It is true that turning to God in times of distress is cathartic. If we think a loved one could have been saved with better medical care, it makes the loss that much harder to bear. But by absolving the human agent of God’s will of any responsibility, we are only perpetuating a rotten system. In most Western countries, doctors protect themselves from malpractice suits by buying insurance. If they are sued for negligence or incompetence by angry patients, their premium goes up. And if they put forward the ‘God’s will’ defence, the judge will throw the book at them, and it won’t be the Bible. True, this pushes up medical costs, especially in litigious countries like the US, but it also gives doctors an incentive to provide better care. In other walks of life as well, we are too fatalistic a people to insist on delivery of services: when bureaucrats are lazy, incompetent or corrupt, those who depend on their signing a document are willing to humbly await their decision instead of demanding they get on with it. During Lahore’s recent lockdown due to the Qadri-led protests, a desperate mother with a very ill child was reported as saying: “If my son dies because I couldn’t get him to the hospital, I will accuse Nawaz Sharif of killing him on Judgement Day.” This fatalism is what has permitted our elites to prosper at the cost of the underprivileged. And to further deflect criticism, our ruling class often invokes the ‘hidden hand’ to explain away failures. This is a secular version of the ‘God’s will’ gambit: if a distant power like the US or a neighbouring enemy like India is behind some recent debacle, how can our rulers be blamed? Had I been present, my response would have been: “Lady, don’t wait that long dawn/news/1128616/
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 12:22:26 +0000
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