Shafted

To be Shafted is to fall victim to the intervention of unimaginative pen pushers in positions of authority.

The cases described here range from the very localised – such as the placement of parking meters or speed humps in your street, to those of global interest – where one country starts bombing the crap out of another and you just happen to be living next to a person of interest so your house is turned into rubble as well.

Following these incidents do you simply shrug your shoulders and say, “C’est la vie. These people must know what they’re doing,” and try to get on with it, or do you seek some kind of compensation for the imbalance which has been imposed upon you?

Who is at fault if you ruin your muffler bouncing over a speed hump whose paint and reflectors have long since been scraped off and the warning sign is hidden by a vigorous nature-strip bush? You can bet your bottom dollar the councillor in his four wheel drive doesn’t give a stuff, the same as I can guarantee that the rubble which is now your home was all your fault because you didn’t do anything about the guy living next to you.

Everyone gets shafted daily by the powers that be. Maybe it’s the extra rates you pay for indemnifying the indiscretions of CEOs or the legal bills for an FOI battle fought by the government to keep some sleazy deal secret. “Commercial In Confidence” so the size of the golden handshake is hidden in an overbloated and undefined Corporate Services line item.