The news is full of it here, today, about the announcement of deep cuts into the services being provided by VIHA (Vancouver Island Health Authority) which is responsible for the National Health Plan, for Vancouver Island. The cuts include more PRIVATIZATION OF SERVICES, FACILITIES, along with staff cuts, restrictions, and oh yeah, selling off of assets.

Things like cuts to how many MRI’s will be performed, is one thing, while now the Meals on Wheels program will see people, who got it for free, pay $6 a meal.

This is not a new issue, really, but since the rise to power of people like George W. Bush in the USA, and our own Stephen Harper, we have moved away from being a ETHICAL SOCIETY,  to one that is now driven by CORPORATE PROFITS.

Maybe that is a good thing, maybe not, but when a society ignores its obligation, to its people, removes its responsibilities to them, then it is no different than being a pack of wild animals. It becomes a jungle, where survival of the fittest, translates into survival of the richest.

It takes away a lot more too, because how can one maintain independence, when they are forced to struggle with just maintaining their health. And that too becomes even more difficult when we rely on trust, to insure our food supply and other essentials are not tainted. Yet, as Government moves from being ETHICAL to being PROFIT BASED, those areas of trust become weakened, become even dangerous.

Don’t believe me? Look at the number of recalls of food, PRIOR to the rise in power of Stepehn Harper & his profit driven party.  Then look at how, as he has dismantled our safety nets, the number of deaths and recalls, has risen.

Now we are also seeing it on a local level, where greed has replaced the need to protect the most vulnerable of our society, the sick and infirm, the elderly, the very young, and the poor.

There is a need to insure services are cost effective, but at the expense of providing those services? I DON’T THINK SO, BUT THEN, I BELIEVE IN VALUES AND ETHICS.

GUESS THOSE IN POWER NO LONGER DO.