>From : Ian Cowburn
director, Municipal Cultural Services
L'Argentière-la-Bessée, France, mèl : [log in to unmask]
I am sad to see this kind of remark (see para 1 below) being slung about on
a thematic mailbase. My mother was a Tax Officer all her working life and if
I only picked up one thing from her it was what Public Service meant & ought
to mean. I myself have a been a French Local Authority Executive since 1990,
and notwithstanding the usual Sun-tabloid type reaction that that will
probably engender, I just wish to say in this context that the French Public
Service is probably one of the few, or maybe only, remaining true corps of
what is laughingly called elsewhere Public Service nowadays. If swilling at
the public trough means working for half as much pay as the equivalent
private sector executive and wrestling daily with ever more ludicrous State
rules & regulations, which now mean that you are legally responsible not
only in civil courts but also in penal ones, even if some fool chucks
himself down a forgotten minehole somewhere, then so be it. And I am quite
involved with keeping my job - who isn't? Nuff said.
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>De : [log in to unmask]
>À : [log in to unmask]
>Objet : Re: RE: Miners health, the early modern view - another view
>Date : Sam 13 Mai 2000 1:47
>
> I too have been a bureaucrat. I am not particularly proud of swilling at
> the public trough with the other bureaucrats. I often wonder if bureaucracy
> breeds anything but more bureaucracy. It seems that every bureaucrat I meet
> is more involved with keeping his job, expanding his department and growing
> his authority than providing for the common good.
>
> While early day mining was dangerous, coal from Wales and tin and copper from
> Cornwall were the raw materials for the bronze age, the industrial age and
> the electrical age. Minerals are the basic materials for our civilization.
> We can do nothing without them.
>
> We should be celebrating what mining has given us and recognizing the
> progress we have made since we fell out of the trees. Running down the
> industry and its practitioners in the present and past will not make our
> lives better. Understanding its problems and recognizing the solutions
> that have been gained by labor, government and management will provide even
> better solutions.
>
> Some people apparently think, mining is a design by the devil for the
> destruction of mankind. That somehow we can stop all mining and the world
> would be a better place. Well, its an economic enterprise, if you don't
> like mining, try living without its products. If we can't make any money,
> we'll quit.
>
> It is good to see this thread take on active discussions without flaming and
> I am sorry if some of you feel flamed in my effort to bring about a lively
> discussion by taking an adversarial view.
>
> Mason Coggin
>
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