they found the cost
Of fixing up the fuel tank would exceed
The compensation due when lives are lost:
Death in a fireball; thoughtlessness or greed?

2003    Space Shuttle Columbia 
He knew the rocket seal was very cold.
Yet launching was what they’d come there to see.
Although he did his best to make them hold —
A liftoff, then a fireball, on TV.

2019    Boeing 737 max 
It’s almost new but there is something wrong
No matter what they try, the plane descends
The ground is getting close; they’ve not got long
“Allahu akba”, fireball, record ends.

Commissions and Bonusses

Management 
The world view we encoded in your bonus 
Assumes you won't perform unless your pay
Depends upon the sales that you have shown us.
(If not, you'd sit around and waste the day.) 

Suggestion 
To get your bonus, seek a large commission 
And one that trails for many years ahead 
And don't give in to shame or inhibition 
Just leave it trailing on when they are dead. 

Interpretation 
A bonus for a win is quite revealing.
Is playing for my country not enough? 
Must I indulge in underhanded dealing?
Sandpapering the ball to make it rough? 

Clericalism

A cardinal, we’d like to think enlightened, 
Was once a little schoolboy with his mum.
And did he say, "Oh Mother don't be frightened 
There is a better life that's yet to come."
“To save the world I’ll surely join the priesthood 
For then I can pronounce what's wrong and right. 
Though some may think that this will do the least good 
It helps me, for it keeps me out of sight.”
When did the love of Jesus start to daunt him?
Can he relate the year, the month, the hour.
When did the little boy begin to haunt him
When did the grand career start going sour?
 

Summary

So many institutions caught out sinning
Perhaps we’ve bent the rules from the beginning.