There are a lot of things that take too long, but I will content myself by blogging about three different instances. Then I will ask the mandatory dumb questions, eh?
- Nobel Prizes
- Coming to Trial in Canada
- Affordable housing, as in waiting-for.
Nobel Prizes. Since these are easily found in Wikipedia, I will let you do your own checking and simply give two examples.
Robert A Mundell, Canadian economist who laid the theory behind the Euro, did this work in the 1970‘s and received the Nobel Prize in 1999.
Albert Einstein, who received the Nobel Prize in 1921 for the photoelectric effect. (They were afraid to give him the prize for Special Relativity, also papered in 1905, because it was deemed to controversial.) Einstein produced this paper in 1905.
Police investigations, especially of police, especially in Toronto, Canada. I will provide one hotlink here and then quote from this one famous instance. Emphasis mine.
The lead investigator in one of Toronto’s major corruption trials is being blamed for much of the delay that led to charges being tossed Monday against two former high-profile police officers.
After almost six years, Superior Court Justice Bonnie Croll stayed the charges against Det.-Const. William McCormack – son of a former Toronto police chief – and Const. Rick McIntosh, once the popular president of the Toronto police union, ruling that delays had breached their right to a fair trial.
McCormack and McIntosh were accused of shaking down bar owners in the Entertainment District.
Affordable Housing. Here is a hotlink to one case; there are thousands. I will give a quote; as always, emphasis mine.
Tilley believes the stress of relying on soup kitchens, food banks and used clothing depots to survive is behind his worsening heart condition.“I had open heart surgery last year,” he says. “The wait is actually killing me.”But after nine years, Tilley’s wait may soon be over. Local housing officials contacted him last week to say an affordable unit may be available soon.
Now for the dumb questions.
As a society, we permit ridiculously long wait times.
Einstein enjoyed surfing a wave of fame, so for him, the sixteen year wait for the Nobel was perhaps not critical. However, almost nobody has ever heard of Robert A. Mundell, even in Canada. And he waited some twenty years for his recognition. Imagine getting this at a younger age: its effect upon career, social life, self-image.
Our police system takes too long. Six years to get the G20 cops to trial. Six years to bring charged police officers to trial. Eighteen month investigations. Meanwhile, justice suffers.
Some 3.2% of Ontarians are in or waiting for affordable housing. It takes nine years in one example. There are others, with even longer wait times.
Now, for the dumb questions, really.
What kind of society are we, that we allow delays to weaken our recognition system, weaken our court system, and weaken our social safety net?
Why do we allow this? Are we all asleep?