THE EDITOR: Last week a letter by Horace Hutson described yet another example of how our senior citizens suffer. He said he received in 1966 a Housing Development Corporation notice that he would receive a refund from overpaying his mortgage. Since then, he said, he has 'visited the HDC office 46 times' facing one bureaucratic runaround after another without success. As a poor citizen, he said, he remains helplessly 'very annoyed.'

Two weeks ago, G Duval told of a similar runaround experience by a poor senior citizen at a profitable business place. There have been several such letters about senior citizens. These incidents are worrying. But feeling sorry is not enough. Private business and public institutions must act to treat our senior citizens better.

Quite often, from what I have seen and heard, I wonder how the law lacks the common sense required for justice. For example, for several years the collapsed drain of a regional corporation continues to threaten the house of a senior citizen. The erosion gets worse with the heavy rainfall. After years of begging and getting countless runarounds from the corporation to repair the broken drain, the matter reached the court. All sides were ready.

Would the judge understand the urgency of the 'clear and present danger' and decide on an early hearing with a result one way or another? This is common sense. However, the judge calmy postponed the case not for one month, not two months but for the next five months while the heavy rainfall continues to erode the senior citizen's land. Another helpless senior citizen.

Imagine poor seniors facing the might of government bureaucracy. From top to bottom our senior citizens face one kind of suffering or another. Can we not be more civilised and compassionate?

RAMESH DEOSARAN

Professor Emeritus

via e-mail

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