Jamestown is Changing.

After reading Susie's comment on the apparent lack of respect for funerals seen here in recent times, I got to thinking about the ways in which Jamestown is changing.

To me, there is no doubt that Jamestown is falling victim to it's own success on several levels. Whereas once, I felt that I knew almost everyone in Jamestown and nearby district, I now feel almost like a stranger in my own town, not recognising the greater proportion of faces that I see when I get about the town.

I do realise that we need to move ahead, however it seems to me that all of this "advancement" is not necessarily good for those who, live here. I feel that it was our prosperous country ambience that made Jamestown so attractive to those who came here and more so to those who stayed, however it is the influx of outsiders (of which I am one), that has slowly but ever so surely changed our lifestyle. Jamestown is no longer a small country town relatively divorced from the troubles of our larger and more "citified' neighbours.

We are the victims of our own success, of which I believe the worst aspect has been the change from local administration to a more centralised system whereby our Council is now not a council, but "Local government" and has become effectively a second tier of State government, with all of the interference, pettifogging and bureaucracy that accompanies it.

The trouble with bureaucracy being that it is largely devoted to self serving ends. I feel that our council per se is no longer primarily interested in the needs of Jamestown residents, but more inclined towards becoming an Empire within it's own right. The whole principle is geared to making it a growth industry. Take for example the fact that "our" Council CEO's salary is dependant on the rate revenue. The greater the rate revenue the greater his salary.

Once, our Town Clerk was exactly that, and worked for the ratepayers, now we appear to have a bottom rung "executive" in his place who appears to only have an allegiance to his political masters, in short we, the ratepayers have been bypassed for all but paying the rates.

To me, this would seem to create a gross conflict of interest, with the ratepayers left to foot the bill,... and Yes, I do know that it seems to be happening everywhere, but to my way of thinking, that has no bearing whatsoever on whether it is best for the people who pay the ultimate costs.

This type of thinking has recently been called to account several times in the cases of many executives who have recently been found to have been grossly over paid for what they do, and even worse, they have been awarded obscene bonuses to vacate their positions when they ultimately fail in their jobs. A cost that must ultimately be born by the man on the bottom of the heap. To me it seems that we have ceded all control to the bureaucrats. A situation that is almost Hitleresque in it's prospects.

My diatribe (read "Rant", if you wish) has rambled all over the shop, I know; but it is just the way things go together from my point of view.