I often use in writing the word “inept” to describe people in government who do not know what they are supposed to do or are unable to do what is required of them in certain critical situations. They may not be corrupt but their ineptness leads to waste in government similar to what we lose through corruption. The worst happens when inept government officials are also corrupt because, freed from work through their ineptness, they now have all the time to think of ways and means to take advantage of their positions for their own profit.
In an e-mail that I received yesterday was a picture of a T-shirt with wordings which sort of define the word “ineptocracy.” The text introduction said “Couldn’t find it in my old Webster’s dictionary so I Googled it and discovered it is a recently ‘coined’ new word found on T-shirts on eBay: Read this one over slowly and absorb the facts that are within this definition! I like this word and believe that it will become a recognized English word. Finally, a word to describe our current political situation….”
What was written in the T-shirt? It says “ineptocracy” is “a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number.”
I also googled the word and there in the first line of the results is the same T-shirt definition of “ineptocracy” given.
Now, how many inept people do we have in government? Surely, you know that in the last elections, many people willingly sold their votes or support to the buyer whose main advantage or qualification was that they had the money to buy votes.
Who are the willing vote sellers? By definition they are the people who are less capable of producing. Because of their extreme need, they sell their votes just to get something to buy meals for a day or two or for other short term needs. They also include some of the candidates who sold their support to candidates seeking higher office who naturally would be happy to buy the support of local candidates to win, including buying two opposing local candidates.
Who are the vote buyers? These are the candidates who had accumulated so much money from corruption while in office or were supported in cash by moneyed candidates for higher office to gain their support, who sold their inheritance like a valuable piece of property in the hope of getting them back many times over when elected.
As we have plenty of elected government officials who are inept as a consequence of the competitive vote market that developed during election, we also cannot avoid having many appointed government officials and employees who are also inept, including the hundreds or thousands of casual or contractual workers who are rewarded for their support during election. Because, naturally, the elected inept government official tends to appoint his own inept people to key posts in various offices or departments of the government under him.
That explains, for example, why, despite the many heads in government, we see results like not knowing in advance that the number of enrollees every opening of school in June increases greatly every year because of our natural inclination to produce more babies, which is very satisfying to do than working hard for money in honest jobs, in excess of the existing number of classrooms and teachers.
It also explains why during the rainy season that also starts in June, we find our drainage clogged, which causes local flooding whenever it rains heavily because we do not see the problem and prepare during the dry season.
That said, inept people are also plentiful in private business. Just look at the case of the plane that overshot the runway in Davao City. The passengers were complaining that the plane crew did not know what to do after the plane finally stopped, including the ground staff who also did not know how to deal with the stunned passengers when they finally disembarked from the damaged plane.
You want to know more the extent of ineptness around? Just walk to any of our malls and enter one of the shops. I often do this whenever I have the chance to see what is new. Very often, I do not get entertained even if, like what happened two weeks ago inside the appliance shop, my eyes and that of my behalf where attracted and fixed to one of the small merchandise displayed, which we could not touch because it was inside a glass cabinet. Actually two girls, who we presumed where there to sell, were in front of us on the other side of the cabinet. But instead of acknowledging our presence and asking how they can help us, they were just talking to one another happily.
Once last year inside a mobile phone store, I asked the lady in front of me if she were the owner or salesgirl because while I was looking for a new phone to buy for my wife, she was just talking to another lady not far away from us. She said she was a saleslady and then I told her that if I were the stockholder or owner of the firm and saw what she did or did not do to me, I would fire her.
But why are salespeople not very attentive these days? Maybe because of standing too long during the day or for lack of pay. Or maybe the sales supervisor and manager are also inept. That is another story!